Quote:
Originally Posted by DD Martin
Shine up the trophy it’s finally coming back to Camp Valdez
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I like some confidence around here. Good that you have that covered!
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A left-handed hitting third baseman – that wouldn’t be so bad. That was the main thought in January. Thing is, left-handed hitting third basemen weren’t exactly a dime a dozen. I bugged the Thunder for Al Martell for a while, which led nowhere nice, and Jose Farfan of the Falcons looked like a good option – except for the huge contract they had given him at one point and for which he was hitting for a .675 OPS. The Loggers were willing to talk about Brad Simon, but he was 25, expected to get better, and they scaled their requests accordingly. Jason Wheatley f.e. would be a starter to the conversation, not the end of it.
So none of that worked. At this point I gave up on trading for the upgrade and instead started to pursue a former Logger for some veteran savvy on the infield. 36-year-old Jose Cruz’ best days were behind him, but he was playing a serviceable third base still. He was also advertised as a second baseman, but Cristiano and Busing both told me nah. But we’d probably keep Omar Gutierrez around anyway, so that was not the main problem. Our main alternative to Ricky Jimenez was Jay de Wit, on whom our passion had cooled a bit, and Maldonado, who was usually needed elsewhere. Cruz, who won a Platinum Stick before Maldonado was a rookie and when Jimenez was still in the Cuban equivalent of middle school, hit .306 in 113 games for Milwaukee last year, and usually in the high .200s for some years prior to that. He brought neither power nor speed – but he’d bring veteran savvy!
Other teams brought amusement, too, with the Crusaders at one point in January offering catcher Fernando Alba to us. The requested return was rather modest, a package containing Maldonado, Josh Rella, Tony Negrete, and as cherry on top minor league catcher Bobby Christenbury.
The first three, alright – but not Christenbury!!
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January 11 – The Raccoons acquire 30-year-old C Jose Zarate (.302, 6 HR, 27 RBI) from the Scorpions for a pair of third-rate prospects, 25-yr old AAA SP Tony Cristobal and 23-yr old AA OF Jorge Velasco.
January 21 – The Raccoons also secure 36-year-old 3B/2B Jose Cruz (.285, 97 HR, 892 RBI) for one year and $1.55M.
January 30 – SP Josh Long (179-156, 3.47 ERA), pitching for the Condors and Gold Sox in 2043, signs a 1-yr, $1.54M deal with the Miners.
February 2 – The Canadiens invest $5.04M over two years into defensively-challenged ex-RIC RF/LF Chris Robinson (.280, 53 HR, 232 RBI).
February 5 – Oklahoma picks up LF/CF/1B Mal Phinazee (.229, 54 HR, 250 RBI) from the Condors, who receive 1B Alex Zacarias (.250, 112 HR, 521 RBI) and $700k in cash.
February 15 – RF/LF Jose Platero (.234, 68 HR, 325 RBI) inks a 3-yr, $4.34M contract with the Bayhawks. The 28-year-old spent the last three years with the Crusaders.
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Zarate rotted in AAA with the Loggers forever, despite hitting well and playing a good glorified backstop. He played second fiddle for Sacramento last year. We had a guy hitting quite a bit in Sean Sieber, but he did so with a BABIP suggesting unrepeatability. Zarate’s was also just a bit over .300, but not quite that much above .300. And we like a catcher that is wise and calls a good game, especially with a pile of youngsters in the rotation. The two minor leaguers you have never heard of and will never hear of again. Sieber has options and will provide a valid third-string catcher in AAA, certainly an upgrade over Chris Lancaster (who left the organization), and overall we’re waiting for Ruben Gonzalez to show up with a thump.
We entered the bidding war late on Cruz after the trades fell through, and by then the price was already quite a way up. But the Raccoons were sort of blessed, despite the odd bad contract (Kilmer, Jackson?) on the team. Our rotation cost less than $5M. Our pen cost just under $4M. Ricky Jimenez made $3M alone, and Kilmer made $2M. Our entire outfield / first base complex came in at around $9.5M. And the middle infielders all made the minimum ($245k per pair of whiskers). Despite having a sub-standard budget, the Raccoons were still at liberty to blow a million and a half on a bench bat for maybe 200 at-bats.
With Cruz secured, the Raccoons returned Rule 5er Brad Johnson to the Gold Sox.
And at that point we settled down – the 40-man roster was almost full, with only one spot open, although more openings were expected by Opening Day when f.e. Angelo Montano would have to be passed through waivers for the 75th time.
Other ex-Coons with new occupations: Jesse Stedham took a sleek $1M from the Pacifics; Cosmo Trevino joined the champion Bayhawks for $1.6M; the Gold Sox give $980k to Drew Johnson;