[Westheim]

Our very own crossbreed between Uncle Scrooge and Cthulhu was not amused after the 2010 season. Not only that the Raccoons hadn’t grasped the opportunity and had lost the World Series, no, Carlosito was still substantially unhappy over the loss of Luke Black (.245, 11 HR, 53 RBI in 2010), and that we weren’t stealing bases (ranked 9th in the CL), which clearly had been the way of winning games since times immemorial.

The very generous spender that he was, he granted the Raccoons a budget raise from $22.8M to $24.2M, albeit highly reluctantly.

You can say what you want, but at last the Raccoons will thus be average in money available, sitting t-12th with the Capitals at $24.2M and thus right at the median. The average budget will be $24.55M. The biggest discrepancies continue to be seen in the CL North, with the Crusaders able to blow $35.5M, the Titans just behind that at $31.5M (3rd overall), the Canadiens and Indians at the end of the top 10, and the Loggers dead last – DEAD last – with $15.4M. The Top 5 were completed by the 2nd place Cyclones ($35M), 4th Thunder ($29.6M), and 5th Miners ($29M). The Condors head the bottom 5 with a $20M budget, with the Rebels, Wolves, and Aces all between $18M and $19M. And well, then the Loggers.

…

The raise in money is of course bound to signing Ron Alston to an extension. Well, yeah. That’s not going to work out.

Ron Alston was an absolute steal for $1.94M a year so far. He might easily rake double that on the market now, despite coming off his worst season in ten years. Despite the additional $1.4M in terms of budget, the Raccoons weren’t going to be big spenders on the free agent market, because we already had a good chunk of seven-digit earners.

For 2011, we already had five and a half of those on the roster. Huh? Yes. We have the following 7-figure deals on the books for 2011 and beyond:

Nick Brown - $2.2M (thru 2014)
Craig Bowen - $1.9M (thru 2015)
Jon Merritt - $1.25M (thru 2014)
Angel Casas - $1.25M (rising to $1.45M thru 2013)
Tomas Castro - $1M (rising to $1.2M thru 2012)

Add to that Jong-hoo Umberger, who will be arbitration available for the first time and has a $1.5M estimate. Plus Adrian Quebell’s $920k arbitration estimate, and Yoshi Nomura’s $550k, and well, there are very few guaranteed contracts after that, but almost $12M of the budget was already bundled up for 11 players.

Which brings us nicely to the salary arbitration and free agency round of 2010. Below are first our arbitration eligible players with service time, 2010 production, 2010 salary, and 2011 estimate, and then our free agents.

SP Colin Baldwin – 3.029 – (8-7, 3.83 ERA) - minimum - $360k
SP Jong-hoo Umberger – 3.000 – (18-8, 3.28 ERA) - $1M - $1.5M
SP Kenichi Watanabe – 3.117 – (3-6, 4.93 ERA) - $250k - $280k
1B Adrian Quebell – 5.027 – (.325, 14 HR, 82 RBI) - $680k - $920k
INF Manuel Gutierrez – 4.004 – (.225, 0 HR, 8 RBI) - $230k - $260k
SS Rob Howell – 4.090 – (.237, 2 HR, 26 RBI) - $360k - $400k
LF/1B Matt Pruitt – 3.167 – (.317, 10 HR, 75 RBI) - $333k - $410k
CF Santiago Trevino – 4.002 – (.225, 2 HR, 18 RBI) - $230k - $260k
RF/LF Keith Ayers – 3.028 – (.255, 9 HR, 42 RBI) - minimum - $230k

LF/RF Ron Alston – (.286, 22 HR, 85 RBI) - $1.94M - type A free agent
SP Javier Cruz – (15-10, 3.38 ERA) - $1M - type B free agent
MR Ray Kelley – (4-7, 2.99 ERA) - $390k - type B free agent
SS Conceicao Guerin – (.240, 1 HR, 10 RBI) - $264k - no compensation

…

Well, for starters, we’re short on starting pitching. We have Brownie, Baldwin, and Umberger – who should really be signed to a team-friendly 4-year deal at age 32 – aboard, plus we seemingly still have control over Watanabe, to everybody’s thrill, but beyond that it gets rather thin. We know what to think of Watanabe, we know that the big hope Hector Santos will miss most, if not all, of 2011 after Tommy John surgery, and we damn sure know that Brendan Teasdale is no help dead or alive. Which brings us back to the plan from 12 months ago when we tried to get another year from Javier Cruz at a reduced rate, only to pay a $300k increase from his $700k salary. His despicable performance in the postseason aside, we really needed a warm body to eat up innings at the back of the rotation, and right now that still leaves the fifth spot wide open.

Well, there are a few good news about the 2011 roster, too. The bullpen looks good enough, even though I would like to keep Ray Kelley around. Having Ted Reese as the second-most senior right-hander (excluding Angel Casas here) was not entirely happy-making. But Kelley might cost half a million, AND he’s compensation eligible, all of which is working against continued employment. Plus, Pat Slayton will be back. It should be possible to find a serviceable seventh inning right-hander at less than Kelley’s 2010 salary.

Four positions around the infield are set with Bowen behind the dish, plus Quebell, Nomura, and Merritt. At shortstop however, we have a bit of a jigsaw puzzle on our hands, with some of the pieces duplicated, but all the corners missing. Between Walt Canning, Rob Howell, and Concie Guerin’s second tour of duty in Portland, we harvested substantially below-league-average production at the position. An upgrade might be financially prohibitive, though, since we have a gaping hole in rightfield.

Ron Alston can’t be resigned, since he’s asking for $4M and up, and the Raccoons at best have $2.6M to play with (and that is before Javier Cruz would be extended). We have Pruitt in left, and Castro in center (whenever he feels like he’s well enough to play), and Pat White is still around as a backup. There’s Keith Ayers with his mixed success (like being out at home, which I’m still not over), and Trevino, who really shouldn’t be on any major league roster.

There are two possible solutions to the rightfield issue. We either find a left-handed batter with so-so credentials to platoon Ayers with, or we blow some money on a free agent. Like I said Ricardo Garcia of the Aces and also Jose Morales of the Knights are free agents this season.

Yet, there are caveats here. First, Ayers’ .736 OPS in 2010 was primarily achieved against left-handed pitching in the first place, so it’s not like he’s gonna get much better. Second, it’s not like Garcia and Morales aren’t going to look for the same money that Alston is asking for. They are also both free agents, and while Garcia is raking it, he also runs up 150 strikeouts routinely each year, and Jose Morales is phenomenally gifted as a batter, putting up OPS values of 1.000 or better in each of the last four years, but he also only played in 123 games on average in those four years, being the same fragile crystal bowl that Castro is.