[Westheim]

I don’t want to get too worked up over this, but replacing (potentially) Felipe Garcia in the rotation with Kelvin Yates could potentially mean a 10-game swing upwards for this team in 2007. Of course, IN FACT Yates is replacing not Garcia, who was never really in the plans for 2007, but rather Ralph Ford, so we might probably add only 3-4 games over 2006. Now add a healthy Nick Brown in place of all the other losers and we add another 3-4 wins (because look at who pitched in his absence…). Just disallow any injuries, and we have already arrived at a 84-78 record.

Of course, if baseball was that easy, teams wouldn’t wander the desert for decades.

We still have a palatable worker ant in Watanabe around, but Dominguez was nothing but awful for us in 2006, and then there’s Dumpster Boy. The back end of the rotation is shameful of a major league team. The question is whether “Dodo” Iwase could be any better than Dumpster Boy. Or maybe we can find something on the trash heap? Other team’s discards usually don’t cost that much…

We also need offense of course. The main question is how we will best fit Tomas Castro, Matt Pruitt, and Adrian Quebell, who, pathetically, could well be the team’s best three sluggers, into just two spots they can realistically play in. Neither Castro nor Pruitt had any arm strength. Bob Mays had been awful but we had nobody available to chase him out of the starter’s job in right! We could possibly try Tomas Castro, who had good range (Pruitt didn’t) in center. It would probably not be pretty, but J.C. Crespo’s game out there was nothing for the yearbook, either (Crespo cost one win defensively in 2006 according to Whitebread and his electronic tome of numbers), and why bother with Crespo at all if we potentially had an even better bat with the same ****ty glove for the centerfield job on our hands? We might just have to accept that we won’t get a new Neil Reece any time soon.

Which really pushes us towards finding an improvement for rightfield, and said improvement has to bat right-handed, or at least be a naturally right-handed switch-hitter (which would probably be even better), because we are going to topple ridiculously towards the left side in our preferred lineup, which will contain only two right-handed batters in Sharp and Flores, and a switch-hitter in Bowen (and Crespo). We NEED that right-handed rightfielder!

Also, backup infielders. We have the following personnel still tumbling around: Ryan Miller, Steve Searcy, Tom Ingram, and Yoshi Yamada. Also Cesar Pena in the minors. While Ryan Miller was really bad in his cup of coffee in the last two weeks in 2006, that does NOT NOT make him The Future. His expected emergence will nicely coincide with Vic Flores heading for free agency after 2007. That said, Miller will start the year in the swamps, and barring Flores getting badly injured, spend most of the year there.

Searcy, Ingram, Yamada, Pena – they could die in a fire and we wouldn’t particularly care. In 1,140 PA (1,071 AB), they were posting a combined .501 OPS. Honestly, why give a ****?

If we honestly were looking into keeping one of them around as a utility guy, it would be Yamada, who was the most adept defender of them all and had that added bonus of being a blazing runner. But don’t ever hand him a bat, oh, lords, please, I’m fearing for our lives.

Pena is already nicely stored in AAA, but Ingram is awful, and Searcy is about to go extinct anyway, because we have a 20-year old third baseman in AAA in Ricardo Martinez. That young Mexican will not be a joy with the glove, but he makes up for his clumsiness (the arm is sound, though) with a powerful swing that resulted in 18 home runs and a .790 OPS in Ham Lake last year. He broke his ankle after hitting one home run in just three games in St. Petersburg in September, and is still walking with a boot, but look who’s in a contract year, too: Daniel Sharp.

The Raccoons aren’t necessarily getting any better, but they’re certainly getting younger.

Proof needed? The (highly speculative right now) starting lineup for next Opening Day goes as such: Nomura – Flores – Castro – Pruitt – Quebell – Sharp – Mays – Bowen – Brown. Average age of the group? Not quite 25. If Miller would replace Flores, and Martinez replace Sharp in 2008, they’d be even younger. That group’s salary? $3.66M in 2007, almost half of which is due to Brownie.

Then again, poor and pathetic teams have to use players that really need the money in order to elope starvation.

As we are on money already, here’s the complete list of players in a contract year in 2007 with their salary: Jose Dominguez ($1.68M), Daniel Sharp ($600k), Vic Flores ($400k), Marcos Bruno ($340k). You know whom I want back? Bruno.

End of sentence.

Yeah, well, right-handed rightfielder. Sorry, Bobo, you haven’t been cutting it. And currently there aren’t any remotely hopeful outfield prospects in our system except 2006 draftees Jimmy Eichelkraut and Dave Green, both of whom didn’t leave A ball.

November 24 – 37-year old INF Bruce Boyle (.266, 141 HR, 938 RBI) has spent his entire 18-year career with the Condors, who would not resign him. The Titans now picked up Boyle and handed him a 2-year, $3.64M contract.
November 25 – 34-year old, award-laden ex-SAC 3B Sonny Reece (.313, 169 HR, 1,104 RBI) signs a 2-yr, $5.68M deal with the Warriors.
November 27 – The Warriors also race to snap up ex-LVA/NAS INF Oliver Torres (.325, 20 HR, 309 RBI). The 29-year old standout will make $23.84M over six years.
November 28 – The Crusaders sign ex-IND CL Iemitsu Rin (24-23, 1.73 ERA, 193 SV) to a 3-yr, $4.94M deal.
December 1 – The rule 5 draft generates little interest. Only eight players are drafted, and no team picks or loses more than one. The Raccoons are not affected.
December 1 – The Indians find themselves a Rin replacement rather quickly, adding recently ringed ex-DAL CL Leonardo Sosa (48-48, 2.50 ERA, 259 SV). The 33-year old signs a 3-year, $4.8M contract.
December 2 – Ex-SFW INF/RF/CF Ramón Garza (.283, 50 HR, 771 RBI) finds a new home in Dallas, where the 33-year old will make $3.2M over two years.
December 3 – OF/1B Jerry Fletcher (.311, 51 HR, 745 RBI) returns to the CL North at age 35 after a year with the Bayhawks. He signs a 3-yr, $2.48M contract with the Canadiens. Most of his career was spent with the Loggers.
December 4 – The Crusaders keep adding relief pitching with ex-MIL Robbie Wills (36-40, 2.37 ERA, 299 SV) also coming over for 3-yr, $1.62M.
December 4 – 2006 CL RPOTY Johnny Smith (43-31, 2.34 ERA, 240 SV) goes from the Bayhawks to the Pacifics on a 3-yr, $4.86M contract.
December 4 – The Loggers deal SP George Norris (23-49, 5.58 ERA) and rule 5 pick Ruslan Kobulidze ot the Pacifics for LF/RF/1B Jean-Paul Dubois (.243, 11 HR, 109 RBI).
December 5 – The Raccoons trade 25-yr old 3B Steve Searcy (.221, 2 HR, 18 RBI) to the Warriors for 21-yr old AA LF/1B Jerry Saenz.
December 6 – The Titans jump the shark by acquiring 27-yr old SP Jesus Elmore (7-19, 5.38 ERA) from the Aces for two prospects, including #79 RF/LF Ron Richards.
December 7 – The Rebels receive 27-yr old SS Antonio Luján (.267, 46 RBI, 351 RBI) from the Warriors for 29-yr old SP Chris Lamb (37-41, 5.04 ERA) and #76 prospect LF Gil Gross.

We currently – after the winter meetings have ended – have offers out there for a veteran right-handed rightfielder, who spent considerable time in the CL South, as well as a back-of-rotation starting pitcher, who did most of his work in the Federal League. I can’t say much before anything is official, but the former rhymes with Duke Smack, and the later with Nanny Busfahr’n*.

Below is the 2006 Hall of Fame Ballot. There are two Raccoons on there that have absolutely no chance to even stay alive for a single year.

*German for riding a bus. Worst pun in a long time. I apologize. Twice. And I will stop rhyming right now.