[Westheim]

I looked at our roster after free agents filed in mid-November and after the trade for Cole Pierson, and - … we may not make all that many moves from here.

At this point, there had been a few subtle roster changes aside from Brownie’s retirement, and the departures via free agency of Ricky Mendoza, Tom Dahlke, and Chet Cummings. Edwin Prieto had been reassigned to AAA already, since we’re not planning with him in any case. Also, Danny Ochoa had been waived and DFA’ed earlier to prevent AAA reliever Blake Kelly from electing minor league free agency, for which we needed the 40-man roster spot.

There were 13 pitchers left on the expanded roster: Toner, Santos, Abe, Pierson, Guerrero; Ramirez, Thrasher, Mathis, Kaiser, Chun, and Davis; also Matt Schroeder, who was probably replaceable, and Nick Lester, who was at best trade bait for a really drunk GM at the winter meetings.

We had two catchers left with Denny and Margolis; six infielders with Nunley, McKnight, Walter, Mathews, Petracek, and Hudman; and seven outfielders with DeWeese, Mendoza, Cookie, Duarte, Bareford, Jackson, and Thomson.

The only players even worth noting in AAA were relievers Adam Cowen and Will West (both righties), Tim Prince, and … ugh.

We DO have two prospects in AAA at this point that should be worth watching next season: SP Travis Garrett, 22, and OF Dwayne Metts, 23. The latter is a lefty-hitting strong defensive outfielder with base-stealing qualities and some on base skills, drawing walks at a good pace. Unfortunately there was no oomph in his stick at all. He had batted .257 with no power in Ham Lake, but he had used his nimble paws to collect 22 doubles and 10 triples, and had only made 14 appearances in AAA in September, batting .213, but half of his ten hits were doubles and triples. Metts was our third-rounder from 2016, while Garrett had been selected in the second round in 2015. He would be 23 as well by the start of the 2019 season and was a right-hander throwing 92 at this point. He had an outright nasty curve, a real wipeout pitch, and also had a forkball to screw hitters with. One issue was his tendency to issue walks, which hadn’t gotten better in the three years since the draft. In 224.2 innings between AA and AAA in 2018, he had walked 127 batters, while whiffing 199. I liked the latter number, I didn’t like the former.

So those two were worth watching, but they would not be useful to us early on in the season for sure. Neither was Tim Prince…

Now, where to improve the team further. The Agitator was lobbying for addition by subtraction, which concerned both yours truly and DeWeese. Nobody was going to trade for R.J. DeWeese, that much was for sure. And unless Gabriel Martinez finally succeeded in poisoning my lunch, I wasn’t going away, either.

I really was not into Alex Ramirez anymore (you may have noticed). I was blaming him for the CLCS loss. Him and Dumbo Mendoza, equal shares. But 11 blown saves in the regular season in 2018 alone were not guaranteed to attract suitors, especially for someone making $1.25M. Maybe the third time was the charm to move Thrasher into the closer’s role. But I refused to pay Ramirez $1.25M for slacking off in the eighth inning.

Well, as long as we can’t move DeWeese, it will be hard to make an actual improvement. Moving him would allow us to move Dumbo Mendoza to right, Cookie to left (where his mediocre arm would be less exposed), and then could look for a new first baseman to be perpetually disappointed by. But it wasn’t going to happen…

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November 18 – The Titans trade MR Eric Rasmussen (8-18, 4.63 ERA, 3 SV) to the Knights, receiving prospect CL Victor Diaz, who was ranked #69 overall in 2015, but has not been a ranked prospect since.
November 22 – In another trade, the Titans pick up 29-year old OF Justin Nickel (.227, 13 HR, 74 RBI) from the Buffaloes, parting with INF David Lawson (.276, 8 HR, 62 RBI).
November 29 – The Canadiens are excited to add ex-TIJ SP Zach Hughes (83-74, 3.49 ERA) on a 5-yr, $14.2M contract.
November 30 – 37-year old 3B/1B Antonio Esquivel (.304, 200 HR, 1,199 RBI), a career Blue Sock, signs a 2-yr, $5.76M contract with the Knights.
November 30 – The Bayhawks reinforce their rotation with the addition of 35-yr old ex-NYC SP Bob King (219-169, 3.53 ERA), who won 17 games both of the last two years and will make $5.68M over the next two.
December 1 – 27-year old ex-NAS SS Andrew Showalter (.306, 88 HR, 466 RBI) jumps ships in the FL East, signing with the Cyclones for $11.04M over four years.
December 1 – Rule 5 draft: nine players are taken over two rounds. The Raccoons are not affected.
December 2 – The Indians swipe 33-yr old ex-CIN C Jayden Jolley (.265, 112 HR, 641 RBI), who receives a 2-yr, $6.08M contract.
December 2 – Another big name catcher signs on the same day, with ex-WAS C Jose Flores (.281, 186 HR, 742 RBI) signing a 2-yr, $5.28M contract with the Pacifics. The 35-year old Cuban had been with Washington for seven years.
December 2 – Four years and $6.88M buy former Bayhawks SP Milt Beauchamp (111-101, 4.10 ERA) for the Gold Sox.

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There was really nothing going on around here prior to the winter meetings.

Concerning former Raccoons, Ricardo Martinez scammed the Loggers out of $464k over two years. Bruce Morrison would get $366k from the Knights.