[Westheim]

Alex Adame was a weird player. The Crusaders shortstop was 25 years old, had multiple Gold Gloves, and had led the league in stealing once. Since coming into the league at age 18 he had alternated good and bad seasons at the plate. He’d hit either around .250 (which with no power made for a 70-ish OPS+) or around .300 – the odd years were the good ones; he had batted .244/.292/.319 in ’46 (and had missed almost 50 games), but what always remained for these sorts of players was the defense.

A Gold Glove shortstop of juicy age would allow the Raccoons to shift Matt Waters to second base and dispense with all the depressing personnel that had filtered in and out at the position in recent years. Now, Al Martell was under contract for 2047, but he covered three positions and was batting lefty (Adame was a right-handed batter), so there were some synergies.

Adame was an upcoming free agent and without much doubt one of the best free agency options that would be available. Technically, Salem’s Bob Mancini was a better hitter, but if we went in that direction we could stick Pat Gurney at second base every day and call it a win. Mancini’s defense was gruesome, and was projected to get yet more gruesomer.

At the same time we had a lot of money in Jesus Maldonado, who enjoyed daily ice baths even as October closed out after getting welted 26 times in the regular season and several more times in the playoffs, and it really looked like third base was the best position for him for the foreseeable future. Offensively, ’46 had even been a down year for him (.817 OPS compared to .936, .861, .894 the three years prior), but I appreciated how he dragged the team (with Herrera) through the CLCS by his teeth, and then didn’t exactly shut up in the World Series either (although it “only” worked out to .300 with 5 RBI and no extra-base hits). At 32, he was definitely still a biter, had a shot at the Hall of Fame, and we’d still have a lot of him – since he was signed through 2052 to one of the richest deals in league history, we’d even still have a lot of him when he’d be old and gray…

So the Raccoons were in the market for a middle infielder for sure, even if Pat Gurney continued to play luxury bench dressing for a shot at more rings. We tried to work something out there – also with Derek Baskins. The only meaningful prospect close to the majors (say, next year), was outfielder Ken Mills, and all agreed that he could use regular at-bats in AAA to begin the year. “Prospect” was probably a stretch for Mills – he was going to be 26 in June.

But even when we had that routinely rich farm for most of the last decade – it had always been pitchers being the headliners. Matt Waters, a #5 prospect, aside, the most sustainable thing to come through the ranks in terms of position players recently had been, uh… Ruben Gonzalez? And he had two cups of coffee and one season on the short end of a platoon with Tony Morales for a career 92 OPS+. Then again, he had a World Series MVP button, however that had happened, and made sure everybody knew about it. He wasn’t the first Critter to plaster over middling hitting performances at a younger age with one of those (glances back over to Maldonado in the ice bath, Maldo staring upwards with his snout wide open and the tongue hanging out).

The rich farm was over by the way. We had harvested most of what was to harvest for the moment, although there were still some pitching options that were nothing to sneeze at. But for an early forecast at the farm rankings: we entered 2046 with seven ranked prospects, traded two of them, and one of them won Game 6 of the World Series to leave a mark – and so far our 2046 draft looked rather poor.

So yeah, give me more draft picks to fling away. The Raccoons would not pursue Ryan Person any further, not because of injury, but because of all the irritations before the injury, and a supplemental round pick seemed like nice compensation for damages. With Wheats, Merino, Wolinsky (grown through that farm system) as well as Okuda (Japanese import, but technically the fourth starter that knew no other ABL team from the inside) and Jackson (once acquired from the Indians) we still had a full rotation. Jackson was still under contract through 2048 for a rather cheap $1.5M a year – that had been the frontloaded contract that had paid him additional coins in 2043-44 when the Raccoons had even more rookies floating around and dosh left over.

Not everything in late October went smooth for the Raccoons, however. I tried to talk Wheats into a long-term extension, but he just wanted arbitration to get over with for the time being. He was under team control through 2048, but I’d keep nagging him in ’47 for sure.

Both our lefty imports during the season, Mike Lynn and Aaron Curl, were last-time-eligible for arbitration. I tried to get both of them to sign multi-year extensions, but had no luck. They looked hellbent on trying free agency next winter, or at least have more leverage then.

The one that DID want to sign a long-term deal was Matt Waters. The sneaky bugger, being eligible for arbitration for the first time, seriously drew up a 10-year contract with multiple options and incentives.

…which was something to actually consider. The total contract value of Waters’ proposal was “only” $17.16M – a decent amount to make in an ABL career, which you’d then supplement with shoe deals and instant pasta spots on cable. The last two years were team options and he’d never make more than $2M at any point over the contract. It could be a big steal for a long time! …or a watery grave for lots and lots of treasure chests of Nick Valdes’ dosh if he went the way of Arturo Carreno, who was his middle infield playmate when Waters first came up to the majors.

Then again, that was Nick Valdes’ dosh… and not my main concern.

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October 22 – The Condors acquire C/1B Timóteo Clemente (.263, 147 HR, 663 RBI) from the Warriors in exchange for two prospects.

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Okuda and Wheats were the first to sign deals out of the arbitration group. Both were only for 2047. Okuda would make $1.25M, Wheats $1.5M.

Waters signed his $17.16M retirement plan at the end of October.

All the other negotiations were still going on as of the end of awards season.

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2047 ABL AWARDS

Players of the Year: DAL OF Tylor Cecil (.361, 22 HR, 115 RBI) and VAN RF Jerry Outram (.333, 28 HR, 98 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: DEN SP Gary Perrone (22-6, 2.51 ERA) and OCT SP Juan Ramos (18-7, 2.71 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: SAL C Jose Ortiz (.268, 14 HR, 70 RBI) and TIJ 3B/SS Alex Lopez (.300, 6 HR, 65 RBI)
Relievers of the Year: CIN CL Josh Livingston (7-5, 2.39 ERA, 40 SV) and IND SP Tommy Gardner (5-6, 2.11 ERA, 34 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P SFW Mark Elzinga – C PIT Giampaolo Petroni – 1B CIN Alvin Zuazo – 2B DEN Ivan Villa – 3B SAL Ted Del Vecchio – SS PIT Ed Soberanes – LF SFW Mario Villa – CF DAL Tylor Cecil – RF SAC Nate Culp
Platinum Sticks (CL): P MIL Sergio Piedra – C SFB Sean Suggs – 1B POR Bryce Toohey – 2B SFB Sergio Quiroz – 3B POR Jesus Maldonado – SS OCT Ryan Cox – LF CHA Joe Besaw – CF VAN Jerry Outram – RF OCT Juan Benavides
Gold Gloves (FL): P SFW Rich Guzman – C RIC Kyle Duncan – 1B NAS Alejandro Ramos – 2B DEN Ivan Villa – 3B NAS Brad Critzer – SS LAP David Reid – LF TOP Dave Lee – CF DAL Tylor Cecil – RF RIC Chris Morris
Gold Gloves (CL): P BOS Ricky Contreras – C BOS Dan Whitley – 1B MIL Aaron Brayboy – 2B OCT Jonathan Ban – 3B BOS Doug Richardson – SS VAN Rick Price – LF MIL Bill Reeves – CF IND Nelson Galvan – RF CHA Archie Turley

Actually the first Platinum Stick for Maldo, who was certainly hurt in the competition in his earlier years for moving from position to position A LOT during the season.

Ruben Gonzalez finished third in the rookie category (behind Eddy Luna), while Wolinsky probably came up a little too late to get enough weight behind a candidacy, Game 6 or not.

The Gold Sox closed out the top 3 in Pitcher of the Year voting in the FL. No Critter scored enough points to get close enough.