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Westheim · 06-21-2025, 05:11 AM

Having posted consecutive seasons of 90+ losses for the first time since 2000-01 (!), the Raccoons were almost guaranteed to not get any big contributions from owner Adam Valdes to rebuild the charred remains of the team. Much the opposite, the budget was slashed another $2M down to $57M. This dropped the Raccoons one more spot from 12th to 13th in the ranking of all 24 teams, but the chasm to the top teams was starting to become quite frightening. We were just $4M above the bottom 5 in the league, but by now we were $24M adrift of the top 5…

Top 5: Titans ($97M), Stars ($89M), Knights ($88M), Thunder ($85M), Crusaders ($81M)
Bottom 5: Miners/Falcons ($52M), Warriors ($51M), Loggers ($45.5M), Wolves ($43.5M), Aces ($42M)

The top 5 were the same as last season, although the Titans and Stars moved past the Knights, who had squandered the biggest budget in the league last year.

The remaining CL North teams could be found tied for 14th in a threesome of the Indians, damn Elks, and Bayhawks, all at $56M, basically the same as the Coons. The median budget went down another $500k to $58M, while the average budget surged a whopping $1.85M to $62.95M.

+++

The newest budget cut motivated some immediate and perhaps knee-jerk reactions. At this point we had to cut scouting by $1.2M and play development by half that just to stop the bleed at the top of the accounting sheet.

Savage cuts would have to be made to the roster, which was ever good news on a team that would have deserved to lose 102 games. To start with some bad news, Jorge Quinones, who piled up a 7+ ERA as a Raccoon, triggered the $1.42M vesting option in his contract and would hang around as a 37-year-old hot air blower in the bullpen next year. Yay!

On the bright paw, some savings could be made on the arbitration side, maybe. Six players were lined up there, including relievers Jesse Dover, Pedro Mendoza, and Ubaldo Piteira; shortstop-by-default Pablo Novelo; rightfielder Jose Corral; and super utility Randy Tallent; and how much do you REALLY want to spend on the comfort of a guy playing seven positions that is a career .224 hitter? Corral might turn into a useful player yet, and maybe we would try to tie him down with a 4-5 year contract. Novelo had been AWFUL, batting below replacement level and dragging his tush through on D alone.

Jesse Dover had saved 20 games without ever being officially named closer this season – officially the team had gone closer-by-committee all season! – and was professionally pissed off all the time. He had also walked 6.4 batters per nine innings, up sharply from 3.7 in ’65, and I was tempted to fish for something else with the superficial competence of his 3.12 ERA. Pedro Mendoza had been blissfully useless and would be 37 years old, and Piteira, perhaps a back-end of the rotation option for a team struggling for oxygen on Poverty Row, was going to cost nearly a million and would miss at least a couple of months to begin the new season recovering from Tommy John surgery. Both Mendoza and Piteira would be non-tendered, but the Raccoons would boldly waste more at-bats on Novelo and Tallent, probably.

For free agents, we had one veteran infielder that had dropped to AAA and hadn’t been missed in Jorge Caballero, and four more pitchers. This notably included three that had been very useful at one point or another, including starters Juan Sanchez (a type B free agent) and Chance Fox (longest-continuously-serving player on staff), although Fox had missed most of the season with his own shredded elbow and was not going to make Opening Day, either. The Coons were eager for that extra draft pick although Sanchez could potentially get A LOT in arbitration if he picked up the offer, but we also would not be averse to give Fox a one-year contract IF he’d sign for reclamation project money. Also on the list were two righty relievers, very reliable Justin Cullum and then Cruz Madrid, who had done nothing to earn that moniker and had also missed almost all of ’66 to injury.

If the Coons tried to swing Dover in a trade, then Cullum was a non-terrible option to replace him with as non-official closer… until you realized that he had gotten socked for the four years prior to his 2.13 Portland ERA, meandering from team to team and pitching to 4.30+ ERA’s exclusively in that period.

So we just kick out EVERYBODY??

How often do you have to salt the earth in the bullpen until something grows anew?

06-21-2025, 05:11 AM	#4692
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,735	Having posted consecutive seasons of 90+ losses for the first time since 2000-01 (!), the Raccoons were almost guaranteed to not get any big contributions from owner Adam Valdes to rebuild the charred remains of the team. Much the opposite, the budget was slashed another $2M down to $57M. This dropped the Raccoons one more spot from 12th to 13th in the ranking of all 24 teams, but the chasm to the top teams was starting to become quite frightening. We were just $4M above the bottom 5 in the league, but by now we were $24M adrift of the top 5… Top 5: Titans ($97M), Stars ($89M), Knights ($88M), Thunder ($85M), Crusaders ($81M) Bottom 5: Miners/Falcons ($52M), Warriors ($51M), Loggers ($45.5M), Wolves ($43.5M), Aces ($42M) The top 5 were the same as last season, although the Titans and Stars moved past the Knights, who had squandered the biggest budget in the league last year. The remaining CL North teams could be found tied for 14th in a threesome of the Indians, damn Elks, and Bayhawks, all at $56M, basically the same as the Coons. The median budget went down another $500k to $58M, while the average budget surged a whopping $1.85M to $62.95M. +++ The newest budget cut motivated some immediate and perhaps knee-jerk reactions. At this point we had to cut scouting by $1.2M and play development by half that just to stop the bleed at the top of the accounting sheet. Savage cuts would have to be made to the roster, which was ever good news on a team that would have deserved to lose 102 games. To start with some bad news, Jorge Quinones, who piled up a 7+ ERA as a Raccoon, triggered the $1.42M vesting option in his contract and would hang around as a 37-year-old hot air blower in the bullpen next year. Yay! On the bright paw, some savings could be made on the arbitration side, maybe. Six players were lined up there, including relievers Jesse Dover, Pedro Mendoza, and Ubaldo Piteira; shortstop-by-default Pablo Novelo; rightfielder Jose Corral; and super utility Randy Tallent; and how much do you REALLY want to spend on the comfort of a guy playing seven positions that is a career .224 hitter? Corral might turn into a useful player yet, and maybe we would try to tie him down with a 4-5 year contract. Novelo had been AWFUL, batting below replacement level and dragging his tush through on D alone. Jesse Dover had saved 20 games without ever being officially named closer this season – officially the team had gone closer-by-committee all season! – and was professionally pissed off all the time. He had also walked 6.4 batters per nine innings, up sharply from 3.7 in ’65, and I was tempted to fish for something else with the superficial competence of his 3.12 ERA. Pedro Mendoza had been blissfully useless and would be 37 years old, and Piteira, perhaps a back-end of the rotation option for a team struggling for oxygen on Poverty Row, was going to cost nearly a million and would miss at least a couple of months to begin the new season recovering from Tommy John surgery. Both Mendoza and Piteira would be non-tendered, but the Raccoons would boldly waste more at-bats on Novelo and Tallent, probably. For free agents, we had one veteran infielder that had dropped to AAA and hadn’t been missed in Jorge Caballero, and four more pitchers. This notably included three that had been very useful at one point or another, including starters Juan Sanchez (a type B free agent) and Chance Fox (longest-continuously-serving player on staff), although Fox had missed most of the season with his own shredded elbow and was not going to make Opening Day, either. The Coons were eager for that extra draft pick although Sanchez could potentially get A LOT in arbitration if he picked up the offer, but we also would not be averse to give Fox a one-year contract IF he’d sign for reclamation project money. Also on the list were two righty relievers, very reliable Justin Cullum and then Cruz Madrid, who had done nothing to earn that moniker and had also missed almost all of ’66 to injury. If the Coons tried to swing Dover in a trade, then Cullum was a non-terrible option to replace him with as non-official closer… until you realized that he had gotten socked for the four years prior to his 2.13 Portland ERA, meandering from team to team and pitching to 4.30+ ERA’s exclusively in that period. So we just kick out EVERYBODY?? How often do you have to salt the earth in the bullpen until something grows anew? Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 92 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.