[Westheim]

December 16 – The Titans sign ex-MIL OF John Parrish (.237, 59 HR, 310 RBI) to a 4-year deal worth just $6.48M.
December 18 – Dallas signs up former Caps CL Jon Dominguez (62-75, 3.22 ERA, 395 SV) to a 3-year, $8.52M contract.
December 21 – 35-year-old lefty SP Edwin Moreno (121-124, 3.71 ERA) joins the Warriors for two years and $15.1M after six years with the Blue Sox.
December 23 – The Capitals add switch-hitting ex-VAN LF/RF Roberto Lozada (.285, 156 HR, 738 RBI) for $38.5M over seven seasons.
December 24 – The Blue Sox have a new catcher, former Scorpions backstop Ryan Rogers (.255, 102 HR, 472 RBI), who joins for $8M over three seasons.
December 24 – Another former Scorpion, outfielder Mike Pinault (.229, 123 HR, 549 RBI), signs a $12.6M contract over five seasons with the Buffaloes.
December 25 – Vancouver inks ex-PIT SP Jay Williams (96-105, 4.05 ERA) for just two years and $4.08M.
December 25 – L.A. presents former Warriors INF Jared Duhe (.259, 79 HR, 520 RBI), the 34-year-old having signed a $9.52M deal over two years with the team.
December 26 – The Miners acquire SP Shane Utting (25-27, 4.54 ERA) from the Scorpions for #43 prospect Kevin Anderson.
December 26 – The Titans lure OF Bill Davidson (.232, 104 HR, 481 RBI) away from their New York division rivals with a 4-year contract worth $15.2M.
December 29 – The Raccoons announce the addition of 28-year-old former Boston INF/LF Edgar Gonzales (.276, 51 HR, 385 RBI) on a 4-year, $13.25M contract.
January 1 – The Miners start the new year by signing former Falcons SS Trent Taylor (.254, 98 HR, 589 RBI) to a 2-year, $7.12M deal.
January 1 – The Blue Sox and former Rebs CL George Kehoe (18-18, 3.50 ERA, 90 SV) sign a 3-year, $13.92M contract.
January 7 – L.A. wins the services of ex-OCT CL Jon McGinley (59-63, 3.00 ERA, 312 SV) for $7.08M over two years.
January 9 – The Warriors announce the addition of former Raccoons 1B Alejandro Olivares (.289, 133 HR, 783 RBI). The 35-year-old signs for a 2-year, $7.08M contract. The Raccoons receive a supplemental-round pick as compensation.

+++

The Gonzales signing came about twice as expensive as the first offer, since we had to add a fourth year to get ahead of the competition, partly because we needed the first year to be cheaper. The contract was slightly backloaded for $3.5M annually *except* for the 2072 season where he’d make only $2.75M.

Although Gonzales had won the Gold Glove at short with the Miners, third base was his best position and where he’d be parked up now, so Katz remained at short. It was a bit of an odd situation now in that we had three quite capable infielders between those two and Yocum that could all play multiple positions and up the middle, but all of them were weakest at short. Neither Brian McFarland nor Nick Luebbert were defensive wizards at the position, either, so perhaps a strong defensive shortstop, the type that tended to hit .230 with no power, but came in a sixpack for a twenny, wouldn’t be the worst addition in the second half of this offseason.

More recently, the Stars have dangled RF/1B/LF Victor David Morales (not: ex-Coon Victor Hugo Morales) to us. The switch-hitting slugger had a .271 average and 18 homers last year, and stole ten bases. He had been worth 2.8 WAR last season, more than any Raccoons outfielder besides Steve Humphries. In ’69 he even led the FL in steals, but he was 32 by now. He cost $3.8M per year through ’74 and promised to be a better rightfield solution (though his defense was best described as “mid”) than the Colter/Otter platoon we had currently fumbled together. But here we had two teams with no money trying to strike a deal…

For former Furballs, there were these new contracts to report: Malcolm Spicer got $760k to continue his tour of CL North teams with the Crusaders (only Loggers and Titans to go!); Dan Graham did well enough for himself with a 2-year, $2.52M contract with the Pacifics; 42-year-old Nick Robinson goes back for another year with the Loggers at $1.04M; Lorenzo Marquez signed with the Knights for $620k;

+++

2072 HALL OF FAME BALLOT

There would not be a grand induction ceremony at the Baseball Hall of Fame this year, as nobody managed to get elected to the Hall of Fame (or get even close) on the ballot that was with electors for consideration this winter.

Full voting results (with number of years on ballot and vote share):

CIN LF Juan del Toro – 2nd – 38.9%
CHA RF Danny Ceballos – 3rd – 31.3%
LVA RF Aubrey Austin – 1st – 30.2%
??? SS Julio Moriel – 4th – 18.1%
LAP RF Matt Diskin – 6th – 14.6%
IND LF Danny Rivera – 9th – 13.2%
??? CL Jason Posey – 3rd – 9.0%
ATL C Marco Nieto – 1st – 8.7%
IND CL Tommy Gardner – 4th – 8.3%
??? CL Mike Lynn – 9th – 8.0%
CHA C Luis Miranda – 2nd – 5.6%
NAS C Jose Cantu – 3rd – 5.6%
??? SS Alex Adame – 8th – 5.6%
??? CL Ben Lussier – 3rd – 4.2%
RIC 1B Mario Delgadillo – 1st – 3.1% – DROPPED
LVA LF Ken Hummel – 1st – 2.8% – DROPPED
IND 3B Bobby Anderson – 2nd – 2.8% – DROPPED
NAS SP Travis Baker – 2nd – 1.7% – DROPPED