[Westheim]

By the end of October, the Raccoons had signed new 1-year deals with Preston Porter ($600k), Bubba Wolinsky ($455k), and Matt Watt ($650k), thus avoiding arbitration with all of them. Bob Ibold ($560k) and Eddy Luna ($890k) followed in November. None of them sought a longer contract, which means they were all smelling the rotting flesh on the roster.

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October 31 – The Falcons acquire MR Carlos Castillo (10-7, 4.63 ERA, 4 SV) and a prospect for 3B/SS Bobby Thibault (.254, 16 HR, 167 RBI9, who is headed to Nashville.
November 6 – The Stars (with a huge free agent group) acquire 36-yr old SP Matt Sealock (181-112, 3.36 ERA) from the Warriors for five prospects, including #63 SP Ivan Ornelas.
November 12 – The Canadiens bring in veteran right-hander MR Tim Scott (43-50, 4.38 ERA, 14 SV) from the Cyclones, parting with OF/2B Ismael Jaramillo (.308, 3 HR, 99 RBI).

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By November, generational talent Tylor Cecil was a free agent. The 3-time Player of the Year had only one ring, but was a .314/.373/.510 hitter with 1,756 knocks, 183 homers, and 1,062 RBI. He was also only 30 years old! AND the Raccoons needed outfield- (is slapped in the head with a rolled up newspaper by Steve from Accounting)

(sobs)

Cecil could absolutely shatter the record for an annual salary in the league. Jesus Burgos and Mike McCaffrey had new deals worth $5.8M per season right now, and Hils and Maldo still tied for fifth in the league with their $5.5M compensation per year. Cecil was asking for $8M per year to even bother to look at a proposal. The Raccoons would struggle to afford him for even three months.

So that wasn’t gonna happen, nor was any other high-profile acquisition like ex-Arrowhead Danny Rivera, the reigning CL homer king.

The question then was where to start with the rebuilding, which required taking stock again. We still had a full, competent rotation, (cough) Merino (cough), which sure allowed for some trading leverage since competing was not in the cards in 2050. We also had a myriad of relievers on hand, some of them even useful, even recently.

There remained three catchers on the 40-man with Ruben Gonzalez, Justin Brooks, and Jeff Raczka. Gonzalez was signed through ’52 but had been next to useless in ’49 and wasn’t gonna find a taker, even for $1.4M per year. As discussed, there were only two outfielders left on the extended roster (which was not THAT extended) in Watt and Herrera, and I tried floating Herrera to other teams early in the offseason, and he generated zero interest, probably because there are certain prejudices against centerfielders that would be 36 come Opening Day. 2050 was the last year on his contract, and it wasn’t like I could sweeten up his $4.7M salary with a cash injection in a deal since the Raccoons had zero cash to inject. We’d have to ask for cash in trades just to get closer to no cash…

The starting infield looked pretty set with Maldo, Waters, Lonzo, and Crispin around the diamond, which was one none-too-well aging veteran, a way-underpriced slugger and plus defender up the middle, and two youngsters on the minimum on the left side. Alex Adame was mostly redundant in this plan, but I also found out that he was perhaps our best trade chip next to Wheats and Waters and could bring back either a proven veteran for a hole (like the corner outfield spots) or perhaps even juicy prospects. Since we were dead sold on Lonzo, trading Adame while he had value moved well up the list of offseason priorities, never mind that he also made $1.9M a year. Eddy Luna was a super utility that could fit in many spots, unfortunately though not in a platoon with Ed Crispin, since both were lefty hitters. Crispin had actually posted reverse splits in his half-season in the majors, but with a ridiculous and unrepeatable BABIP against southpaws, so here was a problem for the future…

The first free agent the Raccoons made an offer to was then a Japanese international free agent, 26-year-old OF Mikio Suzuki, a lefty hitter, wide roaming defender, good sprinter, but with deficits in the power department and with the throwing arm. He also didn’t mix well with Watt (who couldn’t hit left-handed pitchers at all), but could sub that certain 36-year-old centerfielder against right-handers for sure.

So that was one area I was working on, the other was sorting out the bullpen. Post-free agency, there were 16 pitchers left on the extended / bloated roster, including the five starting pitchers we had carried for the last four months, Wheats, Hils, Bubba, and the two never victorious Victors. The remaining eleven included Andrew Clarke, who might yet slip into the rotation upon a trade, the established personnel of Lynn, Ponce, Porter, Hitchcock, and the smoldering ruins of the manor of Sir Bob of Ibold. Plus five sorta-rookies (not all had had rookie status even in ’49, and none would have in ’50) of O’Higgins, Lillis, Cancel, Richardson, and Lenderink, who had all been various amounts of gruesome in their time up. The only useful pieces in there might be O’Higgins and Lillis jr., but that was already stretching it by giving O’Higgins the benefit of the doubt for his 6.20 ERA with a .344 BABIP behind that, and banking on Lillis figuring out any sort of command any time soon (6.4 BB/9). They could all probably work that out much better in AAA, but that meant we were at least two relievers short, too, despite having almost a dozen tumbling around in total.

Did I mention this wasn’t gonna be easy?

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2049 ABL AWARDS

Players of the Year: DEN INF Ivan Villa (.316, 48 HR, 149 RBI) and SFB OF/1B Ken Crum (.318, 27 HR, 114 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: DEN SP Gary Perrone (21-5, 2.74 ERA) and TIJ Kevin Daley (20-7, 2.22 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: SAC C Henry Howie (.255, 18 HR, 64 RBI) and ATL/TIJ SP Larry Colwell (13-5, 3.03 ERA)
Relievers of the Year: DEN CL Brian Shan (9-4, 1.68 ERA, 43 SV) and ATL CL David Hardaway (5-2, 1.92 ERA, 39 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P DAL Mike LeMasters – C TOP Brett Banks – 1B DAL Dario Martinez – 2B DEN Ivan Villa – 3B DAL Felix Marquez – SS PIT Ed Soberanes – LF SFW Mario Villa – CF DEN Sandy Castillo – RF LAP Matt Diskin
Platinum Sticks (CL): P ATL Esteban Duran – C OCT Jesus Adames – 1B LVA Sam Witherspoon – 2B OCT Jonathan Ban – 3B IND Bobby Anderson – SS ATL Anton Venegas – LF SFB Ken Crum – CF ATL Jon Alade – RF OCT Juan Benavides
Gold Gloves (FL): P SAL Zach Boyer – C NAS Jose Cantu – 1B SAC Steve Wyatt – 2B DEN Ivan Villa – 3B SFW Jose Rivas – SS DAL Leo Villacorta – LF DAL Omar Gonzalez – CF PIT Jayden Ward – RF SAL Celio Umbreiro
Gold Gloves (CL): P LVA Sadaharu Okuda – C TIJ Jon Mittleider – 1B NYC Ed Haertling – 2B CHA Erik Stevens – 3B CHA Randy Wilken – SS IND Andrew Russ – LF MIL Jose Delgado – CF LVA Jonathan Harris – RF TIJ Brian Blackburn

No Portland awards. Then again, I struggle to name a player deserving one.