[Westheim]

First of all we learned that the Raccoons’ name was not drawn out of a hat when the league distributed protected draft picks for half the teams in the 4-way tie of us, the Rebs, Buffos, and Condors. The two FL teams got the protected picks, the two CL teams got ****-faced. At least the GM of one of them did.

Task #1 was finding an entirely new bullpen for next year, and after turning over and looking under every pillow on the trusty brown couch I found exactly zero suitable relievers. I did find some cookie crumbs though, and they were still good.

It wasn’t like we had no relievers for next season – we had a whole pile of them. But that wasn’t the point. The point was that we’d run up the second-worst bullpen ERA in the CL and that was more or less what had torn the season apart. Not to the tune to 17 games, perhaps, but let’s just say we could have stayed relevant past Decoration Day.

As usual, no other team was interested in our trade chips, including such juicy options as Danny Monge’s $1.7M contract for 2040. He was merely the most useless .300 hitter in the sport – come on, guys, don’t be so picky!! There were sure plenty of relievers on other teams that I would like to get. And every other team seemed hellbent on getting Jesus Maldonado or Nelson Moreno. Same old story, huh.

The Raccoons announced a string of 1-year extensions to arbitration candiates during the awards season. Bedrosian ($1.2M) and Ledford ($500k) signed for the estimate. Hooge ($830k) and Kilgallen ($400k) just below it.

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October 24 – The Miners acquire 30-yr old 3B/2B Ben “Nine Fingers” Freeman (.279, 98 HR, 541 RBI) from the Cyclones for infielder Jason Fodor (1-for-3, 0 HR, 0 RBI) and a nothing prospect.
October 30 – The Thunder pick up SP Casey Pinter (18-24, 4.69 ERA) from the Crusaders for a prospect.

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2039 ABL AWARDS

Players of the Year: PIT 1B Danny Santillano (.331, 38 HR, 118 RBI) and OCT 1B Danny Cruz (.297, 36 HR, 96 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: SAL SP Phil Harrington (22-5, 1.87 ERA) and VAN SP Matt Sealock (19-5, 2.91 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: DEN 1B Mark Cahill (.293, 18 HR, 98 RBI) and IND 1B Pat Dodson (.285, 27 HR, 92 RBI)
Relievers of the Year: RIC CL Yeom Soung (4-4, 2.34 ERA, 39 SV) and VAN MR Jordan Calderon (4-1, 2.94 ERA)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P RIC Mike Mihalik – C LAP Ernesto Huichapa – 1B PIT Danny Santillano – 2B TOP Felix Marquez – 3B NAS Jim Allen – SS SAC Jesus Banuelas – LF NAS Sean Ashley – CF CIN Jayden Lockwood – RF SAC Carlos Cortes
Platinum Sticks (CL): P CHA Rafael Pedraza – C CHA Mitch Cook – 1B OCT Danny Cruz – 2B SFB Dan Schneller – 3B IND Dan Hutson – SS MIL Ted Del Vecchio – LF POR Manny Fernandez – CF BOS Mark Vermillion – RF POR Troy Greenway
Gold Gloves (FL): P SAC Al Scott – C SAC Hector Alvarez – 1B DEN Mark Cahill – 2B TOP Felix Marquez – 3B NAS Jim Allen – SS SAL Jose Castro – LF TOP Derek Baskins – CF SAL Armando Herrera – RF DEN Juan Benavides
Gold Gloves (CL): P TIJ Bill Quintero – C CHA Mitch Cook – 1B BOS Jose Garcia – 2B MIL Victor Acosta – 3B BOS Antonio Gil – SS OCT Jimmy Kuhn – LF ATL Luis Inoa – CF NYC Joe Besaw – RF BOS Moises Avila