[Westheim]

Before long, Matt Kilday was off the table and I could stop being tempted to blow the #13 pick at him. The Knights were even kind enough to take him out of the division.

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November 25 – The Knights sign ex-IND INF Matt Kilday (.309, 14 HR, 434 RBI) to a 6-year, $48.6M contract. Kilday had 350 career stolen bases at age 26.
November 27 – The Raccoons sign Japanese free agent INF/LF/RF Yukio Aoki, age 26, to a $600k contract.
November 27 – Pittsburgh signs ex-POR LF/CF Malik Crumble (.273, 66 HR, 272 RBI) to a 2-yr, $3.84M deal.
November 28 – The Condors bring 2B/SS Willie Acosta (.288, 106 HR, 684 RBI) back to the CL South after two years with Washington. The 34-year-old three-time CL Player of the Year gets a 2-year, $10.2M contract.
November 28 – Atlanta also signs former Crusaders catcher Matt McLaren (.279, 243 HR, 903 RBI) to a $10.6M deal over two years.
December 1 – Rule 5 Draft: 15 players are selected that were not protected on 40-man rosters. The Knights make four of those selections. The Raccoons select INF Max Peck (.345, 0 HR, 3 RBI), age 28, from the Condors.
December 2 – The Knights acquire 36-yr old SP Brian Fuqua (70-83, 4.04 ERA) from the Warriors for INF/LF/RF Omar Lira (.294, 47 HR, 435 RBI) and a prospect.
December 3 – Boston inks 1B Bill Joyner (.325, 157 HR, 826 RBI), formerly of the Gold Sox, to a 2-yr, $14.2M contract.
December 3 – The Knights keep piling up players with the addition of former Blue Sox 2B/SS Paul Labonte (.278, 27 HR, 299 RBI) on a 3-yr, $6.72M contract.
December 3 – Atlanta also sends C Marco Nieto (.316, 44 HR, 478 RBI) to the Crusaders in exchange for MR Cory Leonard (19-19, 4.08 ERA, 36 SV) and a prospect.
December 5 – Cincinnati sends SP Tom Delaney (38-38, 3.49 ERA) to the Warriors for 1B/3B Andy Hafner (.270, 0 HR, 11 RBI), who has under 100 at-bats at age 32, and a prospect.
December 7 – San Francisco acquires SP Goffredo Merlin (45-37, 3.98 ERA) from the Rebels in exchange for two prospects.

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Aoki’s foremost quality will be defense, with any hitting coming as a bonus. I am rather hesitant to go into the new season with him as starting shortstop but at the current point we’re also struggling to get a better player lined up. But for the time being, having a middle infielder on the right side of 30 was gonna be a blast.

Not to cut off Rich Monck here, who was likely to move to second base, since finding one middle infielder was hard enough right now, let alone two. That would allow Vic Morales back to third base to start the year, and to give making a 30 errors in a season an honest effort. So Aoki was likely gonna be on the roster, and perhaps even the starting shortstop. Not that he’d even reach Yoshi Yamada fame, a former no-hit Raccoons shortstop that won the CL stolen base title in his only full season in the league before being axed for not hitting (and yet he still stole bags like crazy).

For other middle infielders, the Gold Sox were actively trying to part with Korean Je-ju Seul, but he came off a horrendous season and I wasn’t interested. In the meantime we picked Max Peck in the Rule 5 draft, adding another right-handed nothing bat for the middle infield tussle.

Nothing else going on otherwise, although we were poking around a free agent or two and dangling a certain injury-prone outfielder to lukewarm reception by the other 23 teams… except for a new Hall of Fame ballot!