[Westheim]

Catcher and third base were potential upgrade areas for the Raccoons via free agency. As indicated, Matt Nunley hadn't hit much in a long while, and for the last seven years had pretty much been around the .700 mark in terms of OPS with little spark (although he did reach double-digit dingers five years in a row before hitting only six this season). If you could find a younger third baseman with good D and a better bat, a move would be in order. Whether Adam Corder was that better bat was not entirely clear. He was a different bat for sure, one that seemed to compete for the 1-2 spots. The Raccoons were entirely confident that a 20-year-old Alberto Ramos would hit and walk enough to merit batting leadoff (I seem to like nasty surprises), so maybe Corder wasn't the best fit, although he would certainly liven up their crummy team OBP that had ranked second from the bottom in the CL – just the same as their runs scored.

I had my eye more on power, and a Corder trade was pretty much impossible anyway without selling our souls to the Titans. Or, you know, Ramos. I preferred to do these trades the other way round, like trading "Dingus" Morales for the young, juicy, exciting version of Cookie Carmona…

Power was of course the constant sore around here. The Raccoons had hit 105 home runs, eighth in the CL, and their highest mark in four years, but the team should be able to hit so many more! There was no question that offense had cost us any shot at the playoffs, not pitching or defense. Any deal had to bring in an absolute top-level bat. Well, and we needed one, better two, new relievers, but the offense was the more important topic. Once more we had found out that a .320 OBP and 105 homers were not enough to make the postseason. The Raccoons had reached the postseason several times with fewer than 105 homers, but never with anything even close to a .320 OBP. By the way, did you know that the 2025 Coons were the first-ever to steal 100 bases in a season. 113 to be precise. The Critters had come as close as 99 (2014), but had never topped 100!

Another fun factoid; the 1982 Raccoons stole *20* bases. Daniel Hall stole nine; Jayson Bowling (who!!??) stole five. Overall, they stole TWENTY.

They hit more triples than that!

Back to the here and now, Matt Nunley had not been an impact bat since prehistoric times, and Elias Tovias was coming off a terrible season. Tovias' OPS had been around .750 until the last week of July, then had dropped into nothing. After a pair of 3-hit games back-to-back on July 27 and 29, he had only put up SEVEN more multi-hit games through the end of the season, shedding 100 points of OPS and 35 points in average.

Both were candidates for an upgrade, if we could find one.

Izzy Alvarez had hit 25 homers two years ago, 16 last year, only 11 this season. The Denver ballpark he had called home until the middle of the 2024 season certainly had something to do with it. In any case, he had the highest career slugging percentage among qualified defensive third basemen (I said we can sacrifice some defense, I didn't say we're putting Ricardo Martinez back there) that were free agents and not ancient. Nobody really thought of Alvarez as a slugger, but the 31-year-old did have 124 career homers. However, he had batted .240/.301/.351 with the Aces in '25 and that was not something I was willing to buy into. That was something I was trying to pay our way out of. But Alvarez was already pretty much the best on offer.

There was Chris Grooms, a 30-year-old ex-Elk that had spent significant time in AAA for different teams each of the last three seasons. His career slugging percentage was .423, and his OPS .760; yet he could never stick on a team, and the most games he had played in a season in nine career major league campaigns was a round 100, and then had not even gotten 300 plate appearances. He was a career backup / reserve with a 113 OPS+. He would be cheap, he was a switch-hitter, but banking on his resume was like building an interstate bridge on quicksand.

It didn't look much better with catchers. Or rather, not better at all. There was 36-year-old ex-Titan Tim Robinson, who had a .429 career slugging percentage, but was *36*, asking for serious cash, and Carrasco told me that his swing was porous and that he had gotten lucky to bat .292 with the Titans last year. He thought .192 more likely for him going forward.

Adam Baker was a 27-year-old free agent because the Loggers had let him walk after the season. He had batted .212/.269/.348 with Milwaukee this year, homering 16 times but ending up with a 73 OPS+. That was *99* points of OPS+ lower than his 2024 output with the Thunder, when he batted .313/.384/.582 … as a backup.

At this rate, the Raccoons had better chances by trying to bake themselves a slugging third baseman or catcher; and then, knowing them, they'd probably eat him.

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November 21 – The Indians trade 25-year-old MR Joe Perry (3-1, 2.45 ERA, 1 SV) to the Falcons for two prospects, including #92 3B/SS Jonathan Macias.
November 28 – The Crusaders sign ex-TOP SP Carlos Marron (103-77, 3.69 ERA) to a 7-year deal worth $21.48M.
December 1 – Rule 5 Draft: 15 players are selected in two rounds. The Raccoons are not affected.

+++

Nope, there has not been much going on. I made a few vague trade offers, got vague instructions to back off, hissed in return, but didn't get anything done. I have an offer out there for a free agent reliever. That is all.

Maybe the winter meetings will make us make 'whee'?