[Westheim]

1999 ABL Awards:
Batting titles: DAL 1B/3B Salvador Mendez (.363, 1 HR, 58 RBI) and OCT 3B Sonny Reece (.361, 9 HR, 81 RBI)
Hitters of the Year: LAP 1B Marty Battle (.297, 39 HR, 110 RBI) and OCT 3B Sonny Reece (.361, 9 HR, 81 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: SAC SP Randy Travis (20-7, 2.64 ERA) and MIL SP Martin Garcia (22-7, 2.03 ERA, 280 K; won Triple Crown)
Rookies of the Year: DAL LF/RF Darrel Travy (.330, 25 HR, 98 RBI) and OCT 1B/3B Takahashi Higashi (.291, 15 HR, 68 RBI)
Gold Gloves (FL): WAS SP Steve Rogers, SFW C Ruben Melendez, CIN 1B Larry Maldrum, LAP 2B Germán Roldán, SFW 3B Bob Petipas, LAP SS Carlos Gonzalez, SFW LF Luis Arroyo, SFW CF John Hensley, RIC RF Raúl Vázquez
Gold Gloves (CL): OCT SP Fabien Armand, VAN C Jorge Lopez, IND 1B Matt Brown, POR 2B Marvin Ingall, VAN 3B Raymond Sutton, POR SS Conceicao Guerin, POR LF Stephen Buell, POR CF Neil Reece, OCT RF Artie Barnes

Retired players not named Kisho Saito:
SP Craig Hansen (272-204, 3.40 ERA, 2,578 K)
SP Bill Smith (239-216, 3.55 ERA, 2,516 K)

Smith is the pitcher that once famously snubbed the Raccoons’ offer to sign the identical contract with the Canadiens. That was SIXTEEN YEARS AGO AND I AM MAD TO THIS VERY DAY!!!

And it’s true, our horrendous last place team took home half the Gloves in our league. Why, if they had just won ALL the Gloves …! For Ingall, Concie, and Buell it is the first Glove, while Neil Reece has won his third, all consecutively.

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While Kisho Saito’s decision to retire leaves a gaping wound, that can not be healed, nor can it be soothed, it helps us in the area of financials. Saito’s $1.1M salary for 2000 is off the books, and that opens up the possibility to use the money towards an impact bat at a corner outfield position. The Raccoons didn’t finish last in 1999 (the first time they did that in almost 20 years…) because of their average pitching or league-best defense, the offense has to be improved.

If you look around the diamond, all positions are more or less filled and should be either hard to upgrade, or no upgrade is desired at this junction. Albert Martin and Julio Mata made audible debuts in the second half of the season, and neither should gain a lot from going back to Florida. In Concie Guerin and Marvin Ingall we have a sterling middle infield double play combo that can also hit either 1-2 in the lineup, or should either one struggle 1 and 6. Since Martin is not good with the glove and even less with moving his high-circumference thighs, it is impossible to not have him play first. That means that Cesar Gonzalez has to move to a position he has less well-acquainted with, which should be third base.

Or – or he moves to left.

Moving CeGo to left field would solve a few things. It ends the outfield search right now, since between Clyde Brady and Luke Newton we have good coverage of right field, and the fifth spot could either go to Chris Parker or Stephen Buell, in the case the latter can’t be traded. Instead, a hole at third base would open. Mike Crowe could be used to fill it.

But then we said we want to upgrade our offense, and Crowe has batted .212 this season. His career average is .241. His OPS+ is 92. Big name free agents at third base include CIN Ramiro Gonzalez, Buffaloes team mates Jesus Garcia and Rory Gorden, and a pair of Titans in Horace Henry and Haruki Nakayama.

Gonzalez has the makeup of a leadoff batter, and is right-handed. He has no power, but is routinely batting .300 and up, with a .400 OBP in a good year. He’s 31, but he’s not what we are looking for. I might even be tempted to bite, but I would only bite if he were left-handed. The two most likely candidates for the first two spots we have right now are Guerin and Ingall. We don’t gain anything by adding Ramiro Gonzalez with another right-handed bat.

Of the Buffaloes, Gorden is well-travelled (read: often moved around), and also right-handed, but he hit 14 to 18 home runs each of the last three years. However, his last three years were by far his best. At times in the early 90s, he was a sub-.650 OPS batter. I have enough of those. Jesus Garcia is a 33-year old switch-hitter, and can hit not only home runs, but has hit 40 doubles as recently as 1998. By trade he is a natural first baseman, but able to hold his position at third base well enough.

Garcia certainly is interesting, but what about the Titans? Horace Henry is a legend, having amassed 2,623 career hits for the Blue Sox and Titans, including 209 home runs. He will also be 39 next season. The Titans mostly used him as a second baseman the last three years. The last time he played a majority of his games at third base was in 1995, still with Nashville. Then, he made 17 errors in 130 games, but fielded for +2.4 ZR in general.

But that was five years ago.

Nakayama has a nice hitter’s profile, but is right-handed as well, and doesn’t fit. So it seems that Jesus Garcia would be our only option to pursue if we decide to get an upgrade for third base and play Gonzalez in the outfield. Finding left-handed leftfielders might be easier than finding an upgrade for third base?

Other areas to look into are a backup catcher with a bit more experience, and who knows what we could acquire in a trade that includes Stephen Buell?

Then we have the mess in the rotation to sort out. We have Farley and - … whom exactly? Lopez and Rivera are trying to come back from injuries. Wade wants to pitch out of the rotation but weakening the corner infield positions defensively will hurt him the most. Then there are Ford and Paco Martinez, both of whom could use a bit more seasoning in AAA, it has been reckoned. Should we try to get a mid-rotation pitcher? Could we even afford one?

Random numbers – batting and actual WAR by typical Raccoons corner outfielders 1999:
Clyde Brady - +0.6 / +0.9
Luke Newton - 0.0 / +0.5
Chris Parker - -0.5 / -0.8
Stephen Buell - -1.9 / -1.2
Buell wins a ****ing Gold Glove and still costs the team MORE wins than Kelly Fairchild, Bob Joly, and Brad Tamburrino COMBINED.