Vancouver Vigilantes: Chasing Mediocrity

Season 7 in Vancouver saw the Vigilantes undergo marginal improvement and major personnel changes. The 72-90 record was a nine-game improvement over Season 6 and the best record and divisional finish posted by the Vigilantes under the direction of GM scottie3234. A career year from RF Dougie Coleridge carried the Vigilante offense to 806 runs, 4th most in the National League and a 69 run improvement over Season 6. Coleridge was aided by solid seasons posted by 3B Brandon Sheffield and 2B Joe Wang. However, pitching continues to be the bane of each burgeoning Vigilante season. While Clyde Haynes, Cookie Rivera, and Geoff Borchard have added a bit of stability to the back-end of games, Vancouver starters failed to live up to expectations in Season 7 as Billy Ray Perry and Roscoe Campbell statistically regressed from Season 6 advances. The result was 899 runs allowed, 2nd worst in the NL.

The middle of the season saw the Vigilantes finally move a veteran in favor of prospects in an effort to continue to build for the future. Darrin Murphy was swung to the Syracuse Fightin' Boeheims for a package of Fernando Estalella, Tony DeLeon, and Victor Meluskey. Estalella should eat innings in Season 8 while Meluskey rotates in at catcher with waiver wire fodder Haywood Lincoln. The Murphy move was partnered with a trade with the Washington D.C. Bureaucrats in a swap of impressive prospects. The Vigilantes rolled the dice hard by moving uber-stud Albert Brooks, P Phil Hujimoto, and Ronnie Ward for a platter of prospects from the 'Crats: RF Albie Calles, P Freddy Torres, C Keith Green, CF Miguel Bennett, and RP Bum Spehr. The idea for the Vigilantes was to acquire players like Calles and Torres that will arrive as the core of the ML roster peaks. However, Calles, Torres, and Bennett all appear set to debut in Season 9, not 8, making the transaction more of a move for the future than management originally stated. Vancouver was not finished with the roster remake, however. DeLeon "Got Vigilant" for just a short time prior to being moved in exchange for LF Mark Sakamoto. This trade came after several failed efforts to land legendary Nash McCartin. Sakamoto became the de facto replacement for Murphy as Joe Wang made the move from LF to 2B.

In the draft, Vancouver continued to show a willingness to take risks. In Season 5, this stance cost the club big time as top pick Howard Palmer did not sign. In Season 7, college pitcher Coco Ferrell went through the draft process with major league talent and major signability issues. Having lost in the bidding wars of several elite international free agents, the Vigilantes decided to make money no object in landing Ferrell and ended up doling out a Gleeman World record draft signing bonus of $14.1 million. Ferrell joined forces with Coco McKnight in High A to form an exceptionally named top of the rotation. The rest of the Vigilante draft was a large disappointment as the remaining players taken will be marginal ML contributors at best. International signing Rafael Hernandez is an intriguing project for the Vancouver minor league system.

In all, the Vigilantes are showing signs of improvement at the major league level and are continuing to put an emphasis on acquiring pitching talent throughout the system. The debuts of Turk Badilla, Pedro Marin, and Max Rodriguez were encouraging and provide a glimpse of what the Season 8-12 Vigilante squads could look like. While Season 8 promises to be exciting with an offense that will score even more runs, Season 9 is the year Vigilante fans have been anxiously anticipating to finally "Get Vigilant!"