[Westheim]

Vern Kinnear batted .500 with 1 HR and 6 RBI in the World Series. I said he can’t stem the offense alone. Well, he tried pretty good! I love this boy!

The Blue Sox have claimed SP Jose Fernandez for whatever reason. He was one of the two players waived in my little fiddling with 0’s and 1’s. We have plenty of depth. Miguel Lopez is pushing up to be in the rotation this year and I can’t find good arguments to keep him out. This could mean flipping one of our bottom-end guys for prospects or that meaningful backup infielder we’ve been looking for for some time.

There is also an issue on the roster. I won’t call names, but it’s a rather large static marble column firmly entrenched at first base, where it is not doing an awful lot.

I’m serious. I will try to flip him. We have a young and dishing Esteban Baldivia ready to come up. We would still require a powerful backup for first base. Matt Brown is not this backup.

Our new budget was set at $16.2M. This is a small $300k increase over the 1992 budget, and we retain 5th place among all teams. The Crusaders, playing in arguably the biggest market there is, STILL field a team on a $9M budget. You see how far they are coming with it. Not far. In sharp (and a bit ridiculous) contrast, the Condors ownership will spend $21M on their team this year.

The Pittsburgh Miners are sold to Kevin McQueen, a wealthy businessman, who is said to be ready and eager to empty his pockets into the team without expecting immediate results.

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We have ten players heading for arbitration (or maybe not), so it will take some time to sort things out.

The arbitration candidates included the following (* super-2 case):
MR Ken Burnett (3-2, 2.13 ERA)
MR Juan Martinez (9-1, 1.57 ERA)
C David Vinson (.216/.361/.335)
INF Marihito Ohayashi (.231/.259/.385 in 26 AB)
INF Matt Higgins (.265/.314/.346)
1B/3B Ben O’Morrissey (.283/.358/.433)
OF Jeff Martin (.176/.250/.294)
CF/LF Neil Reece (.340/.385/.506) *

The following players are free agents:
MR Chris Nelson (3-2, 3.99 ERA)
INF Mauro Morales (.292/.349/.335)

Nelson is not compensation eligible. Morales is a type A free agent, which is rather strange for somebody with 209 AB on the year.

The calls on the bottom 2 are easiest: both have to go. Nelson was highly annoying with a BB/9 over 4. Morales dropped his average by over 100 points from Salem to Portland. And he is compensation eligible. I can find better stuff on the market or in trades.

Of course, most of the guys in the top category are easy calls for receiving offers. We will also try to make long-term deals with at least Reece and O’Morrissey.

Ohayashi will not receive an offer, since I can’t stand people that come here and get hurt immediately. He has already been waived, but nobody wanted him.

The two cases that will cause headaches are Martin and Vinson.

Martin has never done anything to justify us holding on to him for this long. He is 26 now and I don’t see any signs for a big league career. However, his scouting report still speaks favorably about his abilities. The question of whether to retain him could come down to somebody else: Bobby Quinn, who had a draining season and a terrible playoff campaign. Glenn Johnston came up clutch often in the playoffs, securing his future for another year, but Quinn was so goddamn awful…

Like Quinn, David Vinson crashed horribly in 1992. In the last three years his OPS were .912, .734, and .697 in that order. While he was so-so in 1991, he was dragging it this year, even getting the backup man substantial playing time. Vinson has the biggest price tag attached in the arbitration class. We could try to negotiate and buy out his remaining arbitration years (2) at a low rate. But we could also test the free agent market.

However, currently there is not a lot of air in the budget. Unless we slash into scouting and development, we have only $1M available at this point. Of course, we could add $1.1M by moving that marble column someplace else. Maybe the Canadiens will take him back? I’d take two prospects for him. But not those that we sent over eight years ago.