[Westheim]

SP Paul Kirkland, whom I ran after for six weeks, signed with the Condors at the start of February, one year for $336k. May he choke on every single bill. We got something else the next day.

February 3 – The Raccoons sign their former player SP Kelly Fairchild (39-63, 4.52 ERA), who spent the last four seasons in New York, for 1-yr, $275k.
February 3 – 34-yr old SP Seiichi Sugiyama (96-101, 4.51 ERA), who last pitched for the Capitals and lost 18 games each of the last two seasons, joins the Gold Sox for 3-yr, $3.9M.
February 9 – The biggest fish of the winter is finally caught: for $12.85M over five years, ex-WAS LF Victorino Sanchez (.360, 103 HR, 650 RBI) settles on the Thunder.
February 11 – The Crusaders add a veteran in 36-yr old INF Bob Grant (.296, 156 HR, 1,076 RBI), who will make $840k for one season. He last played with the Thunder.
February 15 – The Indians trade 30-yr old INF/LF Phil Montray (.256, 26 HR, 217 RBI) to the Pacifics in exchange for 33-yr old 1B Marty Battle (.273, 123 HR, 514 RBI), a non-prospect, and cash.
February 22 – That cash sure helped the Indians in orchestrating another move, as they sign 33-yr old ex-NAS 1B/2B Filippo Fugosi (.260, 39 HR, 267 RBI) to a 1-yr, $840k deal.
March 1 – The Crusaders trade for the Stars’ 29-yr old 1B Evan Winters (.264, 27 HR, 109 RBI) and give up 28-yr old 2B Todd Moultrie (.261, 7 HR, 87 RBI).

Victorino Sanchez is some mean beast. He is only 27 years old, but he already has 1,687 hits! Daniel Hall and Neil Reece needed a lifetime for that!! If the baseball gods grant him health, he might not stop in the 3,000 hits club. And because of him there's still movement in the free agent market. Quite a few teams were after him in the end, once he gave up on that hilarious $30M deal he desired. We could see some bigger trades be made even in March.

Fairchild had two good and one decent season in New York, but led the league in losses in 2003. But he’s better than on the late 90s Coons, when he routinely ran ERA’s in the region of five and up. He’s just here for the back end of the rotation, and it’s not like we have ambitions (or ability) anyway.

At the end of February, all of these players are free agents looking to make another dime: Neil Reece, Vern Kinnear, Royce Green, Ben O’Morrissey, and David Brewer. Oh, what could have been! Vinson and Salazar are retired, by the way.