January 3 – The Warriors sign ex-DEN OF Luis Alonso (.263, 44 HR, 391 RBI) for 3-yr, $1.56M.
January 10 – Ex-TOP SP Chang-bum O (86-96, 4.51 ERA) is signed by the Warriors. The 32-year old receives a 1-yr, $1.74M contract.
January 10 – The former Scorpion 36-yr old RF/LF Vonne Calzado (.335, 130 HR, 1,100 RBI) agrees to a 2-yr, $4.64M contract with the Miners.
January 12 – New Cyclone in town: 29-year old INF Bob Butler (.266, 84 HR, 391 RBI), fresh off the Warriors, signs a 2-yr, $1.64M contract with Cincinnati.
January 16 – The Bayhawks sign 31-yr old SP Takeru Sato (89-80, 3.94 ERA), who already pitched for them in 2002 before heading to Pittsburgh, to a 1-yr, $630k contract.
January 17 – The Canadiens trade INF Arthur Simon (.261, 18 HR, 136 RBI) to the Condors for 1B/3B Mitsuhide Suzuki (.272, 6 HR, 38 RBI) and a minor leaguer.
January 29 – Ex-WAS CL Nobuyoshi Matsui (37-46, 3.02 ERA, 74 SV), who is 31, signs a 1-yr, $890k deal with the Aces.
We were after Luis Alonso, who won two rings with the Titans in his younger years, and shares fate with Marvin Ingall, in spending 2000 with the Knights and then returning to his old team. The Titans traded him to Atlanta for Jesus Zamora, then claimed him off waivers in early 2001, and traded him to the Gold Sox for Nate Harrison after that season ended.
We were also after Nobu Matsui, but it was a bucks thing again. Well, bad luck. You won’t get a closer for half a million. That’s not the going rate. Looks like we will have to do some trading after all.
The Canadiens weren’t giving up Royce Green, so we had to look elsewhere. Also, nobody wanted anybody we’d like to get rid of. And it was late January, so not only was the fan base (or what was left of it) growing unruly, but the Agitator ran a picture of a homeless man sleeping on a park bench, under which several items previously containing alcoholic liquids were disposed of, with an accompanying text clearly hinting at the lazy, overweight, idiotic Raccoons GM.
It was the Agitator. They were still trying to get warm.
One item that could be dealt was Miguel Ramirez. He was hitting for power, true, but he was also hacking madly at the same time. He didn’t fit the middle infield well. Between him and Marv, I’d rather have the steady singles bat with good defense at second base. He was quite good at third base, but we had Daniel Sharp at third base. Sharp had his issues at the hot corner, but he could not move to first base, because there was Al Martin. And Ramirez wasn’t batting left-handed, so no obvious platoon opportunities were presenting themselves here.
Dale Moore was the obvious trade piece. All catchers are available if someone can be bothered. If push came to shove we might be ready to part with a reliever, like Huerta, or Martinez.
The search for a left-handed batting second baseman with good defense, good contact, good eyes, and at least a little speed yielded only players under contract at exorbitant rates, and once we lowered our requirements enough to get some less prohibitively expensive personnel returned, Manny Gabriel turned up as well in the list.
Congrats, Marv, you just won a starter’s job. Manny’s a backup, whether I hate him or not, and what not. And isn’t it all terribly fruitless around here?
At one point we were after versatile outfielder John Hudson, a steady right-handed bat, who grew up admiring Neil Reece. As we all know, Neil is from Massapequa, NY, on Long Island's southern coast. Well, Hudson is from North Massapequa, NY! Neil made his major league debut when Hudson was in junior high, and you can bet that it was all the talk with the young boys in town. The two high school fields the boys played ball at are just 20 blocks apart. *
February 1 – SP Francisco Garza (95-125, 4.14 ERA) returns to the CL North, signing a 1-yr, $1.38M contract with the Titans after spending most of his career with the Crusaders.
February 3 – The Raccoons and Falcons agree to a trade that sends AAA 1B Mun-wah Tsung, 21, and AAA SP Jesus Elmore, 24, to Charlotte in exchange for 25-yr old OF Matt King (.289, 1 HR, 42 RBI) and 20-yr old AA 1B/2B Keegan Crabtree.
February 12 – The Canadiens land themselves a new closer in ex-LAP Peter Sanders (27-23, 4.00 ERA, 69 SV), who will make $2.28M over three years.
February 15 – Another CL North team hooks up a new closer, as ex-TIJ CL Enrico Gonzalez (53-39, 2.70 ERA, 303 SV) comes to terms with the Indians on a 3-yr, §3.36M contract.
February 16 – 33-yr old SP Ricardo Sanchez (185-113, 3.48 ERA) will be a Wolf next season, signing a 1-yr, $1.32M deal after leaving the Bayhawks.
February 22 – Veteran 1B/2B David Brewer (.327, 85 HR, 921 RBI) rejoins the Titans on a 1-yr, $720k deal. Brewer is 36 and has masterfully missed every chance to win a title so far in his career, always joining teams just too late or just too early.
February 23 – The Bayhawks hook up ex-POR/MIL SP Carl Bean (81-77, 3.85 ERA), who will make $4.5M over three years.
February 23 – The Gold Sox trade 28-yr old LF/RF Jesus Rivera (.317, 132 HR, 671 RBI) to the Scorpions in exchange for 32-yr old SP Randy Travis (119-100, 3.92 ERA) and pitching prospect Harlan Hilliard.
February 24 – Well-overrated ex-LVA MR Charlie Deacon (32-46, 2.89 ERA, 162 SV) comes to a 3-yr, $2.43M pay day with the Crusaders.
In order to get something going, we had to axe into our alleged starting pitching depth, because while the Falcons were keen on Tsung, they were also keen on King, and there was no way to get Hudson without some serious bleeding (like: trade them Nick Brown-bleeding). King is a good contact batter who rarely strikes out and walks a bit. He could steal double digit bases, and he plays all three outfield positions very well. It’s the right-handed bat we need to balance our outfield, and he makes Dale Moore redundant. Crabtree was the only semi-prospect the Falcons would part with in the deal that at least got Vince to raise an eyebrow.
It was never Dale Moore’s fault. He just didn’t fit the other outfielders, and we love them more. Whether King will make a big splash here, we’ll see. For now Vince rates him with as many stars as he gives Al Martin. One.
I have another problem with Moore. Nobody wants him unless in a salary dump for an expensive veteran. I don’t even want a prospect. I just want a bag of baseballs. No, nobody biting.
It’s March 1. The Rebels have made us a trade offer I’ll need to mull about. They want Manny Gabriel (so, not much of anything), and they offer a legit back piece to the bullpen in Bill Corkum (ex-Titan), who’s due just over a million in 2004 and will then be a free agent, but who is no Matsui and maybe not better than Nordahl, PLUS a reclamation pitching project, a youngster who had surgery to fix a torn rotator cuff at age 18. It’s a lot of money, it will create a problem with infield backup, and it might create disturbances in the bullpen, since Corkum’s contract guarantees him the closer’s job.
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* I hear, in real life Massapequa High School (Neil's school) is actually renowned for its sports teams, having produced the three Baldinger brothers for the NFL, oh, and some guy named Jerry Seinfeld. Hudson would have been to Plainedge High School, where I could not find anything sports-related, but Steve Guttenberg went there.
This goes to the complaints section: I am struggling terribly with the new team home screen. The old team home screen was from where I went to all my minor league teams and it had all stats neatly presented for all teams. The new team home screen is utter bull crap. Who needs that stuff? It sucks. I can’t get any decent minor league overview.