Quote:
Originally Posted by Orcin
As long as you can pay Tetsu, nothing else matters.
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I really don't understand the mega hype about him. He barely managed to hit .315 in Portland.
However, with the short distance at the foul lines we have here in Portland, he could smother Daniel Hall's single season home run record for the Coons, which stands at 29.
However:
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There were a number of high profile starting pitchers available (“Mauler” Correa, to name one) as free agents, but our budget was nowhere near capable of absorbing one of them.
Saito, Ruíz, and Evans (in whatever order) should go a long way for a team trying to finish first. The problem lies in the last two spots, where neither youngsters Gonzalez and Wade, nor oldie Powell were particularly effective last year. Unloading Powell’s salary is impossible since he’s voiding any trades. Whoever gave those players whatever kind of rights??
November 16 – The Raccoons trade infielder Victor Castillo, 23, who batted all of .199 in 173 AB last year, to the Falcons for 22-yr old pitcher Manuel Paredes, who has no major league track record.
November 18 – The Pacifics claim Raccoons outfielder Fernando Perez off waivers.
November 19 – Minor leaguers are exchanged in a deal between the Raccoons and the Pacifics, as Portland sends AAA catcher Mark Mitchell, 29, south for prospects SP Yasushi Suto and INF Pablo Hernandez.
November 28 – The Condors land former Titan Juan Valentin, a career .289 batter and versatile infielder. In 831 career games, Valentin has 893 hits, landing him a 4-yr, $2.84M deal.
November 29 – The Titans add a closer in Juan Miranda, 28, who won a ring with Dallas in 1983. Miranda has 171 career saves and will earn $314k for one year.
December 1 – The Condors mean it: they trade for 25-yr old SP Flint Lewis (8-11, 3.98 ERA over parts of two seasons), sending two prospects to the Capitals.
December 1 – Rule 5 draft: a total of 17 players are taken over three rounds. The Raccoons are unaffected.
December 3 – The Warriors land veteran SP William Williams, last with Charlotte, for 2-yr, $1.29M. Williams is 120-95 with a 3.33 ERA over his career.
On some of those trades:
The Castillo trade was necessitated by a lack of at least promising young arms in my system. Plus, Castillo’s bat is terrible and while he has three positions, shortstop is the only one where he could excel. Paredes in turn has killer stuff, helping him to a 13-7 record (albeit with a 4.51 ERA) in AAA last season. Unfortunately his control is close to zero.
Three days later we traded Mark Mitchell, who had shortly blinked up in the majors for us in 1982 and 1984, going a grand total of 1-17 at the plate. He was a fourth catcher on the 40-man roster, and with the rule 5 draft coming up, I needed that spot for somebody else (which was also the point why Fernando Perez, another very-short-time Coon was waived). He also was out of options and generally just taking up space. The prospects received may never make the majors, but at least they are not on the 40-man roster.
At the end of November we also added two career minor league starting pitchers, Donald Kline and Jaime Cardenas, both 24, who should both go to either AA or AAA ball to start the season.
In late November and early December I got into talks with the Stars over a potential deal. I shopped Cam Green and they showed keen interest in him. Talks began slowly but picked up speed just before the winter meetings began. At one point the Raccoons would have sent 3B Cameron Green, OF Armando Sanchez, MR Carlos Moran, MR Richard Cunningham, and two (not-junk) minor leaguers over for OF Pancho Pacheco, 1B/2B/LF Andres Serna (the current FL ROTY!), and 21-yr old SP Jorge Rosa, also unloading in the region of $750k on salary.
But I flinched. Green and Sanchez may go. Moran, too. But at Cunningham, I flinched. Badly.
(Then I took off and cleaned my apartment for much more time than usual)
No matter how I turned it, if I wanted Rosa, I had to send Cunningham. Serna was removed from consideration (he would be hard to fit into the team anyway, given the entrenchments we had at 1B and LF, and his 2B defense was … not Gold Glove worthy) soon, we instead added MR Joaquin Bastos, who also had killer stuff, but lacked Cunningham’s stamina to go deep in extra inning affairs, and he also was at least one level below him in other aspects.
Rosa was not without flaws, either. At 21 he already had missed a year with a torn flexor tendon. The seven starts he did make in 1985 – wow! But there was definitely a risk note attached to his back.
At the winter meetings the trade shrunk to a proposal by the Raccoons that included Green, Sanchez, and Moran for just Pacheco and Rosa, which the Stars declined. They also declined just Green and Moran for Rosa. They would instantly agree at Green, Moran AND Sanchez for young Rosa.
Another deal that would work out would be Green, Sanchez, Moran and Cunningham for Rosa, Pacheco, and Derek Wolfe, a very reliable left-handed reliever.
Green's bad defense has been much talked about, he also can't hit north of .250 and only has one position. Sanchez was a disappointment in his first season in Portland, posting his worst average ever (as is custom for new POR CF's). Moran is good in mop-up but useless in other capacities. Cunningham of course is a 20/14/12 closer - if it weren't for Grant West, making Cunningham a 20/14/12 setup instead. But he would definitely be the Stars' closer.
Pacheco is a good defender with a career .270 / .316 / .404 line, 39 HR and 298 RBI in 2,353 AB. He's 26 and in a contract year and will make $320k. Rosa makes the minimum and his 12/15/9 (12/15/13 pot.) rating makes me drool. His ML track record only encompasses five starts, and only seven starts in AAA, six of which came in rehab last year. He's not without risk, but I'd take it. But do I want to take it for Cunningham?
I cleaned some more, including some long-neglected areas, thinking.
I think I’m stuck.