[Westheim]

The time of the Winter Meetings arrived, and the Raccoons were still looking for a second baseman and to slide Anton Venegas’ contract into somebody else’s stocking. More at-bats for Kyle Brobeck – even though our new head scout, Chris “Banjo” Pigg, openly wondered whether we were insane to put him there in the first place. He valued defense even more than me, and that wasn’t Kyle Brobeck’s strongest trait.

The Winter Meetings were then mostly about dumping things…

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December 4 – The Cyclones sign ex-WAS SP/MR Jordan Ramos (55-78, 3.72 ERA, 83 SV) to a 3-yr, $5.88M contract.
December 4 – Vancouver acquires right-hander Ernie Gomes (8-13, 4.62 ERA) from the Blue Sox. The 26-year-old costs them two prospects.
December 4 – The Warriors receive three prospects for trading right-handed MR Josh Penington (23-27, 4.49 ERA, 34 SV) to the Falcons. The package includes #151 CL Justin Titus and #187 CL Danny Zepeda.
December 5 – The Raccoons trade 1B Harry Ramsay (.276, 51 HR, 252 RBI) to the Condors for right-handed SP/MR Ivan Ornelas (15-10, 4.37 ERA, 20 SV)
December 5 – The Loggers sign up former Indians C/1B Mike Gilmore (.247, 38 HR, 201 RBI) on a 2-yr, $3.48M contract.
December 5 – 25-year-old right-hander Josh Doyle (8-23, 4.83 ERA), who led the CL with 15 losses, is traded from the Aces to the Falcons – his third CL South team in four months – for #115 prospect SP Vincent Hernandez.
December 6 – The Raccoons trade 3B/LF Anton Venegas (.304, 32 HR, 602 RBI) to the Thunder, receiving 2B/OF Daniel Amburn (.185, 0 HR, 6 RBI) in return.
December 6 – The Gold Sox land 35-yr old former Knights SP Terry Herman (118-79, 3.52 ERA) with a 3-yr, $19.5M contract.
December 6 – New York acquires SP David Concha (84-69, 3.72 ERA) from the Warriors. The 30-year-old southpaw costs them three prospects including #172 SP Jon McGinley.
December 13 – RF/LF Danny Munn (.256, 196 HR, 706 RBI), having left the Scorpions as free agent, signs a 5-yr, $16.2M deal with the Knights.
December 13 – The Gold Sox acquire ex-DAL CL Sam Gibson (58-61, 2.70 ERA, 313 SV), giving a 2-yr, $4M contract to the 36-year-old right-hander.
December 15 – The Crusaders land a big new bullpen arm in former Miners closer Ross Mitchell (95-67, 3.16 ERA, 289 SV), who inks a 3-yr, $13.98M contract.

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Why trade “Double Play” Ramsay? I just gave you two reasons. But he also hasn’t done anything offensively since he hit 20 homers in 2053 (in 124 games). It was two scratch-above-league-average seasons, and now a 89 OPS+ in ’57. There’s also the point that Gaudencio Callaia is an *excellent* defensive first baseman and we have quite the traffic at the outfield corners. Ornelas is nothing special. 12 months ago, he was a Rule 5 pick. He is another extra piece in the 500-piece jigsaw that is our roster, and so far all the corner pieces are missing.

Daniel Amburn is a very adept defender as well, and while he didn’t hit a lick in his first 20 major league games, he also was stricken with a .222 BABIP. I’m just glad we found a team dumb enough to take on Venegas, who had one year with that huge contract left, and I wasn’t keen on wiring him a million a month for what he was putting on the table (mostly his hindpaws).

After those moves, and even with reassigning Gaudencio Callaia to first base mentally, the Raccoons really had just two real major league infielders – the other being Lonzo – unless nobody called us out on that bluff of plonking Brobeck down at the hot corner on Opening Day for real. There was a whole host of mediocre bums (Allred, Amburn, Bribiesca, Anderson, Espinoza) loitering around for the second and third base and backup jobs, but this was where we had to find a strong bat either at second base or in centerfield. We needed somebody to bat fifth behind Callaia, Lonzo, Brassfield, and Pucks, because even I wasn’t banking on Marcos Chavez growing into that role any time soon, unless nobody called us out on that bluff of plonking Brobeck down at the hot corner on Opening Day for real and he’d bat fifth.

One other former Raccoon signed a new contract: Tony Lopez got 2-yr, $1.92M from the Wolves;