[Westheim]

The Winter Meetings arrived and … we still couldn’t get anything done. The Raccoons had little to offer in trades except for a few obvious prospects. Chance Fox was also getting some attention from other teams, but the rotation was the ONE thing I had in place and wasn’t gonna tear it apart now…!

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December 2 – Vancouver deals MR David Figueroa (3-3, 3.23 ERA) to the Aces for #181 prospect MR Steve Slye.
December 2 – The Falcons trade 2B/SS Joe Hullander (.221, 29 HR, 185 RBI) and a prospect to the Miners for right-hander Ivan Rodriguez (4-3, 5.78 ERA).
December 2 – Further, the Falcons send C Braden McCarver (.252, 17 HR, 91 RBI) to the Buffaloes for a prospect.
December 3 – The Wolves sign up former Pacifics SP Keith Thompson (54-58, 4.46 ERA) on a 3-yr, $10.92M contract.
December 3 – The Bayhawks acquire C Kyle Mathews (.247, 21 HR, 147 RBI) from the Aces in exchange for SP Bill Grau (35-32, 3.93 ERA) and $850k in cash.
December 4 – The Thunder deal SP Mike Hall (34-36, 4.26 ERA) and $550k to the Blue Sox, getting two prospects in return.
December 5 – LF/RF/1B Cesar Santiago (.276, 44 HR, 234 RBI) and $500k in cash go from the Thunder to the Warriors in exchange for INF Jorge Caballero (.263, 4 HR, 59 RBI) and a prospect.
December 13 – The Thunder secure the return of 2B/SS Ryan Spehar (.262, 43 HR, 382 RBI). The 32-year-old former Crusader signs a 2-year, $4.08M deal.
December 14 – Ex-Indians SP Zach Stewart (80-90, 3.93 ERA) gets a 2-year, $11.2M deal from the Buffaloes.
December 19 – The Knights have themselves the second-place active career base stealer, ex-PIT 2B/3B Alex Vasquez (.294, 37 HR, 709 RBI) on a 3-yr, $9.16M deal for the 36-year-old.

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I wish there was ANYTHING to report. I wish we had taken somebody in the Rule 5 draft to be even remotely able to claim that we were doing things. But the ugly truth was that all our surpluses (first basemen, lefty relief, god-awful middle infielders) were not exactly sought after, and even the one or two big earners I was dangling were not exactly evoking excitement up and down the league.

Apart from that, Juan del Toro signed an $850k deal with the Rebels;

And, well, there was a Hall of Fame ballot out there, and there’s all of 37 games played by Critters on it.