[Westheim]

Roster evaluation time! This will be more thorough this time, although one decision has already been taken off the board by the player: Juan “Mauler” Correa decided to retire after just having turned 40. He went a mere 272-117 with a 2.44 ERA in his career and will go to the Hall of Fame for sure one day. That removes one of the variables from the way we will set up our rotation for next year.

Be aware that we have upwards of $1M to spend, but not excessively more than $1.5M. We have poured lots of money into scouting and development in 1990 due to a cheap team, but I don’t want to hack and slash it excessively.

Starter

So far, only a few things are set in stone as far as the rotation is concerned. Kisho Saito and Scott Wade are givens of course. With Jason Turner healthy again, we may pitch Turner even ahead of Wade, with Saito undisputedly heading the rotation. Saito is under contract through ’92, Wade through ’94 (for cheap), and Turner makes the minimum. Saito is 30 now – extending him past ’92 will be expensive, but that’s a thought for tomorrow.

Who could complete the rotation? Antonio “Woody” Lopez was very good for us after coming in in a trade, but he’s a free agent. As a left-hander, he would fit in well in the #4 or #5 spot (or even #3 spot ahead of Wade to mix hands). He is also a type A free agent, and his career 4.33 ERA, so he’s not always been as great. In fact, his 3.50 mark for last season is his second-best in his 11-year career. He’s 30, so he’s looking for the big bucks.

Steven Berry, Dennis Fried, and Jose Fernandez got extended stays in the rotation last year. Fried’s 4.22 ERA was decent and would do for a #5 starter, but he’s really at best an average guy. Berry had a terrible season with an ERA of almost 6. While the K’s were there, nothing else was. He also was hurt. Neither option thrills me, because, honestly, we want to make another charge next year. Fernandez is about the same as Fried.

In AAA, Jose Fernandez went 13-5 with a 2.97 ERA. He also made 11 starts for the Raccoons, going 4-2 with a 4.45 ERA. Miguel Lopez wend 13-11 with a 3.38 ERA between AA and AAA, but he is not ready yet. Eduardo Salazar went 13-13 with a 3.55 ERA in AAA only. Deeper down, we have a starter in AA, Roberto Gonzalez, who went 13-11 with a 3.95 ERA for a terrible team there, but none of those four appeals too much. If anything, Fernandez has the best marks among them, but he’s 27 already. The others can still improve a bit. Maybe Fernandez won’t be such a bad #5?

In any case, Berry has no options and I can’t make up my mind whether he would clear waivers.

Bullpen

This group of seven was quite the pack in 1990. No injuries, no extended meltdowns and demotions, they stayed together for the whole season. That doesn’t mean they can’t be improved, but in reality, only one spot is open for discussion.

While Grant West softened up two times last season, he still saved 44 games, but his ERA of 3.10 sets a career high. He will be 34 next season. It may be time to look for a replacement.

Among right-handers, Jackie Lagarde started out as the setup man, but lost that role after a summer slump. Juan Martinez and Albert Matthews carried most of the 8th inning duties from there, but Lagarde is an elite reliever, no discussion. All four men discussed so far can put up K numbers in the region of 7 to 9 K/9. Robert Carrillo has good stuff, but was often used more in a long man role, which he filled excellently.

From the left side, Ken Burnett was the original setup man, but Antonio Cordero soon superseded him and posted a stud 1.34 ERA. Burnett completely came apart in September, and his spot is open for discussion, but of course, only left-handers can fill in. Pedro Vazquez and Qi-zhen Geng, our frequent addition in times of trouble, are righties. Vazquez is out of options.

At AAA, Tony Vela and Daniel Miller are hot prospects, but both are right-handers and can’t fill Burnett’s spot. Miller also was only drafted this June and I don’t want to rush him too much, although he was a college junior.

In money terms, West is signed through ’94, Cordero through ’91, Carrillo has a $300k option for next year, Martinez will be arbitration eligible for the first time, and the other three of the stellar seven (Lagarde, Matthews, Burnett) are under club control, making the minimum.

Catcher

David Vinson! The defense! The power! Vinson! Watch me salivating!

Actually, his defense was not phenomenal, but it was compared to what Sam Dadswell did for years. He handled 961.2 innings this year, with four errors and six passed balls, while his CS% was only 26.4%. Dadswell routinely had both numbers close to or in the double-digits. Here is our starter, period. He will unfortunately also be a super-2 arbitration case and getting a long term contract done will be of the highest priority.

Leo Smith behind Vinson was a very good backup, hitting .289 and behaving well when Vinson was hurt. Now comes the “but”. But: he is a free agent, and is labeled type A. The problem here is the fact that we have nobody in our system adequately filling the backup role. Alarico Violante showed very well that he couldn’t do it.

But should you really pass on two extra draft picks for a BACKUP catcher? Especially with the Coons not picking too high next year…

Infield

Let’s split this into corner infield and middle infield, and look at corner infield first.

There is Tetsu Osanai, who was – by his standards – terrible last season, batting merely .286 with 20 HR and 121 RBI. 1991 will be the first year of his huge contract, tying him with Mark Dawson as top earner on the team. Dawson of course has been our 3B rock for a decade now. His season was awful, despite him reaching 300 career home runs, the first player to do so. Ben O’Morrissey managed to split games about evenly between those two from June on.

O-Mo certainly won’t go anywhere. Dawson may retire after the 1991 season or won’t, but he won’t be back with us. I tried to trade him for years, he refused, and when his contract was up, I extended him. I am rather stupid. O-Mo is more of a singles/doubles hitter, but makes that up with equal defense and much better speed compared to Dawson. O’Morrissey is on the minimum for at least one more year.

We traded most of our minor league 1B’s in the last years. In AAA, 1B Ruben De La Rosa and 1B/3B Matt Brown are on the depth chart, but have no shot at the big leagues unless somebody goes down.

Middle infield has Jorge Salazar, a great addition, who soon broke up a planned platoon with Antonio Gonzalez at shortstop, and Matt Higgins. All four play all four positions around the diamond, but in fact are limited to two spots. We expect more from Higgins, but neither him nor Salazar will go anywhere. Salazar is under contract through ’91, Higgins on the minimum at least for ’91, but unfortunately Gonzalez has three years and $1.03M left on a big contract some moron gave him, and he responded by batting .210. Moving him will be interesting, but is desirable.

We have a few options behind those three, like Elmer Hawley and Matt Duncan. Looking deeper down into the organization, the field thins out quickly. At the A level we have highly rated Jayson Kelley, our supplemental round pick from this year, but he’s only 19 and developing.

So, one spot is open here, but a replacement for Gonzalez has to play at least the two middle positions and at best also third base and first base (in that order). I value middle infield defense really very highly. I think this is a lot about finding a good fielder that can bat, rather than finding a batter that can field.

Outfield

Here we are rather crowded! The addition of Bob Arnold made things even more crowded at mid-season, but of course three of our outfielders (Daniel Hall, Glenn Johnston, Bobby Quinn) were injured for extended periods last season.

First of all, Dan The Man won’t go anywhere. Once he retires, we will play without a leftfielder. Nobody deserves to ever succeed him there. And with Dan being right-handed, left-handed outfielders are the more valuable for us. But of the current crop, only Glenn Johnston bats left-handed, and he dropped 40 points in average compared to 1989. Still, he has exceptional defense in all three positions.

Bobby Quinn has been batting .304 this year, but didn’t flash the same power as last year, and Bob Arnold batted .298 between Topeka and Portland. There is also Neil Reece, an elite centerfielder with a somewhat slower bat. Plus Jeff Martin, the only left-hander in this group.

That’s already six guys. Martin was the odd man out more often than not at the end of the season, and with the opposition here being much tougher than him, he can’t be more than a backup, if he can be that at all.

In fact, Martin’s left-handedness could save him his spot, because if we drop him, Johnston is the only left-hander in the outfield. While we have two regular left-handers elsewhere (Osanai, Salazar) and two switch-hitting regulars (Higgins, Vinson), I don’t find the thought pleasing.

Hall is signed through ’93. Johnston and Martin are on the minimum for another year, and Reece is on the minimum for several years. Quinn is arbitration eligible. As is Arnold despite being 30 already. Does he really fit into the outfield here? Tough question.

The depth chart shows a few players that have fallen out of favor in Randy Powers (.220 in AAA) and Daniel Dumont (.234 in AAA). There is also 21-year old Aussie Vern Kinnear in AAA, who batted .256 with 23 dingers between AA and AAA this season. He could fit in someplace by next September or in case of injuries.

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So, that’s a lot of decisions to make. Compressed, these are our arbitration-eligible (with estimate) and free agency-eligible players:

Arbitration: MR Juan Martinez ($130k), C David Vinson ($290k), OF Bob Arnold ($380k), OF Bobby Quinn ($230k);
Free agents: SP Antonio Lopez, C Leo Smith