[Westheim]

Off season: Late November

The rule 5 draft was coming up. Our 40-man roster had been filled during the season, to the extent we lost a player on waivers (C Josh Cook), but the departures of Correa, Lopez, and Smith created some open space, but that was quickly filled. The before mentioned Vern Kinnear was foremost in need of protection.

How do Australians actually pronounce “Kinnear”? I’m puzzled as to that since we discovered and signed him. Is it more “kin-ear” or more like “kinner”?

Among free agents is Kiyohira Sasaki, a starter repeatedly besting the Raccoons, foremost in the 1983 World Series. He’s 160-89 in his career, which says something. He’s a K-machine, and merciless at that. He has 1,778 strikeouts in his career (5th all time behind Juan Correa, Joe Ellis, Leland Lewis, and Xavier Mayes). Imagine the terribly terrifying terror Sasaki and Saito could strike from the top of the rotation! It’s like TWO Godzillas stomping into Los Angeles AND eating all the inhabitants!

There are three problems with signing Sasaki. Him and Saito both are left-handers. Well, I could live with that. He is a type A free agent and would cost our first round pick. Well, I *could* swallow that. But he’s reportedly asking for 7-yr, $7.5M+! That’s a steep prize to pay.

It would solve a lot of issues though. First, it would solve all problems with the rotation. Berry could pitch fifth and if he continues his 5.90 ERA ways, release him. Second, we’d get rid of all that money flocking ‘round the office.

The more days went past, the more confident I became staying with Antonio Gonzalez in middle infield roles. You know, last year he had his best career season, hitting .298, and this year, he had his worst, hitting .219, and at some point, things would pan out for him to be a .250 to .260 hitter.

The outfield would sort itself out, somehow. Everything left to do from there would be to add a backup catcher and look into options for left-handed relievers to possibly replace Ken Burnett.

We entered into contract negotiations with Kiyohira Sasaki on November 24. His actual demand was 5-yr, $4.8M. It is very tough to judge how our salary structure will look like in four or five years. Heck, salary will blow the budget in 1993 at the latest, possibly even next year depending on super-2 arbitration cases. A guy like Sasaki always finds a trade partner, but for now I wanted to keep things manageable. Our first offer of 4-yr, $3M plus incentives was not accepted, and even our third offer of 4-yr, $3.75M finds no love. Things don’t look good, he seems to be quite insisting.

Do we have the room for a $950k salary even this year? Maybe. It will require some slashing of scouting and development. Our budget is actually not that small. We’re ranking 9th overall in the ABL now (well, almost equal with the Titans, Thunder, Wolves, and Blue Sox, who are all just a hair below us). Maybe the numbers are skewed and we have more budget room than it looks like because we threw a combined $3.9M (almost 30% of our budget) at S&D in 1990. The league average was about a million lower. We can probably slash some.

November 21 – The Aces trade CL Raffaele Antuofermo, 33, with 356 SV, to the Pacifics for 25-year old LF/RF Manny Espinosa, who despite his young age has already knocked 59 HR and 355 RBI while batting .280.
November 26 – The Condors add the career saves leader, CL Andres Ramirez, 31, with 420 SV, for 1-yr, $570k.
November 29 – Sad news: Thunder owner Jack Morton passes away, leaving his son Jack Morton jr. in control of the franchise. The younger Morton is characterized as a lenient economizer.
November 30 – The Rebels add ex-OCT INF Tom Nicks (.275, 43 HR, 428 RBI) for 4-yr, $3.28M. Nicks, 29, batted .313 last season and hit double-digit homers (10) for the first time in his career.
December 1 – At age 39, 2B/3B Hector Atilano gets one more payday, signing a 2-yr, $1.75M deal with the Capitals. Atilano’s marks of .314, 2,227 H, 160 HR, 1,055 RBI speak for themselves, but he batted only .254 last year for the Condors.
December 1 – Rule 5 draft: 15 players are taken over three rounds. The Raccoons are not affected (and had a full 40-man roster going in anyway).

I’ve been brooding over that Sasaki thing for hours now, my head is hurting.

Off topic: hopefully Jon Niese can complete the shutout he has through eight. Would be soul balm for a recently much-tortured Mets fan. Regardless, it will be bed time then at … 3:30 am.