[Westheim]

The first decision to make was between first basemen. Glenn Adams hit for more power and had better D than Esteban Baldivía, plus his name was less of a pain to type. But Adams was arbitration eligible and was estimated at $220k. Baldivía would not be arbitration eligible until next year. He had better contact making abilities, and didn’t strike out as much. Double plays are different story. Neither of them (both are 25) projected to be an All Star at this point. Between two first basemen of similar abilities, a team that is encroaching the limit of it’s budget chooses the cheaper one. Adams was put up for sale. He will be forever in our hearts for ridding us of Tetsu Osanai’s contract.

In the middle infield, we have Salazar, Higgins, Allen, Moreno, and an assortment of AAA players. Salazar is a perennial Gold Glover capable of batting well over .300, and I think Higgins can reach that plateau as well. Allen, as it stands now, has the biggest contract for next season at $970k, which he won us 0.4 WAR for this year. Moreno came up big in September and October.

Now, Higgins may miss the start of next season due to his torn labrum. (I don’t even want to think about worse outcomes) Salazar doesn’t go anywhere. If we could flip Allen for a quality second baseman or allrounder who can play the outfield well (like we had in Steve Walker in the mid-to-late 80s, or in Mark Dawson, who played all four corners on the field, but mostly 3B and RF), I would be tempted.

Ben O’Morrissey made 20 errors at third base last year, but his batting excuses him from a lot of those. He doesn’t need to be discussed in too much depth. The left side of the infield is set.

David Vinson had a bad year, again. Rodriguez was good for a backup. I still don’t see reason to fiddle with these two.

The rotation had rough patches last season. We may have to consider moving Scott Wade to the bullpen at some point, but he was just .12 ERA over the league average after a horrendous April. Kisho Saito struggled badly, too, and nobody wants to put him into the pen.

We need a left-hander since Christian Proctor will be banished. One option might be to make Grant West one of the two left-handers and look for a new closer, either from within or from the outside. Jackie Lagarde has certainly made a case for himself, although he walks a lot of people. In a way, he is like Wally Gaston, when Gaston was at his best. Everybody still remembers Wally warmly, right?

That still didn’t solve the outfield problem, as the remaining days of October began to tick down.

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I sat down with all three of my departing outfielders (excluding Bob Arnold, the most infamous signing I have ever made) to talk about extensions. Against my expectations, I had the biggest issues with Daniel Hall. It almost appeared as if he didn’t really know what he wanted, actually. First he wanted a 4-year deal. “Dan, you’ll be 43 then.” “Yeah, so what, then I want a million next year.” Which I couldn’t do.

I was also working on a deal with the Aces for their outfielder Royce Green. They had been caught in the trap when I shopped Glenn Adams around, but one average first baseman couldn’t buy Green, who was 24 and awesome, batting .270 with 36 HR in his young career (268 games).

October 28 – The Raccoons announce new 2-year deals with OF Bobby Quinn (for $520k) and Alejandro Lopez (for $600k).
November 5 – DAL INF Markus Robertson (.321, 11 HR, 62 RBI) and BOS C Luis Lopez (.281, 4 HR, 48 RBI) are named Rookies of the Year.
November 7 – WAS SP Ramón Ortíz (21-5, 3.16 ERA) and TIJ SP Woody Roberts (17-6, 2.46 ERA) win the awards for Pitcher of the Year.
November 8 – WAS OF/1B Jeffery Brown (.369, 25 HR, 87 RBI) and MIL RF/LF Cristo Ramirez (.382, 5 HR, 60 RBI) are the Hitters of the Year.
November 9 – The Canadiens acquire 34-yr old SP Kevin Williams (148-142, 3.76 ERA) for INF Kelly Carpenter (.252, 42 HR, 185 RBI), who is sent to the Gold Sox.
November 10 – The Raccoons acquire OF Royce Green (.270, 36 HR, 134 RBI) from the Aces for 1B Glenn Adams (.261, 17 HR, 73 RBI), MR Christian Proctor (3.48 ERA in 129 G) and MR Qi-zhen Geng (3.75 ERA in 29 G).

Has there really been no rookie better than Lopez!? We were also shunned on Gold Gloves. Maybe Salazar missed out because of injuries costing him about a month of the season, but how can you shun Neil Reece, who played for THREE WAR on defense alone!!?? I can not understand this!

By the way, I did win “Manager of the Year”. ;-)

Then, salary arbitrations. (dramatic music)

From the ten players on our arbitration screen, three were off before the hearings. Adams was traded, and Quinn and Lopez signed their 2-year deals. Arbitration went in favor of us in the cases of Matthews ($129k), Moreno ($150k), and Higgins ($210k). Neil Reece was awarded $481k (offer: $450k; estimate: $420k!), and Glenn Johnston $275k (offer: $250k; he got the estimate). How on earth is Glenn Johnston’s year worth more than half of Neil Reece’s?

All this presses our salaries over $10M for 1994. We may have to make a few cuts in scouting.

Sadly, Daniel Hall did not agree to a reasonable 1-yr, $400k offer. In the wake of this emotional blow, I resigned to sobbing. If he signed anywhere else, I’d cry myself to death.

Then on November 17, as free agents filed, the salary arbitrator called the office.

Daniel Hall had accepted salary arbitration. He was awarded 656,000 dead presidents. Ha-ha, I’m forked.

(dramatic music gets even louder)