[Westheim]

One great hanging it up: Michael Root, who was overtaken for the career lead in home runs by Raúl Vázquez in September, retired at age 39. He could barely play the last few years, but will be remembered of his 8-year peak from 1984 to 1991, when he OPS’ed .921 or more (up to 1.081) for eight straight years. His 41 dingers in 1989 were the single season record mark – until Vázquez hit 42 in 1992. He’s the only superstar to call it a day this October.

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The Coons had a $16,255,000 budget in 2000, spending all but $219,093 of that (and I counted all those dollars precisely!). This was the third-smallest budget in the league, and we had the tiniest payroll.

Let’s just say, it won’t get any better. Carlosito really doesn’t want to spend money for the annoying people in Portland that send him paper all the time. Balance sheets, income statements, horrendous taxes, and then they don’t even win games.

So, Carlosito is cutting down on the expenses he’s going to incur. The Raccoons will not get a bigger budget in 2001. They won’t even be able to spend as much. Instead they were culled to $15,750,000. How I am supposed to field a team with that change money is completely beyond me. The average budget in the league is $19.6M, the median is $19.3M.

The gains I assumed I would be able to make with the departure of manager Chad Klein and his admittedly gracious allowance completely vanish (and after promotion of hitting coach Lance Cox to manager, I still need to find a hitting coach, who will want to make some money, too…), and about $200k more. Wow.

…

Head -> Desk

…

Yeah, no. I have no clue how to do this. I was hoping to get somewhere to $17.5M or so, because, you know, WINNING COSTS MONEY, but no. No. Much the opposite.

I am actually deeply despaired at the moment.

This means a few things. Scott Wade did not retire. That means that I need him to sign a new contract ASAP, because he’s the cheapest end-of-rotation pitcher a last-place team can possibly get anywhere. I may sound negative on him, but don’t get me wrong: Wade was a thorough finesse pitcher in his day. But his day was last week, we’ve advanced a millennium, and he’s largely done. To get the bad news over quickly, Wade wanted a 3-year deal, and that was not something I was keen on. However, Wade was INSISTENT. So was I. We did not agree and he will test free agency.

Now, there is one more thing, and it has to do with SP Jose Rivera (1-4, 5.77 ERA). He was the CL ERA champion at 25, tore up his elbow at 26, and pitched like crap at 27. He was removed from the 40-man roster last season, but he still cashed in on $750k he was awarded in salary arbitration for the 2000 season. Vince says he’s a mess and advises to drop him, and that is exactly what we are going to do. That frees up $750k, which we will bitterly need, since these are the remaining arbitration- and free agency-eligible players (with the usual oodles, 2000 salary, arbitration estimate, and service time):

Salary arbitration:
SP Randy Farley (14-11, 3.59 ERA) - $120k - $600k – 3.000
MR Manuel Reyes (4-3, 3.09 ERA, 6 SV) - $120k - $240k – 3.073
CL Antonio Donis (3-3, 4.25 ERA, 28 SV) - $240k - $277k – 4.167
3B Mike Crowe (.214/.347/.291, 2 HR, 11 RBI) - $120k - $189k – 3.052
INF Steve Caddock (.187/.247/.306, 4 HR, 15 RBI) - $120k - $189k – 3.046
SS Conceicao Guerin (.271/.319/.365, 2 HR, 54 RBI, 23 SB) - $475k - $605k – 4.034
OF Luke Newton (.175/.270/.261, 0 HR, 24 RBI, 3 SB) - $195k - $215k – 5.116
LF/RF Clyde Brady (.268/.367/.394, 15 HR, 75 RBI, 2 SB) - $120k - $370k – 3.032

Free agents:
SP Scott Wade (6-15, 4.78 ERA) - $300k
MR Elliott Meeks (5-2, 2.93 ERA, 1 SV) - $310k
C Freddy Jackson (.302/.331/.371, 0 HR, 11 RBI) - $120k
LF/RF Daniel Richardson (.233/.281/.353, 7 HR, 43 RBI, 7 SB) - $600k

Okayokayokay, don’t panic. We cut Rivera, Richardson, Meeks, and Jackson (who was a mid-season minor league contract addition and will ask for proper money this time), that frees up $1.78M. Add in Crowe, Caddock, and Newton … yeah well, the effect is not there, because they mostly made minimum money, and we will have to bring someone in on minimum money (which will be $126k this year) anyway. That doesn’t mean we won’t dump that dead meat.

Extending Farley, Reyes, Donis, Guerin, and Brady at their mere estimates, however, will already cost almost $1.02M. And estimates are a thing. While I found Guerin overpaid last year, I find his raise way too generous as well. Brady looks too cheap to me. True, his second half was nowhere near his strong first half, but he still had a good season – say, on a team that wouldn’t live in the bin, he’d bat sixth and be dangerous down there. 15 homers are something.

Also, Vince now rates Brady about as good as Neil Reece, and keep in mind that Brady is ten years younger and at 24 can still trend upwards.

So we will probably need to spend about $1.3M on those five, leaving at best $500k from the guys we cut. That about covers our budget cuts.

And where are the improvements supposed to come from?

Great. So, if this were an airplane, the ****ing pilot just had a fatal heart attack, nobody can fly the ****ing airplane, and if you could be bothered to look straight ahead where we’re going now, then, yes, that’s ****ing Mount Hood.