[Westheim]

February 26 – The Raccoons sign 34-yr old MR Colby Kirk (36-34, 4.09 ERA, 14 SV), a former Miner, to a 1-yr, $270k deal.
March 3 – The Raccoons claim 28-yr old 1B/3B Juan Gusmán (.360, 0 HR, 5 RBI in 25 AB) off waivers by the Warriors. Gusmán hasn’t played in the Bigs since 2003.
March 11 – The Thunder sign 30-yr old ex-SAC SP Manny Guzmán (46-62, 4.35 ERA) to a 2-yr, $1.63M contract.
March 14 – The Bayhawks deal 30-yr old SP Raúl Fuentes (48-45, 4.28 ERA) to the Raccoons for 28-yr old MR Rémy Lucas (3-0, 4.02 ERA) and 23-yr old AAA SP G.G. Williams.

Manny Guzmán was the pitcher I was after before we jumped onto the train that circled the States a zillion times while approximately five teams were engaged in a bidding war for Carl Bean’s services. We didn’t drop out of the race until the first half of March, when he called to say the Warriors were offering more than our 2-yr, $1.76M.

But we were out of money. As simple as that. I don’t want to slash S&D any further than I already have.

So, no return of the Bean to Portland. Instead we get to see Dumpster Boy every fifth day. How thrilling an expectation.

No, we can’t allow that to happen! So we whipped up the trade with the Bayhawks for a fifth starter. Fuentes is still arbitration eligible, last year was the only year he didn’t suck, but everything’s better than Dumpster Boy. Williams probably will not amount to a good major league pitcher. He has four pitches, but none of them are good, like his 91mph straight fastball. We have other options in AAA, including two better prospects in Brandon Teasdale and Cássio Boda, as well as Rhett Carpenter, whom I tried to get rid of in every which way, basically everything short of setting him on fire.

We also did not manage to get Kunimatsu Sato signed, a middle infielder to back up Flores and Nomura. That actually means that the scruffy Gusmán might wind up on the Opening Day roster…

By the way, the Bitchy Bean is unsigned as of Opening Eve…