[Westheim]

We couldn’t do anything (except for loading up on even more questionable relief pitching in the rule 5 draft), without trading one of the big money recipients. And it has been established that Ramiro Cavazos is the first man to leave this ship, because we have a stellar replacement in Chris Roberson. And should Roberson pull a Martin in his first full season assignment (remember how Martin sucked in early 2000? Or was it ’99? These dire straits are truly timeless…), we have another option in Edgardo Torrez, and maybe even Chris Beairsto.

The next guy to trade might be Miguel Lopez and replace him with Felipe Garcia in the rotation, but that’s not really an option now, and besides who’d want Lopez’ wretched, wrecked body on his payroll?

Fortunately, the Winter Meetings in Charlotte were coming up. If we can’t turn a wheel here, we’d struggle to move Cavazos at all. Then it’s into the “guys we love with all our heart” section and Clyde Brady, who should have more suitors. The other option would be Carl Bean.

It won’t come to the worst. Neil Reece got a no-trade clause, so he won’t go anyway until he’s 38.

Two pitchers in my eye were Denver’s Scott Hood, a right-handed closer type (and I’d pick him over Nordahl without twitching), and Topeka’s Ryan O’Quinn, a left-hander, but perhaps not a closer, but twice better than the scumbag Diaz. Neither team could readily swallow Cavazos’ $1.175M deal without sending a bigger contract in return, but then Cavazos wasn’t enough for them. C’mon! Do we have to trade a prospect to get back to zero!?

Well, as meetings started it wasn’t difficult to work out a straight salary dump with the Indians for Pablo Fernandez, a 24-year old catcher. We kinda have a few catchers already, however. No need to have FIVE on the 40-man roster. When I tried to get a reliever from them, they weren’t pleased. Unless they got Nick Brown. Yeah, nice try. Those CL North GMs. All crooks.

With the Buffaloes, it really was a money issue. They weren’t broke, like the Raccoons, but they weren’t wealthy, either. I wanted Ryan O’Quinn, and it would take at least one more player to get something together. We added Hoshi Watanabe, a right-handed reliever, a scratch infielder in Jim Johnson, and struggling starter Albert Zarate in various combos to the deal, but never could work it out quite to anybody’s satisfaction.

The Gold Sox weren’t keen on a 1-for-1 deal for Hood, and then I talked to the Cyclones, who had one interesting player in right-hander Paco Leoniedas (whom I was after before, but I can’t remember when…), but couldn’t cover the difference and didn’t really have any other good players fitting the Coons.

One day in, it looked a lot like our chances were best with the Buffaloes or Indians, and while the Buffaloes had the right kind of relievers, we still didn’t get anything done. The Indians at least had a players that could be packaged up somehow, and we ultimately got a deal worked out.

It was a deal that won’t bring us along, however.

Overall, these were the most boring winter meetings in years. I didn’t wake up with a headache and outside my bedroom even once.

Dezember 6 – The Knights trade for 31-yr old 1B Glenn Douglas (.277, 82 HR, 506 RBI), sending over 23-yr old OF Julio Jaramillo (.255, 0 HR, 9 RBI in 98 AB).
December 7 – The Raccoons trade 29-yr old INF Max Heart (.236, 6 HR, 40 RBI) to the Scorpions for 21-yr old pitching prospect Jack Berry.
December 8 – The Indians and Raccoons deal, with the Indians receiving 27-yr old OF Ramiro Cavazos (.273, 31 HR, 185 RBI), and sending over 28-yr old INF Albert Matthews (.269, 35 HR, 320 RBI), 26-yr old left-handed MR Kevin Jones (9-9, 3.70 ERA, 7 SV), and 24-yr old C Pablo Fernandez (.353, 0 HR, 1 RBI in 17 AB).
December 13 – Career home run leader, 35-yr old RF/LF Raúl Vázquez (.307, 364 HR, 1,335 RBI) returns to the Continental League on a 3-yr, $6.42M contract given out by the Condors.
December 13 – The Titans add veteran southpaw MR Xavier Herrera (34-33, 2.99 ERA, 47 SV) for 3-yr, $2.24M. He was last with the Cyclones.
December 14 – The Buffaloes add a pair of relievers in ex-MIL John Hatt (36-29, 3.44 ERA, 86 SV) and ex-BOS Nick Lee (33-22, 2.72 ERA, 81 SV), who both sign 1-year deals. Hatt will earn $840k, Lee $690k.
December 16 – After a year in Dallas, 34-yr old 1B/2B David Brewer (.330, 80 HR, 842 RBI) lands in Cincinnati on a 2-yr, $3.64M contract.
December 16 – The Rebels land 29-yr old ex-SAC INF Felipe Rivera (.298, 27 HR, 409 RBI), agreeing with him on a 5-yr, $2.08M deal.

I knew he sucked, but I was surprised to see that Max Heart actually cost us *1.8* WAR last season. Not that it made much of a difference. But yeah, he might not have been the right player for us from the go. But we were desperate, and he was unprotected for the rule 5 draft.

The Cavazos trade filled our 40-man roster to the brim, and we have approximately 17 second basemen on there. Palacios is the starter (unless we need to shed more money, and it looks like that…), and I can’t really work out a way to sort the rest of the pack out. We might have a very good utility player in Matthews, who bats right-handed, so our other backup infielder should bat left-handed. In the outfield, we have Roberson, Reece, and Brady, which is right, right, left. The backups figure to be Parker and Flores, an even split. Torrez is too valuable to play fifth fiddle.

Apart from that, the Cavazos trade cost three WAR. Well, we traded a good player and got three fringe botchers. Sounds fair.

Fernandez is promising however. He is very solid in his catching, and he has a knack for power, mashing 32 homers in AA and AAA in 2001. But we have five catchers on the 40-man roster, and that is clearly over the top. We don’t really want to part with Mark Thomas or Julio Mata, but that means that Fifield and Defrese have to go, or at least ONE of them. None of them is out of options yet, but Fifield used his last option this season and will have to be demoted early if he stays around.

It’s a week until Christmas. The Raccoons are still overbudget, by $1,600, and are overcatchered as well. The fan base also winced when Cavazos was traded.