[Westheim]

Did I mention that the Alley Cats rallied from facing elimination in the AAA championships back to force a game seven, which they lost, 7-6?

Now I have.

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I talked to a few players after the season was over to get this and that done. I tried to lock up Clyde Brady, but he wasn’t really in the mood for a 5-year contract. Concie Guerin was willing to talk, but somehow lived in a world where he deserved to make a million per season.

Nothing worked out. Absolutely nothing.

I soon went for the mountains, to spend a few quiet weeks at the Three Sisters. I didn’t take anything. No computer, no cell phone, not even a signal pistol to be rescued in case a bear was sitting atop the hut. To be precise, I was actually eager to attract a mad grizzly bear, but unfortunately I failed in my strolls through the woods to find any, despite all my best attempts at not showering nor washing and giving all I had to smell like a lady bear.

Fails. The history of my life.

Actually, once I was disturbed on my flank of my mountain. It was Slappy, the janitor. The Bayhawks had made a trade offer, sending outfielder Ramiro Cavazos for Manuel Reyes. Slappy was sent because nobody else dared to ignite my wrath upon being molested in my neck of the woods, and Slappy didn’t mind once told I’d have booze. (I didn’t; I only need it to go to sleep from April to September; strange huh?) I threw that trade out of the window unless the Bayhawks would be content with Andrew Schaefer instead. When Slappy didn’t return I was sure they wouldn’t and went back to watch the birdlife of the Cascades.

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2000 ABL Awards:
Batting title: WAS RF/LF Vonne Calzado (.369, 10 HR, 109 RBI) and MIL RF/LF Cristo Ramirez (.334, 4 HR, 87 RBI)
Rookie of the Year: TOP 1B Ramón Echevarría (.272, 21 HR, 101 RBI) and IND C Jose Paraz (.256, 13 HR, 55 RBI)
Hitter of the Year: WAS CF/LF Victorino Sanchez (.362, 17 HR, 100 RBI) and OCT 3B/2B Sonny Reece (.333, 21 HR, 117 RBI)
Pitcher of the Year: SAC SP Whit Reeves (19-8, 2.58 ERA) and MIL SP Martin Garcia (23-9, 2.28 ERA; won second consecutive triple crown)
Gold Gloves (FL): SAC SP David Castillo, WAS C Jesus Rivera, LAP 1B Luis Soto, SFW 2B Dave Heffer, SAC 3B Felipe Rivera, SAC SS Jose Martinez, DEN LF Vincente Hernandez, NAS CF John Hensley, SAC RF Sam Green
Gold Gloves (CL): SFB SP Ricardo Sanchez, ATL C Johnny Johnson, LVA 1B Javier Vargas, POR 2B Marvin Ingall, OCT 3B Sonny Reece, BOS SS Daniel Silva, MIL LF Bakile Hiwalani, VAN CF Jorge Ledesma, OCT RF Artie Barnes

Marvin Ingall has won back-to-back Gloves now. Of our other three Glovers last year, Stephen Buell was traded and soon found himself in AAA, Neil Reece was hurt all year, and Concie Guerin made 13 errors rather than four this season.

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I returned from my mountain shortly in late October, found out that the Thunder had won the World Series, acknowledged that Yohan Bonneau had hit four homers in the playoffs and hit for a 1.072 OPS, also saw that Sonny Reece was to be a free agent, then looked at our budget, cried again, dealt a scrub upstate, then resorted to dig further into other teams’ player material.

This quickly became frustrating. Bruce Boyle, David Castillo, Jose Lopez. Just a few players I checked out. When I checked my finances, I found out that I couldn’t afford them. To be precise: in case some madman would storm into my office and send me through the window with a blast from a sawed off shotgun, the team would not be able to afford a wreath for the funeral of my sorry remains.

Besides, Castillo vetoed a trade anyway. I understood that. As a 31-year old starting pitcher I wouldn’t want to be enchained in Portland, either.

While our offense was terrifying (although full seasons from Reece, Sharp, and Martin could maybe help a bit), it was our starting pitching that needed a hug. The abhorrent performances from the rotation in 2000 in turn routinely broke an overworked bullpen, which sent the runs conceded out of control. Yet, starting pitching doesn’t come cheap, and to be honest, what do we have to get started, anyway? There’s no doubt as to Randy Farley’s abilities. Ralph Ford would have been sent down if there had been any replacements available. Miguel Lopez was crap. Scott Wade was not much better than crap, and will leave town. We dump Jose Rivera. Paco Martinez is not an option, either.

This is alarming. We can not even fill the rotation. How on earth is team supposed to get through next season? I started by warning Vince in advance that we’d cut a bit on his Caribbean trips in 2001, and I also suggested that he’d travel not by plane, but rather by donkey. He responded in Spanish, which I didn’t understand, but I sure understood his gestures.

To be honest, most of these drab, wet, dark autumn days were spent with the forehead firmly planted on top of the desk, and I was hurting. While I had spent the last few years grasping for straws that might bring an upswing, this year there was no hope, because, … well:

Our budget meant we couldn’t even afford straw.

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As salary arbitration approached, we offered the following amounts: Farley $625k; Reyes $240k; Guerin $610k; Brady $400k; we also offered arbitration to Wade and Richardson, who were compensation eligible (Meeks and Jackson weren’t); Rivera, Caddock, Crowe, and Newton were all granted free agency as we were cleaning house.

All four arbitration cases were decided in our favor, which greatly reduced the risk of me dropping instantly with a heart attack. Also, in other news, while Daniel Richardson rejected arbitration, Scott Wade accepted, and ended up with less money than I had initially offered for a 1-year deal…

October 20 – Two days earlier he hoisted the World Series trophy – now OF Royce Green is a Thunder no more. The 31-year old with a .282 average, 184 HR and 689 RBI, is traded to the Gold Sox for 35-year old MR Luis Estrada (64-49, 3.03 ERA, 48 SV).
October 27 – The Raccoons trade 27-year old SP/MR Kelly Fairchild (9-12, 5.22 ERA, 1 SV) to the Wolves for 24-year old C Mark Thomas (.297, 0 HR, 3 RBI in 37 AB).
November 2 – The Portland Raccoons and CL Antonio Donis agree on a $290k contract for 2001, avoiding arbitration.
November 4 – The Canadiens acquire Dallas’ MR Anthony Duhamel (20-27, 3.77 ERA, 13 SV), parting with two low-level minor leaguers.
November 11 – The Warriors acquire current ROTY 1B Ramón Echevarría (.271, 21 HR, 107 RBI) from the Buffaloes and send over 29-year old 3B Gabriel Rodriguez (.284, 3 HR, 38 RBI in 232 AB) and a non-prospect.
November 13 – Portland’s SP/MR Scott Wade receives a 1-yr, $315k contract in salary arbitration.
November 17 – The Crusaders and Raccoons agree to a deal that sends 30-yr old SP Cipriano Miranda (50-72, 4.40 ERA) to Portland in exchange for AAA MR Mike Collins and prospect CL Bob Evans.
November 17 – The Condors acquire 25-yr old LF Jack Bishop (.248, 2 HR, 60 RBI) from the Pacifics for 27-yr old 3B Eric Wallace (.293, 2 HR, 21 RBI) and prospect CL Mickey McGrath.

While Miranda might not make this team a winner (oh and not by a long shot!), it is a move to shore up the rotation. We have so many young relief pitchers pushing up, we can easily part with one (Evans), and Collins did nothing but anger me in parts of two seasons in Portland. I feel like we lost nothing, but gained a pitcher. He projects to be our #3 man behind Randy & Ralph. It’s been 23 years since a Miranda wound up for the Coons, I think I’m over it. (gloomy look) This Miranda makes $490k in his final year of arbitration eligibility, so we are facing to lose him in one year’s time. Plus I will fail to type Cirp- … Cimp- … Cipa- … his name for the next year.

In all honesty, the Buffaloes GM should be shot. How the Warriors got that trade done is completely beyond me. That Rodriguez guy involved is a former Raccoon, by the way. He was part of the 1997 explosion, and didn’t resurface in the majors until last year.

Also, I noticed only now that OF Jeffery Brown has retired. He had a career .323/.393/.460 slash with 274 HR, 1,545 RBI, and most important 3,582 career hits. He is the career record holder in hits, runs (1,700), games (2,928), RBIs, and total bases (5,104). His closest challenger in the hits department may actually be Milwaukee’s Cristo Ramirez, who has 2,448 knocks at age 31 and ranks 13th overall. While there are certainly a few other players closer in the hits table, they are all nearing the end of the rainbow.

In a blatantly obvious salary dump attempt, the Knights have offered us Vern Kinnear for two scrubs, including George Morris. You know, we HAVE an opening in leftfield that is exactly Vern-sized. His first year in Atlanta was stellar, his second year was average, and last year they used him as backup. However, we are going to choke on the $1.06M he is due each of the next two years. Oh dear baseball gods, as much as I want to make that trade, we just can’t …!! (breaks into tears)