[Westheim]

Matt Pruitt ($550k), Michael Palmer ($580k), and Pat Slayton ($247k) all signed 1-year deals before the end of October. To be honest, I didn’t want any longer deals with them. Matt Pruitt is playing a power position without any power, Michael Palmer has a very good glove with a bat that nets plenty of singles and a bit of speed, but he’s entering his 30s and most of these things will go away then, and Pat Slayton ranked just below Steele and Mullins on the charts of nuisances, but we can’t just dump everybody, can we?

But we can dump some. Not Craig Bowen, though. But we can dump Shunyo Yano.

I shopped him casually on the side while getting a few other things in order, and actually got a few takers, like the Thunder, who offered Dave McCormick, a genuinely good infielder, who however is also genuinely expensive. Yano, who hadn’t pitched after September 4 simply because he was really bad, and who finished his rookie season with a 5.03 ERA, was actually something the Cyclones were looking at.

A trade was swiftly executed for 2009 supplemental round pick, 53rd overall, 21-year old SP Jonathan Toner. He is a right-hander with a 98mph fastball with natural sink, generating lots of groundballs, a nasty curve … but then things start to get iffy. His control is a mess, and he walked 130 batters in 219.2 innings between AA and AAA in 2012, while striking out 190. Also, the add-on pitches for starter survival are still not good at all. The changeup doesn’t do much, and the circle change is something he can’t throw into a specific zip code.

HOWEVER. Yano is gone – and he was not really in our mind at all for the 2013 season, because the right-hander to the three left-handers I mentioned earlier was always Hector Santos, and that fifth spot was always open. That frees up $1.2M in salary for ’13, with more money in later years and $3.9M dumped in total. And I was always going to add another starting pitcher either via free agency or via trade.

As we are on the topic of trades, I have a very specific candidate in mind. We might sit on lots of outfielders right now, but there could well be some movement before the snow melts. Well, that’s not really building up the drama. The snow hasn’t even fallen yet.

We also signed that weed wizard from Venezuela. Nobody’s gonna feel pain on this team ever again.

Side note: Jimmy Oatmeal got 11 AB with the Condors late in the season. He hit nothing, but was drilled once for a .000/.091/.000 slash.

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October 30 – The Aces make two trades, sending 25-yr old SP Ian Rutter (16-26, 4.09 ERA) to the Titans for two prospects including #22 INF Ricardo Marrero, while also parting with 26-yr old MR Chris Spindler (10-4, 3.02 ERA, 6 SV), who is sent to the Canadiens for #93 prospect C Chris Ramirez.
November 3 – The Raccoons trade 26-yr old SP Shunyo Yano (7-10, 5.03 ERA) to the Cyclones for 21-yr old AAA SP Jonathan Toner.
November 5 – The Stars trade 28-yr old SP Brendan Teasdale (12-21, 4.79 ERA) to the Gold Sox for 29-yr old 3B Dave Hamilton (.248, 16 HR, 70 RBI) and minor leaguer Rich Walsh [also a former Raccoons draft pick, who was released early on].

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2012 AWARDS

Player of the Year: LAP 1B Stanley Murphy (.301, 34 HR, 120 RBI) and SFB LF/RF Ron Alston (.338, 32 HR, 97 RBI)
Pitcher of the Year: LAP SP Brad Smith (16-9, 3.39 ERA) and OCT SP Bob King (20-6, 2.14 ERA)
Rookie of the Year: PIT RF William Waggoner (.306, 14 HR, 61 RBI) and OCT SS Erik Janes (.331, 7 HR, 72 RBI)
Reliever of the Year: DAL CL Salvadaro Soure (3-6, 1.41 ERA, 44 SV) and VAN CL Pedro Alvarado (3-3, 1.51 ERA, 48 SV)
Platinum Stick (FL): P DAL Jose Flores* – C WAS Jose Flores* - 1B LAP Stanley Murphy – 2B SFW Oliver Torres – 3B NAS Antonio Esquivel – SS PIT Tom McWhorter – LF RIC Earl Clark – CF LAP Jimmy Roberts – RF SAC Xavier Alvarez
Platinum Stick (CL): P BOS Curtis Tobitt – C BOS Hideaki Suda – 1B VAN Ray Gilbert – 2B OCT Emilio Farias – 3B OCT Dave McCormick – SS MIL Antonio Luján – LF NYC Martin Ortíz – CF SFB Jasper Holt – RF SFB Ron Alston
Gold Glove (FL): P PIT Fred Dugo – C PIT Bartholomeu Pino – 1B SAL Frederic Roche – 2B TOP Jerry Dobson – 3B NAS Antonio Esquivel – SS DAL Armando Rodriguez – LF SAL Jonathan Pruitt – CF DAL César Morán – RF TOP Jim Brulhart
Gold Glove (CL): P BOS Melvin Andrade – C MIL Raúl Hernandez – 1B SFB Andrew Simmons – 2B MIL Oscar Sandoval – 3B TIJ Dan Jones – SS LVA Tom Dahlke – LF NYC Martin Ortíz – CF NYC Roberto Pena – RF NYC Stanton Martin

Why not give those Crusaders ALL the awards outright, right now, for 2013?

*Yes, actually.