[Westheim]

There were still interesting free agents on the market in January. For example, Dan Brown. Yes, he is really not somebody to hit for average, but he can drive the ball to the next county over, and hit 26 for the Aces in 2022. He also hit only 13 last year in the same amount of at-bats, and then there was the mild issue of where we’d even play him. Both our outfield corners were claimed already.

Do we want another starting pitcher? Right now we’re still counting on “Tragic” Travis to do something useful for us. Graham Wasserman was still available; the 33-year-old St. Louisian had four nice pitches and had not missed time in five years. Unfortunately his K/9 were rapidly decreasing and the same thing was also happening for ex-Coon Frank Kelly, who would have been available on the cheap after losing almost all of 2023 to injury.

Almost having lost almost all of 2023 to injury, Jonny Toner was still asking for plenty a coin, but I was keeping an eye on that one…

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January 21 – The Raccoons trade for the Wolves’ OF/1B Abel Mora (.266, 45 HR, 256 RBI), who is signed through 2027. Salem receives three pitchers in 25-year-old MR Joe Moore (2-1, 3.65 ERA), 26-year-old MR Cory Dew (13-12, 3.25 ERA, 5 SV), and 28-year-old rule 5 pick SP Kaleb Babcock, who has yet to make his major league debut.
January 25 – The Wolves sign ex-ATL SP Alex Maldonado (87-97, 4.15 ERA) to a 2-yr, $1.42M contract.
January 27 – The Crusaders make a gamble on former Raccoons SP Jonathan Toner (157-69, 2.61 ERA), who is expected to miss the first two months of the 2024 season at least. Toner signs a 1-yr, $2.28M contract.
January 30 – Ex-CHA OF/1B Chris LeMoine (.260, 178 HR, 642 RBI) settles for $570k and one year with the Miners.
February 4 – The Knights ink ex-LAP SP Frank Kelly (79-58, 3.69 ERA) to a 1-year deal. The 30-year-old right-hander will make $990k as part of the contract.

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Well, that surplus pitching has sure been dealt with! This trade is also bad news for Cory Briscoe, who had a starting job until right now, but now will take a step back to Abel Mora. In terms of pitching, Joe Moore was maybe our third-best right-handed reliever (behind Vince D and Surginer), and while his stuff was real, he still never performed very well. And Cory Dew seemed like the real deal until tearing his rotator cuff at the end of the 2022 season, and well, these rotator cuffs have been known to ruin careers before they really began. Dew was maybe the replacement in the event that Moore or another right-hander actually did get traded, so that’s off the board. And the Wolves liked Babcock, so who am I to deny him to them? With Delgadillo inked, Babcock was not going to make the Opening Day roster unless at least one of our current starting pitchers shot his own eye out somehow.

When it comes to right-handed relievers, we now have Barzaga and Cowen (and West?) left beyond Vince D and Kevin Surginer. There are no really promising prospects beyond that. We will probably move Trevor Taylor to the pen in St. Pete, with the 27-year-old rightfully considered a “failed starter” by now. He was up for four starts and a readily memorable 10.00 ERA with the ’22 Coons, and pitched to a 9-12 record and 4.69 ERA in St. Pete last year. Trying his paw at relieving is his last chance before he has to go to community college.

Of course, maybe we want to look into adding a right-handed reliever now… Adam Cowen in long relief is one thing, but I don’t think I want to *rely* on Barzaga in games that matter.

Yes, I still claim the Coons will play such games in the upcoming season.

As an aside, Cory Dew completes the Northwest Trail with this trade; we acquired him from the Elks in ’21.

Meanwhile I am very surprised that a team shelled out millions on Jonny Toner, who is highly unlikely to appear before June, and then on a 1-year deal. But well, if somebody’s gotta have the money, it’s the Crusaders, you’d guess. This saddens me greatly, but there was no way I could give him that contract, knowing that he’d sit his bum on the DL for at least $800k worth of money, and then there was still the spectre of him being dastardly horrendous before he disappeared on the DL for good in ’23.

Jose Gutierrez got a $310k deal from the Condors. If you wonder who the **** Jose Gutierrez is, he *is* a former Raccoon, although his Raccoons stint preceded those of Ron Alston, “Dingus” Morales, Jong-hoo Umberger, and Jon Merritt, to name a few. Gutierrez is 39 and is still trying hard to squeeze 2,000 hits from his bat. He is 54 short.

Also finding a warm spot for the … uh… summer: Ruben Pelles signed with the Rebels for $248k; Chris Munroe was inked by the Thunder for $600k; the Bayhawks picked up Bobby Guerrero for $288k;