New Orleans Pelicans
David Markowitz,  2 years, 113-211

Personnel History

The first two years were total tanks, with the 2000 expansion team ranking as the worst IIBL team ever, and the 2001 team 4th worst.  Going into the 2002 season, the team had collected a number of good picks and had not wasted them, gathering Albert Pujols (2001 1st), Mark Prior (2002 1st), Josh Beckett (2001 4th), Barry Zito (2000 6th). The expansion draft was also a success, as investments in Vernon Wells, Jon Garland, Kerry Wood, and A.J. Burnett were spot on. The big move came in the 2002 season, which turned a 46 game winner into a World Series Champion.

There were a series of trades that accomplished this, as Sycamore picked up Eric Gagne, Roy Halladay, Chipper Jones, Octavio Dotel, John Olerud, and Jason Kendall, losing Wells, Burnett, Wood, Beckett, and Corey Patterson. That part worked. But when they tried to repeat in 2003 with the strategy, they wound up vulnerable to age and injury, and sacrificed too many draft picks to wind up with a strong contender for the near future. Pujols went for Bonds, and the gamble to repeat came up very empty.

As such, 2004 was a disaster, with old players and no draft picks. Halladay was traded to just get some warm bodies into the roster, then Barry Bonds was traded for Barry Zito and a first round pick.

As such, David Markowitz inherited quite a mess, and set out to collect young talent. Only Kent, Delgado, and Zito remained as useful talent. Picks like Zimmerman, Hanley Ramirez, Chris Young, and Carlos Marmol over the past two years have signalled a youth movement which should get the Pelicans into respectability in the near future.

The pitching ERA was a full .6 worse than anyone else in the league, so there was a very low ceiling of achievability. Nobody won more than 8, and Barry Zito, the presumptive ace, lost 17. Tony Armas, the #2 starter, lost 18. Offensively, there was no superstar. Nobody hit more than 22 HR, and only Adrian Gonzalez drove in more than 100 runs. As a result, the offense was in the bottom half as well. The results weren't pleasant. A mid season run got the Pelicans to 36-43 but then the squad lost 18 of 20, and tacked another 8 game losing streak on late in the season.

Clearly a rebuilding year, as the Pelicans eschewed any attempts at forging a reasonable pitching staff and worked on rebuilding the offense. As such, every non-Barry Zito start was made by a pitcher who had a 5.5+ ERA. The bullpen wasn't much better; nobody managed as many as 10 saves. The offense was passable, reaching the middle of the pack only because of Carlos Delgado (.325/39/112) and Jeff Kent.  The Pelicans lost 33 of their first 43 games, had a brief  8-1 run, and then settled into another long stretch where they essentially won 1 of every 4 games.

2004

There was nothing left, as the 2003 team traded too many draft picks. Bonds had to be dispatched to get a shortstop. Kaz Matsui posted a reasonable, but not Bondsian, .300/.380/.427. Likewise, the team was full of stopgap measures from the previous year's failed pennant run. Injuries to Kevin Brown, Carlos Delgado, and Larry Walker all took their toll, but it was salmon constantly swimming upstream. As such, the Pelicans were no factor at all. The high water mark was 49-59 on August 1st,  after which there was even less left and New Orleans went 15-39 the rest of the way. The team's MVP was undoubtedly Zito, who posted a 13-10 record, while no-one else could manage more than 8 wins.

2003

Panic set in. The defending champs may have been guilty in the early part of the season of a bit of underachievement, but then won 13 of 15 before a whirlwind series of trades that won a division but lost the World Series... and quite possibly the future. The first half team had Olerud, Vidro, Pujols, Wells, and Zito. The second half team had Bonds, Brown, Delgado, Giles, and Larry Walker. The second half team went 67-21, but the schedule was easy and 57 of the 88 games were against teams that ended up sub .500. Sycamore racked up a 51-6 against weak teams but they were only 16-15 against plus .500 teams. In the playoffs, against good teams, Sycamore wasn't invincible. It may seemed that way in the first round, as Sycamore swept Nashua in four, but the Flatlanders failed to win close ones against Antioch. The last four games were one run games; Antioch won three; and Sycamore went home.