November 15th: Gilberto Ramos, who is penciled in as our first baseman, was injured playing a pick-up basketball game and is out for 4 weeks... November 28th, he suffered a set back and will be out another 3-4 weeks... I am hoping this is just a minor blip and it won't hurt his ratings, they are bad enough as it is.
Winter Meetings:
Day 1:
It took time to iron out the details, but the Norfolk Cavaliers and the Milton
Brewers agreed to a swap. Milton will get 36-year old MR Alberto Hernandez and Norfolk gets 29-year old MR Javier Castro and 23-year old SP Joe Gould.
Day 2:
Norfolk Cavaliers announce the signing of Cuban SS Tony Soto. Soto is 28, just defected from Cuba and the Cav's won the lottery for him. Did we pay too much? Probably, but I guess we will find out come the regular season. Soto signed a 5-year contract worth approx $5,400,000 per year. Our scout Tim Olson has Soto rated as a 4* prospect. Contact: 11/11, Power: 10/10, Eye: 12/12. 3B and SS rated 13, with an arm of 15 and range of 16. Olson see's him as an above average fielder.
The signing of Soto means we can look to move on of our infielders, Ralph Pierce and/or Tim Garner. I am still trying to move Brian Cline out of here to bring back a RF with good defense and a solid bat. This will be our only free agent signing for now, we might get some MR pitching down the road, but we can't afford the 1 tier and don't want/need any 2nd tier.
We did receive a few trade offers, we discussed things, but nothing was substantial. King Brock seems to a hot target of many suitors. We shopped a few guys around, nothing really popped out. We will see what day 3 brings.
I decided I want to keep Mauro Candelaria and we will be trying to learn how to play outfield this off-season. Having him as a super utility or even a starting RF will be a big boost to this club.
League Notes: 28 year old, SP, Barney Butler the top free-agent out there, still hasn't signed. He is a 5* pitcher with ratings of Stuff 17, Movement 16, Control 16 with 6 +12 pitches. He is looking for 22 million a year for 5 years.
Day 3:
Georgetown approached us today with 3 trade opportunities. They really want to dump Alex MacDonaugh on us. He is 29, makes $3,800,000 and has marginal ratings. He did hit .347 last season, but I am pretty sure that was a fluke... They have no prospects that I am interested in and I am just not impressed with him. I think we will move on.
We approached New Castle and pulled off a deal. Off to New Castle we sent Ralph Pierce who played 139 games last season in the IF hitting .244, and minor league prospect Mike Roeder, plus our first round draft pick. Coming back to us is 26-year old Ron Alder and New Castles first round pick. Alder is a 1B/RF who can flat out fly! ... and for those who didn't play attention that means when you look at the draft order for next year, we went from the #5 pick to the #1 pick overall. Have to be satisfied with that. Tim Olson has Alder rated Contact 11/14, Power 6/6 and Eye 10/11 and a 4* player.
Day 4:
Ocean City approached us with a deal, but we moved on. Not much in a deal for us. 2 scrubs for a guy who may be starting... no thanks.
I shopped Pat Shelton, Allen Britt and Brian Cline around, but not sure I want back what they were offering. I could of traded Cline for Ralph Pierce, guess New Castle would prefer Cline.
I have a bunch of guys with options, so I might be standing still for a while.
Day 5:
Not much happened on day 5. Got a couple of trade offers that I am not interested in and moved on. I did shop Jose Martinez around, but didn't want old relievers back, tried to make something happen but there just really wasn't much out there. I will see what happens the rest of the way. Might have some work to do.
I did reach out to Geoffrey Bayles a starting pitcher rated 12's across the board, low stamina tho, but he is left-handed and I have 0 left handers on the roster or near ready. Bayles was probably the best lefty on the market.