Mississauga musings 2011, ed. 1
By Jeff Pasquale
March 5, 2010
Mississauga, CAN - The Mississauga Spartans, who qualified for the playoffs last year as the Las Vegas Holyrollers, faced the same budget crunch as most of the original AHIBA teams as the overwhelming majority of their players all came to arbitration at the same time, a glitch in the original Collective Bargaining Agreement between the league and the players.
Spartan management chose to attack the problem with being over the salary cap in a unique way. Rather than signing average players to huge deals in arbitration, they simply cut most of their players, choosing to take only a few to arbitration: Rookie of the Year Ken Wright, superstar closer Leslie Sweetapple, slugging outfielder Lynn Bannatyne, SP Jose Garcia, SP Anthony Hill and outfielder John Slaughter. The rest of the team, including several top-notch players, were allowed to leave via free agency.
Needless to say, the Spartans will likely struggle a bit this season as they wait for the sixth-ranked minor league system to start graduating prospects.
The Spartans got off to a slow start, but have gone 4-3 in their last seven and have won the last two games.
Stay tuned for more reports as the season progresses.
