Catherine Trammell - Contributing Reporter
Catherine Trammell: Good morning once again Cobbfather faithful! The season is officially in full swing but we wanted to take a chance to meet another new owner, aenima. Why don't you give us a little run down of your ownership history. Tell us how your 26 seasons in ULB have been going. Appears throughout your 116 seasons of ownership, you've made the playoffs nearly 60% of the time and have won 7 World Series rings. That's quite impressive.
aenima: I've spent most of my time in HBD in 2 worlds ULB and Robinson. Most of the other worlds I've been in were either owner swaps or taking over abandoned teams. ULB has been my favorite team. I took over a team with big contracts and old players and within a couple seasons started a run of 20 straight playoff appearances 5 trips to the WS unfortunately only 1 title.
CT: Hard hitting questions first! Americans want to know why shun them and move the franchise to Canada? We all know Trenton isn't the best city. Or the friendliest, or cleanest, or smartest, or...you get the point. But Canada?
A: I grew up outside of Buffalo and still have family in the area. Spent a lot of time as a kid crossing the border into Canada and going to buy beer at 18. There was already a franchise in Buffalo so took the next closest city.
CT: Well I guess a regular Canadian is better than a French Canadian, so at least it wasn't Toronto. Aside from shunning Americans, tell us a little about your ownership style. Do you have a favorite part of building a franchise?
A: I build teams in different ways it really depends on what the last owner left me. I don't tank so for me it's always how do you take what is already there and make it a winner. I'm not a huge fan of the max contracts although I will overspend on 1 guy if it will put me over the top. I try to build for the playoffs not necessarily to have the best regular season record. Most of my WS appearances came as a wild card.
CT: Fans always like a good underdog story of the Wildcard team pushing their way through the playoffs! Any thoughts on the condition Ploppie left the team? Is El Paso going to be a rival to Ottawa?
A: Ploppie wasn't here long so not sure what the strategy was. Looks like he was hovering around .500 the entire time. If I don't have a team that can win it all I don't spend big $$ to stay mediocre. We shall see which of us gets to the WS 1st
CT: That explains the three Free Agent signings you made this year. I'm sure your pitchers will appreciate the 1/$2.8M signing of Cutter Brantley behind the plate and defensive Shortstops Joe Garland and Omar Guerrero (former 2x SS Gold Glove winner). What do you think has been your best move in this young season?
A: Best move so far has been to try and cut salary and get some prospects back. Don't have a favorite move yet. Still have some more to move but we'll see how the season goes. Look for me around the trade deadline.
CT: We'll be sure to keep an eye on your O Faces! It was fun to see the off-season trades of former Fireman of the Year, Eric Pride; starter Doc Cortes; set-up man Gabby Lunsford, DH Bruce Latham, and Bill Dixon from the plate. Which team is the NL North do you see as your biggest competition?
A: North looks close over the last 3 seasons. Probably be a dog fight until the end.
CT: All that might have changed, had Alex Tarraga signed with Scranton. Your franchise hasn't faired well since Season 27, what do you hope to change in the coming years?
A: I'm going to build a sustainable franchise in the next few seasons. I like to keep the guys through the arb years and then have replacements ready when they hit that 3rd year and are pricey. I need to build up the minors a little more at every level for that to happen.
CT: Well Ploppie does like to trade prospects! Who did Ottawa want to see enshrined into the Hall this season?
A: I'm new to the world and just went with the consensus from the established owners. There's no context for new owners and HBD stats are often skewed towards the IB/DH/LF type players.
CT: Agreed with the skew, but think my counterpart Eli Cash does a good job covering would/should be Hall of Famers on our blog. What about the infamous Dizzy Leonard not making the Hall?
A: As for Dizzy, from the outside he looks like he had a few very good seasons but was a middle of the road starter the rest of the time. Kind of reminds me of Bartolo Colon. I'm a Tigers fan too so maybe Frank Tanana comp
CT: Wonder who the better hitter is, Bartolo or Dizzy. Would you rather a perfect game but miss the playoffs or have a ERA above 5 and pitch in the world series?
A: The goal is to win the WS. I'll take pitching in the WS over any single game accomplishment.
CT: Eye on the prize I see. Any final thoughts for our readers?
A: This seems like a fun world and looking forward to building something here. I love the blog. Used to be every world had one now none of them do. It's part of the reason I jumped in this world