[Westheim]

Late November and early December, including the Winter Meetings in Richmond, were a pain. Well, the biggest pain inside the buttocks was Whitebread, who during the meetings never strayed more than six feet from me, and always carried his ****ing notebook with all the blinking lights that drive people crazy.

Our main problem during these weeks leading up to and including the meetings was the fact that the Raccoons just plain simple had no ****ing money, whatsoever. I talked to half a dozen teams about this and that, and not once did anything come to fruition.

Look. All the other teams are after those juicy free agents. The Raccoons aren’t. The Raccoons have less than a million in budget room. You know what frequent .360 batter and ex-Capital Victorino Sanchez demands for a contract? $30M across seven years. He would suck up a quarter of our budget if we’d sign him. True, he’d probably add a quarter to our 2005 offensive output, but the times when we could get the David Brewers are long gone.

We’re trying to get the Colin Sabatinos and Darin Keppleys now. Those are decently ranked starting pitching prospects. Understandably, their teams, the Condors and Scorpions, respectively, are not in a mood to give them up, especially not in a trade for the core elements of our last place offense.

I was also looking into an upgrade at shortstop. Whitebread recommended looking into three players especially, NYC Gary Rice, WAS Adriano Lulli, and SFB Victor Flores.

Typical college kid. Spent how-many-years to get some degree on paper that I could manufacture in a copy shop in a minute, now thinks he knows it all. Rice was out of the question. He was a top player, who was entering his final year under team control. Even if we could lure the Crusaders into a (stupid) trade, we could never hold on to him, since he would command $2M or more next fall. Per year, that is. (Anyone remember the time when a retirement contract for Daniel Hall came at about $3.5M for eight years?)

But here that unterminable college kid (although falls from a window on the eighth floor are to be considered accidents, right?) sat when I was just trying to have another drink or six to help me ease to sleep, and squawked constantly about this and that. Between drinks #4 and #5 I finally got some insight into his ****. All those numbers and stats and things that came like a fountain from his educated, yet clueless mouth were referring to drinks and refreshments. He was especially hot on something that spelled wRC+. UNDOUBTEDLY that refers to wicked RC Cola! Plus. Perhaps a new formula. Hey, New Coke sucked, but herpaps RC Cola plus will he a bit annn- (snoozed off)

November 24 – The Condors sign ex-POR MR Ricardo Huerta (27-22, 3.64 ERA, 8 SV) to a 2-yr, $1.22M contract. The Raccoons receive a supplemental round draft pick.
November 26 – The Knights add 26-yr old C Jason Clark (.240, 5 HR, 74 RBI) from the Cyclones in exchange for a middling prospect.
December 1 – Rule 5 draft; 16 players are taken across three rounds. The Raccoons lose AAA SP Fernando Piquero to the Rebels.
December 2 – The free agent signing period has started slowly, but now blocks start to fall into place: ex-DEN LF/RF Chris Parker (.276, 41 HR, 307 RBI) inks a 2-yr, $2M deal with the Bayhawks.
December 4 – The Bayhawks give a 2-yr, $2.24M contract to ex-MIL OF/1B Jerry Fletcher (.312, 51 HR, 729 RBI).
December 4 – Another ex-Logger finds a home, as SP Ramiro Gonzalez (97-100, 3.85 ERA) signs a 6-yr, $10.78M deal with the Indians.
December 5 – The Blue Sox win the services of former Thunder 1B/3B Takahashi Higashi (.279, 116 HR, 616 RBI) at a price of $4.2M over three years.
December 10 – The Raccoons and Bayhawks agree on a trade that sends 26-yr old INF Victor Flores (.276, 10 HR, 215 RBI) to the Willamette, while three players are heading to the Bay: 31-yr old INF Brad Sheehan (.243, 9 HR, 99 RBI), 27-yr old AAA OF/1B Chris Beairsto (.209, 27 HR, 78 RBI), and 25-yr old AAA 1B Alejandro Rojas (.200, 2 HR, 13 RBI).
December 10 – The Bayhawks send 1B/2B Juan Diaz (.244, 27 HR, 123 RBI) to the Condors in return for SP Jeremiah Bowman (9-15, 4.96 ERA) and an unranked, but promising prospect in SS Jeremiah Irvin.
December 10 – The Miners deal 1B/3B Jerry Henry (.236, 27 HR, 133 RBI) to the Crusaders in exchange for two prospects, including #139 OF Manny Perez.
December 10 – 34-yr MR Nick Lee (49-34, 3.02 ERA, 85 SV) returns to the Crusaders, for whom he pitched in 2001, in a deal with the Cyclones, who receive three prospects, including #68 OF Brendan Reed.
December 10 – 32-yr old C/1B Urbano Cicalina (.294, 85 HR, 570 RBI), who already played for the Condors and Cyclones in 2005, is traded on to the Warriors. The Cyclones receive three more, unranked prospects.