[Westheim]

Apologies for the lack of pace in this offseason. It is one of the more frustrating ones and I reached the point where I no longer knew myself how to proceed with them buggers….

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With the winter meetings gone by, the only additions the Raccoons had made so far in the offseason were the other half to their corner infield sumo duo and a pretty expensive Japanese lottery ticket, and neither of them would help the pitching staff in the slightest. All attempts to sign a starting pitcher or get one in a trade had failed. Ian Wilson as of December 9 was STILL the third-best thing in the mix… Ironically, this was with considerable dosh to spend – but spending $3.6M on Gilberto Rendon would have been a tad much…

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December 11 – The Canadiens sign 40-year-old SS/3B Guillermo Obando (.287, 38 HR, 978 RBI) to a 1-yr, $1.34M contract.
December 13 – The Crusaders deal catcher Juan Herrera (.256, 114 HR, 500 RBI) to the Scorpions for MR Mike Gutierrez (10-12, 4.81 ERA, 13 SV) and a prospect.
December 14 – The Aces take on 36-year-old ex-Thunder SP Brian Frain (123-115, 3.63 ERA, 4 SV) on a 2-yr, $6.88M contract.
December 16 – The Raccoons acquire left-handed SP Josh Brown (35-25, 3.59 ERA) from the Crusaders for four prospects: #39 AA 3B/2B Quadir Randle, AA 1B Jason Robinson, AA SP Matt Seltzer, and A C Jose Ortiz.
December 17 – Los Angeles adds former Capitals closer Jesse Allison (34-32, 4.37 ERA, 58 SV) for $7.08M over three years.
December 17 – The Stars shell out $2.44M over two years for ex-BOS CL Mike Hugh (51-52, 3.33 ERA, 207 SV).
December 21 – 41-year-old experienced pitcher Jose Lerma (260-236, 3.44 ERA) inks a $3M deal for a Condors gig in ’41.

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There’s little left of the Crusaders, who ditched 18 players by the time of the Brown trade, and they might easily lose 100 games, while Josh Brown is not the starting pitcher we wanted off them (that one ended up on the Rebs), it’s maybe the one we deserved, unwilling to part with the good stuff in the system.

The lefty Brown, 28 by Opening Day, is a four-year player in the majors, and a regular starter since the second half of ’38. He has a groundball tendency, but isn’t afraid to give up the occasional long blast with any of his five pitches [not shown: a 10-rated knuckle curve]. He’s a nice guy. But he’s not Julian Ponce.

(Brown looks already miffed)

The package sent to New York includes many players, including two AA position players that looked more dubious as it all went along. Quadir Randle was highly ranked, but had hit .198 in Ham Lake this year. He had been the return in the Bryce Sparkes trade to the Caps in ’39. Jason Robinson and Matt Seltzer had both been picked in the 2037 draft, in the third and 11th round, respectively. OSA *hated* Robinson and Seltzer, well, had been picked in the 11th round. Ortiz had been named as one of the young catchers in the international complex, but we had at least one other promising catcher of his age (Ruben Gonzalez), so we were trading away quantity. None of the four players poses an immediate Hall of Fame risk. Was it worth all the agony so far?

That slipped Ian Wilson to #4 and Angelo Montano or Sal Lozano or some other bum to #5. The 2040 season started with a bum (Jared Ottinger, since disowned) in the #5 hole and we all know how well that went.

At around the same time that the Raccoons signed off on the Brown trade, half the type A free agents had gone, but Raffaello Sabre hadn’t. The glut of starting pitching in the free agent class probably didn’t help – ALL the type A free agents left over by Christmas were pitchers. That was also one popular explanation how the price for Gilberto Rendon – good, but not great, and also pretty senior at this point – could go up and up and up; there was just no loss of a draft pick attached to him. Of course, Sabre sitting there unsigned made me queasy. I woke up at night, screaming, having dreamt that the Pacifics had signed Sabre, giving the Raccoons a fourth-round pick in return.

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December 22 – Right-handed SP Bill Quintero (93-116, 3.98 ERA) signs a 4-yr, $14.96M contract with the Gold Sox. The 31-year-old spent the last season-and-a-half with the Condors.
December 23 – The Warriors sign ex-LAP/RIC SP Keith Black (79-80, 3.77 ERA) to a 4-yr, $16.16M contract.
December 25 – The Raccoons ink ex-TOP SP Drew Johnson (80-73, 3.93 ERA, 2 SV), who already pitched for them for part of the 2039 season, to a $600k contract.
December 27 – Portland adds 30-yr old OF/1B Miguel Reyna (.256, 50 HR, 356 RBI) from the Bayhawks in exchange for SP Nelson Fonseca (1-3, 6.63 ERA) and 1B Oliver Anderson (.272, 3 HR, 47 RBI).
December 28 – Ex-VAN OF Ryan Phillips (.262, 81 HR, 417 RBI) settles for a 1-yr, $2.08M offer from the Condors.
December 29 – Tijuana also lands ex-SFB SP Gilberto Rendon (136-124, 3.87 ERA) for 1-yr, $3.24M.

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Gilberto! You lied to me!! I thought you had a $3.6M offer!!

(gasps!)

Anybody remember Drew Johnson? Not sure why nobody went after that guy. He was very grateful to be offered a pittance for his services at all.

Then there is that Bayhawks trade. Superficially pointless, it trades two players out of options and with no prospect to make the Opening Day roster for one player out of options (with some salary obligations) that created a glut of outfielders on the roster that would need sorting out. Anderson was a nice defensive first baseman, which was the worst description for a baseball player. He couldn’t hit anything worth writing home about. Reyna was also left-handed, creating an alternative to rest Doug Levis just the same. Reyna, who was due almost $3M for the next two years that originally the damn Elks had promised to him, was also one of the unluckiest bastards in baseball, hitting for a career .282 BABIP. That’s over 3,000 at-bats’ worth of bad luck.

PERFECT GUY FOR THE COONS.

Of course the last thing we needed was another lefty-hitting outfielder, but for starters we cleaned house just before the end of the year and reassigned AAA caliber hitters’ talent that had been up in September and had no hope to make the April roster back to St. Pete. These included Damian Salazar (who had hit .214), Nick Lando (hitting .212), Jordan Gonzalez (who had landed six hits in about as many attempts), and Jay de Wit (Aruba’s finest!).

Former Raccoons with new employers: Ed Hooge signed a $1.02M deal with the Warriors for the 2041 season; Sioux Falls also got Ross Sibley for $362k; Dave Myers joined the Buffos for $650k;