[Westheim]

We continued to look – rather desperately – for improvements, be it on the farm or on the proper roster. Trade enough contracts away, and you can start filling holes, that’s the theory.

We eventually found a taker for one of our five seven-figure contracts. Well, for one of the four that are available. Brownie won’t go anywhere. Not as long as I live. (I don’t take very good care of myself, though)

The player traded was Al Martin, who had suitors, and we found a rather obvious place for him. I commented before how the Titans had a stacked lineup which had a very prominent hole at a traditional power position, with 1B Toby Frazier regularly batting eighth for them. The Titans were a perfect fit for Martin (who knows, maybe he’s the next ex-Coon to win a ring), and they were very keen to listen. They wanted to dump stuff on us, but I was after cherries, and we eventually got a deal done, and Al Martin was a Coon no more by the 10th of January.

That opened up some money to go hunting, actually. The most obvious position to upgrade was that of the catcher, where Bob Wood had honestly tried, but not excelled at any point. Whitebread didn’t like him and produced graphs showing why he didn’t like him daily, and he outright hated Curt Cooks, the only other catcher we had on the expanded roster. In AAA, we had Don Sharp. Don who? No relation to Daniel Sharp. Or Stu Sharp. We have lots of Sharp players, but no so many sharp players, it seems. Upgrading the catching position shouldn’t be so hard!

I put Whitebread on that. Compile a list of catchers, able defensively, not too old, and no more than $1M owed for no more than two more years. Vince used to take three days to bring me a report, Whitebread did it before I was done with my coffee. What is wrong with that kid!? Now I had to go back to work!!

Besides the Falcons’ playoff hero Eduardo Durango, who was probably not available, the list contained a few curious choices. F.e. there was Craig Bowen on the list, the Indians’ backup catcher, who was a career .197 catcher. Yet, he almost topped the list. Yes, he had extra base power, with 15 doubles and homers each in under 500 AB, but he is a .197 batter! Whitebread argued a lot with Bowen’s BABIP, and how he was hitting the ball to all fields. Yeah, well, he might do that, but those balls are still getting caught. In all fields.

The list also contained the Elks’ Fernando Diéguez, the Miners’ Bartholomeu Pino, and a few others, as well as free agent Luis Paredes, who had been first the backup, then the primary catcher for the Aces, but had fallen out of favor and had spent all of 2005 in the minors.

Somehow, there was no real impact player on the list. And this is really the best we can get?

On other fronts, we had made an offer to SP Paul Kirkland, who kept coming back wanting more money. We went from $250k all the way to $320k, and then he still claimed the Condors offered more, and I just let it be.

We are now after an ex-Coon, which can mean anything between Dennis Fried and Juan Diaz.

January 9 – The Condors trade 28-yr old INF Bradley Heathershaw (.253, 23 HR, 91 RBI) to the Thunder in exchange for 19-yr old #21 prospect OF Jamie Libby.
January 10 – The Raccoons trade 28-yr old 1B Albert Martin (.284, 142 HR, 518 RBI) and 20-yr old AA MR Glen Barnes to the Titans, receiving a bundle of prospects in return which includes 25-yr old RF/LF Jose Carlos Crespo (.333, 0 HR, 2 RBI in 6 AB), 20-yr old AA 1B/3B Ricardo Martinez, and 22-yr old AA SP Cássio Boda.
January 13 – The Miners send 33-yr old 1B Roberto Vargas (.265, 55 HR, 379 RBI) to the Capitals, receiving four prospects in return, including #74 A 1B Lee Gibney and #77 AA CL Barry MacDonald.
January 15 – The Raccoons acquire 25-yr old C Craig Bowen (.197, 15 HR, 64 RBI) from the Indians, leaving them with 21-yr old AA RF/LF Roberto Pacheco.
January 22 – 32-yr old ex-SFW SP Randy Farley (98-88, 3.83 ERA) signs a big 5-yr, $13.8M contract with the Capitals.

When Al Martin was traded, fan interest crashed. We got angry letters, and even angrier emails. We were called names. Fans just don’t know what’s good for them.

In the package from the Titans, Martinez is the best prize. We might well use Crespo as backup in the upcoming season, since we currently have only four outfielders on our roster (Brady, Fernandez, Mays, Greenman), and AAA is dry and contains the Tylers and Rodriguezes nobody manages to love, or loves to manage. But Martinez is the main prize. His defense is … underdeveloped, but the bat is sound. He split 2005 evenly between A and AA, and while he hit .287 in A and .247 in AA, he actually slugged as much in either circus, just over .450. He is also speedy. Boda could develop into something, but could also well not.

The true mystery is why the Titans asked for another player in addition to Martin for those three, and included Barnes on the list, our 2003 last-rounder. Well, I’m glad I can do something else with them than just release them.

Of course, after that deal, we actually had money in the bank, exchanging Martin’s million for a minimum deal (Crespo) in the books. At the time of the trade, we had $1.8M preliminarily available (excluding minimum contracts off the major league roster, and we have a few…), of which $280k were offered to a player. With a million or a bit more in hand, you could start to offer contracts!

Also, at this point I decided against trying hard to move either Brady or Greenman. Brady can also be traded in July, right before he turns a .290/.380/.430 season into something ugly. Greenman and Mays might actually platoon in right, with the benefit that the player we want to see in action (Mays) bringing the left-handed bat. The only issue with an outfield consisting of Brady, Greenman, Fernandez, Mays, and Crespo is that the centerfield position is thinly covered. Sure, you can plunk any of the guys in there, but none would excel, probably.*

You will note that we flipped one of the guys we received in the Warriors trade involving Eddie Torrez to the Indians now. They didn’t want the other one (Cesar Pena).

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* In terms of ratings, Greenman, Mays, and Brady all have CF ratings, but between them the best is a 6 (of 20). However, while Crespo has no CF rating, his outfield abilities are BETTER than those of the other three, and second only to Fernandez’. So, he has never played there, and boy do you hate having the kid learn it under live fire.