Whitby, San Diego Swap Players
Monday, July 22nd, 2024
Earlier today, officials from the Whitby Battalion and the San Diego Warewolves announced that they had finalized negotiations on a trade between the two teams. The deal will send 20-year-old minor league catcher Jamie Foster, 19-year-old minor league right fielder Dillon Pearson and 20-year-old minor league starting pitcher Luis Ortega to San Diego in exchange for 37-year-old starting pitcher Kelly Holbrook and 25-year-old minor league second baseman Ron Gill.

So far this season Holbrook has a 10-8 record, 21 starts, 139.2 innings, 92 strikeouts and a 3.87 ERA.




Jamie Foster

MANAGEMENT UNDER PRESSURE IN SAN DIEGO

High Payroll, Bevy Of Talent Not Playing Up To GM Norris' Expectations

Despite adding two SIMBL superstars in sluggers DeShaun Mack and Mario Montalbano during the past off-season to a playoff team, the nine-time SIMBL champion San Diego Warewolves have had a disappointing start to the 2024 SIMBL season. Adding to the disappointment is losing up and coming young ace Vincente Lopez (above) for at least eight weeks in 2024 SIM 7. The 'Wolves have never missed the playoffs in the SIMBL's previous 19 seasons.                                                                                                                                              

By Kevin Norris
San Diego Warewolves GM
SIMBL Contributor

44 games into the season and the San Diego Warewolves are at .500. It's not standard for a franchise that has won nine SIMBL championships in the past 19 SIMBL seasons with two already in the SIMBL New File Era in 2019 and 2021. San Diego is the most successful and most winningiest franchise in the SIMBL's previous 19-season history.

'Wolves GM Kevin Norris spoke to the SIMBL media and to San Diego fans today.

"We are not exactly where we wanted to be at this point in the season. We kind of thought this was a better team than we had expected. We continue to experiment with the batting order. Mario Montalbano has been the most consistent hitter for the Warewolves so far hitting forth in the order. DeShaun Mack has always had trouble hitting in April and May but has started to settle down hitting third in the order."

"The big disappointment has been Julian Winfield. We have tried him almost everywhere in the lineup. He seemed to hit well when he is batting third, but we felt that Mack has hit well there in the past few SIMs as well. Kent Harvey has had a bad start although he just came off the disabled list, we are hoping that he can get his game going so we can put him back as the leadoff hitter. That probably will be likely now with Bill Wells hitting as well as he has as the new leadoff guy."

When asked about the rebuilt pitching staff of the nine-time SIMBL champions Norris continued:

"The pitching has been good for us although the injury bug has passed through the lower part of our rotation. Vincente Lopez is the latest to be hit by that very bug."

"The team is at five hundred but we are thinking that this team might not be as good as we expected, or there is the fact that we underestimated the strength of the teams in our conference. At this point I feel that we have underachieved. We, as the management of this ball club, will continue to improve this team and find ways to win every SIM."

"The schedule is not easy for us this week. We are up against two first-place teams in Hollywood and Rochester in which neither team we have had success playing against this season. We will have a big decision to make at the trade deadline as we ask ourselves is it time to cut salary and rebuild. The option to blow this team up and rebuild has been on our minds. We are not happy fielding a high payroll of players that are under achieving. We are not comfortable with $173,000,000 payroll," barked Norris.

"Winning was not an option this season it was a priority, and the players on this team have not bought in to that concept. If Winfield can find his game, and this team can stay healthy we may be able to contend for the SL wild card. At this point, a lot of things are not going right for us, we are expected to lose a lot of money this season. An underachieving team at $173,000,000, I think the pressure is on us now, and this is a lot worse if we miss the playoffs this season."

 

                         

Prospect Watch"Evander Thomas"

This week’s  Prospect watch is 21 year old Evander Thomas, a highly anticipated young starting pitcher out of Clovis California. June of 2019, Thomas was drafted out of San Joaquin high school  in the first round (12^th overall )by the Rochester Roosters. June 20 2019 the young prospect was signed by Rochester to a minor league contract which consisted of  a signing bonus of $2,500,000.00.

    He had a strong 2022 season with AA Albuquerque, where he pitched 191 innings as a starter, picked up 12 wins and 10 loses,  had an era of 3.10, and a whip of 1.29.Last season his number were also good showing consistency and maintaining the high level of expectancy from major league scouts. In 2023 he pitched 137 inning with AA Albuquerque where he recorded  7 wins and 6 loses, an era of 2.55 and a whip of 1.03.Those numbers were solid enough to get him called up to  AAA Chattanooga. Although  AAA hitting seemed to have been more over whelming for the young 6’1” 205 lbs pitching prospect. In 11 innings pitched, he recorded a 1 win and 1 lost record, and had an era of 9.00.

   Last July 31^st  he came over in a trade from Rochester where he was immediately sent down by San Diego management to play for the AAA Durham Bulls. He pitched 14 innings losing both of his starts, but had a respectable era of 4.30 and a whip of 1.09.Manager Norris expects him to start the 2024 season in Triple A Durham. He could end up making his major league debut sometime in the 2025 season.

It's Official,Norris is the New GM in San Diego.

 SIMBL news, former SIMBL GM Kevin Norris has returned to the SIMBL after a short hiatus. Norris ran the former Boston Patriots moving them to Montreal as the reborn Expos and leading them to the 2021 UL East division title before stepping down in the 2023 season when GM Bill Atteberry stepped in and took over the franchise.

Atteberry is expected to announce soon a move of the Expos to a relocation yet to be officially announced.

Norris was announced as the new GM of the nine-time SIMBL Champion San Diego Warewolves and has taken over for former longtime GM and franchise founder Paul Ware who stepped down recently due to time restraints and "needing a break from OOTP and the SIMBL" after 19 seasons at the helm of the 17-time SL West Champions.

Norris immediately announced that he rejected taking back his Montreal Expos namesake now that Atteberry will be formally relocating the franchise and will respect the charter Warewolves long and rich SIMBL tradition and keep the team in San Diego intact as the Warewolves.

Article written by the SIMBL Commissioner Christian DeMarco SIMBL

New manager taking over in San Diego

San Diego-- Manager Kevin Norris has been rumored to be taking full control of the San Diego Warewolves.After resigning as manager of the Boston Patriots and now Montreal Expos of the SIMBL, Kevin had left his previous team do to personal issues,and most would have thought he would never manage in the SIMBL again.But today to everyones surprise, Norris confirmed at a press conference earlier this morning that he was very close to purchasing a SIMBL franchise,and will soon Own,GM and manage the San Diego Warewolves in the up coming 2024 season.
 The Warewolves have been a very good team in the SIMBL winning 17 past division Titles and eight Coveted Championships.Now with the team under a new regime manager Norris hopes to keep the winning tradition in San Diego,and to win another SIMBL Coveted championship in the near future.

2023 Syndicate League Final Standings

2023 Syndicate League Standings
East	W	L	PCT	GB
Boston Revolution	88	74	.543	-
Chicago Hitmen	86	76	.531	2.0
Rochester Roosters	79	83	.488	9.0
Deer Lake Direwolves	74	88	.457	14.0
Central	W	L	PCT	GB
Las Vegas Hustlers	102	60	.630	-
Knoxville Lumberkings	79	83	.488	23.0
Charlotte Landsharks	70	92	.432	32.0
Asheville Smokies	70	92	.432	32.0
West	W	L	PCT	GB
Hollywood Stars	93	69	.574	-
San Diego Warewolves	87	75	.537	6.0
Sacramento Giants	74	88	.457	19.0
Hawaii Pineapples	73	89	.451	20.0