[Westheim]

Well, the plan to possibly re-sign “Pooky” went out of the window early in February.

There was a closer on the market, who looked interesting, former Pacific Raúl Vargas. He was only 30, with a killing knuckle curve (use him with David Vinson at your own peril), and was *rumored* to seek 4-yr, $1.8M. He ACTUALLY came out demanding $950k – PER YEAR. Never backed out of a door that quickly before.

I came upon Alex Byrd, 28, a righty in the Bayhawks pen, who saved 40 games for them in 1993, but was used in earlier roles last season. He has very good stuff and a palatable $430k contract through arbitration for this year. Maybe you could swap Salazar for him? But do you know what I always stumble across when dealing with veterans? The 10/5 rule. Salazar executed it, and we didn’t have a deal.

February 6 – Former Coon SP Raimundo Beato (132-118, 3.64 ERA) signs a 3-yr, $2.37M contract with the Thunder. The Raccoons are compensated with a supplemental round pick for the 1995 draft.
February 9 – The Warriors land ex-LAP CL Raúl Vargas (40-46, 2.36 ERA, 240 SV) for 3-yr, $2.58M.
February 9 – Former Logger 2B/SS Jim Stein (.304, 29 HR, 394 RBI) joins the Scorpions. The 28-yr old gets a 3-yr, $2.57M contract.
February 9 – The Wolves load up as well, inking ex-OCT OF Will Jackson (.273, 132 HR, 553 RBI) for 4-yr, $4.48M, plus ex-VAN CL Ricardo Medina (48-47, 2.58 ERA, 203 SV) for 1-yr, $760k.
February 9 – And finally the Bayhawks former closer Lawrence Bentley, who put away 52 games last year, joins the Miners for 3-yr, $2.52M. Bentley is 20-16 with a 2.41 ERA and 60 SV for his career (at age 25).
February 12 – The Bayhawks snatch up ex-TIJ SP Charles Bywaters (65-55, 4.14 ERA) for 4-yr, $3.14M.
February 17 – Another ex-Condor finds a home, as OF Tadanobu Sakaguchi (.282, 64 HR, 372 RBI) joins the Warriors on a 4-yr, $2.528M contract.
February 20 – The Raccoons claim 23-year old right-hander MR Day Grandridge off waivers by the Warriors.
February 24 – Back into the fold: the Raccoons and SP Robert Vázquez (122-80, 3.04 ERA) agree to a 1-yr, $300k contract. The 32-year old southpaw pitched with the Wolves and Cyclones since his stint in Portland, 1991-92.
February 27 – The Capitals buy into veteran pitching by adding 37-yr old SP Bill Smith (193-173, 3.42 ERA), who was last with the Pacifics and signs for 2-yr, $974k.

February is over.

We once traded Vázquez out to Salem to get Mark Allen. Yeah, that one did backfire, huh? Well, we have a hole in the rotation, and we plugged it. This closes the door on Donis for the time being, since the only guy to reasonably remove from the rotation would be Scott Wade, and I don’t want to run Jason Turner as the only right-hander in the rotation. Vázquez was the only above-average starter with reasonable demands left. Our coffers are definitely empty now. I had already raised our scouting money a bit, but will have to take a dollar or two off again.

Grandridge does have some potential, according to Vince Guerra, who rates him 12/14/8 (POT: 12/14/11), which makes for a decent 6th/7th inning, or long man. But he never pitched above AA ball and will be assigned to AAA for the start of the season. He does not project to be anything special, but he also has options remaining (which looms over Daniel Miller and Albert Matthews, who could be lost upon being DFA’ed at the start of the season).

There is still one bullpen spot for a right-hander open, and I may keep one of Miller or Matthews.