[Westheim]

Opening Day was roughly a month away, and the last thing we were after was Eddie - … what was his name again? There was nothing else to do except for putting a sandwich on the table and brushing teeth, day in and day out. One could say if you stopped with the sandwiches, you could stop brushing the teeth. I need to think about that.

The Jackson negotiations took forever, and every eight days or so he came back to tell me that someone had put more butter on the bread, and we were talking about $15k increments here. After the fourth time, on March 26, a week before the season, I bluntly told him to either sign or **** off. The last offer was $610k with an extra $100k for reaching 200 PA (not impossible given Cookie’s injury track record). Oh well, so be it. So be it, we have only left-handed outfielders. **** it, so be it.

Some of the money I had earlier taken from the player development fund was put back in, while the scouting budget remained at the reduced rate. To be honest, I don’t think Gabriel Martinez is much of a scout and he’s purely here to watch my steps. And not as a bodyguard.

Curtis Tobitt suffered a setback in his recovery from Tommy John and the Crusaders announced late in the month that he wouldn’t be available until perhaps late June, early July. They had hoped to have him back by May.

Daniel Dickerson had added half a run to his already abysmal 2015 ERA (6.29 then) with the Condors over 24.2 innings in ’16, but still found some team dumb enough to pay him $316k for ’17. That’s sad. The Scorpions are the dumbos (although by the end of March he was on waivers). Roberto Pacheco signed for $236k with the Elks. He was never a major leaguer for the Coons, but he was the trade piece for Craig Bowen to come to Portland, the first time around. Pat Slayton got $234k from the Gold Sox.