[Westheim]

The Raccoons were scratching around the edges of the roster in February and March. Centerfield defense looked like it was going to be one sore spot on the roster, with no entirely reasonable option between the apparent starting three of Spicer, Kozak, and Corral, and even the backups still hanging around the roster (Campos, Garmon, Tallent) were casual defenders in centerfield at best.

At one point there was a deal on the table that would have sent Ben Morris back from the Warriors to the Raccoons for a reliever of some description (maybe even Kurihara, who was beneath consideration for a roster spot at this stage), but that had more to do with the Warriors’ wish to distance themselves from Morris, who spent most of the season with various ailments and only had 146 at-bats. What a promising career, entirely derailed and burned by injuries at the ripe old age of 27.

We also weren’t hot on a left-hander in that roster spot and in the end I sighed loudly and didn’t make any other moves, instead hoping for the waiver wire on Opening Day to find a right-handed or switch-hitting centerfielder that would make sense as fifth outfielder – probably at the expense of Randy Tallent, but he had arrived as a waiver claim, he could also get replaced with a waiver claim, especially after hitting a flat .200 last year – which was even an upgrade on his career average.

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February 18 – The Thunder pounce on former Stars RF/LF Roberto Almanza (.307, 6 HR, 377 RBI), who signs a 7-year, $40.26M deal with Oklahoma City.
February 18 – The Condors sign up ex-BOS CL Nick Leigh (33-37, 3.58 ERA, 76 SV) to a 2-yr, $2.86M contract.
February 23 – Indy adds former Gold Sox SP Raul Ontiveros (76-87, 3.87 ERA) on a $2.72M deal for 2065.
March 1 – The Warriors trade SP Kenny Donnelly (37-30, 3.94 ERA) to the Scorpions for 2B/SS Justin Finnegan (.265, 33 HR, 173 RBI) and a prospect.
March 5 – The Falcons trade for Boston’s SP Jayden Craddock (84-69, 3.47 ERA) and $3M in cash, parting in turn with OF/1B Joe Washington (.244, 45 HR, 221 RBI) and a prospect.
March 12 – In a trade sending shock waves through California, the Bayhawks trade LF Grant Anker (.279, 168 HR, 677 RBI) to the Scorpions for 1B Jared McLaughlin (.279, 49 HR, 220 RBI) and an unranked prospect.
April 4 – Two days away from Opening Day, ex-IND 2B Mike Weber (.245, 38 HR, 220 RBI) hooks up with the Thunder for a 2-year deal worth $4.96M.

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Rumor has it that Bayhawks GM Juan Torres was forced to deal away one of the big earners by the team’s owners just to get the team under budget for the new season. How that would affect a team that already lost 99 games *with* their best players and biggest earners in 2064 was probably not that hard to guess.

Joey Christopher was another former Critter to sign a new contract with another team. Joe-Chris would get $600k from the Wolves; Nick Fowler got $540k from the Warriors; Elmer Maldonado joined the Miners for $980k;