The Scott's Tots era is officially underway and the first full season in the JLB is going to be a grind.
Cory dipped his toes in the JLB pool last summer, taking over around the trade deadline and getting a good feel of what it is like.
At that point, his team was well out of first and destined for rebuild mode.
He's made quick work of it with several good trades and he has a formidable roster ready to roll in 2024.
"I'm very excited to get this franchise moving now as the GM for a full season," he said, adding, "Taking over the team near the trade deadline wasn't easy learning everything about the impressive JLB and we had to move some big names to buyers, it was the start of a promising rebuild, netting back on the game's top prospects in Jackson Chourio. We continued that process in the offseason where we had to make tough decisions, moving a generational talent in Mike Trout, flipping Freddy Peralta for two young, promising arms in Hunter Brown, Gavin Williams and Colt Keith, who we believe can be an impact player for years to come with his hit tool."
The future is bright and it's good to see the franchise moving forward with a sense of direction, something it hasn't had since the days of it being owned by a Walter.
"The goals for Year 1 is to win and improve from last year's last-place finish," he said. "Perhaps be a dark horse to make the playoffs if things go our way. However, the main focus is to build this the right way with young controllable players with upside."
Going against that main focus, Cory selected 29-year-old Ian Happ at 1-1 in his first JLB Draft. With all of the players on the board, it certainly raised some eyebrows around the League.
"Ian Happ may have been a surprising pick at 1-1, but the Tots liked what we saw from him last year," he said. "The 20/80 season fits the mold for most of the power you'll see from the team this year. Adding to that, his patience at the plate with walks to help his OBP should certainly help the team overall with an outfield that has some exciting young pieces that have tremendous upside, but lack OBP at times."
He is projected to have 96 walks, as mentioned in a prior Jargon, and that was the most available in the draft, so it certainly made sense there.
But let's not kid ourselves, Happ is only here to keep the seat warm. The future of the outfield on this team is James Outman, Jackson Chourio and Evan Carter. These three guys could be a force in the JLB moving forward.
"The outfield will definitely be a pillar for the team to build around for years to come," Cory said.
And it's not just young outfielders making this team an exciting squad to watch, there's depth at catcher and in the infield with Colt Keith and Coby Mayo, and at DH or potentially the outfield with Heston Kjerstad.
"The Tots are fittingly named due to the youth on the team," Cory said. "We have a lot of young players we are excited about. The obvious names of Evan Carter and Jackson Chourio are the front runners, but two other bats I'm very excited about come from the best farm system in MLB in Baltimore with Coby Mayo and Samuel Basallo. Two young kids who have a ton of power and Basallo could very well be the top prospect in all of baseball next year if he continues his upward trend."
Scott's Tots was named after the youth on his team? There is not one moment prior to this moment right now that I did NOT envision tater tots when seeing this team name. I always pictured golden brown tots, loaded with cheese, chives, onions and bacon.
All this time, it had nothing to do with food?
I can't be alone here, right?
This has to be as shocking as it was when Cory took over this team and had a look at the pitching staff.
"Looking at last year's pitching staff was equivalent to when Kevin McCallister found the picture of Buzz's girlfriend in Home Alone...WOOF!" he said. "We were happy to have G-Rod as an anchor but needed more around him. That's why we made the trade to get Williams and Brown, two young starters with high strikeout potential who could be aces for the staff for years to come as they develop. We are always still looking to add to the rotation."
Hunter Brown figures to be a key piece moving forward. He's projected to go 11-8 with 191 strikeouts in 2024, a strikeout total that was absent from this roster a year ago. Now, he has a pair of pitchers who can get close to or meet that 200 K threshold that JLB teams strive to have, and in time, he'll be able to push it out to a full keeper rotation.
And when that time comes, he'll have to change his name to some other homograph that makes me think of food when in fact, he is referencing his All-Star veterans.
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