[Westheim]

No, we can not trade for Vern Kinnear. I would love to have him, I would, but – no. I mean, he’s not going to set the world on fire judging by his last two seasons, and probably wouldn’t best Chris Parker by much. There is one point I thought about this morning. When you play badly, at least play badly with players you like. Makes you commit less (usually bad) snap reactions. But Kinnear is due $2.12M over two more years, and that’s just not going to happen. Cranbourne’s Finest can’t return home.

In the second decade of November (is that even a thing in the US? Three decades to a month?), I was looking around to shop spare parts (do we actually have spare parts?). I was astonished how virtually everybody around the majors seemed to be earning a million bucks now. Of course, the Raccoons weren’t, except for Neil Reece. It was absolutely impossible to get any deals done.

It wasn’t hard identifying needs. The Raccoons needed lots of everything. I even had two or three or four players in mind to trade (and you might be stunned by some of them), but we just couldn’t muster the cash to pay for any significant improvements.

That’s it. The Raccoons are assured their second 100-losses season and it is only November.

Looking for an improvement for leftfield that was not batting left-handed, I eventually came back to Ramiro Cavazos, whom the Bayhawks had offered earlier. The Bayhawks were looking for relief pitching to shore up a sometimes dismal bullpen. They were keen on Reyes and Donis, but I eventually got them to settle for less, although it cost one of Vince Guerra’s international discoveries.

And that wasn't all.

November 21 – The Scorpions grab themselves two of the best free agents on the market, giving a 3-yr, $5.76M contract to 33-yr old RF/LF Vonne Calzado (.338, 101 HR, 910 RBI), who has 2,192 career hits and spent the last five years with the Capitals, AND going further out splurging, adding ex-OCT 3B/2B Sonny Reece (.314, 84 HR, 608 RBI). Reece’s contract sets a new record for total contract value in the ABL, as Reece signs on for six years and $12.48M. The two trades add a combined 13.5 WAR for the Scorpions.
November 21 – The Crusaders re-sign their old closer Dane Sanders (33-32, 2.51 ERA, 122 SV) for 2-yr, $2.56M, while they also add to their bullpen with the addition of ex-CIN Leonardo Sosa (28-20, 2.84 ERA, 55 SV) for 3-yr, $2.46M.
November 21 – The Canadiens and Condors spin the trade wheel, with 25-yr old RF Matt MacKey (.228, 11 HR, 32 RBI) heading south 28-yr old 3B Alfredo De Jesus (.287, 2 HR, 92 RBI) going north, together with a prospect.
November 22 – The Falcons have added 1B Luis Soto (.279, 21 HR, 162 RBI), who is 25, and in return send 26-yr old SP Wyatt Coleman to the Pacifics. Coleman is 11-10 with a 4.40 ERA for his career.
November 24 – The Condors sign 27-yr old ex-IND C/1B Urbano Cicalina (.291, 43 HR, 261 RBI) for 6-yr, $10.2M.
November 25 – The Raccoons acquire 26-yr old OF Ramiro Cavazos (.264, 15 HR, 118 RBI) from the Bayhawks, and send over 32-yr old MR Andrew Schaefer (21-15, 4.06 ERA, 8 SV), who started his career with the Hawks in 1991, and 18-yr old prospect CL Salvadaro Soure.
November 26 – Former Indian 1B/3B Matt Brown (.286, 145 HR, 594 RBI) joins the Buffaloes for 5-yr, $10.6M.
November 26 – Ex-DAL SP Lewis Donaldson (63-76, 4.48 ERA) hooks up with the Cyclones for 4-yr, $6.72M.
November 27 – The Titans acquire former Bayhawk 1B/2B Hector Ramirez (.293, 22 HR, 404 RBI) for $11.4M over six years.
November 28 – Former Condor SP Sylvester Clark (51-50, 4.70 ERA) joins the Rebels team on a 5-yr, $5.2M deal.
December 1 – Rule 5 draft: 15 players are taken, including former star pitcher Manuel Movonda first overall by the Knights. The Raccoons draft 28-yr old INF Max Heart from the Aces, as well as 27-yr old LF/RF Gilberto Flores from the Indians.
December 3 – The Condors add genuine slugger OF Jeff MacGruder (.265, 114 HR, 438 RBI), who is 28, for six years and $11.28M. MacGruder was with the Wolves.
December 3 – The Condors also deal with the Capitals, sending over C Rusty Washington (.278, 12 HR, 103 RBI) and a minor leaguer, getting in return SP Manuel Pineda (8-7, 4.72 ERA) and a pitching prospect. In addition to that, they trade LF/RF Michael Sanders (.315, 26 HR, 259 RBI), who has turned 31, to the Crusaders, in turn acquiring reliever Mark Martin (1-0, 0.79 ERA in 9 G) and potentially hot catching prospect Richie Armstrong.
December 3 – 38-yr old SP Carlos Guillén (178-194, 3.54 ERA) will make $850k for one year in the Loggers’ rotation after going 10-18 for the Aces last season.
December 4 – The Miners deal OF Fernando Vasquez (.261, 10 HR, 146 RBI) to the Pacifics, adding MR Stéphane Bastide (6-7, 4.68 ERA, 3 SV) instead. The Miners are also busy with the Canadiens, parting with C Jose Esquivel (.280, 19 HR, 204 RBI), and getting SP Jose Marquez (46-67, 4.14 ERA) and a minor leaguer.
December 5 – 32-yr old veteran Rory Gorden (.253, 111 HR, 763 RBI) is traded from the Condors to the Rebels, along with a prospect received from the Miners earlier, for 30-yr old MR Jorge Reyes (17-15, 4.29 ERA).
December 5 – At 35, C David Vinson (.239, 123 HR, 608 RBI) is traded back to the Continental League, going from the Warriors to the Thunder in exchange for SP Lou Corbett (99-77, 4.17 ERA).
December 5 – Former Gold Sox closer Javier Rivera (26-26, 2.45 ERA, 162 SV) will get paid by the Buffaloes from now, due $3.66M over the next three years.
December 6 – The Raccoons strike a big deal with the Gold Sox, trading CL Antonio Donis (23-28, 3.95 ERA, 29 SV), 1B/2B Samy Michel (.228, 7 HR, 40 RBI), and SP Paco Martinez (10-8, 3.25 ERA) for one of the finest young starting pitchers in the game, SP Carl Bean (45-45, 3.93 ERA).
December 7 – The Gold Sox acquire 30-yr old 1B Glenn Douglas (.279, 73 HR, 451 RBI) from the Titans for 29-yr old SP Millard Wilson (31-55, 4.41 ERA).

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The Cavazos trade achieved several things. First, it gives us a potentially lethal bat (although you have to subtract 150 points of OPS of any batter heading to Portland), also a switch-hitting bat, which we didn’t have any meaningful of once we traded Cesar Gonzalez last summer, and also opens a spot in the bullpen to potentially open the 2001 season with prospect Marcos Bruno added from AAA. Bruno’s stuff is elite, and his fastball might reach 99 mph, but also has a sink to it that induces lots of groundballs. He’s 18 months removed from being a first round pick. I should mention however, that he was the main factor in the AAA team losing the championship, taking four losses in 11 appearances in the playoffs…

That’s your Raccoons! Every Critter has its flaw! Erase that. I meant “flaws” of course.

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I’m revved up over the Bean trade! At first glance, it looks like I went nuts for good, but I really didn’t. No, trust me on this one, really. Bean, who’s 26, had a horrible rookie year in 1998, which completely soils his numbers. He won 37 games the last two seasons combined, struck out 386, and his ERA+ was 127. Vince rates him 14/13/13 which is as balanced as starting pitchers come, and he induces groundballs. Also, the run environment in the Federal League is inflated in relation to the Continental League, with a 4.30 ERA about average for the last five years. In the CL, we’re just below four for an average. Bean will make $850k (chokes), but will be arbitration eligible twice more, buying this shoddy outfit here some time to round up funds.

What did we give up for Carl Bean? Paco Martinez might be a back-end starter, but we have some of those already. Michel has no upside compared to Albert Martin and is expendable. The third part and perhaps the most significant part in the trade, Antonio Donis, has been (along with Michel and others) on my trade piece list from the beginning. It was either him or Reyes as a closer for next year with Nordahl not getting things done at all, and Vince recommends keying on Reyes. Donis posted ERA’s over four in three of the last four seasons, and while that includes an 0-9 campaign in ’97, where he started the season in the rotation, he’s not been getting it done as a closer, either. Reyes started abysmally after coming over last summer, but was a little less crap in the final two months of the season. That’s Vince arguing, not me. I hate that sucker. But I gotta play the cards I’ve been dealt…

After all, starting pitching is what killed this team for more than 50% last year. It killed the bullpen as well (I elaborated a bit on how Daniel Miller was overcooked at one point in August, but it was more or less true for everybody except Donis, who was never used as the closer…), and led to 826 runs allowed, second-worst in the CL. The addition of Bean and Miranda, and purging Rivera, as well as now moving Wade to the bullpen once more, should help the pitching staff a great deal overall.

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I saw Movonda in the rule 5 draft, and he had a 5-ish ERA for Salem last season before being designated for assignment. I thought about it, but then I saw that he still is owed $1.2M for 2001. It gets repetitive, doesn’t it?

It’s the first time in AGES that the Raccoons have picked anybody in the rule 5 draft, too. I don’t even know when it could have been. I DO remember Steven Berry being a rule 5 draft, and that might have been …… 1988? Nothing after that.

Max Heart and Gilberto Flores are nothing special and are penciled in as backups. But if your previous backup was looking to be Jason Kent, then Flores is a BIG improvement, and you can’t do much worse than Steve Caddock as your backup infielder. Heart is not as adept at fielding, but I believe that he has a real shot at hitting .215 ...

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At the completion of the Winter Meetings, the Raccoons have shed 15 players (not counting half a dozen minor league scrubs electing free agency), have added just six, but gained 12 WAR.

However, I will now quell any euphoria with the following annotation: the Raccoons ranked third in both of the last two winter periods, adding 3.7 and 6.4 WAR, respectively, and then went on to donk their records by eight games twice in succession. Now that we are up by 12 WAR, I guess our 2001 season will come around to something like 42-120?

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Hold on for one more second. At the very end of the winter meetings, the Bayhawks came back to me with another proposal. They offer INF Bob Hall (.279/.349/.408, 51 HR, 361 RBI) and a scrub for Randy Farley.

That’s obviously not a good deal. Also, Hall makes almost a million bucks next year and will then be a free agent. But Hall would slot in nicely at second base. And who else is left on my trade chips list?

Marvin Ingall.