[Westheim]

2056 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set in parenthesis shows 2055 stats, second set career stats; players with an * are off season acquisitions):

SP He Shui, 30, B:R, T:R (20-6, 2.81 ERA | 38-14, 2.65 ERA) – four pitches, a 94mph fastball, and very good control. Won Rookie of the Year and Pitcher of the Year in his first season, but had to settle for the most wins last year while Kennedy Adkins took the Pitcher of the Year award. Posted the fewest walks per nine innings (1.9) in ’55. He also does all of this silently while minding his own business. Seriously, I don’t remember him saying a word even once. Might be mute after all.
SP Seisaku Taki, 28, B:R, T:R (9-9, 3.91 ERA | 50-39, 3.22 ERA) – right-handed groundballer that was imported from Japan to some success, like, uh, winning both Rookie of the Year and Pitcher of the Year in his debut season (like He Shui!), PLUS a Gold Glove. Taki has three very good pitches, throws 95, and should continue to be a delight, even though his ERA keeps creeping up every year. The good news is that he’s in a contract year. The bad news is… that he’s in a contract year (kinda, he’ll be under team control for an additional year, but at the mercy of the arbitrator).
SP Sean Sweeton *, 30, B:R, T:R (17-10, 2.91 ERA | 75-57, 3.56 ERA, 1 SV) – acquired from the Scorpions in the sweeping Danny Munn trade, Sweeton brings four good pitches, a solid track record for a slumbering team, and good behavior to the plate.
SP/3B Kyle Brobeck, 28, B:S, T:R (9-8, 4.41 ERA | 36-32, 4.31 ERA, 1 SV) – Brobeck is a weird, weird pitcher slash third baseman. He barely strikes out more batters than he walks, gives up long ones, often gets bogged down by the middle innings, but he’s also a career .316/.374/.439 batter that is now making a few dozen appearances at third base every season and would be a fabulous novelty star on a lesser team.
SP Rafael de la Cruz, 25, B:L, T:R (4-5, 4.09 ERA | 32-32, 3.66 ERA) – golden boy returned from his torn UCL in June of 2054… and struggled all the way to the end of the season. Came back to start 2055, then tore the next stupid thing. He has made only 43 starts in three seasons, and his control has gotten progressively worse, while strikeouts are going down. He constantly seems to be in a 3-2 count, meaning his starts are short thanks to low-ish stamina, and he went only 4.8 innings per start before keeling over in ‘55. Maybe I should have traded him for goodies at some point……….

MR Reynaldo Bravo, 24, B:R, T:R (0-0, 3.60 ERA | 0-0, 8.74 ERA) – good fastball/curveball, not such a great rotator cuff. Missed most of 2055 and made only a few token appearances in the Bigs over the last two seasons (11.1 IP total), but the stuff is there.
MR Takenori Tanizaki, 28, B:R, T:R (0-7, 2.95 ERA, 1 SV | 0-7, 2.95 ERA, 1 SV) – that ERA and that record don’t seem to match, but somehow he was always there to accelerate a meltdown, despite walking less than two batters per nine innings. Good splitter, strong control, and maybe better luck this time. Please.
MR Eloy Sencion, 29, B:L, T:L (4-2, 2.66 ERA, 1 SV | 20-5, 3.17 ERA, 8 SV) – fastball, vicious slider, and by now has firmly established himself in the majors after apparently forgetting how to pitch in 2052 and taking a nosedive all the way to Ham Lake as a 25-year-old. Pitched without many complaints last year, although of our three left-handed relievers he’s the one I’m least inclined to let run into the right-handed lumber factory.
SU Mike Lane *, 28, B:R, T:R (6-5, 3.36 ERA, 2 SV | 16-10, 3.34 ERA, 10 SV) – right-hander with a fastball and curve and quite variable results as far as his K/9 goes, which has been all over the place between 5.7 and 9.3 in his four seasons as a regular with the Miners and Scorpions, from where he was acquired along with Sweeton and Royer in the Danny Munn trade.
SU Brett Lillis jr., 30, B:L, T:L (5-2, 2.29 ERA, 6 SV | 15-14, 3.18 ERA, 12 SV) – second-generation lefty reliever in the Coons pen – well, whenever he’s not injured. Very steady, also against right-handers, and might split eighth-inning duties with Lane.
SP/MR Fernando Salazar *, 31, B:L, T:R (4-7, 4.66 ERA | 39-46, 4.25 ERA, 1 SV) – acquired from the Warriors, where he had been doing swingman duty for all five of his major league seasons, with his 184 career games split nearly halfway down the middle between starts (97) and relief appearances (87). Three nice pitches, and a fairly persistent K/9 around eight, which wouldn’t be too bad to have in the rotation. Often pitched to a meh defense with the Warriors, so maybe we can turn him around.
CL Matt Walters, 25, B:L, T:L (6-2, 1.42 ERA, 5 SV | 6-2, 1.53 ERA, 6 SV) – Rookie of the Year, Reliever of the Year without even being the regular closer, and who cares anymore whether this former #8 pick is technically a failed starter? Unhittable curve and a 94mph heater; more than five strikeouts to every walk in his 69.2 innings last year. More of that, please!

C Matt Fiore *, 33, B:L, T:R (.253, 6 HR, 27 RBI | .279, 23 HR, 149 RBI) – fine defensive catcher that lost his youth on the Buffos’ AAA team and has played only one season as primary catcher with the 2054 Stars, from whom he was also acquired in trade. Keen eye, with more walks than strikeouts in each of the last three seasons, but not enough speed to play around with that at the top of the order.
C/1B Tyler Philipps, 29, B:R, T:R (.213, 3 HR, 18 RBI | .236, 7 HR, 61 RBI) – excellent defensive catcher that debuted late in the 2051 season, then made the Opening Day roster behind Sean Suggs in ’52, but ended up spending most of his time in AAA again after an early demotion. Backup to Chris Gowin for two years, and currently anxiously eyeing what young Marcos Chavez is doing in AAA.

1B Harry Ramsay, 28, B:L, T:L (.312, 5 HR, 41 RBI | .282, 43 HR, 196 RBI) – missed the start of ’55 on the tail end of a kneecap injury, then didn’t hit when he returned and spent a few more weeks in AAA. Somehow has gone from hitting 20 homers in ’53 to just five in ’54, and also halved his doubles on over 70% of the number of at-bats. There’s probably a fine ballplayer somewhere underneath all this mess, but the question is whether we have the patience to do all the digging.
2B/SS Matt Waters, 35, B:S, T:R (.255, 12 HR, 61 RBI | .262, 225 HR, 873 RBI) – Waters went from winning the home run crown in 2053 to playing just 68 games due to injury in 2054, and when he played he did so badly, posting his worst-ever OPS+ (85) and shedding 53 points off his batting average. Bounced back somewhat in 2055, and is now in the final season of the huge 10-year contract he signed when the Raccoons were at the top of their 2040s dynasty. And not a minute too early – his range is diminishing and it’s unlikely that we’ll bring back a 36-year-old middle infielder after this season.
SS/3B Lorenzo Lavorano, 28, B:R, T:R (.309, 6 HR, 70 RBI | .288, 24 HR, 345 RBI) – Everybody loves Lonzo! If you don’t love Lonzo, you can’t be my friend…! Has won five stolen base titles in five full (as in: not-injured) seasons, a Gold Glove at least once… and he keeps being a delight in the field and on the career steals list, which he’s racing up at the moment. He came close enough to the single season steals record in ’55 to call it a close miss, and starts the season with 395 bags taken and sitting 24th on the career leaderboard. Reminder: he'll not turn 30 until next May.
3B/LF Anton Venegas, 34, B:R, T:R (.267, 2 HR, 36 RBI | .306, 30 HR, 555 RBI) – is that contract commitment getting taller or is his production just shrinking? Venegas never got warm in ’55 and somehow has the biggest contract on the team. At least he can still pick it at the hot corner and adds flexibility with the ability to play leftfield.
3B/2B/SS Adriano Chavez *, 33, B:R, T:R (.324, 0 HR, 10 RBI | .288, 7 HR, 356 RBI) – used to be a regular with the Buffaloes in his 20s, and won a Gold Glove at shortstop as a 24-year-old, but bounced around five teams in the last four seasons, and now the Critters signed him on the cheap for backup duty.
RF/3B/2B Daniel Espinoza, 27, B:R, T:R (.293, 1 HR, 7 RBI | .293, 1 HR, 7 RBI) – leftover replacement from AAA from last year, Espinoza offers some singles-slapping and flexibility, but should be easily replaceable by somebody getting randomly hot in St. Pete.

LF/RF/1B/CF Alan Puckeridge, 28, B:L, T:R (.302, 16 HR, 78 RBI | .296, 79 HR, 435 RBI) – the Aussie recovered from an awful 2054 season by posting his fourth OPS+ of 130 or better in five full seasons, and reached double digits in each sort of extra-base hit. Also valuable on defense, and luckily signed on the cheap for another three seasons.
CF/RF/LF/1B Steve Royer *, 30, B:S, T:R (.250, 3 HR, 41 RBI | .279, 50 HR, 409 RBI) – the third piece in the Danny Munn trade effectively also takes his spot in the lineup (by body count, not actual slot) as he takes over centerfield with Pucks sliding to a corner – at least until we can come up with a different solution that might be listen to the name Todd Oley.
LF/RF/1B Trent Brassfield, 23, B:R, T:R (.258, 11 HR, 47 RBI | .276, 15 HR, 69 RBI) – his first full season was marred by injury and a 150-point regression in OPS, so we’d have to wait and see what we’d have once he was really healthy again. The smart money was on ’55 being the aberration though and not his great ’54 debut as a 21-year-old.
LF/RF/CF Oscar Caballero *, 32, B:S, T:R (.262, 7 HR, 43 RBI | .268, 59 HR, 526 RBI) – value signing late in the offseason that offers decent hitting and still strong defense at all three outfield positions, and might do quite some spelling of Pucks (or by extension, Ramsay) against lefty pitchers.
LF/CF/RF Carlos Solorzano, 24, B:L, T:L (.217, 0 HR, 9 RBI | .217, 0 HR, 9 RBI) – had a few stints up last season, but ultimately didn’t really hit much. Solid defender, blistering speed, but he’s basically also looking over his shoulder at what Oley’s doing.

On disabled list:
SP Kennedy Adkins, 31, B:L, T:L (15-5, 1.64 ERA | 86-49, 2.72 ERA) – Good stuff, steady control, keeps it in the ballpark. Might win a Pitcher of the Year award one day, I said last year. Well, he won the Pitcher of the Year. He also shredded an elbow ligament in September and is not expected back before August at the earliest.

Otherwise unavailable: Nobody.

Other roster movement:
SP Cameron Argenziano, 27, B:R, T:L (7-3, 3.36 ERA | 8-11, 4.01 ERA) – waived and DFA’ed; pitched superficially decently after replacing Raffy in the rotation, just don’t look at his FIP. Always had control woes and not enough stuff, and crumbled in his last few starts and in the CLCS.
SP Craig Kniep, 24, B:R, T:L (2-0, 4.91 ERA | 2-0, 4.91 ERA) – optioned to AAA; acquired from the Caps in July, his time is coming, and he wasn’t all bad in the five spot starts he made late in the 2055 season. Some more seasoning required, but he’ll probably be up once Raffy’s arm inevitably comes off again…
MR Colby Bowen, 27, B:R, T:R (0-1, 6.88 ERA | 0-1, 6.88 ERA) – optioned to AAA; unspectacular stuff and three homers surrendered in just 17 innings of late-season garbage relief.
MR Ryan Harmer, 28, B:L, T:R (1-0, 2.86 ERA | 4-3, 4.54 ERA) – waived and DFA’ed; cutter, forkball, and no shortage of bad memories.

Everybody not mentioned by now has already been waived, reassigned, or disappeared in a landfill during the offseason.

OPENING DAY LINEUP:

Vs. RHP: RF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – LF Puckeridge – 1B Ramsay – C Fiore – 3B Venegas – 2B Waters – CF Royer – P
(Vs. LHP: RF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – 2B Waters – 1B Puckeridge (Ramsay) – LF Caballero – 3B Venegas – C Philipps – CF Royer – P)

Kyle Brobeck will continue to make starts at third base when convenient (as in, not the day before or after his starts as a pitcher), and if that’s against a lefty, then Venegas can move to left and both of Pucks and Rams can sit on the same day. Chavez and Espinoza could of course be used in just the same way. Solorzano might see playing time in place of Royer and Brass against right-handers.

OFF SEASON CHANGES:

BNN wasn’t too fond of our offseason, rating the Raccoons 15th with a loss of -2.9 WAR, but that would still have us win the CL North quite comfortably, going by the 2055 records. But more than 7 WAR were lost in free agency (including even 2.3 from Ed Crispin), and the Danny Munn trade hardly added anything despite us getting three major leaguers back. All our three trades were slightly positive WAR-wise, and Caballero was a +2.0 WAR signing, the biggest individual positive event in our offseason.

Top 5: Falcons (+12.7), Rebels (+6.0), Gold Sox (+5.6), Buffaloes (+4.5), Canadiens (+3.5)
Bottom 5: Aces (-5.4), Capitals (-5.8), Titans (-6.7), Indians (-6.8), Pacifics (-8.2)

The Elks were the only North team in the plus. The Crusaders ranked 14th with -2.7, and the Loggers 17th with -3.3 WAR.

PREDICTION TIME:

The Raccoons won 102 games last year, third-most in a season for the franchise, and the third straight year of 94+ or more, with 94 also having been my call. Maybe we overperformed a little (just +1 in the luck column, though), but the pitching was certainly extraordinary in the regular season (cough!), and without Adkins there’s not gonna be a repeat of that.

I said in the winter that this was a transition year and we didn’t go all-in on some things because the call was not to win *this* year, but be in shape *next* year. That will probably include disposing of Brobeck and Raffy for medical or other reasons, and find a replacement for Matt Waters at the keystone. For now, though, the Raccoons should win 90 games again and be in the hunt for the division at least.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

The farm system continued to sink into the undesired regions of the rankings, dropping three spots from 13th to 16th this year. This time, none of our top prospects from last graduated to the majors (not even close on that), but we went from 13 ranked prospects down to 12, and from five top 100 prospects down to four, and even of our three top 50 prospects, none ranked better than 42nd.

Uniquely, none of our 13 ranked prospects from last season promoted to the majors (permanently at least), or left the organization. Three slid out of the top 200: #120 SP Javier Simo (who was ranked while in the international complex, but tore up his elbow after promotion to Aumsville), 179th 3B/2B Richard Anderson, and #193 SP Josh Mayo.

42nd (-9) – AAA C Marcos Chavez, 23 – 2050 scouting discovery by Stars, signed as free agent by Raccoons
44th (+10) – AA SP Chance Fox, 21 – 2053 first-round pick by Raccoons
50th (new) – AAA CL Adam Harris, 21 – 2055 first-round pick by Raccoons
92nd (+4) – AA SP Ramon Carreno, 20 – 2051 international free agent signed by Raccoons

111th (-86) – AAA LF/RF David Flores, 24 – 2052 second-round pick by Raccoons
112th (+6) – AA OF Jose Estrada, 21 – 2051 international free agent signed by Raccoons
122nd (-81) – A 1B Forbes Tomlin, 20 – 2054 first-round pick by Raccoons
135th (-7) – AAA SP John Blevins, 25 – 2052 third-round pick by Raccoons
137th (new) – AAA OF Todd Oley, 23 – 2051 second-round pick by Capitals, acquired with Craig Kniep for Tommy Gardner, Brent Cramer, Brian Moore
155th (+8) – AAA CL Ricky Herrera, 24 – 2053 second-round pick by Raccoons
170th (-22) – AA CL Alex Rios, 22 – 2053 fifth-round pick by Raccoons
186th (+9) – AA SP Jose Villegas, 23 – 2050 scouting discovery by Raccoons

Finally, the top 10 overall prospects this year are:

1st (+2) – BOS AA SP Jason Brenize, 19
2nd (+2) – LVA AAA OF Jose Ambriz, 22
3rd (-1) – DAL AAA SP Ray Walker, 21
4th (+3) – SAL AAA SP Josh Elling, 21
5th (new) – TIJ AA OF Chad Cardwell, 19

6th (+25) – NYC A RF Javier Acuna, 20
7th (+46) – WAS AA SP Jon Reyes, 20
8th (new) – IND AA INF Matt Kilday, 19
9th (+1) – SFW AA CL Alex Flores, 21
10th (+16) – MIL ML CF/LF Steve Valenzano, 21

Cardwell had been the #1 pick in the 2055 draft, where Kilday had been taken at #4.

That leaves five top 10 prospects from last season that have yet to be accounted for, including the #1, Bayhawks OF/2B/3B Grant Anker, who battled injuries and hit .258 with 10 homers in single-A whenever healthy and was promoted to double-A for this year, now as the #21 prospect.

#5 prospect Jay Everett, a righty starter for the Condors, was promoted to the majors in June, made six starts for a 5.04 ERA, and then tore finger tendons and missed the rest of the season. He was on the Opening Day roster. The Blue Sox also brought their #6 prospect 1B Andy Metz to the majors, where they didn’t put him in the lineup ONCE that season. He batted .305 with four homers as a bench warmer.

#8 C/1B Andy Gomez batted .234 with 17 homers for the Falcons’ AA team in ’55 and won promotion to AAA for this year as a 21-year-old, but slid to #12 in the prospect rankings. Finally, the Caps’ #9 prospect, infielder Diego Mendoza, was traded to the Titans mid-season and played for four different teams at the single- and double-A levels. He was just outside the top 10 in #11, and at AA Arlington to start the season.

Next: first pitch.