[Westheim]

There was not a whole lot going on in the last three months leading up to the season. There was no way to improve the Raccoons in any major way anymore. Well, maybe an upgrade over Daniel Dickerson was possible, but Dickerson wasn’t going to go anywhere with his track record and contract.

Well, there was one exception. The trade of Ron Sakellaris meant that there was an opening in the pen for a 7th/8th inning role for a right-handed pitcher. More of the seventh inning, really, since Zack Entwistle was about all I wanted from a setup reliever.

So all those years we had no money, and now we have money and couldn’t find anybody. It’s a strange situation. We have a lot of players who make the minimum and occupy significant roles, f.e. two guys in the starting lineup, and, oh, the reigning ERA champ.

So much money will go into the player development, although there isn’t much worth noting to develop. The last two years we have traded a lot of semi-meaningful prospects, and the drafts have been poor for a long time. On the other hand, we can go nuts in the international free agent signing period in July again. We blew $500k on SP Danny “Nails” Arguello in 2013, which meant that we couldn’t do much in 2014, and Arguello will start the season in Aumsville as an 18-year old.

I don’t even quite know what I am complaining about. Looks like it will be a strange season. On the other side of it, we will have nine free agents: Dickerson, Murphy, Bednarski, Conway, Reya, Richards, Bruno, Casas, Entwistle are up for free agency. They make a total of about $11.4M this year. The only proper contracts remaining for 2016 and beyond are with Brownie, D-Alex, Santos, Sandy, and Thrasher. The team might look very different next season.

+++

January 8 – One day after his 41st birthday, ex-WAS SP Randy Farley (211-176, 4.03 ERA) signs a 2-yr, $3.88M contract with the Bayhawks.
January 8 – Meanwhile, the Bayhawks’ former SP Reynaldo Rendon (72-66, 3.77 ERA) signs with the Stars. The 30-year old right-hander gets $14.28 over five years.
January 9 – Ex-MIL CL Jose Ramos (39-29, 3.91 ERA, 62 SV) inks a 3-yr, $4.2M contract with the Scorpions.
January 23 – Ex-POR/DEN OF/3B Joe Cowan (.245, 53 HR, 389 RBI) and the Miners come to terms at 2-yr, $1.7M for the 32-year old left-handed batter.
January 31 – The Raccoons re-sign 39-yr old former Warrior MR Marcos Bruno (57-54, 2.95 ERA, 94 SV) on a 1-yr, $650k contract.
January 31 – The Titans sign former Cyclone RF Jose Silva (.294, 89 HR, 587 RBI) to a 5-yr, $7.3M contract. Rumor has it that the 32-year old Silva is already ailing so hard that he can only get through the season on persistent painkiller prescriptions.
February 3 – The Crusaders continue to throw money at every player they care to get, signing 31-yr old ex-SFW SP Fernando Cruz (88-108, 4.06 ERA). The left-hander receives $23.33M over seven years.
February 3 – Veteran 1B/2B Oliver Torres (.307, 38 HR, 721 RBI) inks a 2-yr, $2.48M deal with the Cyclones. Torres, 37, was with the Thunder the last few years.
February 7 – 30-yr old ex-DEN/POR SS/1B Rob Howell (.274, 15 HR, 275 RBI) inks a 1-yr, $486k contract with the Warriors.
February 27 – The Bayhawks sign ex-NYC CL Micah Steele (40-40, 2.76 ERA, 193 SV) to a 1-yr, $740k contract.

+++

Bruno will be 39 at the end of January. It looks questionable from the outside, I agree. But he was not only the best option available, he is also a perfect option for the Raccoons.

Bruno pitched for the Raccoons from 2001 through 2009, with the 2005-2009 years seeing him utmost dominate batters, with a worst ERA of 2.36 in that period. He struck out 10+ per nine every year, up to 12.6, walked few and was hardly ever taken deep. As soon as he left Coon City in 2010, things went south. He had a 4.01 ERA in ’10 with Indy, then two 3-something campaigns in Indy and Washington, before running up a 4.87 ERA with the ’13 Capitals. He missed some time last year, but produced a 1.98 ERA with the Warriors while dropping under 10 K/9 for the first time since 2003.

His velocity is markedly down from his hey-days, when he could touch 100 mph. He throws more around 93 now. But the slider is still as venomous as ever and he has sink that generates grounders galore. The reason he struggled in Indy and Washington were high BABIP’s, with a .320+ BABIP in all but one of the four years. The worst BABIP he had in Portland was .310 in his rookie season, when he ran a 4.46 ERA (also walking 6.6 per nine), and the 2010-11 Indians and 2012-13 Capitals were among the worst defensive teams in their leagues in the seasons in question. And the Raccoons just hauled in a shortstop that will happily gobble up Marcos’ grounders.

There was some quabble over the uniform number to be assigned to Bruno. He wanted #37 back, which had since been used by Bill Conway, and not only did I have to contend with these two in my office, but also Maud, who took Bruno’s side for financial reasons (the eleven Conway fans would certainly buy a new shirt with the new number!), and Slappy who was highly averse to any kind of labor and refused to iron another number onto Conway’s uniforms. Chad sat on the couch with the mascot head and nodded constantly, agreeing with everybody. In the end, Conway kept the number, because I can’t afford to alienate Slappy, who knows all the liquor stashes around the premises.

Marcos Bruno is SO OLD, he’s one of the view remaining players whose birth predates the ABL.

+++

Jon Merritt’s career is in fact NOT over! He signed a $306k contract with the Rebels in early March. Should have offered him arbitration, I guess. But the chances were for him to take us to arbitration, and we just have no room for him on the roster.

What else? Ex-Coons that signed minor contracts included Freddy Rosa ($266k with the Knights), Michael Palmer ($234k with the Stars), Raul Hernandez ($226k with the Elks), Kenichi Watanabe ($438k with the Warriors), Logan Taylor ($250k also with the Warriors), Mark Thomas ($258k with the Cyclones)