[Westheim]

The Raccoons did not get Ryan de Jong – the Cyclones ratcheted the price up further in February, and the Raccoons pulled out there. He eventually signed with the Pacifics for just under $4M over two years, and the Raccoons were back to the mess they had already had in the bullpen ten weeks earlier.

The rest of the month was spent fending off advances from Atlanta, who desperately tried to get rid of Casey Ramsey and his remaining two years and $11.2M on his contract. All winter they had already willingly offered up his body (dead or alive) for whatever the Raccoons had floated out there. The last thing the Coons needed, though, was another bloated contract that was not going to be movable afterwards.

We then went to pursue left-hander Bob West on a six-figure deal, but negotiations about that proceeded at a snail pace once other teams got involved and the player did not sign before we crashed pokey-black-nose-first into Opening Day.

Unusually, we then spent March culling some of the worse excesses of organizational bloat in the minors, exclusively on the pitching side, and released a total of six pitchers, some virtually unknown, and some rather prominent. Heading the list in terms of major league experience was surely Rich Read (3-2, 4.52 ERA, 1 SV), who had been on the Portland hill for at least a few innings in each of the last six years and would pass waivers another 20 times if we tried to get rid of him in other ways. He was 29, out of control, and it was time to go. We also released 26-year-old Mexican left-hander Victor Herrera (0-2, 3.06 ERA), who had appeared in 22 games with the ’64 Coons and had since then lost all cohesion, had dropped down to Ham Lake, and was getting on the snout relentlessly there. In sad news, we also let go of the non-reincarnation of Brownie, 2061 11th-rounder Nick W. Brown, who had topped out at Ham Lake, and was never going to go any further as he was approaching his 27th birthday this season. 2063 Nick Brown Memorial Pick Barrett Krumland was also gone, he had never even made it out of Aumsville.

+++

February 4 – After three years in Atlanta, 43-year-old SP Kodai Koga (253-251, 3.71 ERA) signs on for another season with the Condors at $2.88M. Koga had already pitched for the Condors before his Knights stint.
February 7 – New York acquires 1B Danny Starwalt (.232, 115 HR, 457 RBI) and a prospect from the Indians in exchange for outfielder Eddie Menchaca (.286, 5 HR, 70 RBI).
February 12 – Indy sends SP Vince Ellison (68-62, 3.71 ERA) to Atlanta for INF John Baxley (.273, 5 HR, 131 RBI) and a prospect.

+++

Other Raccoons getting signed: Mike Hall got a 2-yr, $2.28M deal from the Crusaders; the Cyclones signed Jim White for $670k; Franklin Serrano landed with L.A. for $500k; Indy took on Takenori Tanizaki for $710k;