[Westheim]

By mid-November, the free agents filed off the roster; in the end the Raccoons lost Tony Morales, Aaron Curl, and Nelson Mercado to free agency, then had to take Sadaharu Okuda to arbitration, where we offered $1.5M and then found out that Okuda was asking for the same. How the actual **** we hadn’t been able to come to an agreement beforepaw was absolutely beyond me.

We also reassigned some players to AAA that would certainly not be on the Opening Day roster, including Oscar Alcala, Danny Cancel, Brian Shedd, and the ludicrous postseason addition Evan Van Hoy.

This reduced the extended roster to 29 (including Bubba Wolinsky, who would not be a factor in the first half of 2048), including five natural outfielders: Armando Herrera, venerable Manny Fernandez, Derek Baskins (all over 30 by the way), Gene Pellicano, and Roberto Medina. There was certainly room for an addition there. Another option would be to move Toohey to a corner more regularly and then play Pat Gurney at first base more often.

The 28 healthy players also still included Jimmy Dalton as third catcher, as well as a seventh infielder in Ben Coen that probably wasn’t gonna make the roster unless we did move more to the outfield with Bryce Toohey. Gurney and Maldo were also potential corner outfield options – it wasn’t like we really needed five true outfielders on the roster, an with Baskins and Pellicano we had two backups to Herrera in center even now.

And the pitchers? Wheats, Okuda, Merino, Jackson were still here; Jeremy Baker looked like he’d hold down the fifth spot well enough until Wolinsky would return in June or July.

In the pen, Lynn and Moreno held down the back end, with Porter and Ibold as credible alternatives in late innings. There was still Bonnie, for better or worse (usually worse), and then Hitchcock, who was only 24 and looked worth every dime o that $60k bonus to sign him out of Germany in the 2040 July IFA period. Then again, we had gotten a whole Nelson Moreno for no more than *$20k* a few years prior! And Moreno wasn’t doing shabbily for a failed starter (11-13, 5.01 ERA in ’42 to bring the curtains down) at all.

Carlton Harman and Adam Bates were the only other pitchers still on the roster. Both were right-handers, and thus had no real chance on a spot unless we’d have to fling another reliever in a deal down the road. Because what we needed was another lefty reliever to replace Curl. I had no trust whatsoever in Bonnie, and I was angry for every single one of the $1.74M he’d make in 2048 (after which he’d be granted free agency). Now, Baker was a left-hander, and might be able to do well in the bullpen, but that would mean spending on a free agent or trading for somebody for a 3-month assignment.

And then? Oh right, somebody else’s arm(s) would have fallen off by then, right? The injury bugs had not been very kind to us in the last few years…

Eh, still won rings…!

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November 9 – The Rebels acquire catcher Juan Jimenez (.302, 3 HR, 36 RBI) from the Aces for two prospects.
November 12 – Richmond also adds 2B/SS T.J. Lujan (.261, 18 HR, 105 RBI) from the Thunder for MR Willie Maldonado (25-18, 4.49 ERA, 9 SV) and a prospect.
November 13 – The Raccoons trade for the Miners’ MR Joy-shan Kuo (5-5, 2.14 ERA, 16 SV), parting with SP Carlton Harman (3-4, 5.87 ERA).
November 13 – The Condors acquire OF Justin Kristoff (.274, 44 HR, 395 RBI) from the Knights for 2B Eric Clary (.241, 15 HR, 199 RBI) and a prospect.
November 19 – Salem adds free agent outfielder Rikuto Ito (.258, 93 HR, 407 RBI) for 3-yr, $6.24M. Ito was with the Condors for the last three and a half years.
November 19 – The Thunder sign ex-SAL 1B Bill Jenkins (.273, 192 HR, 879 RBI) to a 3-yr, $12.84M deal.
November 22 – Former Scorpion LF/RF Mike Preble (.304, 166 HR, 711 RBI) joins the Aces for $5.76M over two years.
November 23 – Los Angeles snatches ex-PIT SP/MR Raul Cornejo (44-54, 4.41 ERA), committing $2.24M over two years to the 29-year-old righty.
November 25 – 24-year-old right-hander Kodai Koga, the biggest talent to emerge from Japan this year, signs a 4-yr, $7.5M deal with the Knights.
November 28 – Ex-CIN/LAP Chris Strohm (.281, 86 HR, 670 RBI) joins the Capitals for the offer of $3.56M over two years.
December 1 – Rule 5 Draft: 12 players are selected across two rounds, but the Raccoons are not affected.

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The left-handed Kuo came over from Taiwan last fall and was signed to a cheap 3-year deal by the Scorpions, but was turned over to the Miners in July. The Scorpions used him as a closer, but the Miners were not quite that desperate. He has quite pronounced splits and not much stamina at all, so he’s not easy to use right, especially with Bonnie as the other household lefty, but then again the Miners were kind enough to ask for basically nothing and we were all too happy to pick them up on it.

Kuo was then immediately sick for a week after arriving in Portland, apparently not being used to the big servings of food that are common up here. I don’t know, some guys seem to start barfing after just four or five schnitzels…!