[Westheim]

With “Cosmo” Trevino secured for an eye-watering amount of money, the Raccoons could focus on their other two problems – finding another starting pitcher and maybe a first baseman. Since we had an option with Maldonado at first base and waiting for his breakout while batting seventh or eighth, the starting pitcher issue was the one that should be tackled with the remaining money. And money we somehow still had left over. We had started the season with over $7M in unallocated funds, and had saved a couple of coins with the first two trades (combined) that we made for Kilmer and Sparkes. With $3.8M being thrown at Trevino, the budget still had about $4M of wiggle room (and I remember the days when $4M was our entire payroll), which wasn’t such a bad situation to be in.

Nevertheless, the Critters had already missed out on Eric Weitz. With the winter meetings coming up, perhaps now was the time to pounce.

Then there were other issues, like f.e. who of our three leadoff batters (Berto, Myers, Trevino) would actually get to bat first, still assuming that at most one of Berto’s arm and Myers’ leg would still fall off. Neither of those two would begin proper rehab workouts until February, so there was something to look forward to. If things went badly, Myers’ knee might even keep him out come Opening Day. Dave Myers had the worst cards overall here since he was not a terrific base stealer like the other two, and if you batted him first it could clog up the entire system. Two of the three could be at the top of the lineup, and the other would be buried down in the lineup somewhere between Ed Hooge and the pitcher.

Getting a good right-handed platoon partner for Ed Hooge was also something that we could look into. While Preston Pinkerton had been retained for his super utility value (which Maldonado also had), he just wasn’t a batter that kept people in their seats. Two out, nobody on, Pinkerton batting, that was when the fans at Raccoons Ballpark usually went for the rest rooms. (And whenever the announcer read out “new pitcher, Preston Pinkerton”, they went for the parking lot) … For his 5-year career of 627 at-bats, Pinkerton was a .258/.338/.343 hitter with four homers and 66 RBI. For a former rule 5 pick he was at least resilient. But he was also 31, had no options left, and we didn’t seem to particularly care about him anymore…

Going back to Ramos, there were more issues, like a diminishing defense. Our scout guy Juarez, or Suarez, or something, slashed his range rating to a 9 (from 11, and it had been as high as 13 when he was younger), which was somewhat grim. What was the backup plan? Moving him to third base? First base? We had to come up with a medium-term solution here… *however* his contract was running out after 2038 – and that final year was even a team option.

Now, cutting Berto seemed outrageous indeed. But playing a shortstop with no range was just as mad. Dave Myers was not the solution here, and neither was Trevino. Looking at the personnel at paw, I was pretty sure we’d see some innings this year where the opponents would hit six straight singles through the infielders.

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December 8 – Former Indians ace Andy Bressner (133-82, 3.20 ERA) signs a 6-yr, $25.44M contract with the Titans.
December 9 – The Bayhawks sign ex-POR SP Gilberto Rendon (105-88, 3.85 ERA) to a 4-yr, $12M deal. Rendon had previously pitched for them from 2026 through 2032.
December 9 – Former Miners SP Julio Palomo (56-75, 4.51 ERA) inks a 7-yr, $23.52M contract with the Pacifics.
December 11 – L.A. follows up with the addition of ex-SFB INF Jose Cruz (.289, 52 HR, 491 RBI) for 5 years and $16.2M.
December 12 – Pittsburgh acquires SP Matt Moon (52-55, 3.50 ERA) from the Falcons for two prospects.
December 14 – The Titans acquire C Juan Herrera (.260, 91 HR, 376 RBI) and #32 prospect CL John Steuer from the Indians for RF/LF Oscar Mendoza (.264, 92 HR, 472 RBI) and cash.
December 14 – The Bayhawks flip SP Matt Peterson (21-39, 4.78 ERA) to the Miners for INF Mike Moran (.278, 2 HR, 36 RBI) and #17 prospect SP Eli Garcia.
December 23 – The two second-place teams from the CL strike a deal, with Portland sending 3B/SS Adam Downs (.260, 31 HR, 161 RBI) to the Aces for 1B/3B/OF Jesse Stedham (.276, 78 HR, 420 RBI).
December 25 – Seven years and three cities later, 36-year-old ex-SAC 3B/2B Adam Corder (.242, 56 HR, 680 RBI) returns to Boston on a 2-yr, $4.96M contract.
December 26 – The Raccoons pick up former Canadiens SP Josh Weeks (116-123, 3.87 ERA). The 34-year-old southpaw will make $3M over three years.
December 26 – The Pacifics sign ex-BOS CL Jermaine Campbell (30-32, 2.78 ERA, 254 SV) for a single season at $2.88M.
December 29 – In a single day, the Bayhawks blow their second- and two third-round picks away by signing three type A free agents; former Caps SP Lorenzo Viamontes (114-77, 3.52 ERA) gets a 3-yr, $11.76M contract; Crusaders refugee 2B Mario Hurtado (.260, 36 HR, 392 RBI) inks a 4-yr, $16.16M contract; and ex-IND 1B Kevin McGrath (.271, 218 HR, 1,003 RBI) signs for $670k and only one year.

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Downs was outright atrocious as a Raccoon. Acquired on June 30 from Sacramento, he was batting .346/.398/.551 when he came in, and everybody knew that was a fluke. For Portland he batted .231/.283/.331, easily lining up in the “we got the very worst out of that guy” category most recently populated with Adam Avakian. It was best for all to get him outta here.

Stedham is a left-handed batter, which is the crucial part of the deal here. We could have had quite a few batters for Downs, like Sacramento’s Tim Stackhouse, but Stedham was the only useful left-handed batter anybody would offer. Subtracting a right-handed infielder and getting a left-handed first baseman made a lot of things around here markedly easier. Now we could platoon Stedham with Maldonado at first base for example. And Stedham needed to be platooned, he was absolutely atrocious against left-handed pitching with a .589 OPS in ’36, and that wasn’t even his worst season in that regard. Maruyama was probably out with this deal, because we didn’t need two right-handed first basemen. Both Stedham and Maldonado could play other positions, with Stedham capable of playing all corner positions. The Aces had occasionally put him into centerfield, but that wasn’t exactly advised.

Stedham will make $1.98M a year through 2039, which is probably too much for what he actually produces, but then again we got so much more for our pitchers, too, given that he was a .357 batter against Bernie Chavez, and a .423 batter against Raffaello Sabre, and – inexplicably! – a .556 batter against Mauricio Garavito …!

Weeks is a 1B solution after I was reluctant to give up a draft pick for another starter. He doesn’t wow you with strikeouts (around 6 K/9 for pretty much his entire career), he walks people, and in ’35 he had a homer spike and was bombed 31 times, leading the league. He’s been through every terrible team in the league, maybe he can blossom on a good one! I know, optimism is for suckers.

But he should be a good, solid back-of-rotation worker, probably sliding into the #4 slot between Sparkes and Ottinger. – Yes, Maud. “Ottie”.

Ottie bobbleheads, Maud? Isn’t that a bit over-ambitious? – At least make sure the promotion takes place before he gets sent down after a 1-5, 5.69 ERA start…

The Weeks signing was the end for Gene Tennis and Tom Miller as far as roster spot ambitions were concerned. Both were assigned to AAA before the year was out.

That left us with the core pen from last year minus Moore, so with Soung, Wise, Prieto, Kulp (who I tried to trade many times, and nobody wanted, not even for charity), Garavito, and David Fernandez. One spot was open, with – on the still-extended roster – three candidates in Hennessy, Citriniti, and Sims. The first and the last could claim long man abilities; Citriniti was most likely going to draw a short stick. Hennessy was out of options, but did we really want four lefty relievers…?

Now, that Bressner move to Boston was not something that I enjoyed seeing. The last thing we needed was a Titans rotation that was even more impenetrable. The Raccoons hadn’t gone after Bressner, who led the league in wins four times despite being on the routinely ****ty Indians, since his K/9 had never been great and had gone own to just 5.3 averaged over the last two seasons. That was not a whole lot for a 30-year-old pitcher. How far would he slide off by the time he was 35?

He had also been a type A free agent, which miraculously Trevino hadn’t been. Not that I was overly protective of a low first-round pick (#21 for 2037) when we were chasing a potential ring, but the overall package just wasn’t right in Bressner’s case. Besides, I had just very recently finally gotten Mrs. Sheila Rosenzweig off my back, I wasn’t looking forward to inviting the next overly protective mother of a Jewish pitcher into my life.

Former Raccoons signing contracts elsewhere? Matt Huf got $446k from the Aces; Nashville signed Casey Moore for $1.72M over two years; Adrian Reichardt joined the Miners for $442k; Fernando Garcia makes it to Dallas for $1.6M;