[Westheim]

Then the part of the offseason began where the Raccoons would routinely tumble over one stepping stone after the other. The first obstacle to my grand plans for a team that was winning AND pleasing to watch were the Indians, who were not at all willing to trade Danny Rivera for anything I was willing to offer. And I mean it: not at all.

With that door closed, the Raccoons attached themselves to the heels of Bryce Toohey more closely. At this stage it was the beginning of November and the Condors had already signed him to a $930k contract for 2044, which was *fair*. At least no 6-year, $20M moloch to inherit (which was something attached to Rivera going into the future).

While I was haggling with the Condors about this and that prospect, we hit an unexpected roadblock in our bid to resign Chuck Jones, who had gotten it into his head that he was worth 6-yr, $7.8M as a left-handed specialist, which was not something the Raccoons would choose to engage with. I had thought of two years, maybe three, at something like $750k. There was a certain gap in our price points and it was not bridged so easily.

Funnily enough, the Condors were interested in Jeff Kilmer, which was not at all a spin I had expected. On the other paw, Ruben Gonzalez wasn’t ready, and Sean Sieber had only hit anything because pretty much every ball he had put in play had become a base hit. We were not in the part of the rebuilding curve where dumping contracts was a priority – at least not if you couldn’t replace the dumped player with equal production at cheaper cost. Ruben Gonzalez would be cheaper. He just wasn’t ready.

While all that was going wrong, the Raccoons signed 1-year extensions with Nelson Moreno ($380k), Alex Ramirez ($900k), and Jon Craig ($460k).

And Jones? There were several rounds of talks, and even more hissing, until we could get to a general understanding here. Maud had a lot of work carting in more and more donuts, until Chuck Jones and the Coons finally arrived at a deal that both parties would put their paw print under: a 3-year-deal worth $3.41M; $1.27M in the first year, and $1.07M in the two after that. No options. We both signed it, but we were both about equally unhappy with it.

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November 2 – The Raccoons acquire 28-year-old RF/LF/1B Bryce Toohey (.273, 52 HR, 193 RBI) from the Condors in a package deal for #60 prospect SP Generos de Leon, #90 prospect SP Sean Belisle, and RF Justin Waltz (.192, 0 HR, 12 RBI), all last active in AAA.
November 14 – The Raccoons swing a 6-player deal with the Buffaloes, sending #41 prospect RF/1B/LF Jose Casas (.209, 4 HR, 32 RBI), #115 prospect SP Jose Arias, 1B Shuta Yamamoto (.223, 13 HR, 64 RBI), and A SP Rich Haynes to Topeka to acquire two 27-year-old players in LF/CF Derek Baskins (.292, 39 HR, 400 RBI) and MR Nate Norris (11-16, 4.71 ERA, 18 SV).
November 15 – The Loggers send C Valentino Sicco (.260, 16 HR, 104 RBI) to the Cyclones for 39-year-old MR Josh Boles (71-84, 2.93 ERA, 502 SV) and a prospect.

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Now it’s an outfield again! No longer Manny and Maldo and Misery du Jour!

Toohey was a corner outfielder / first baseman who would hit .260 with occasional power bursts – he hit 22 bombs in ’43, his first full season – while Baskins was a strong defensive leftfielder / centerfielder, who had a contact bat and speed, and should have no problem replacing whatever Stephon Nettles and Jordan Gonzalez had produced in tandem, and then some more. With these additions the Raccoons have five good+ players for four positions including first base. There is some wiggle room with handedness; Manny, Baskins, and Ayala were left-handers while Maldo and Toohey hit righty; and Maldonado can spill over into the infield as before, should the need arise. The fifth outfield spot can either be someone who plays all three positions reasonably well (Van Anderson) or we find a solid righty bat that can also play center competently. A righty bat would help some more against left-handed pitching, if that was something we wanted to go for.

The additions weren’t outrageously expensive; Baskins made $1.56M in 2044, but would get $2.68M in the two years after that. Nate Norris, a fine right-handed reliever that would probably do good things if he could get an offense behind him (his career BABIP was .312, with single seasons as high as .360!), would sure find a spot in the bullpen. He had closed 14 games for the Buffos this year, but while nobody quite knew how Josh Rella made it all work, we’d stick with Rella for the time being.

At this point we can also confirm, that only Chuck Jones was retained among the free agents-to-be, so Sauerkraut would not be retained, and Seth Green and Travis Sims were also being non-tendered (as was Steve Nickas), trimming things around the lardy end of the bullpen. With Rella, Ramirez, Craig, Kelly, and Jones, five of the carriers would be retained. Then there was Norris, and Nelson Moreno is still here, even though his injury-bombed 2043 season saw him pitch only 14.1 innings.

There is enough money for a 1-year deal on a starting pitcher if we don’t fancy our luck with Merino in the #5 spot this soon. Bullpens can always be improved, and we also have to look at backup infielders (de Wit, Gutierrez being the current personnel).

Even with just the two trades, Cristiano Carmona was beside himself, wheelieing up and down the hallway telling everybody interested and everybody not interested how the Raccoons had already gained almost 7 WAR with their two trades. I don’t care about the WAR. I am just glad we got two bats.

Also snorting at Cristiano’s weird fascination with WAR was our new head scout, a grizzled veteran at 72 years old, and with over 30 years’ experience as head scout, Josh Busing. He already told me some grim truths about some of our players, but he did it tactfully! So we’re two old farts from yesteryear and basically already best friends.

(sits on the table with Busing and Maud having coffee with the fine china being broken out by Maud)

(Maud rolls her eyes as both Busing and the GM pour a tiny bottle of booze they had kept in a pocket into their respective coffees)

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2043 ABL AWARDS

Players of the Year: RIC LF/RF Pablo Gonzalez (.371, 27 HR, 95 RBI) and OCT C Jesus Adames (.331, 28 HR, 83 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: LAP SP Mike LeMasters (23-5, 2.81 ERA) and NYC SP Dave Hils (16-13, 2.64 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: SFW RF Matt Diskin (.290, 28 HR, 109 RBI) and POR 3B Ricky Jimenez (.271, 18 HR, 92 RBI)
Relievers of the Year: NAS CL Chris Henry (6-2, 1.38 ERA, 42 SV) and ATL MR Gualter Cymbron (7-2, 1.79 ERA, 1 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P LAP Mike LeMasters – C PIT Giampaolo Petroni – 1B RIC Manny Liberos – 2B DAL Hugo Acosta – 3B RIC Josh Frazier – SS NAS Billy Bouldin – LF RIC Pablo Gonzalez – CF SAC Alfonso Cedillo – RF LAP Juan Benavides
Platinum Sticks (CL): P OCT Jimmy Driver – C OCT Jesus Adames – 1B NYC Mario Briones – 2B VAN Dan Schneller – 3B IND Dan Hutson – SS CHA Tony Aparicio – LF TIJ Bryce Toohey – CF VAN Jerry Outram – RF TIJ Willie Ojeda
Gold Gloves (FL): P LAP Joe Feltman – C RIC Kyle Duncan – 1B NAS Alejandro Ramos – 2B NAS Felix Marquez – 3B NAS Brad Critzer – SS WAS Chris O’Keefe – LF NAS Ethan Watson – CF NAS Jim Price – RF CIN Celio Umbreiro
Gold Gloves (CL): P POR Brent Clark – C ATL Adam Horner – 1B MIL Aaron Brayboy – 2B NAS Randolph Nash – 3B ATL Dave Myers – SS IND Andrew Russ – LF IND Danny Rivera – CF ATL Brian Oliver – RF CHA Archie Turley

One of the bats even brought a Platinum Stick along!