[Westheim]

Raffy was seeking a 7-year deal, which made me wince ever so slightly. He had not come particularly close to even pitching six innings per start since his return from injury, and I wasn’t much encouraged that it would get better any time soon. He had to settle for an $850k extension for 2055, while Chris Gowin got $1.66M and Ed Crispin just $540k.

The pair of left-handed relievers settled for $600k (Lillis) and $540k (Sencion).

With a heavy heart I had to refrain from making offers to both Wheats and Ken Crum, who were both appearing to come apart rather early, but the Raccoons were not inclined to tie $4M+ annually to a disintegrating body for multiple to many seasons. Yes, I am weeping just as much as you do. Maybe more.

Wheats went 156-106 with a 3.38 ERA for the Coons in 13 big-league seasons, winning a Pitcher of the Year, two ERA titles, and a franchise-record four rings (tied with Matt Waters). On top of that, in 16 playoff appearances (15 starts), he went 6-6 with a 2.91 ERA. But he had now been slashed from a peak 14/14/15 rating to just 11/14/13 and I couldn’t help but expect him to plunge from here.

We were offering arbitration to him, however, because I wanted that draft pick, and even if he did pick us up on the offer, then there was at least hope that he’d keep it together for one more season for whatever the arbitrator would deem fair (probably $4M-ish), but we wouldn’t be on the hook for $24M – but he declined the offer and became a free agent, along with Crum, Daley, Pickett, de Lemos, and Suzuki. Furthermore, former big-league Critters Adam Samples and Mike Snyder elected minor league free agency (among six other players, including 2048’s #325 pick C Zach Morrison, who sure held on longer than most 13th-rounders). Snyder had last appeared for the Coons in 2053, Samples in 2052.

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October 23 – The Stars acquire OF Tyler Tomasello (.249, 34 HR, 252 RBI) from the Miners in a straight exchange for SP Josh Swindell (65-86, 4.36 ERA).
October 28 – Oklahoma City picks up outfielder Dustin Ransford (.267, 9 HR, 131 RBI) from the Aces for a prospect.
November 2 – Richmond acquires lefty SP/MR Michael McLaughlin (7-7, 2.56 ERA, 1 SV) from the Indians for two prospects, including #131 prospect C Danny Werman.
November 3 – 29-year-old RF/LF Chris Morris (.292, 100 HR, 559 RBI) is traded from the Blue Sox to the Bayhawks with a prospect for same-aged C Jorge Ortiz (.240, 29 HR, 138 RBI).

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So the main goal for the offseason now was to put *a* rotation together. The Raccoons were left with just Shui, Taki, Raffy, and then … Brobeck, who had at least a case to make… and after that it was already down to Phil Baker as fifth in line. Baker had a 4.41 ERA and 5.3 BB/9 for his (admittedly not extensively-sized) major league career: 30 games, 22 starts, 126.2 innings across three years. He was also 26 and wasn’t gonna get any better, but I’m sure he’d cherish his 2054 ring forever. For what it was worth, he pitched to a 2-0 record and five innings of 1-hit ball in the CLCS before being dumped off the roster for Arthur Pickett, who didn’t even appear in the World Series.

The prospect front was not too encouraging in this regard, at least in the short run. No purposeful reinforcement could be expected in 2055. 23-year-old Jesus Guzman, a Venezuelan lefty that cost $33k to sign in 2047, had reached AAA in August, but Eric Hartwig’s scouting report was rather hard on him. He had posted a 2.68 ERA in 25 Ham Lake starts before promotion, though. In any case, Guzman was a finesse lefty without overpowering stuff. He was a real groundballer. The best starter prospect in the system was without doubt the #3 pick from 2053, lefty Chance Fox. He had turned 20 in July and had reached Ham Lake in August. He was developing nicely, but he was years away.

Despite the departure of Kevin Daley, the bullpen still looked *fine*. Between Hitchcock, Bak, Lillis, Walters, and Sencion, we had five very decent relievers on paw, and the question was whether we’d find a closer to plonk down at the end of the set, or whether we’d try to work it out by committee in the late innings. Right-handed relief was needed, though, since the above group contained three southpaws. I was already on a Japanese free agent, but it wasn’t reasonable to expect anything from Antonio Alfaro (and Raul Medrano and Ryan Harmer had been outrighted off the 40-man roster the day after the World Series altogether – no takers, though). Brobeck and/or Baker might slide into the pen, assuming a sufficient number of starting pitcher additions could be tracked down.

Our catcher pair was still in place, and the starting infield of Rams, Waters, Lonzo, and Venegas was also still intact – with one caveat: Rams was going to miss the first month of the season and perhaps longer recovering from the broken kneecap, but we were not going to make a signing for *that*. In all likelihood, 1B Pedro Rojas would make his debut on Opening Day. Rojas, a lefty batter who’d turn 23 in February, had been a scouting discovery by Pat Degenhardt and had worked his way to AAA by late 2052. He posted similar slash lines of around .300/.400/.400 there for the last two seasons and deserved a chance. He was entirely unranked as a prospect so far, although he really should be at least in the top 200 by April. Remarkably, he was a first-sacker with enough speed to be a base-stealing threat, but had yet to hit double-digit homers in a pro season.

Ed Crispin, Matt Knight, Naughty Joe, Dave Blackshire… backup infielders were still plenty on the extended roster, plus Ryan Allred in AAA – the only position player currently on the 40-man that was not on the extended roster.

Only four outfielders were left on the extended roster: Brassfield, Pucks, and Coxie figured to be the starting outfield, unless we could swing for a significant centerfield upgrade (in a defensive sense). Prospero Tenazes was the only other outfielder getting paid. There were two corner outfielders in AAA that were at least hitting something, but were both casual fielders: Elijah Johnson (the #22 pick in ’52) and Humberto Hernandez (fifth round in ’50), the latter having put up a .308/.394/.476 slash in 79 games last season. Hernandez would also turn 27 during Opening Week, and he was Rule 5-eligible, and I was not really inclined to protect him for protection’s sake at that age.

The top free agent under 35 was probably Zach Suggs, whom the Loggers could not afford to pay any longer. He had batted .304 with 23 homers last year, and that had been his worst season among the last three, so expect the Loggers to plunge to sixth place this year. Starting pitcher options were plenty – but most were type A free agents. That list included Logger Angelo Munoz, Elk Andy Overy, and Crusader Jeff Johnson. The exceptions were Jesse Bulas and Victor Mondragon, both 35, who had both been limited by injuries recently. Mondragon in particular made only 28 starts between the last two seasons and two different teams thanks to repeated woes in all areas of his throwing arm. He figured to be a value addition though, especially if you were looking for potentially *two* free agent starting pitchers – which depended on how much you loved Kyle Brobeck’s act.

Brobeck made 38 appearances (18 starts) this season, pitching 138 innings for an 8-5 record, 3.59 ERA (but 4.76 FIP), a save, and batted .306/.388/.396 with 1 HR, 17 RBI while also moonlighting around third base in 24 games. His defense there was not amazing – he cost nearly half a win in under 200 innings of being a non-pitching infielder, or almost all the WAR he gained from batting more than every fifth day. The entire package had been worth just 0.3 WAR…

…but the Raccoons nevertheless overcame Kyle Brobeck to win rings anyway!

It might still be the year where you have to burn that #21 pick to stay valid…

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2054 ABL AWARDS

Players of the Year: TOP C Matt McLaren (.317, 27 HR, 77 RBI) and ATL 2B/SS Willie Acosta (.315, 4 HR, 76 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: SAC Mike McCaffrey (17-7, 2.71 ERA) and POR SP He Shui (18-8, 2.48 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: RIC 1B Mario Delgadillo (.294, 24 HR, 89 RBI) and POR SP He Shui (18-8, 2.48 ERA)
Relievers of the Year: NAS CL Tommy Gardner (9-8, 2.51 ERA, 36 SV) and POR CL Kevin Daley (4-2, 2.31 ERA, 36 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P RIC Eric Braley – C TOP Matt McLaren – 1B SAC Steve Wyatt – 2B PIT Alex Vasquez – 3B PIT Victor Corrales – SS SAC Alex Adame – LF LAP Salvatore Rodrigues – CF PIT Josh Abercrombie – RF LAP Matt Diskin
Platinum Sticks (CL): P VAN Anton Jesus – C POR Chris Gowin – 1B ATL Jay Rogers – 2B SFB Armando Montoya – 3B IND Bobby Anderson – SS ATL Willie Acosta – LF VAN Adam Magnussen – CF VAN Damian Moreno – RF IND Bill Quinteros
Gold Gloves (FL): P DAL Thomas Turpeau – C PIT Michael Lefebvre – 1B DEN Bill Joyner – 2B PIT Alex Vasquez – 3B SAL John Thatcher – SS WAS Jesus Nunez – LF WAS Neville van de Wouw – CF LAP Noah Caswell – RF PIT Tyler Tomasello
Gold Gloves (CL): P NYC Jeff Johnson – C MIL Chris Thomas – 1B OCT David Worthington – 2B OCT Jonathan Ban – 3B LVA Mark Tauzin – SS VAN Dan Mullen – LF IND Jose Garza – CF OCT Jayden Ward – RF VAN Aaron Walker

Not sure what the award awarders were watching all year long, but probably never a ninth inning of a Raccoons game…

He Shui scooped two of the major awards, while Willie Acosta, who is probably not even a household name, snatched the Player of the Year award in the CL, beating out his teammate Jon Alade and the Coons’ Chris Gowin. How exactly Acosta’s .315 average with 4 homers was superior to Gowin’s .313 clip with 19 homers somebody will have to explain to me.

The two CLCS teams had zero Gold Gloves between them.