[Westheim]

It wasn’t going to be a great free agent class this fall, which was unfortunate given that the Raccoons had a number of millions to blow. One option was to go out and sign f.e. Bernie Chavez to a flat rather than an escalating contract. The other was… well, there was ONE free agent-to-be that really tickled my fancy. Former FL Rookie of the Year, 6-time All Star, three rings (could have been four if they hadn’t run into the Coons a while back), former home run king, had some injuries in 2034. Played a premium defensive position, but what’s wrong with filling those with 30-somethings, and by the way Berto’s gonna be 29 in December, too.

Getting that guy was high on my agenda. Budget-wise it would work out, but half the league was gonna be after him, too. The good thing was that Steve from Accounting reported that we had a mind-boggling $8M of budget space, which was unheard of for the Critters. So out I’d go and blow it all on a 32-year-old centerfielder! A 32-year-old centerfielder that was dumb like a brick, but a brick with 214 career homers.

Crucially that guy was a righty batter, which would influence our roster construction going forward. Wallace and Manny probably wouldn’t go anywhere, and Salgado probably should play a bigger role. That was two lefty and two righty batters, assuming we’d get the guy from Texas that was the new sparkle in my eye. So the last spot could really be filled by anybody, including Billy Jennings, who got some traction among the fanbase recently and who was also recommended by Cristiano when he stopped being on this new social media thing Gobble for five seconds, put his smart glasses on and read from something on his wafer-thin high-power laptop.

I would also like to get a switch-hitter that wasn’t Philip Scheffer, since Scheffer was not likely to make the roster, or get an offer given his $441k estimate when we expected Tony Morales to appear in the door at some point in ’35. Until then we’d peace things together with Kurt Wall and Elliott Thompson, which was at least a neat platoon split.

Upcoming free agents that were switch-hitters were however few and far between to begin with and then consistently poor. The best was probably Jeremiah Brooks of the Buffos, but that was another catcher… Jose Pulido was up on his Crusaders contract; he had batted .217 last year and had spent most of this season in AAA Lexington, batting 3-for-31 when brought up. So that was probably also a pass. The only non-catcher, non-awful, non-ancient switch-hitter to appear on the market was Nate Hall, part of the ’32 Coons, and he had been on the far end of the bench for the 81-81 Wolves this year, batting for a .639 OPS. So that idea was ultimately scrapped.

In late October we signed the first few deals with arbitration candidates. Travis Zitzner got $915k for nothing, and Hugo Salgado signed a deal for $445k. David Fernandez inked a slightly escalating 4-yr, $1.98M deal starting at $330k in ’35 and adding $110k every year. John Hennessy had also been supposed to sign a 4-year deal, but refused; he considered himself a starting pitcher now and was worth at least three times as much for that reason alone.

So there’s the first crack in the heretofore solid-but-not-overwhelming pen…

The next drop was Jennings, who asked for 4-yr, $5.2M – not exactly what I had in mind for a guy probably going to sit on the far end of the bench. That was unless another lefty batter was to drop somehow… but I offered Jimmy Wallace to some teams in late October and the reception was lukewarm at best. Other teams were smarter than to play a guy as agile as a frozen corpse in the outfield…

More news came on the final day of the month. Gobble was running hot with speculation that the Raccoons would announce an extension to Tim Stalker, or so I heard from Cristiano, Maud, and even Slappy. I didn’t have a Gobble account. I didn’t even have a phone, except for the landline rotary phone on my desk. Anyway, we then screwed with people, announcing a $340k extension with Nick Bates at a press conference before adding, oh, by the way, Tim Stalker resigned with the Coons for 2-yr, $2.2M.

The next day Bernie came back with his contract, having left a paw-shaped mark on the dotted line – Bernie was now ours for seven years and $14M, in what could turn out a major bargain OR the newest millstone around our little furry necks! The final year was a $300k team option but other than that the contract was flat. Sabre and del Rio signed 1-year deals worth $690k and $600k, respectively, two days later.

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October 26 – The Condors trade 31-year-old 2B/3B/CF/RF Chris Miller (.297, 21 HR, 481 RBI) to the Thunder, along with a prospect, for 32-year-old Firmino Cambra (.288, 60 HR, 505 RBI), the 2026 FL batting champ that hadn’t produced even two points of WAR since his ’28 season with the Loggers.

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A few issues remain with the arbitration candidates; so far Jimmy Wallace and the catcher pair of Scheffer and Wall is still lined up for arbitration. We should come to terms with Wallace, but Wall demands a 6-year deal and that’s just not in our plans. Hennessy might also go to arbitration, and apart from that only Chris Wise and Victor Anaya are left over. Only one of them figures in our plans going forwards.

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2034 ABL AWARDS

Players of the Year: CIN LF/RF/1B Dick Oshiita (.351, 26 HR, 112 RBI) and CHA C Ernesto Huichapa (.328, 39 HR, 123 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: SAL SP Phil Harrington (12-6, 1.99 ERA) and BOS SP Rich Willett (18-11, 3.04 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: CIN 1B Chris Delagrange (.285, 24 HR, 92 RBI) and NYC OF Ronnie Veraart (.273, 16 HR, 46 RBI)
Relievers of the Year: SAL CL Miguel Salazar (5-4, 1.78 ERA, 44 SV) and TIJ CL Ray Andrews (5-7, 1.84 ERA, 35 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P LAP Dave Christiansen, C WAS Nate Evans, 1B PIT Danny Santillano, 2B SFW Mario Colon, 3B NAS Chance Bossert, SS SFW Jesus Matos, LF CIN Dick Oshiita, CF SAC Mark Vermillion, RF SAL Keith Damron
Platinum Sticks (CL): P ATL Roland Warner, C CHA Ernesto Huichapa, 1B OCT Danny Cruz, 2B SFB Jose Cruz, 3B TIJ Shane Sanks, SS SFB Alex Castillo, LF OCT Luis Sagredo, CF TIJ Chris Murphy, RF TIJ Willie Ojeda
Gold Gloves (FL): P CIN Josh Weeks, C DAL Elias Tovias, 1B DEN Komanosuke Henderson, 2B CIN Elijah Williams, 3B CIN Kyle Lusk, SS SAL Jose Castro, LF SAC Chris Sandstrom, CF SAC Mark Vermillion, RF WAS Noel Ferrero
Gold Gloves (CL): P ATL Roland Warner, C CHA Ernesto Huichapa, 1B LVA Sean Gustafson, 2B BOS Rhett West, 3B ATL Chris Maneke, SS SFB Alex Castillo, LF BOS Willie Vega, CF VAN Gabe Creech, RF BOS Mark Walker

Oh god, we got fewer trophies than the stinkin’ Elks …!