[Westheim]

October 3 – CIN LF/RF Dan Morris (.358, 21 HR, 81 RBI) and OCT RF/LF Vonne Calzado (.347, 9 HR, 81 RBI) win the batting titles in their respective leagues.
October 24 – Investment magnate Nick Marshall acquires the Boston Titans franchise, announcing that he will bring them to the front. The Titans are one of two teams (the other being the Aces) that have never made the playoffs.
October 24 – The Canadiens unload 34-yr old 1B/2B Antonio Esquivel (.281, 117 HR, 797 RBI) to the Aces, along with a fringe prospect, for C Alberto Durán (.245, 12 HR, 105 RBI).
November 3 – Portland’s Vern Kinnear wins the Gold Glove for left field in the Continental League. It is his first award.
November 4 – SFW CF John Hensley (.308, 14 HR, 86 RBI) and SFB SP Min-tae Kim (17-11, 4.33 ERA) win the Rookie of the Year awards.
November 6 – RIC SP Harry Griggs (22-8, 3.16 ERA) and BOS SP Doug Morrow (18-9, 3.15 ERA) are named Pitchers of the Year.
November 7 – The Hitters of the Year are announced: RIC RF/LF Raúl Vázquez (.334, 33 HR, 112 RBI) and BOS OF Jose Martinez (.343, 1 HR, 67 RBI) are the winners.
November 12 – Fans in Portland are hysterically overjoyed as they wake up to the news that the Raccoons and CF/LF Neil Reece have agreed on a 6-yr, $5.8M contract extension that will keep Reece on the club through the 2000 season!

Negotiations with Neil Reece were smooth and quick. The contract is backloaded, starting at $750k for next season, and topping out at $1.1M the last two years, and loaded with incentives on top of that. Reece came in asking for a considerably back-loaded 4-yr, $4.1M proposal, but I liked my idea way better. We will retain him through his age 33 season and hope for many many home runs.

Unfortunately, Grant West insisted on a multi-year deal which I was not willing to give out. He will thus become a free agent.

So, with that out of the way, we were looking forward to salary arbitrations and free agents filing. Arbitration hearings went against us. Of our five players involved, three received our offers, but two got their demands fulfilled and those were the two expensive young outfielders. Vern Kinnear got $360k, Green even $412k. We had offered $350k to both of them. Another $70k down the drain.

Free agents filed November 17, which was the same day that the international free agents became available to be signed. There were two semi-interesting infielders in the mix, and a Cuban starting pitcher rated at 16/18/16 potential. The drawback? That pitcher, Cris Gonzales, was 31 years old already. I think we will pass.

About five seconds after noon on November 17 I got David Brewer’s engine onto the phone. Time for some dealin’!

I will also have to revamp my pitching staff. I currently have nine pitchers penciled in for next year, which obviously will not be enough. I talked about that right-handed ace to complement Kisho Saito before. Well, with Beato departed, we will REALLY need that guy. The question was, where should the money come from? We entered the postseason with about $2.5M of budget room. Bidding on Brewer immediately took a sizeable chunk out of that number. And I am also looking at closers, since Jackie Lagarde has been … disappointing in the second half of the season, to say the least.

During the rest of November, I cleaned up our minors, releasing almost a dozen players, yet nobody you would necessarily miss, or recognize.

November 19 – Former Coon SP Antonio “Woody” Lopez (122-146, 4.33 ERA) signs a 2-yr, $930k deal with the Cyclones. He pitched to a 9-11 record with the Buffaloes last year.
November 25 – The Cyclones seem to be onto something: they add ex-ATL LF/RF Michael Root (.294, 284 HR, 1,085 RBI) to a 3-yr, $3.42M contract. Root, 33, has hit 20+ home runs for *11* straight seasons!
November 26 – SP John Douglas (174-178, 3.88 ERA) signs a 2-yr, $1.52M contract with the Falcons. Douglas’ arm has 3,000 innings logged, and the 34-yr old was limited to 15 starts last year due to injuries.
December 1 – Rule 5 draft: ten players are taken over two rounds. The Raccoons are not affected.

That’s where we are, December 1. I have an offer out with David Brewer. It is a huge offer. I would have to tediously check, but I am fairly sure that it would be the largest contract dished out in ABL history. It certainly will be whenever he signs somewhere: half the league is after him, pushing up the price.

And a final note: Tetsu Osanai realized that things were not going to get any better again. He has retired, forfeiting over $2M in salary that the Pacifics were still due to pay him. Signed by the Canadiens in 1978 out of Japan, Osanai made his debut in 1981. He was traded to the Raccoons in mid-1985, regularly posting .900+ OPS seasons, with a 1.004 OPS in 1989, before he entered a rapid decline just after that season. He was traded for a bag of baseballs to the Pacifics in the summer of 1993, where he never gained traction again and warmed the bench without an end in sight.

Final career numbers: 1,756 G, 2,069 H, 219 HR, 1,118 RBI, .319/.375/.486, .862 OPS, 144+ OPS+

Oh, one more number: the budget cut we took dropped us from 5th to 15th among all teams. So, big money team no more.