[Westheim]

January 11 – At the ripe old age of 38, career Crusaders 2B/RF/3B/LF Omar “Tiny” Sanchez (.306, 19 HR, 938 RBI) makes the jump to the Titans for a $2.16M contract. Sanchez is tied for 11th on the all-time hits leaderboard and second on the all-time steals leaderboard, just six bases behind “Lonzo” Lavorano.
January 14 – The Capitals ink 33-yr old ex-OCT SP Josh Elling (119-113, 3.73 ERA) to a 4-year, $26.8M contract.
January 19 – The Raccoons sign former Warriors SP Alex Dominguez (78-73, 3.65 ERA) on a $2.6M contract for 2068.
January 19 – The Wolves acquire 2B/SS Carlos Cervantez (.260, 7 HR, 84 RBI) from the Gold Sox for SP Jon Cuadrado (9-13, 5.03 ERA).
January 22 – The Gold Sox sign former Canadiens OF/1B Chad Whetstine (.267, 58 HR, 312 RBI) for $1.62M for the next 162 games.
January 23 – Fringe SP Rob Wilkinson (7-12, 4.18 ERA) is traded to the Knights by Sacramento, with LF/RF/1B Steve Giles (.221, 18 HR, 67 RBI) heading to the Scorpions.
January 25 – The Capitals throw $28.9M over four years at former Buffos SP Justin Kent (82-64, 3.47 ERA).
January 28 – The Raccoons sign up 31-year-old former Thunder 2B/SS Ramon Archuleta (.268, 68 HR, 325 RBI) for a one-year deal and $2.66M salary.
February 6 – Portland adds another starting pitcher in former Loggers hurler Girolamo “Pizza” Pizzichini (50-58, 4.56 ERA), who signs for two years and a total of $8.8M.

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Dominguez was a real reclamation project, since while he had been an All Star three times in his career and was only 30 years old, he also had missed almost all of 2066 with a knee injury, and then half of 2067 with a flaked elbow. There were real questions about his efficiency going forwards, but the Raccoons had little to lose right now except a random right-hander off waivers, either now or on Opening Day… In fact, since the 40-man roster was already full, Leon Arantes had to go on waivers just to get Dominguez on the extended roster, which contained a whopping 36 players still in January.

Dominguez arrived still rehabbing the torn flexor tendon and was uncertain for Opening Day.

Juan Soriano was then waived when we signed Archuleta, who was the replacement for clubhouse issue Carlos Gutierrez at second base. The addition of Pizza – and yes, that is the only name by which I will ever refer to him now – then meant the demise of left-hander Sean Thomas.

By early February, we still had 17 pitchers and 19 position players on the bloated extended roster, and I was actively engaged in trying to trade one piece or another for maybe a prospect or something, but nothing really came together there. The Agitator muses where we’ll put all those starting pitchers. But maybe it’s the approach of flinging bodies at the wall for so long until somebody finally ******* sticks!

But overcrowding was a real issue by now, and we had 15 pitchers around that I really wanted to keep. Only Cody Childress and Cameron Bridges were still hanging around and were clearly gonna go back to AAA. But we now had no fewer than SEVEN starting pitchers on the roster that I had at one point or another promised that they’d be starters for us, some even while looking them in the big black googly eyes: Nick Walla and Tony Gaytan were set without a doubt; Alex Dominguez may or may not be recovered from the busted elbow on Opening Day; then there’s Gabriel Rios, and all the other additions of George Kehoe, Pizza, and Randy Rocking Rautenstrauch. I *think* at least that’s his middle name. There’s a lot of big names on the roster for sure. Many letters, wrapping all the way around the back of the jersey!

And we still had new closer Pedro Valentin, then the trouble kid Dover that nobody wanted, Josh C and McMahan for sure, last year’s faithful permanents Yamauchi and Holzmeister, and also Matt Schmieder, and the Rule 5 pick Jorge Ruiz. The list just didn’t want to end…!

The Raccoons also got rid of a couple surplus players in the low minors that had just gotten stuck. These included 2064 sixth-rounder Jesse James, left-hander Christian Olmo who had once cost $140k as a July IFA, and some more pitchers you never heard of; and a couple of position players in Aumsville including 2066 sixth-rounder Frank Ruggerio and 2063 fifth-rounder Steve Washington.

By the way, all waiver candidates cleared waivers and were assigned to AAA.

Raccoon Rescue wire: David Milian joined the Blue Sox for $3.72M over two years; Elmer Maldonado got $720k from the Miners; the Capitals would give Nick Nye $760k; the Bayhawks pounced on Juan Sanchez for $610k; Evan Alvey was signed by the Falcons for $3.44M over two years;

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2068 HALL OF FAME BALLOT

The Hall of Fame gained another member in 2068 in 19-year infielder Ed Soberanes, who in his career spent his time nearly evenly between both short and third, and the Thunder and Miners, with preference to the former in each pair, and with sprinkles elsewhere. The Miners were actually his first team, signing him for a $1.08M bonus as an international free agent out of the Dominican Republic in 2040. He made his debut in ’44 at age 20 and stuck immediately, and went on to hit for an OPS of .809 or more in 14 of his first 15 full seasons, and the outlier was an injury-addled year where he never got feet on the ground to begin with. Soberanes was a perpetual All Star with a dozen appearances at the showcase, and won seven Platinum Sticks and a Gold Glove for annual awards, as well the CL Player of the Year award as a 2051 Thunder, and a World Series with the same team in 2053. Soberanes was always a threat to hit .300, but never won a batting title. He won a home run and RBI crown in 2051 though, hitting .300 with 31 HR and 122 RBI. That was his career-best for home runs and runs batted in, but he with the exception of that one rotten year in ’55, he also hit 16+ homers every year from 2046 through 2058. He finished his career with a season of utility duty for the Scorpions in 2062. Overall, Soberanes batted .299/.390/.472 for his career, with 2,744 hits, 317 homers, 1,423 RBI, and 408 stolen bases.

Full voting results (with year and vote share):

OCT SS Ed Soberanes – 1st – 95.9 – INDUCTED
??? RF Bill Quinteros – 1st – 72.6
SFW LF Mario Villa – 4th – 59.6
DEN 3B Ronnie Thompson – 7th – 45.6
??? LF Eddie Moreno – 5th – 43.3
LAP RF Matt Diskin – 2nd – 24.4
DEN MR Kellen Lanning – 1st – 22.2
IND LF Danny Rivera – 5th – 18.5
SAC SS Chris Navarro – 1st – 14.8
DAL LF Omar Gonzalez – 2nd – 10.7
??? SS Rick Price – 1st – 9.6
IND SP Enrique Ortiz – 1st – 8.9
??? SS Alex Adame – 4th – 8.9
??? SP Matt Sealock – 8th – 8.5
??? CL Mike Lynn – 5th – 7.0
??? CL David Hardaway – 2nd – 4.8 – DROPPED
OCT SS Ryan Cox – 7th – 4.8 – DROPPED
LVA C Kevin Weese – 3rd – 3.7 – DROPPED
CIN SP Austin Wilcox – 1st – 3.0 – DROPPED
CHA SP Art Schaeffer – 1st – 2.2 – DROPPED
TIJ C Jon Mittleider – 2nd – 1.9 – DROPPED
OCT SP Alfredo Llamas – 1st – 1.9 – DROPPED
??? SP Seisaku Taki – 1st – 1.5 – DROPPED
ATL SP Esteban Duran – 1st – 0.7 – DROPPED
PIT SS Chris Jimenez – 1st – 0.7 – DROPPED
DAL 1B Jay Rogers – 1st – 0.0 – DROPPED