[Westheim]

Before we get to the Raccoons for offseason business, first some unfortunate news. The day after the World Series ended, the Loggers and Perry Pigman held a tearful press conference in which Pigman, age 29, announced his retirement with his left throwing arm in an all new brace after he had fractured his surgically re-glued elbow again in rehab workouts and it was now busted beyond repair to be fit beyond everyday use again. In a nine-season career, Pigman was an All Star four times and won three Platinum Sticks. He was a .323/.398/.458 batter with 1,193 hits, 80 homers, 500 RBI, and 304 stolen bases.

The Loggers. The poor Loggers…

That left us with mess of our own to take care of. Once again, the Raccoons were out to look for a new head scout, as “Banjo” Pigg chose to retire after the last season. In his papers Cristiano found a scouting report he made for *me*, where I was apparently scoring high for eccentricity and stubbornness, and some red flags about how I was resistant to instructions from the coaches and manager. Cristiano couldn’t stop giggling, and so, since I was miffed after the Crusaders had gone ahead of the Raccoons in total World Series rings again, on the way home that evening I distracted him in the parking lot and then attached one of the rear wheels of his wheelchair to a lamp post with a bike lock and took the key home with me, so he’d learn his lesson.

Speaking of eccentrics, the office of Nick Brown, who was over 80 these days and wasn’t getting out a lot anymore, apparently, approved a budget increase from $55M to $58M for the new season. This lifted us from 14th to 11th among all teams in the league.

Top 5: Crusaders ($88M), Knights ($83M), Buffaloes ($75M), Thunder ($73M), Pacifics ($73M)
Bottom 5: Indians ($44M), Wolves ($43.5M), Cyclones ($42.5M), Loggers ($38.5M), Aces ($33.5M)

The top 5 were identical to the top 5 from last year, even in that order, and only the Crusaders got a substantial budget increase. The remaining CL North teams ranked 10th (BOS, $60M) and 19th (VAN, $46.5M).

The average budget for an ABL team now was $57.9M, which was actually *down* by about $200k from last season. The median budget was $57M, an increase of $1M over 12 months.

+++

So, well. Now it was just about working out how we’d undo a team that had won five straight division titles, four pennants and two rings in that span, and had $30M in pocket money compared to us, which would buy the best player in the league, four times.

The Raccoons, despite a lot of whining and cursing about the rotation, finished the year with the third-fewest runs allowed in the CL. The problem was again with the offense, which just didn’t work out – AGAIN. We only had a +17 run differential, so were actually fewer runs over .500 than we ended up being games over .500. Third in starters’ ERA, fourth in bullpen ERA. Seventh in defense, which was not outrageous considering that we spent much of the season with two infielders at positions they were capable of playing, but really hadn’t up to that point.

The idea had been that Joey Christopher and Lonzo made a serviceable 1-2 that would get on base (.388 OBP for Joe-Chris), and then plonk singles and/or steal bases to get something into scoring position. Lonzo missed 30 games, but hit .269 with 50 steals, which was not horrendous, although more would have been great. Behind that, we put together what we presumed to be a strong battery of five hitters that would all put up OPS+ values well in excess of 100 with (whatever the order might be on a given day) Nick Nye, Noah Caswell, Trent Brassfield, Joel Starr, and Angel Perez.

It worked out in the sense that they all put up OPS+ values over 100, but Perez and Cas barely did so, Brass and Nye couldn’t break 120, and between Nye, Brass, and Cas, the quintet spent an offense-depressing 160+ games on the DL. Nick Fowler was a solid plug at third base, although he faded late and finished with a 99 OPS+. The bench, except for backup catcher Chris Maresh, was overwhelmingly useless and hit well below league average, with the notable exception of Ben Morris, who got more at-bats than Caswell after a mid-season callup as injury replacement, ultimately appearing in 100 games and hitting .294/.369/.413 for a 118 OPS+, which was not bad at all for a 22-year-old. It also forced ourselves to think about whether he should really go back to AAA on his last option next April.

At the same time there was a real question what the rotation would look like next year, as well as the bullpen. The pitching staff remained in a state of flux despite the good ERA rankings, and it wasn’t gonna get better any time soon. Zach Stewart was an upcoming free agent, and his erratic second half (also, hurt) made the Raccoons wonder whether they should spend a lot on a 33-year-old. Ruben Mendez was also up for free agency after failing to trigger his vesting option, and the other experienced closer the Raccoons had signed last winter, Ryan Sullivan, would miss all of next year with the fried shoulder.

Other upcoming free agents included Chris Maresh (who was a type B free agent), Oscar Caballero, who was woeful his second time ‘round, and Lonzo, who was sure as heck going to get an offer, especially since he had no compensation attached.

Six more players were arbitration eligible. This included infielder Nick Fowler and David Gonzales, starters Justin DeRose and Duarte Damasceno, and relievers Reynaldo Bravo and Ricky Herrera, the old wins monster. That was five players with at least some use scenario… and David Gonzales.

Well, even Gonzales was not completely useless as a switch-hitting glove-first infielder, but whether that was worth burning half a million was an entirely different question.

So, the Raccoons looked at holes in the pitching staff, another search for a backup catcher, and potentially a glut of outfielders if Ben Morris was supposed to be on the roster. The early estimate was about $9M on paw to fix it all, which looked like a challenge.