[Westheim]

There was not a lot going on in Portland for the rest of December; the Raccoons were not going after Tylor Cecil actually, and we were mostly out of trade bait apart from the aforementioned untradeables that I would take down to the bottom of the ocean with me.

Of course there was the odd signing here and there, but trades were probably over. And I offered a lot of things, although the limits were kind of arbitrary. I shopped Merino, but not Wolinsky. I shopped every “mature” reliever on the roster, but not the young ones. The third-string infielders weren’t gonna have any suitors anyway. And that was more or less all that was left.

And why not Cecil? It wasn’t like we were drowning in outfield prospects (or even outfielders as of the middle of December). But $8M a year was ridiculous and we weren’t going to engage in that, and from all the silence surrounding him at this point it looked like we weren’t necessarily alone in that assessment.

There was however some AAA talent in the outfield. Well, first there were a couple of 40-man roster dwellers that had to be named for completeness’ sake in Roberto Medina and Matt Glodowski, and Brian Shedd, who had appeared in all of two Coons games in the last four years was technically also still there. But the main attractions were 22-year-old Aussie lefty hitter Alan Puckeridge, who put together a .722 OPS in his first full AAA season in ’49, batting .252 with 14 homers and stealing 12 bags, and our new addition in #11 prospect Oscar Rivera. Add Curtis Scholl to that, and now the problem was finding out who was most underdone. Medina and Glodowski would surely do as placeholders to start the season until we could find out whether either Rivera or Puckeridge (or both) were ready for primetime.

On the infield there was Rich Seymour, who was already on the 40-man roster, plus Mitch Sivertson and Dave Blackshire, so maybe our AAA team would be less atrocious to watch than in the last few years, although the pitching was rather dire there. There were no hopeful starting pitchers there, nor helpful ones, and our platinum prospect, Rafael de la Cruz, had been through a trying season in Ham Lake, going 6-9 with a 4.58 ERA. 97 walks in 149 innings. But he was still a teenager and would remain one until July, so it wasn’t like he didn’t have time. We expected him to reach AAA at some point this season.

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December 19 – The Gold Sox add former Raccoon LF/RF Mike Preble (.306, 223 HR, 905 RBI) for a 2-yr, $8.16M commitment. The Raccoons receive a supplemental round pick for compensation.
December 22 – Portland signs up 28-yr old C Juan Jimenez (.257, 22 HR, 152 RBI), a defensive specialist that spent the last two years with the Rebels, for $750k.
December 22 – San Francisco adds ex-CIN SP Carson Jarvinen (90-80, 3.52 ERA) for 2-yr, $7.68M.
December 24 – 32-year-old ex-DAL SP Mike LeMasters (147-93, 3.65 ERA) joins the Buffaloes on a 5-yr, $26M contract.
January 7 – Ex-VAN INF/RF Rick Price (.278, 49 HR, 382 RBI) hooks up with the Gold Sox on a 6-yr, $22.68M deal.
January 9 – Erstwhile Capitals INF Ricky Espinoza (.281, 144 HR, 552 RBI) puts the ink under a 7-yr, $23.8M offer from the Scorpions.
January 9 – Veteran experience is added for $4.72M over two years with the Capitals signing former Thunder 1B Bill Jenkins (.273, 224 HR, 1,028 RBI).
January 11 – The Gold Sox sign former Raccoons CL Nelson Moreno (51-50, 3.67 ERA, 97 SV) to a $4.08M deal for 2050.
January 11 – The Buffaloes acquire SP Zach Boyer (19-24, 4.24 ERA) from the Wolves for two prospects.

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For other Critters with new jobs there’s really only Arturo Carreno, getting a 2-yr, $1.08M contract from the Wolves.

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2050 HALL OF FAME VOTING

The Hall of Fame gained a new player in 2050 in former Blue Sox standout Jim “Mastodon” Allen, who was elected on the second ballot with 81.2% of the votes. Allen spent 15 years in the majors, 13 of those with the Blue Sox, and batted .312 with 172 HR and 1,166 RBI, also stealing 136 bases in his younger years. He is the rare player that has won every major award (for hitters anyway), taking home two rings, a Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, three Gold Gloves, four Platinum Sticks, and went to the All Star Game seven times. He also took both MVP awards in the 2039 playoffs, marking the second of the two championships he won with the Blue Sox (the other coming in 2037). He also won a batting title in ’33, and led the FL in RBI in that season and again in ’36, but never hit more than 18 homers in a season and so didn’t come close to a triple crown.

Interesting tidbit: Jim Allen is now alphabetically the first player in the Hall of Fame, displacing Ron Alston. On the far end? Danny Zarate.

Full voting results:

NAS 3B Jim Allen – 2nd – 81.2 – INDUCTED
POR SS Alberto Ramos – 2nd – 74.3
??? CL Josh Boles – 1st – 37.2
BOS LF Willie Vega – 2nd – 13.4
LAP CF Justin Fowler – 5th – 13.0
TIJ SP Jeff Little – 8th – 11.1
TOP SP David Elliott – 4th – 10.0
??? CL Ray Andrews – 2nd – 6.9
??? SP Andy Bressner – 3rd – 6.5
TIJ SP Juan Garcia – 1st – 6.1
VAN CF Tony Coca – 3rd – 4.6 – DROPPED
NAS 1B Chance Bossert – 2nd – 3.4 – DROPPED
TOP SS Alex Majano – 2nd – 3.4 – DROPPED
PIT 3B Omar Lastrade – 1st – 2.7 – DROPPED
SFW LF Melvin Hernandez – 1st – 0.8 – DROPPED
BOS MR Tim Zimmerman – 1st – 0.4 – DROPPED