[Westheim]

Nibbling on other teams for trades began at the tail end of October. I quickly found out that some players had some sort of value, and others didn’t. F.e. Tom Shumway and his $3.3M a year? No value. Surprisingly, Josh Boles’ season had been bad enough that there were no takers right away, either. Joe Vanatti? Mmmm-aybe. But we couldn’t agree on an exact trade when we negotiated with the Falcons. I wanted 3B Greg Ortiz. He was average defensively, and a patient .280-or-so hitter that drew more walks than he struck out and also hit 18 bombs in ’31, and in just 126 games, after hitting 17 in 159 games the year before.

But the Falcons weren’t doing a 1-for-1. They would do Vanatti and Sabre for Ortiz, but that was sure to trigger my safeword instantly…

No, we had to turn somewhere else.

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November 2 – The Raccoons trade 36-year-old SP Mark Roberts (151-108, 3.18 ERA) to the Stars for 27-year-old 1B Travis Zitzner (.290, 21 HR, 106 RBI).
November 5 – The Indians trade for VAN MR J.D. Hamm (13-22, 4.09 ERA, 46 SV), parting with two prospects to get the 26-year-old right-hander.
November 7 – The Loggers trade 29-year-old 1B/LF/RF Firmino Cambra (.291, 46 HR, 402 RBI) to the Crusaders for MR Chris Myers (2-1, 3.15 ERA, 1 SV) and a pitching prospect.
November 7 – SAL OF/1B/2B Noel Ferrero (.254, 13 HR, 134 RBI) is traded to Nashville for two prospects.

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BAM!! That one move – besides ruining Mark Roberts’ career for good – solved a number of issues, mostly those relating to money! We got rid of one huge contract, created busy buzzing at first base, and had some coin on the side to, I don’t know, sign a catcher? The Stars were willing to do this straight up. They lacked pitching, as usual, and while you have to take Zitzner’s stats with a hefty spoon of salt, given that he played in the Dallas shoebox, I declared the Raccoons winners already. There was no way we’d lose this deal.

Zitzner hit .328 with 12 homers in 76 games for the Stars this year, missing half the season with a torn calf muscle. He was Batter of the Month in May, which wasn’t entirely ****ty for a rule 5 pick, having been taken from the Gold Sox one December ago. He might not be better than Howden, but the two could platoon if we think we want to go that bat**** crazy.

Roberts had the worst season of his career in 2031, but that should not discredit the career accomplishments of a former Pitcher of the Year and Triple Crown winner (2025), especially for a hard worker originally drafted in the 12th round. He led the league four times in strikeouts and strikeouts per nine innings (but only twice in the same season). With the Coons he had gone 105-66 with a 3.22 ERA across eight seasons. He ranked eighth in franchise wins, and fifth in franchise strikeouts with 1,452 – trailing Brownie, Master Kisho, Jonny Toner, and Hector Santos. He trailed only Toner, Brownie, and Santos in franchise ERA for pitchers with 1,000+ innings pitched.

Yes, I was a bit emotional. I wept when I wished him farewell. It was hard signing on the dotted line.

Roberts, however, notably waived his 10/5 rights within a minute of being asked… so there’s that. Everybody wants outta here.

There was a second team bidding for Roberts, but the Buffaloes were only willing to offer a middle infielder in Chris Rager, and he was neither an offensive nor a defensive treat.

Speaking of non-treats, Jarod Howden agreed to a $300k contract for ’32. Jonathan Fleischer signed for $333k as we tried to skim individual dollars off the salary pie here and there. Baldwin we eventually got for $288k.

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2031 ABL AWARDS

Players of the Year: PIT 1B Danny Santillano (.366, 40 HR, 109 RBI) and BOS OF Willie Vega (.293, 16 HR, 76 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: SAL SP Phil Harrington (16-4, 1.64 ERA) and BOS SP Greg Gannon (20-10, 2.52 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: DAL OF Kyle Beard (.335, 8 HR, 57 RBI) and ATL 3B Chris Maneke (.276, 8 HR, 53 RBI)
Relievers of the Year: LAP CL Chun-yeong Chah (8-2, 1.44 ERA, 28 SV) and TIJ CL Ray Andrews (8-4, 1.93 ERA, 24 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P LAP Dave Christiansen – C SFW Mike Thompson – 1B PIT Danny Santillano – 2B WAS Enrique Trevino – 3B NAS Jim Allen – SS WAS Bob Zeltser – LF CIN Kelvin Winborn – CF LAP Justin Fowler – RF LAP Oscar Mendoza
Platinum Sticks (CL): P ATL Justin Osterloh – C OCT Mike Burgess – 1B OCT Danny Cruz – 2B IND Dan Schneller – 3B TIJ Shane Sanks – SS POR Alberto Ramos – LF OCT Tom Dunlap – CF NYC Tony Coca – RF NYC Chris Reardon
Gold Gloves (FL): P PIT Mario Bojorques – C SAC Frank Arguello – 1B SFW Kumanosuke Henderson – 2B NAS Billy Bouldin – 3B TOP Adam Corder – SS TOP Alex Majano – LF TOP Ken Hess – CF SAC Mark Vermillion – RF CIN Ken Gibbs
Gold Gloves (CL): P VAN Steve Corcoran – C VAN Fernando Garcia – 1B ATL Kevin Harenberg – 2B POR Tim Stalker – 3B IND Elias Sosa – SS TIJ Omar Camacho – LF BOS Willie Vega – CF BOS Adrian Reichardt – RF MIL Josh Stephenson

The electorate will never cease to amaze me. Jimmy Wallace won three Rookie of the Month awards, yet he loses the big prize to the Knights’ equivalent of a dry sponge. Amazing. Maud, we have to write a letter to the league office! Fill the printer with the red ink!

No, wait. We can’t afford red ink. – Just give me … - Yeah, give me the telephone. I will yell them my opinion. – What do you mean “it’s a long-distance call”…?