[Westheim]

The preseason is zooming past us.

February 9 – The Stars sign ex-MIL SP Judd Montgomery (87-92, 3.61 ERA) to a 6-yr, $4.32M deal.
February 12 – Another Star is signed in Dallas in CL Matt Sims (48-37, 2.20 ERA, 241 SV). The 29-yr old will make $1.45M over two years. Sims spent the last years in Nashville, and the Blue Sox sign their new presumed closer on the same day: Xiao-shuang Sa (44-47, 2.94 ERA, 136 SV); the 32-yr old pitched for New York and Vancouver last season, but hasn’t been a designated closer in a few years. He gets a 2-yr, $612k contract.
February 17 – SP Rafael Espinoza, with the Bayhawks until November, signs a 5-yr, $2.93M contract with the Aces. Espinoza is 69-63 with a 3.78 career ERA.
February 19 – Ex-SFW slugger 1B Fernando Lopez (.310, 191 HR, 1,042 RBI) signs a 3-yr, $1.43M contract with the Condors.
March 18 – OF Bob Arnold signs a 1-yr, $186k deal with the Indians, awarding the Raccoons a supplemental round draft pick.
March 23 – Sacramento picks the last SP worth mentioning in Domingo Leon (96-94, 4.01 ERA), who gets a 3-yr, $1.1M contract.

I used most of the free budget space to boost scouting and player development once more, with $2.11M in scouting and $2M in development, which both rank about 50% above league average. Add the $1.29M for the managerial staff, and we’re spending a bit over one third of our $15.9M budget off the field.

I did this since my search for a fifth infielder capable of playing at least three positions and hitting for some power amounted to nothing. There were only about 15 players fitting my criteria, even when giving up on shortstop defense, and most of those were really first baseman and little beyond that. There were also a few first line players, but those were all corner infielders with a very bad second base ability. The only guy that was attractive in this search was Boston’s chad Fisher, who played all four infield positions plus right field, and was a .250 hitter, but with doubles and home run power. However, Fisher had five years remaining on a very rapidly escalating contract. Was he worth $535k this season? Questionable! Was he worth $665k two years down the road? Probably certainly not.

But we NEEDED somebody! With our projected lineup, and taking Matt Duncan and that loser Matt Brown as backup infielders, with the exception of Iwamoto, our bench would be exclusively left-handed, even against right-handers! (this, assuming that Johnston doesn’t re-supersede Reece in center, and Quinn continues to outperform Johnston, too. A quick solution would be to ditch Jeff Martin and look for a right-handed outfield replacement (great job in trading Castillo).

Maybe trading Antonio Gonzalez had not been such a bright idea. I was essentially looking for him now.

Ah, you’re a moron. No wonder you never win anything.