[Westheim]

Off season: October to mid-November

Owner Carlos Valdes raised our budget to $14.375M for the 1991 season. It was just under $14M in 1990.

October 1 – RIC LF/RF Manuel Doval (.363, 28 HR, 110 RBI) and ATL RF Michael Root (.339, 21 HR, 77 RBI) are batting champions for the 1990 season.
October 10 – Raccoons MR Jackie Lagarde was enjoying his off season, until he pulled his hamstring while chasing after girlfriend Loretta at the beach. Note to self: no more vacation for players.
October 21 – Recent market analysis suggests that the Portland market is now ranking “above average” in the nation, being moved up from it’s “average” rating.
October 27 – The Raccoons announced 2-year contract extensions for both David Vinson ($625k) and Juan Martinez ($400k).
November 1 – Gold Gloves are dispersed. The Raccoons take away two for the left side of their infield: SS Jorge Salazar wins his second award (1987, then 2B), while Mark Dawson takes his fifth (1978, 1986-88). Ex-Coon Joe Jackson wins the CL 1B award.
November 2 – Rookies of the Year are PIT LF/RF Jean-Claude Monnier (.292, 14 HR, 84 RBI) and OCT RF Vonne Calzado (.336, 7 HR, 88 RBI).
November 4 – NAS SP Carlos Lopez (22-6, 2.99 ERA) and VAN SP Vernon Robertson (21-4, 2.79 ERA) are Pitchers of the Year.
November 5 – RIC OF Manuel Doval (.363, 28 HR, 110 RBI) and ATL RF Michael Root (.339, 21 HR, 77 RBI) are Most Valuable Players.
November 10 – The Raccoons and OF Bobby Quinn avoid arbitration at the last minute by signing a 3-yr, $700k extension for the 26-year old outfielder.
November 11 – Arbitration hearings: the Raccoons take OF Bob Arnold to arbitration, and the arbitrators rule in favor of the player.
November 14 – Free agents file: the Raccoons lose type A free agents C Leo Smith and SP Antonio Lopez.

First entry in the column with the bad results of the off season wheeling and dealing has to be the contract extension with David Vinson. I wanted to lock him up for five years, his arbitration eligibility and a year of free agency, but he had nothing of it and insisted on a short-term deal.

The Juan Martinez deal is the second entry, because I botched up my proposal that he finally accepted, as I accidentally left the player option in. How does that work if he’s still arbitration eligible? Possibly game-breaking.

Talks with Antonio Lopez turned out to be unproductive. He wants a 5-year deal in the general vicinity of $3.5M. That would be okay if his name was Kisho Saito, but his track record says that he’s a fourth starter, not a frontline ace, and thus he should be paid as a fourth starter. We will thus offer arbitration (as we do to Leo Smith) and will take the draft picks for the two type A free agents. This also means we will seek a trade for a back-end-of-the-rotation starter, and will have a spare outfielder (whomever) and possibly Antonio Gonzalez as trade chips.

One trade possibility that soon sprang up was sending only Gonzalez to the Wolves for Alejandro Venegas, who was with us 1987-88, and was the poster boy for a back-end-of-the-rotation starter. He was arbitration eligible and had made $290k in 1990.

Because of the uncertaintities about the bottom of the rotation we even went and offered a $100k contract to SP Carlos De Los Angeles, a 25-year old minor leaguer who had pitched between AA and AAA last season and otherwise would have become a minor league free agent. De Los Angeles signed on November 12, three days before the filing date for free agents.

While we signed a deal with Bobby Quinn in time, Bob Arnold’s contract offer was not accepted by the player before the hearings (well, we pitched it quite late, too). His estimate was $380k, we offered him a 1-yr, $400k contract, but the arbitrators awarded him $422k. Well, it’s not gonna kill us.

The crop of international free agents this season is extremely poor. There are only three players, all pitchers, two of them scrubs and the third is a right-handed reliever, who come a dime a dozen.

Notable retired players apart from Juan Correa include Alfonso Aranda (2,332 career hits) and Jeremiah Carrell (1,647 career hits and a flock of injuries).

Now begins the hard part of the winter: finding that one key addition. Or two. Maybe three.