[Westheim]

There was one pickle the Raccoons had to sort out as the offseason truly began. They had still four players on the 60-day DL (Brownie, Dickerson, Angel, Castro), and they all needed to be crammed onto the 40-man roster now … somehow.

Well, not all of them needed to. There was no need for Castro to get onto the 40-man, since he was not going to be tendered anyway. He was instead waived and designated for assignment. One spot was open on the 40-man, which went to Brownie, but we still had to shove in Casas and Dickerson. One might be tempted to say that Angel Casas very much didn’t need a spot on the 40-man roster, but I had rung up his agent (he hadn’t been in Portland for a few months, instead rehabbing in St. Petersburg) and between us three there were a lot of people who shared the same view over a few things, and let’s just say that Angel Casas did need a spot on the 40-man roster. So did Dickerson.

One spot was cleared by exposing outfielder Jimmy Fucito to waivers. He had struggled for three months in AAA, then had been demoted to Ham Lake as a 25-year old and had batted .216 there for the rest of the season. Maybe this was all for the better, Jimmy, and now you can see that you should have taken that community college course on basic accounting, just like your dear mother had begged you to do.

For the last spot I tried to spare someone the indignity of getting released in October (not even the fate I had in mind for Keith Ayers), instead exposing them to waivers, but for that to work in late October they also needed options, because they weren’t going to make it to mid-November in ten days. In the end it was Hoshi Watanabe who was waived and DFA’ed, because he technically had options, and if he would invoke his 10/5 rights (which would make no sense for a pitcher that was not expected to make it to Opening Day) we could still release him.

While I did account for player’s stupidity, I didn’t account for other GM’s. Two days after putting Watanabe on waivers, both the Falcons and Indians, seemingly both in dire need of a broken almost-40-year-old, put in claims for Hoshi. The Indians were eventually awarded the rights to him on October 25, which technically still left enough time to extend a pitcher who might miss a good chunk of 2014 and was ALMOST FORTY YEARS OLD.

Meanwhile I spent the last week of October merrily negotiating 1-year deals with most of the arbitration-eligible players that we longed to retain, with a few exceptions. One of those was Dylan Alexander, who had just batted .301 with 20 homers, one of only two Raccoons to hit .300+ with at least 20 dingers in the last ten years (Ron Alston, 2009; before that, Al Martin, 2003).

I mentioned before that D-Alex was already 28 years old and arbitration eligible for the first time now. Since he wouldn’t reach free agency until his 30s, he badly longed for a long-term deal, very long-term in fact. His offer was for an 8-year deal worth $14.3M, and he was that desperate that he actually granted the last two years to be team options. The contract would increase steeply during his arbitration years from $660k in 2014 to $1.54M in 2016 before reaching and remaining at $2.2M annually from 2017 to 2021.

You gotta leave it to him, he knows what’s best for him, but the Raccoons just couldn’t commit to that. For his career, his catching has been decent, but not overwhelming. His batting is the main problem, however. While he undeniably has power, I fear that that .301 average was a massive upwards fluke, and he will never be able to reproduce that (also, he was almost 100 PA short ‘qualifying’). Calderón agrees with me, and expects him to hit more in the .240 region and slugging .400, not .533. This was a very dangerous playground. He was more similar to Craig Bowen than you might think at first glance, and we had just sunk north of $6M for overall barely above replacement level batting from him since reacquiring him from the Blue Sox in that cavalcade of catastrophical contracts before the 2010 season. Thankfully the Stars were now responsible for the last two years of his deal after taking him in the Graham Wasserman trade.

No, I did feel weak in the stomach at the thought of spending $14.3M ($10.5M guaranteed) on Alexander. He would have to cheapen up significantly to get a long-term deal.

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October 25 – The Indians claim 39-year old MR Hoshi Watanabe (44-31, 3.81 ERA, 41 SV) off waivers by the Raccoons.
October 26 – The Raccoons announce a 1-yr, $1M contract extension with CL Angel Casas (17-19, 1.65 ERA, 368 SV).

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Rebuilding value is the key word for Angel Casas. He spun only five innings in 2013, and he will have to come back from major elbow surgery. He’s also on the wrong side of 30, so that’s a lot of factors hinting at his inability to haul in a huge long-term deal at this point. By agreeing to a 1-year deal at a 30% pay cut with the Raccoons, he takes the secure road and can re-enter the market 12 months from now, hopefully with another sub-2 ERA campaign and the most saves in the CL (well, that might be hard for other reasons) under his belt. The Raccoons also win in three ways with this deal, signing a proven closer at a favorable rate, retaining a fan favorite (Coon City was ecstatic when the message board things lit up with the news on those internets), and getting the chance on receiving free agent compensation for him next season.

By the end of the month, most of the remaining pitchers on the arbitraton list (at least those that had received offers so far) had signed new contracts for 2014. Sergio Vega and Josh Gibson both signed for $250k. Tom Constantino signed for $255k. Hector Santos signed for $468k. Ron Thrasher was an outlier, since he agreed to a 4-year deal at a modest rate for somebody striking out 13 per nine innings (never mind the flaws), agreeing to $1.6M, slightly increasing over the length of the contract.

Also, D-Alex. Negotiations were hard and were close to being broken off by one party or the other at times, but in the end we agreed on a 5-year extension, the final year a team option. The contract starts at $800k and will rise to $1.8M in the last year. $5.55M are guaranteed, if the option is picked up it will be worth $6.75M, and there are incentives in the deal that could bring the total value to almost $8M.

There is still a faint chance for the Raccoons to at least play in the same ballpark as the Crusaders next season. Everybody will be healthier (it can’t POSSIBLY get worse than ’13!), and by keeping their closer around they are one affordable setup guy away from shoring up that wonky bullpen. The rotation will be better with Brownie and Dickerson (most likely by May for the latter) around, and now the Raccoons just have to fix their offense, which was already bad (9th in runs scored in the CL) and will get infinitely worse with the departure of the King of Yoshis.

There’s a gaping hole at second base, without a doubt. There will be a 38-year old man at third base. I don’t know what the heck to do with Walt Canning other than plug him at short and hope for wonders. D-Alex could pull a Bowen in ’14, and I have lamented the inadequacies of Adrian Quebell and Mike Bednarski (a raging disappointment if there ever was one) endlessly for the last six months, or in Quebell’s case, six years.

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Jong-hoo Umberger retired at the end of the season, not the energetic South Korean strike thrower the Raccoons signed from overseas six years earlier. He had fattened up, he had elbow troubles, and after signing that dirt cheap 2-year contract with the Crusaders prior to the 2012 season, he managed to get into ONE game with them over those two years, spending the rest of his time with AAA Lexington. He retires with a 58-32 record and a 3.09 ERA in 127 appearances, all but one with the Raccoons, and all but one starts.

Also retired, outfielder Bakile Hiwalani. The second-to-last of the golden Loggers crew around 2000 to still remain nominally in the sport (Bartolo Hernandez is the last holdout now), Hiwalani last appeared for the 2012 Cycloens. Of course, most of his career was spent with the Loggers. He won a Gold Glove and was an All Star four times, but that doesn’t really tell much about his true qualities as a hitter, leading the Continental League in slugging three times, in RBI six times, and in home runs and doubles once (both in 2006). He had a .271/.358/.459 career with 312 HR (10th all time) and 1,592 RBI (career leader!), amassing 2,464 hits and 158 stolen bases.

Also retiring are a few more notables, including Mark Austin, and also Chris Parker, the first and probably most futile to retire among the three prospects the Raccoons hauled in when giving up and trading David Brewer to the Condors in 1997. Still, Parker managed to have a long career, but managed only meager 1,157 hits. Clyde Brady, the second position player in the deal, made it to 1,435 and currently has no team. Randy Farley has another year on his contract with the Capitals and sits one W away from 200.