[Westheim]

The first day of the Winter Meetings quickly degenerated into a poker game during which I managed to lose my lunch money for all five days and had to call Steve from Accounting in Portland to wire me another $25, but at least I fared less badly than Falcons GM Daniel Ayala, who lost the naming rights of the Charlotte ballpark to Nashville’s GM Edwin Rodriguez.

Things got a bit more serious after that. For example, the Indians insisted that all the Raccoons needed to make the playoffs in 2021 was 1B Mike Rucker. 33 years old and having batted .248 with 20 homers and a .761 OPS in 2020, Rucker was an injury wreck, responsibility for which had been shuffled to another team mid-season three out of the last four years. We remember him of course as the first baseman for the Loggers from 2013 until 2017, and back then his body was actually still sound. He led the Continental League in OPS in 2017 and drove in 127 runs that year, but since then it has been a steady downhill tumble for him. I don’t think I want to play him over Zach Graves (because Mendoza would shift out to right if we were to play Rucker), and I also don’t think I want to send five prospects the Indians’ way for the honor to put Rucker on the DL in early April. These prospects included Daniel Bullock, who continues to be a primary target for other GM’s.

So Zach Graves dodged that bullet, but he wouldn’t dodge the next one. On the final day of the meetings, I managed to talk the Aces into a mind-boggling deal that tore a hole into our rotation, but added a killer’s bat to the lineup. Matt Hamilton had completed four years in the majors now and had been awarded $1.52M in arbitration. The Aces weren’t really sure how happy they were with him, despite him hitting 25 or more dingers each of the last three seasons. The 2017 CL Rookie of the Year had 97 home runs to his career at age 27, but had also led the league in strikeouts in ’18. I looked at Hamilton’s scouting report, and I looked at Graves’ scouting report. There was not even a question about what to do, and the price wasn’t as steep as one might expect…

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December 9 – The Cyclones sign ex-SFW RF/2B Stephen St. George (.273, 50 HR, 369 RBI) to a 2-yr, $2.34M contract.
December 9 – The Titans trade 26-yr old LF/RF/1B Jose Avila (.275, 16 HR, 129 RBI) to the Stars for 34-year old MR Alex Ramirez (48-33, 3.35 ERA, 132 SV), promising unranked prospect OF/1B Adam St. Germaine, and cash.
December 10 – The Falcons sign ex-NYC SP Brian Benjamin (85-108, 4.36 ERA). The 31-year old right-hander will make $9.34M over four years.
December 10 – Ex-BOS SP Ozzie Pereira (104-93, 3.95 ERA) is a Scorpion now after inking a 3-yr, $5.46M contract.
December 10 – After splitting 2020 between the Gold Sox and the Blue Sox, 34-year old right-hander SP A.J. Bartels (124-134, 4.40 ERA) will be a Cyclone in 2021 after signing a 2-yr, $2.64M deal.
December 10 – The Knights sign 33-yr old ex-POR MR Chris Mathis (29-14, 2.57 ERA, 32 SV) to a 2-yr, $1.41M contract.
December 11 – The Falcons add former Titans catcher Tim Robinson (.268, 119 HR, 444 RBI) on a 5-yr, $6.2M contract.
December 11 – The Canadiens send 31-year old MR Frank Yeager (15-13, 4.42 ERA) to the Gold Sox, along with a prospect, for 31-yr old RF/LF Justin Bellows (.236, 31 HR, 158 RBI).
December 13 – The Raccoons acquire 27-year old LF/RF/1B Matt Hamilton (.279, 97 HR, 366 RBI) from the Aces in a trade that sees 30-yr old SP Bobby Guerrero (71-68, 4.18 ERA, 2 SV) venture to Las Vegas.

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I always sign these guys, huh?

And boy, do we need pitching now! The new rotation reads Toner – Santos – Abe - ? – Garrett. Which you can also transcribe as Toner – comes back from injury – sucked in the second half – ? – ?. Unfortunately I already spent a fortune on the bullpen that needed fixing (and still isn’t fixed completely), so our new fourth starter has to come on a budget.

Is Damani Knight still in the organization?

Our lineup will again hang ridiculously to the left side, but how does a primary lineup against right-handers consisting of Cookie, Yoshi, Hamilton, Mendoza, McKnight, Margolis, Nunley, and Stevenson sound to you? Yup, Matt Nunley might bat seventh; the lineup might be THAT loaded.

But, yeah, pitching, huh? Gonna be a hard to find something that isn’t prohibitively expensive (and we are down to roughly $2M in budget space now, so the remaining top flight free agent starters like Cody Zimmerman are out of reach, demanding well more than that) and/or will cost us our first round pick. Not that I am married to first round picks. Hardly anything good ever springs out of the first round for the Critters. [Yoshi Nomura clears his throat in the background] Most of the time.

Alex Ramirez, the bum, is back in the division after one season away. Well, well, could I be happier? (tries to crack the lock on the cabinet with Maud’s crossbow)

Other ex-Raccoons that found a new roof above their head include Tim Prince joining the Loggers for 2-yr, $428k; Troy Charters linked up with the Rebels for 2-yr, $1.26M;