[Westheim]

October 3 – After getting the first set of bad news on Monday, the Loggers get hit even harder on Wednesday, with news that 38-year old MR Ricardo Medina (1-3, 2.81 ERA, 3 SV) is heading for Tommy John surgery and might miss all of the 2002 season, with his $1.16M vesting option being triggered.
October 15 – The Raccoons announce an escalating 4-yr, $3.35M deal with Randy Farley that buys out his arbitration years and one year of free agency.

After locking up Concie, I went after Randy. His 2001 was awful, but that was a team-wide phenomenon. He had four years in the Bigs, three of which were swell. There’s no reason to believe that he will not return to better form. Heck, Kisho Saito had a bad year soon after he came over to the Raccoons in the mid-80s, and we didn’t take him to the dumpster, either. Even Chris Powell’s first full year in Portland was HORRENDOUS, and he returned to head our rotation throughout the early 80s.

Originally I wanted to wait to the start of the offseason before making another move (with only one more move in the budget since our available funds for extension at our 2001 budget is close to squid), to see where we are money-wise and do a thorough evaluation of our complete 40-man roster plus meaningful prospects (like I did two or three years ago), but Randy is too good a pitcher to pass on. If you are going to pitch in the Bigs for 16 years, win 260 games and go to the Hall of Fame, you’re allowed a bad year early. And you will go to the Hall of Fame, right Randy?

Edgardo Torrez was named AAA Hitter of the Year, going .326 with 32 HR, 80 RBI for the Alley Cats before hitting .200 with 1 HR, 4 RBI in 25 AB for the Coons in September.

The look at the salary arbitration screen was sure to dash any hope that we could even keep this horrible cast together. We had six players up for arbitration, who were looking forward to collectively escalate their 2001 salaries of $2.6M all the way to $4.8M. Simple math indicates that it will be impossible for the Raccoons to match this.

Arbitration eligible players (2001 stats – 2001 salary – 2002 estimate – service time):
SP Carl Bean, 27 – 10-13, 4.41 in 212.1 IP - $800k - $924k – 4.085
2B Jesus Palacios, 26 - .290/.353/.468, 24 HR, 88 RBI, 13 SB - $650k - $1.155M – 4.019
OF Ramiro Cavazos, 27 - .284/.333/.446, 16 HR, 67 RBI, 3 SB - $480k - $998k – 4.037
LF/RF Chris Parker, 26 - .237/.302/.379, 6 HR, 24 RBI, 1 SB – minimum - $201k – 3.122
LF/RF Clyde Brady, 25 - .304/.404/.506, 10 HR, 48 RBI, 2 SB - $400k - $1M – 4.032
LF/RF Gilberto Flores, 28 - .237/.313/.362, 1 HR, 20 RBI, 4 SB – minimum - $201k – 5.135

A lot of pain is coming our way.

In addition to this, we have a pair of free agency eligible players:
SP Cipriano Miranda, 31 – 7-13, 4.04 ERA, 185 IP - $490k – type B
MR Pancho Gutierrez, 35 – 0-0, 5.65 ERA, 14.1 IP - $182k – no comp.

Gutierrez who?

Miranda would be interesting to extend because he could be comparably cheap. But we can’t even keep the players on board that we absolutely need, and we can replace Miranda comfortably with Nick Brown. It would be nice to have some backup around and start Brown in AAA, but such luxury can only be afforded by financially affluent teams.

Looking at our arbitration estimates, we currently have NO money for extensions. It is true. The offseason has started, and our budget has already been blown through.

The things I would like to do to Carlosito can not be properly put into words without alarming the authorities.