[Westheim]

Still in October, the Raccoons got some extensions done with … players. Both Pablo Novelo and Randy Tallent avoided arbitration with new $540k deals for the 2067 season. The big news item was however a 5-year, $13.1M extension (plus incentives) that was signed with Jose Corral and that bought out his remaining arbitration years and three years of free agency. He would get $1.4M in 2067, $2.1M in 2068, and then $3.2M three times thereafter. It was not a very expensive contract to be honest. Corral’s own design included even less coins per season, but ran for seven years through 2073.

Next we sniffed around the shopping line a bit and found to no great surprise that offering certain corner infielders with sizable contracts and pedestrian production did not provoke excitement with the other teams in the league, but apparently the Knights were ready to part with Casey Ramsey for a half-eaten sandwich at this point.

We fielded a trade offer from the Bayhawks offering 2B/1B Jeremy White for Colter and McMahan, which was too steep a price for yet another misshapen puzzle piece for the M.C. Escher drawing that was our second base situation.

The month ended with the news that Chance Fox agreed to a $700k contract extension to try and piece his arm and career back together. The expectation was that he was going to miss the start of the season and maybe come back at some point in May after an extensive round of rehab in AAA. So, Walla and Nakayama, and Gaytan and Fox, that already made three-and-a-half pitchers for the 2067 rotation!

The damn Elks were then bold enough to approach the Raccoons about sending SP Nate Freeman over for prospects, including #91 C Andrew Farlow. Freeman was a decent pitcher that had somehow already been traded three times since being drafted in 2062, but this team was not going to trade any potentially useful prospects to the damn Elks while I was still able to draw a breath. Since Freeman made the minimum and the Elks were wildly over budget, no deal could be made otherwise.

The Raccoons never agreed to a 2067 contract with Jesse Dover, who felt he was entitled to a lot more than his $550k estimate. We let it come to a head, and he received $550k in arbitration. Dover had demanded $892k. Juan Sanchez was offered arbitration, but declined, and we thus became eligible for a compensation pick. Sanchez had gone 16-15 with a 3.64 ERA since the Blue Sox had sent him over in a trade last year. His departure cleared a $5.1M salary off the books.

The group of type A free agents was quite colorful and included three ex-Coons – Tyler Riddle (Thunder), Paul Labonte (Wolves), and Elijah LaBat (Caps) – as well as frequent CL North foes Ben Seiter (Crusaders) and Cody Kleidon (Indians), and ageless Kodai Koga (Knights). Of course the Raccoons did not have the means, nor the desire to forfeit a second round pick, by signing any of them. Although cleaning house had generated about $8M of budget space by the time the books were cleared, we entered the offseason with only three credible starting pitchers, a whole host of question marks in the pen, and a lineup that was just off from top to bottom and from which about everybody was available besides the top three of Wilson (although we had hoped for more), Corral, and Lopez.

Now we just had to find takers.

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November 4 – The Indians acquire the Gold Sox’ closer John Nesbitt (13-7, 4.04 ERA, 32 SV) for young C Hugo Valdez (.175, 1 HR, 2 RBI) and another prospect.

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2066 ABL AWARDS

Players of the Year: DAL CF Tyler Wharton (.329, 26 HR, 99 RBI) and MIL 1B/RF/LF Cesar Ramirez (.354, 20 HR, 106 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: DAL SP Alex Quevedo (20-6, 1.94 ERA) and BOS SP Jason Brenize (18-7, 2.24 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: SFW INF Jimmy Madden (.313, 10 HR, 79 RBI) and SFB OF Jake Ward (.293, 11 HR, 49 RBI)
Relievers of the Year: WAS CL Elijah LaBat (4-5, 1.82 ERA, 47 SV) and CHA CL Jason Stine (7-6, 1.76 ERA, 30 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P DEN Matt Asplund – C NAS David Johnson – 1B NAS Kris DiPrimio – 2B SAC Alex Castillo – 3B DAL Xavier Reyes – SS SAC J.P. Gallo – LF NAS Tony Roman – CF DAL Tyler Wharton – RF CIN Roberto Soto
Platinum Sticks (CL): P BOS Matt Taylor – C ATL Justin Hart – 1B MIL Cesar Ramirez – 2B SFB Armando Montoya – 3B LVA Alex Alfaro – SS OCT Jose Palominos – LF SFB Ian Streng – CF BOS Eddie Marcotte – RF NYC Kazuhide Takeuchi
Gold Gloves (FL): P DEN Ernesto Culver – C TOP Pete Kelbaugh – 1B WAS Pedro Parada – 2B CIN Jordan Hernandez – 3B NAS Rick Healey – SS RIC Jason Turner – LF CIN Melvin Avila – CF DAL Tyler Wharton – RF DEN Chris Tuck
Gold Gloves (CL): P MIL Luis Palacios – C VAN Steve Varner – 1B BOS Bill Joyner – 2B CHA Jared Duhe – 3B CHA John Schmidt – SS CHA Trent Taylor – LF BOS Steve Humphries – CF NYC Bryant Box – RF LVA Jorge Caceres