[Westheim]

November (and a snippet of December):

November 3 – The Raccoons acquire MR Nate Goodman, 30, who has almost 9 K/9 for his career, and a prospect from the Gold Sox for OF Kelly Weber, a career .253 hitter.
November 4 – Pitcher Alejandro Venegas and 3B Mark Dawson are awarded Gold Gloves. For Venegas it is the first award, for Dawson number four. He has won three consecutive Gold Gloves at third base now.
November 5 – CIN 1B Joey Jones (.311, 17 HR, 93 RBI at age 28) and IND OF R.J. Stinton (.314, 10 HR, 91 RBI) are Rookies of the Year.
November 7 – Cy Young Awards go to: NAS Salvador Fierro (20-7, 2.25 ERA) and IND Jesse Carver (21-10, 2.58 ERA).
November 8 – The batting title winners also take home MVP honors: WAS OF Jeffery Brown (.362, 28 HR, 109 RBI) and POR 1B Tetsu Osanai (.350, 25 HR, 109 RBI) are selected. It’s the second MVP for Tetsu Osanai.
November 12 – BIG NEWS!! The Stars trade *Gabriel Cruz* (.305, 206 HR, 849 RBI at age 31) to the *Blue Sox* for MR Norio Hayashi (2.88 ERA in 283 G) and prospect Julio Santos, who is not highly ranked by either OSA or our scouts. The Stars franchise has just gone down the drain!
November 12 – The Aces send 1B Gilberto Alaniz (.261 with 38 HR) to Sioux Falls for SP Jose Murillo (81-112, 3.94 ERA).
November 13 – Swarms of locusts attack the Dallas area after the trade of Gabriel Cruz.
November 15 – Arbitration hearings: five of the Raccoons’ six players are awarded the offer of the team; the only exception is Sam Dadswell, who is awarded $500k. The team offered $400k.
November 18 – The sun does not rise all day over Dallas.
November 21 – The Thunder trade veteran outfielder Guy King (.278, 89 HR, 626 RBI lifetime), aged 33, to Topeka for C Kyle Douglas (.261, 74 HR, 634 RBI), also aged 33, and a prospect.
November 26 – Ex-NAS INF Mike Grimes (.307 with no power in his career) becomes the first highly ranked free agent to sign. The Rebels will shell out $4.56M over six years for him.
November 30 – Oklahoma sends OF Scott Strong, aged 25 and a .283 hitter, to Topeka for SP Miguel Martinez (4-4, 3.38 ERA after making his debut this year) in a 4-player deal. This switches an ex-Coon (Martinez) for a player I would have loved to draft.
December 1 – At age 37, Hector Atilano squeezes out another $1.71M for two years from the Condors. Atilano is 41 hits away from hitting 2,000.
December 1 – Rule 5 draft: 19 players are taken, including former slugger Engjell Vulaj (by the Warriors from the Buffaloes), who is only a shell these days. The Raccoons select SP Steven Berry from the Thunder organization.
December 2 – The Rebels add ex-Miner SP Craig Hansen (119-78, 3.08 ERA) for 6-yr, $5.1M and ex-Star SP Jake Wallace (101-77, 3.63 ERA) for 4-yr, $2.84M. If there are things such as aggressive off-season campaigns, this is one.
December 2 – The Stars add free agent RF Ryan Dickerson, an ex-Titan, for 2-yr, $1.3M. Dickerson is a .276 hitter with little power and can never replace Gabriel Cruz.

The Gabriel Cruz trade? Wow! Wow! That is such an awful trade for the Stars! Wow!! I just can’t grasp it!! :-O

The Stars and also the Miners imploded further through free agency, each losing in excess of 20 WAR in total, with the bulk coming from pairs of SP’s reaching free agency for both teams. Although our round 1 pick is protected for the 1989 draft (picking 11th), I don’t think we will aggressively go after a top free agent starter.

Who is available as well? Andres Ramirez. I pondered over him or Hall as first pick in the 1977 draft, and he then fell to the Warriors when the Raccoons took Daniel Hall. He’s a lefty closer, and we already have a lefty closer. Next topic.

In the end, there was not much to think about the Goodman/Weber deal. The pen was a terrible mess. It will be better now (it could not grow any worse). Weber was a defensive rock, but would not have been able to defeat Glenn Johnston, who still has more upside to him.

Steven Berry was a round 4 pick of the Cyclones in 1979 and has bounced around and was released a few times since then. Richard Steward is very high on him. He has five pitches, all useful. His major league experience encompasses two relief appearances. He fits the #4/5 area in the rotation well.

We had upwards of $1M of money free to spend after November 17, when free agents filed. That included the contracts of Ishizaki and Dawson on the books, almost another $1.5M. I am already working on getting Itchy out. It was not meant to be. The Condors have a right-handed reliever, young with killer stuff (not quite a Cunningham, but close), that I’m digging. Problem is, right now they are so deep into hunting free agents (like Hector Atilano, whom they signed on the day of the rule 5 draft) that they can not absorb Itchy’s salary for 1989, and I have to a) wait and see it come apart or b) take on dead weight to dump it elsewhere. The dead weight might be outfielder Sean Bergeron (due $620k each for two more years) to cover the $410k gap in the Condors’ budget. Bergeron was a good guy a few years ago, but doesn’t fit the team I’m building.