[Westheim]

I tried to make this update a bit more lively, but it has become another monologue of self-pity. I apologize

Little happened up to the start of the Winter Meetings in Vancouver:
December 7 – The Miners acquire INF Pedro Hernandez (.272, 40 HR, 415 RBI) from the Stars for MR Wilbert Rodgers (45-29, 3.75 ERA) and a prospect.

I made a quick calculation how we are spending our money. The budget is $16,176,000. Of that, almost equal amounts go into staff, scouting, and development:

Staff: $1,555,000
Scouting: $2,110,000
Development: $2,000,000

That’s $5,665,000 spent *not* on players, and leaves $10,511,000 for player salaries. That is quite a bit less than what other teams are spending on their players, foremost our playoff opponents from last year. The Capitals have a $13.1M payroll, the Condors are at $12.8M. You could add not just one top level first baseman for the $2M difference.

We spent comparably more on scouting and development. With our terrible draft picks (I don’t complain, I like to finish first!) we get less and less player material worth pouring these amounts of money into. Since I will try to extend this dynasty for as long as possible, without the possibility to increase our salary by a lot, I will not trade any asset off this roster for prospects. (Well until we are ten games out in July, at least)

No ABL team – in 17 seasons – has ever managed to win three rings. Not even in a row, but at all. We want to be the first team to do that. It looks like this will plunge us far below .500 at one point until the end of the decade, with quite a few of our players in the 30s now: Daniel Hall (38), Grant West (36), Kisho Saito (33), Jorge Salazar (33), Mark Allen (32), Raimundo Beato (32), Scott Wade (31), Ken Burnett (30), Jackie Lagarde (30); how many of these will be productive in let’s say 1997? I’d guess that very few of them will be. Hall and West will be retired. The others will be old and expensive. They are still in their prime now (Salazar certainly isn’t playing like 33) and are the backbone of a team trying to win three straight. A good bunch of the roster is 28/29.

If you look at it, closely, few of our key assets are younger than 30 years. Neil Reece and Ben O’Morrissey are both 27. I’d not call anybody else a key asset at this point. Miguel Lopez has to prove he can pitch at your first half level for two halves of a season. Kinnear had a horrible sophomore year. Alejandro Lopez came from unemployed to a very impressive four months, but can he repeat? Matt Higgins has to get his shoulder bolted back together and nobody knows how that will affect his play.

No, three years from now, we will have Reece, O-Mo, and lots and lots of old men.