[Westheim]

2069 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set in parenthesis shows 2068 stats, second set career stats; players with an * are off season acquisitions;

SP Nick Walla, 28, B:R, T:R (14-13, 2.75 ERA | 44-44, 3.41 ERA) – Walla has five good pitches, and came close to an ERA title in 2068 before a late fade derailed the campaign, and he would be even better if he had a wipeout pitch in his arsenal. He was held to 159 K in 222 innings last year, but at least the HR/9 didn’t go further up than it already was, and he walked fewer than two batters per nine innings. He also led the league in WHIP and an entire rotation of “stuff ho-hum, command pretty good, but oh, launchpads!” only starts here.
SP Vinny Morales, 27, B:S, T:R (9-5, 3.28 ERA | 9-10, 3.66 ERA) – returned from the list of busted prospects as a midseason replacement and suddenly managed to pitch competently at the major league level, even though his strikeouts were rather few and far between. Good control, but tends to give up dingers and doesn’t have a lot of stamina.
SP Girolamo Pizzichini, 34, B:R, T:R (6-10, 3.62 ERA | 56-68, 4.40 ERA, 1 SV) – in the second year of the 2-year deal he signed one winter ago, and all included in the “good control, but plenty of dingers” club with his decent, but not exactly high-strikeout four-pitch mix with groundball potential
SP Tony Gaytan, 25, B:R, T:R (8-10, 4.34 ERA | 22-34, 4.25 ERA) – gives up too many home runs, but his control is usually good, unless he randomly has a day where he can’t even throw it into the correct zip code. He’s however already getting all the defensive support one can wish for with a .288 career BABIP, so it’s probably not gonna get any better with him.
SP A.C. Stebbins *, 38, B:L, T:L (9-10, 4.66 ERA | 125-111, 3.94 ERA, 1 SV) – grizzled veteran (mostly in the FL) that remained available into February and signed a 1-year contract to join the club of few strikeouts, not too many walks, but always happy to start the fireworks.

SP/MR Cody Childress, 28, B:R, T:R (0-1, 4.50 ERA | 0-4, 7.25 ERA) – former second-rounder and failed starter with nominally three good pitches, and especially a changeup that would make Walla Pitcher of the Year, but a dead straight fastball and wonky control prevent him from being more than a garbage collector at this point after a total of eight spot starts in the last few years.
MR Matt Schmieder, 27, B:R, T:R (2-2, 5.23 ERA | 2-3, 5.25 ERA) – this Alabama righty brings a very good curveball, but he can miss pretty badly both outside the strike zone and inside it, too, although he’s so far only given up one major league homer in 36 innings – but 48 bombs in 625 minor-league innings.
SP/MR Gabriel Rios, 27, B:L, T:L (4-4, 3.72 ERA | 14-19, 4.04 ERA, 1 SV) – another failed starter with four pitches and serious complications in the command and control area, giving out 105 free passes in 162 innings in ’67, when even the best BABIP in the league couldn’t keep him together to post a 4.21 ERA. It’s not really gotten any better since.
MR Danny Nava, 27, B:R, T:R (5-1, 2.81 ERA, 4 SV | 38-29, 3.59 ERA, 50 SV) – this four-pitch righty that led the FL in saves in 2065 and then started 28 games the year after that came over from the Thunder in July and managed to pitch 22.2 innings for the Critters with ZERO walks (!!), which didn’t mean he didn’t give up some runs through other means. Flyball pitcher, but should be pretty reliable in the seventh/eighth inning. His low stamina keeps him out of the starter conversation, but in a pinch he could totally make spot starts, too.
SU Ricky McMahan, 27, B:L, T:L (7-4, 3.38 ERA, 2 SV | 14-10, 3.51 ERA, 10 SV) – had some real development in 2067, reducing his walk rate by 65% (!!) while upping the strikeouts, becoming a contender for the closer’s job (which he still didn’t win), but went back to having some pretty depressing blackouts in 2068, even though the overall walk rate remained relatively low at 2.9 BB/9. Not currently a serious candidate for the closer’s job.
SU Jesse Dover, 27, B:R, T:R (5-2, 3.12 ERA, 5 SV | 17-19, 3.24 ERA, 60 SV) – with a blazing fastball at 97mph and a good slider, Dover gets groundballs which sometimes even help him wiggle out of his own bases-loaded mess (4.5 BB/9 in ’68), and oh yeah, he’s a real clubhouse menace. The Raccoons still gave him a contract through 2071 with the vain hope that some winning will keep him calm.
CL Pedro Valentin, 29, B:S, T:R (3-1, 2.44 ERA, 41 SV | 20-15, 2.92 ERA, 69 SV) – led the FL in saves in his first Coons year after being acquired in that mixed-bag deal with the Cyclones along with Duhe and Rautenstrauch. He brings a GORGEOUS curveball and a 96mph heater and I don’t really have any complaints about anything right now (!) …

C Jake Flowe, 26, B:L, T:R (.258, 11 HR, 58 RBI | .263, 15 HR, 79 RBI) – got all the time in the world to prepare himself for his first season as major league primary catcher and then hit ten homers in the first half of the season before spending the back half of the season mostly as a deflated beach ball. We’re convinced there’s more to get from his stick.
C Lorenzo Marquez *, 32, B:S, T:R (.240, 4 HR, 21 RBI | .268, 71 HR, 308 RBI) – this year’s veteran catcher signing / designated bystander behind Jake Flowe will be Marquez, who’s on his fourth team in four years, all as backup, a steep tumble from hitting 19 homers in his rookie season with the Gold Sox. Not an outstanding defensive catcher, but he has a pretty strong throwing arm.

1B Joel Starr, 36, B:L, T:L (.303, 34 HR, 122 RBI | .276, 187 HR, 768 RBI) – after years of “above average OPS, but…” service, Starr played an absolute blinder of an age 35 season and easily won the home run crown by putting 12 bombs on top of his eight-year-old single-season mark of 22, ensuring that the Raccoons would now fall over themselves to pick up that $3.3M team option for ’69 that for half a decade looked like worthless paper promises. Physically he still looked *fine*, and who knows whether he can rake himself a contract extension at this point.
1B/LF/2B/RF/3B/CF/SS Carlos Fumero *, 27, B:R, T:R (.265, 4 HR, 57 RBI | .308, 22 HR, 374 RBI) – former Rookie of the Year and defensive Swiss Army knife that was acquired from the Knights for Jaden Wilson and figures to be the second base starter, even though in reality he can fill almost any position with competence. Had an offensive off-year in 2068 after three straight campaigns with 122+ OPS+ returns, and has a quite expensive contract for three more years.
2B/3B/SS/LF Jared Duhe, 31, B:R, T:R (.238, 13 HR, 57 RBI | .259, 50 HR, 367 RBI) – dropped 73 points of batting average and 118 points of OPS compared to his Falcons/Cyclones season in 2067 and somehow was the best out of the three veteran infielders we shipped in during the previous winter, also thanks to setting a personal best with 118 walks, which made him a deceivingly efficient (if short) weapon in the leadoff spot.
3B/2B/LF/RF J.P. Gallo *, 30, B:S, T:R (.264, 23 HR, 84 RBI | .249, 137 HR, 571 RBI) – another year, another new third baseman, with Gallo being acquired from the Scorpions to bring another high-voltage bat into the lineup, but his swing definitely has holes. He won three Platinum Sticks in the past, but also led the league in strikeouts once.
2B/SS/3B Pablo Novelo, 30, B:R, T:R (.236, 4 HR, 27 RBI | .246, 28 HR, 210 RBI) – one of the worst qualifying hitters in the league or two straight years in 2066-67, Novelo nevertheless remained on the roster all year as a backup and got over 240 at-bats for a third straight year of barely hitting for a positive WAR. Defensive weapon for sure, might see quite a bit of use as late inning replacement for Duhe.
3B/SS/2B/RF Manny Arredondo, 27, B:L, T:R (.247, 0 HR, 6 RBI | .230, 0 HR, 10 RBI) – bit of a nothing hitter, but versatile infielder with a left-handed stick, which had suddenly become valuable once the Raccoons acquired all right-handed hitting infielders, and which was the only reason why he hung around on Opening Day. This is actually almost the same blurb as last year, but apparently we did the same thing again.

LF/CF Marquise Early, 27, B:R, T:R (.259, 4 HR, 41 RBI | .242, 8 HR, 75 RBI) – nominally the starting leftfielder, Early would still see quite some rotation with Benito Otal until we could make up our mind about who was the least unimpressive option between the two.
CF Tyler Wharton *, 31, B:R, T:R (.352, 40 HR, 153 RBI | .329, 275 HR, 1,133 RBI) – TYLER WHARTON!! He’s the reason the hot dog prices doubled for the new season! Brings seven Player of the Year awards and too many other awards to list, including two hitting triple crowns in the Federal League, and cost an arm and a leg to sign. We hope all arms and legs stay on for the duration of his 6-year contract…! (nervous laughter)
RF Jose Corral, 28, B:L, T:L (.282, 13 HR, 73 RBI | .269, 80 HR, 349 RBI) – there is a bit of a pattern developing where he hits reasonably well and then inevitably suffers an injury or two and misses 30 or 55 games. At least the stick and the arm are playing whenever we can actually get him into the lineup…
LF/CF/RF Benito Otal, 24, B:L, T:L (.287, 2 HR, 19 RBI | .287, 2 HR, 19 RBI) – quirky and speedy defensive outfielder, including competence in center, who hit for more than expected during his rookie half-season, and who will have a real chance to replace Early if he can keep the stick going.
RF/LF George van Otterdijk, 24, B:R, T:R (.191, 1 HR, 5 RBI | .191, 1 HR, 5 RBI) – spare right-handed bat that didn’t exactly impress, but the Bonairean outfielder was supposed to be a pretty good hitter at some point in the future; not a great defender though.

On disabled list: Nobody.

Otherwise unavailable: Nobody.

Other roster movement:
SP Randy Rautenstrauch, 28, B:R, T:R (2-1, 5.64 ERA| 18-15, 4.63 ERA) – waived and DFA’ed; was out of the 2068 rotation almost immediately after a wretched start to the season and only returned for a couple of garbage innings later in the year. I think I know now why he hadn’t pitched in the majors for two years before the Raccoons acquired him from the Cyclones in the Duhe/Valentin trade…
SP/MR Cameron Bridges, 24, B:S, T:R (0-0, 5.14 ERA | 0-0, 4.94 ERA) – optioned to AAA; made one spot start and pitched some garbage innings again in September, with the main problem being that he had only two-and-half pitches, and the overall package just wasn’t enough to hang on to a job even at the shallow end of the pen.
MR Jason Holzmeister, 24, B:S, T:R (1-1, 5.40 ERA | 5-3, 4.25 ERA) – optioned to AAA; former Rule 5 pick that can only hold onto a job when the only other options are to shoot him in the knee or send him back to the Falcons.
MR Sean Thomas, 26, B:L, T:L (1-1, 4.60 ERA | 1-1, 9.88 ERA) – optioned to AAA; really lousy left-hander that walks everything with legs and even some things without legs, with no discernible upside against even left-handed batters.
C/1B Tony Spink, 29, B:R, T:R (.250, 0 HR, 1 RBI | .194, 0 HR, 5 RBI) – optioned to AAA; all-around unimpressive backstop that got into only five games for four at-bats as a third catcher in September.
3B/2B/SS/RF Gary Gates, 26, B:R, T:R (.280, 0 HR, 21 RBI | .250, 0 HR, 28 RBI) – optioned to AAA; the type of singles slapper that would need to hit over .300 to reach league average in OPS, and doesn’t look like he’s gonna get there any time soon, Gates lost out on the final infielder’s spot for being a right-handed batter like most of the starting players there.
1B/LF/RF/3B Jamie Colter, 27, B:L, T:R (.211, 0 HR, 4 RBI | .268, 8 HR, 51 RBI) – waived and DFA’ed; surely not the worst type of contact bat and versatile on defense, but the Raccoons were not interested in spare left-handed bench bats at this point…

Everybody not mentioned by now has already been waived, reassigned, or tied to an overland bus to Walla Walla during the offseason.

OPENING DAY LINEUP:

Vs. RHP: SS Duhe – 3B Gallo – CF Wharton – 1B Starr – RF Corral – 2B Fumero – C Flowe – LF Early (Otal) – P
(Vs. LHP: SS Duhe – 3B Gallo – CF Wharton – 1B Starr – 2B Fumero – LF Early – RF van Otterdijk – C Flowe (Marquez) – P)

Balanced lineup and we have a meaningful switch-hitter (Gallo) again. With Otal and Arredondo there are additional lefty bats against right-hander, and Pablo Novelo can play second and Fumero slide to first to give Starr a day off against southpaws.

OFF SEASON CHANGES:

For the second year in a row the Raccoons game among the top teams in offseason WAR changes according to the nerds at BNN, gaining +9.9 WAR, second-best in the league behind Cincy, the defending champs. Of course this was all down to signing Tyler ******* Wharton (+11.3). The remaining free agents were only minor contributors, and we shed -1.0 WAR in the Wilson/Fumero trade with Atlanta, but gained about +4.6 WAR in the acquisition of J.P. Gallo from Sacramento. Among our six free agents, which had given us -5.7 WAR, most had been on Alex Dominguez (-3.8).

Top 5: Cyclones (+10.3), Raccoons (+9.9), Warriors (+5.9), Miners (+5.8), Falcons (+5.8)
Bottom 5: Bayhawks (-4.2), Pacifics (-4.4), Gold Sox (-4.9), Scorpions (-6.1), Stars (-15.6)

For the rest of the CL North it was a meh winter. The Indians were 8th with +1.2 WAR, the damn Elks came 11th with -0.5, and right behind them were the Loggers and Titans with -0.7 each. The Crusaders were down in 19th with -4.0 WAR lost.

PREDICTION TIME:

Somehow the Raccoons turned it around and beat my expectation by 11 games, taking 87 wins instead of 76 after years of losing and depression. Well, there was also depression at the end of the season, but enough about that…

The Wharton addition could be huuuuge, and for once the Raccoons looked like an offensive force to consider. Now only the pitching had to hold up! Was it enough to win the division? The Titans replaced Jorge Arviso with David Johnson and that was about it for big names.

I think the Raccoons will win 90 games and give the Titans at least some headaches. Of course if the Loggers would finally get their pitching together, they could smash the whole division to bits.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

Here is something new – the Raccoons entered the season with the BEST ranked minor league system in the league after sitting in 11th place last year! We had 11 ranked prospects (up from nine), and of those, eight were in the top 100 (double last year’s total), and FOUR were in the *top 20*!

2nd (new) – A OF/1B Nelson Aguilar, 18 – 2068 July IFA signed by Raccoons
5th (0) – AAA SP Jimmy Wharton, 22 – 2067 first-round pick by Raccoons
15th (new) – AA CL Noah Newhard, 20 – 2068 supplemental round pick by Raccoons
20th (new) – A 1B Oscar Gaitan, 19 – 2068 first-round pick by Raccoons
66th (+21) – AAA SP Val Centeno, 22 – 2065 July IFA signing by Raccoons
79th (+48) – AAA SS/3B Phil Townsend, 22 – 2065 first-round pick by Raccoons
92nd (+9) – AAA INF Josh Mireles, 23 – 2061 July IFA signed by Raccoons
94th (+5) – AA OF Jesus Guerrero, 22 – 2063 July IFA signing by Raccoons
149th (new) – INT SS/3B Danny Reyes, 17 – 2067 scouting discovery by Raccoons
163rd (new) – A C Adam Quebbeman, 22 – 2067 supplemental round pick by Raccoons
188th (new) – AAA OF Jack Hamel, 21 – 2066 first-round pick by Raccoons

No longer ranked were last year’s #62 Crispino D’Urso and #103 Andrew Farlow (stars faded), #153 Brian Hills (service time), and #189 Brian McFarland, who as just off the list as the organization’s 13th-best prospect, one internal spot ahead of George van Otterdijk.

Finally, the top 10 overall prospects this year are:

#1 (+1) – SAC AA CL Gustavo Vega, 22
#2 (new) – POR A OF/1B Nelson Aguilar, 18
#3 (new) – SFB A OF/1B Ryan Redding, 19
#4 (0) – TOP AAA OF Javier Velazquez, 21
#5 (0) – POR AAA SP Jimmy Wharton, 22

#6 (new) – BOS AA CL Jay Krenek, 21
#7 (new) – OCT AA RF/INF/CF Jay Moore, 20
#8 (+14) – DEN AAA CL Kelvin Castillo, 21
#9 (+8) – DAL AA INF Carlos Saldana, 21
#10 (+70) – RIC A SP Alex Tabares, 20

Redding was the #1 pick from last year’s amateur draft. Krenek and Moore had both been supplemental-round picks in 2067 that had not been ranked last season.

With seven new players in the top 10, that meant that seven others had moved on, and some had done so with great success, like last year’s #7, Boston outfielder Manuel Garcia, who won Rookie of the Year honors in the Continental League, and the Warriors’ #3, Jordan Lopez, who just narrowly missed for the same honor in the Federal League. Knights outfielder Jorge Soto (#10) also spent almost the entire season in the major leagues, batting .223 with one homer and 33 RBI for Atlanta.

Last year’s #1 prospect, Miners SP Brian Jones, also made his debut and exceeded rookie limits, but went 1-5 with a 4.84 ERA in eight starts. The #8 prospect, Rebs outfielder Travis Bickerton, jumped from AA to the majors midseason and then hit .245 with five homers and 29 RBI in 69 games.

The old #9 prospect, Crusaders power hitter-to-be Raul Ledesma, moved from single- to double-A last year, but quietly faded five spots down to #14 on the list. And then there was Mike Raymond, an outfielder moonlighting on the right side of the infield, who made it into eight games late in the season for his Wolves, but batted .115 and dropped from #6 to #68 in the rankings, but was on the Wolves’ Opening Day roster.

Next: first pitch.