Quote:
Originally Posted by plaugher
I think an HoF vote toward Dickerson would also be worth it for yuks (yucks?) on the back of that impressively (oppressively?) high number in the millions-of-dollars-spent-per-win column.
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I giggled, but I couldn't make myself do that. You know, if we had invested that ginormous pile of money into an actually contributing player, maybe we could have made the Crusaders trip back then... but $3.3M on the DL is never pleasant, and thanks to inflation that was a way bigger blow than Jonny Toner's magical $3M disappearing trick this year...
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December 4 – The Miners add ex-DEN LF/RF Mario Rocha (.265, 102 HR, 560 RBI) on a 5-yr, $14.8M contract.
December 4 – The Knights trade for Vancouver’s OF Jeremy Houghtaling (.227, 18 HR, 71 RBI), sending them two prospects, including #71 CL Dusty Kulp.
December 5 – The Raccoons ink 21-year-old Cuban right-hander SP Dan Delgadillo to a 4-yr, $6.5M contract.
December 6 – The Blue Sox send RF/LF Saverio Piepoli (.254, 116 HR, 560 RBI) to the Gold Sox for three prospects.
December 7 – 1B Josh Perkins (.297, 32 HR, 158 RBI) is sent from the Crusaders, who rarely used the 29-year-old, to the Blue Sox, along with a prospect, for his peer OF Nick Shaffer (.241, 9 HR, 34 RBI).
December 8 – The Pacifics sign ex-TIJ OF Matt Jamieson (.258, 39 HR, 248 RBI) to a 3-yr, $3.06M contract.
December 9 – More offseason action for the Crusaders, who snatch up 36-year-old ex-SAC SP Ozzie Pereira (154-105, 3.72 ERA) for two years and $7.68M.
December 10 – The Canadiens pick up former Star SP Mo Robinson (100-96, 4.27 ERA) for one year and $530k.
December 12 – Former Stars outfielder Justin Dally (.281, 284 HR, 1,097 RBI) signs a 2-yr, $6.48M deal with the Aces. The 35-year-old is an 8-time All Star.
December 13 – The Knights add pitching with the addition of ex-DEN CL Jarrod Morrison (93-76, 2.83 ERA, 333 SV), who signs a 2-yr, $1.96M contract.
December 14 – 35-year-old former Miner LF/RF Bill Adams (.300, 229 HR, 930 RBI), who led the Federal League in home runs each of the last two seasons, signs a 3-yr, $11.24M contract with the Capitals.
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While the Portland press didn’t exactly partake in my personal ecstasy after signing Delgadillo – who as no way 21 – that was far from my biggest problem at that point. There was also the mild issue of a crammed 40-man roster, and for once I found it very hard to trim some superficial body fat.
Well, of course it was entirely possible to get rid of one of our rule 5 picks, less than a week after taking them in the rule 5 draft, maybe there was still a better way. Maybe we could do something about the full dozen of relief pitchers on the 40-man roster? Not even kidding, we had 12 of them on the 40-man: Barzaga, Brotman, Cowen, Devereaux, Dew, Kipple, Lillis, Moore, Morales, Rehbock, Surginer, and West; should time and luck have finally run out for Will West, 30 years old and a career sponge, used only to clean up the worst kinds of messes? Same for Adam Cowen.
There were also four left-handers (sans Lillis) in the list, and there was probably a way to turn one of them into something else. Even during the winter meetings I found it impossible to trade one of our relievers for anything non-trivial. Or, really, much at all. Lightning eventually struck Will West, who knew the deal well enough and packed his very few personal belongings silently and without sobbing more than needed.
Meanwhile the Delgadillo deal is very similar to the one Chavez signed three years ago, just a whole lot damn more expensive. Delgadillo will make $1.25M this season, and $1.75M in the three years after that. It was not my first offer, and I am glad we got this done before I had to offer $2M per year to a guy who had never thrown a pitch in the major leagues. How far up would I have gone? I don’t want to even imagine that.
But there’s some beauty about the Raccoons’ financials; while a bunch of the young guys would become arbitration eligible for the first time as early as ’25 (including Spencer, Graves, and potentially Daniel Bullock, too), overall our commitments were so far sparse. I also had my coin on Vince D to become the heir to Brett Lillis, and in my head I would then sign him to a team-friendly 4-year or 5-year deal during the season. Also, since this team would so totally start winning, we could expect a bigger budget starting next year, too.
It all made perfect sense … in my head.
Former Raccoons landing new jobs? Only Josh Stevenson, who signed for $600k with the Indians;
We cleaned out our international complex, by which I mean we mostly broke a few young hearts during December. Nobody you really heard of, with one exception: remember Alberto Ramos, the shortstop we picked up in the 2022 IFA period that made us blow our budget all to hell? Our new scout thinks that he’s ready to be thrown into professional ball. Ramos turns 18 the week before Christmas, so he’ll by no means too young for single-A ball. Miguel Carrasco gives him a current contact rating of 11, which is casually more than he concedes to two of the Critters’ current starting infielders (and I will not rat out on the guys he considers worse than this 17-year-old no-name kid from the Dominican; so don’t worry, Matt and Tim, nobody will ever know the truth).