[Westheim]

I talked about Dan Nordahl briefly the last time. Well, he was the point of trade talks with the Warriors during the Winter Meetings in Cleveland, where they’re building a new baseball stadium right now, and owners were called up to vote on expansion for the 2015 season, which they swiftly called “nay!” at, 14-10.

Anyway, Nordahl. A first-rounder for the Coons in 1997 that had been one of the two pieces to go to Sioux Falls in a 2005 trade for Adrian Quebell (the other being Randy Farley), had been really awesome ever since leaving Portland, and I was still looking for some oil to smear the different parts of the bullpen with. Nordahl would be exactly the right brand of lubricant right now, a Marcos Bruno-type of reliever, but as soon as he got wind of the talks he let his GM know that he had 10/5 rights and was not going to go back to backwoods Oregon.

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December 5 – The Raccoons announce that they have finalized the addition of 35-year old SP Daniel Dickerson (146-124, 3.35 ERA) on a 3-yr, $9.6M contract. The Raccoons forfeit their first-round pick to the Thunder.
December 5 – The Titans sign ex-NAS SP Toshiro Uenohara (73-73, 4.36 ERA) for 4-yr, $9.76M, and also re-sign outfielder Javier Gusmán (.269, 132 HR, 803 RBI), who had initially become a free agent, for 2-yr, $3.24M. *
December 5 – The Bayhawks send 1B/3B Jesus Amador (.249, 65 HR, 471 RBI) to the Falcons for unranked outfield prospect Chris Almanza.
December 6 – The Cyclones sign ex-TIJ 1B Tomas Cardenas (.282, 117 HR, 627 RBI) to a 3-yr, $3.76M deal.
December 6 – Trade between the Falcons and the Crusaders, who send 3B/2B Jaime Kester (.263, 26 HR, 274 RBI) to Charlotte for #71 prospect CL Troy Charters and another prospect.
December 8 – The Bayhawks acquire INF Zachary Richter (.275, 10 HR, 98 RBI), a 29-year old right-handed batter, from the Blue Sox for MR Felipe Ramirez (13-13, 3.76 ERA).
December 12 – 1B/3B/RF Kevin Bond (.264, 52 HR, 392 RBI), a 31-year old that was with the Crusaders for three years, signs a 1-yr, $890k deal with the Miners.
December 16 – Ex-NAS CL Robbie Wills (72-67, 2.34 ERA, 439 SV), who already was with the Crusaders from 2007 through 2009, returns to the Crusaders on a 3-yr, $4.26M contract.

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The Dickerson contract is flat, and $3.2M is the very most the Raccoons will ever have paid to a player in a single season, easily beating out the $2.2M Nick Brown is receiving annually right now. There’s a quirk in that the third year of that deal is a player option, and when Dickerson appears in 200 innings he will make an additional $300k.

That’s bloody expensive, sure, but it’s also the top free agent pitcher on the market this year. This also answers the general undecidedness among the fanbase whether the Raccoons are about to go forwards or backwards. If signing Dickerson for almost $10M doesn’t invoke the image of Jeb Stuart pointing ahead with his sabre and yelling out “Onwards, boys! Tonight we’ll have dinner in the Yellow Tavern!”, then I don’t know.

How bloody expensive precisely? Well, here are the top 5 earners for 2013 right now, before all free agents have signed:

$3.4M – NYC Martin “Megavolt” Ortíz
$3.36M – DEN Victorino Sanchez
$3.24M – BOS Tony Hamlyn
$3.2M – POR Daniel Dickerson
$3.16M – SFW Jose “Dingus” Morales

With his $2.2M deal Nick Brown isn’t even in the Top 25 in the ABL.

All type A free agents except for pitcher Tommy Briggs have signed already, and right now – with a lot of type B free agents still out there – the Blue Sox have TEN of the first 44 picks in the 2013 draft. That’s gonna be watered down a bit by the end of the winter, but that’s still impressive.

The Raccoons stand to have A LOT of free agents next fall, but probably not four type A free agents. Maybe none. Maybe Nick Brown voids his option and we’re really in trouble.

The Agitator was not amused that we signed Dickerson, forfeiting our first round pick in the coming draft, but the Agitator wouldn’t have been amused if we hadn’t signed him, either. The Agitator is not amused that I am breathing, but if I would keel over dead, the Agitator wouldn’t be amused either, clamoring that now an even denser moron would take over the reins. You can’t please some people, can you?

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*I don’t usually report on free agents that re-sign with their original team, but it fit in nicely here.