[Westheim]

Notes on minor league free agents we lost. SP Nick Hampton and UT Tim Line were taken in the third and fourth rounds of the 2051 drafts respectively, but did badly at AAA and were never close to a call-up. Two players did leave as minor league free agents after making appearances for the big league club. INF/LF Tommy Hannoush made it into eight games in 2056, batting .200 (3-15) with one RBI.

The story of Prospero Tenazes was considerably more bizarre though; a professional for 15 years since he signed with the Thunder out of Venezuela in 2042, Tenazes wound up in Portland in the trade that exchanged Mike Lynn and Alex Adame for Adam Peltier (then disbursed to San Francisco and a prolific coonskinner since), among other things. He made appearances for the Raccoons in five different seasons from 2052 through 2056, even wound up with a ring for 42 games of hitting for a .658 OPS in ’54, and somehow was waived an endless amount of times and never claimed. Maybe other teams DO read the stats pages of players after all! Tenazes batted .259/.298/.326 with 3 HR, 18 RBI in 133 games, mostly contributed as a running gag and a dire threat for promotion, and would probably soon be forgotten.

There were three international free agents on the market that had big impact potential, and the Raccoons were going to go after two of them. We were not interested in 2B Joo-chan Lee from Korea, who was an elite slap singles hitter and could also draw walks, but was going to turn 34 years old this winter and what was he gonna do by the time the Raccoons sorted out their mess of a roster?

But there was a pair of 28-ish Cuban players that looked like fits. The first was corner outfielder Jesus Martinez, a real power hitter that might actually threaten Trent Brassfield’s team-high 13 shots from this season. Defense and hitting for average were so much his game, and Brass wasn’t an ace defender either. The Raccoons had really come away from the strong defensive teams of the last decades that won rings and all. The other player from Cuba we wanted was right-hander Roberto “Bobby” “Tippy” Herrera. Bobby for obvious reasons, and Tippy because he was tipping his pitches at times and gave up homers. But he gave them up like Mark Roberts did back in the 20s and 30s, all the way to the Hall of Fame. Every scout in the country seemed to agree that his Cuban numbers were true and that he was the real deal in every regard with three elite pitches, strong control, and he kept the ball on the ground, too. No injury history – what else was there to crave? He can merrily give up 20 homers a year as long as he doesn’t walk the bases ******* full first, like the bozos in the corner over there! (points at Brobeck, DeRose, and Sensabaugh playing with colored wooden toys and trying to shove a square peg through a round hole)

Herrera would obviously go right to the top of our rotation as new resident ace, a job for which there was zero competition right now, although the free agent market might yet spit out some type B free agent(s). We had $20m to blow on players after all.

What was the going rate for top stars now? The Falcons had a suggestion when they signed Danny Ceballos to an extension in late November. If you’re 26 and a 9-year veteran in the league, batting .324/.383/.466 for your career with 1,585 base hits under your belt already, you can now expect to cash in on a 7-yr, $56M contract. Will players never get stick of driving expensive sports cars?? What do they need all the money for!? … (checks whether Nick Valdes has already wired his own salary) … What? The line of fur care products I prefur is very expensive!

Not one of those would be 30-year-old ex-Capitals starter Zach Stewart. The left-hander had been through a horrendous 9-14, 5.51 ERA campaign after decent results before that, but insisted on a 5-year deal when I thought more along the lines of a guaranteed year and a juicy vesting option. Which was too bad, given that none of the five starters that had finished the year in our rotation had made an all too compelling case to be there for the start of 2058. The best FIP on that crew was Carreno’s 4.41, and after that it got bleak quite rapidly. Brobeck and DeRose were the only guys with a FIP under 5 besides Carreno.

Let’s not forget that our offense was the second-meekest in the CL and the fourth-puniest in the league, and that was before we lost Josh Abercrombie to free agency. Signing Jesus Martinez would help, but the Raccoons had a gaping hole at first base (Aaron Wade: .155/.187/.282 with the worst BABIP I have ever seen, but still…), no credible second catcher (or even a first catcher), and our current solution for “who’s in center?” was Steve Royer, who was expensive and barely out-hitting Lonzo in the OPS department. In fact between those two we were paying $4.56M, more than 20% of the current payroll including scores of minimum players on the 40-man roster and (soon?) off it, for 1,037 PA’s worth of a 66 OPS+. Tony Benitez hadn’t hit. Daniel Espinoza hadn’t hit. Jake Griggs hadn’t hit. Griggs was perhaps a new record in the “is it something in the water?” category, going from batting .321/.423/.395 with the Thunder to .222/.282/.273 on the Coons. He wasn’t expected to do much, but continuing to breathe would have been nice!

The Condors offered aging catcher (red flag there) Nick Samuel to the Raccoons in late November. Samuel was hitting for no average with considerable pop, but the Raccoons would be stuck with him through his age 37 season in ’60, and I wasn’t keen on that, even for Todd Oley and a remote prospect.

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November 17 – The Buffaloes acquire CL Kyle Zanni (7-15, 4.36 ERA, 39 SV) from the Rebels for two prospects.
November 21 – The Knights sign ex-POR OF Josh Abercrombie (.312, 42 HR, 479 RBI) to a 6-yr, $39.6M contract. The Raccoons receive a supplemental round pick for compensation.
November 21 – The Buffaloes ink a deal with ex-WAS LF/RF Dan Martin (.285, 131 HR, 485 RBI) for $34.2M over six years.
November 21 – Former Titans OF/2B Eric Whitlow (.238, 71 HR, 370 RBI) signs a 5-yr, $18.4M contract with the Thunder.
November 25 – The Raccoons pounce with all four paws on the target as they sign the Cuban free agent pair of 27-year-old SP Bobby Herrera and 28-year-old OF/1B Jesus Martinez on the same day. Both receive 6-year deals. Herrera’s is worth $24M, while Martinez will make $21M over the course of the contract.

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The Herrera and Martinez contracts are flat. If they had driven a harder bargain I would have tried to front-load the contracts, since we do have money now (although I just peppered out $45M like it’s candy).

And Herrera’s contract might not even be the biggest one we shell out this winter. (cue the dramatic music)

Other former Coons with new employment: Mitch Sivertson got $422k from the Loggers; Kenneth Spencer (minors only, but annoying enough whenever we face him) signed for 2-yr, $812k with San Francisco; the Miners got Wade Gardner for $650k;