[Westheim]

There was not a whole lot of time left in October, and the Raccoons were looking for a new head scout, so things were naturally not going to get off to a fast start. Paul Barton cleared waivers, which wasn’t gonna do a whole lot for him in the long run. Meanwhile, from the sound of it, the Titans were about to fail to agree to an extension with Jason “Billions!” Brenize, but that didn’t make me entirely confident that we’d have a whiff at him in the upcoming offseason. Hey, at least he was used to not having any runs scored for him!

The train went off the rails fast, though, when our preferred candidate for the scouting job, Oscar Semchez, suddenly quadrupled his asking price, and the Coons couldn’t afford a shortstop for $1.5M a year, let alone some pencil pusher, so we were out of that conversation and instead had to go look elsewhere, having already lost precious time.

Things then got even more complicated when we were about to hammer out the contract with another scout, and suddenly Semchez’ signed contract fluttered in with the mail – at the old going rate. What an embarrassment, and a great base to start working from…!

And would do we do with the other contract now? – Fine, Maud, I’ll let our Legal department sort this out. (hands the papers to Chad, the mascot, who gives a big enthusiastic thumbs up)

The Portland Shambles did actually achieve a couple of things before the salary arbitration deadline, and settled with all their arbitration candidates (not: Barton). There were identical 1-year deals worth $575k for stickless Critters Pablo Novelo and Randy Tallent, $670k for Ricky McMahan, and $770k for Jesse Dover. Justin Dowsey had no interest in signing a long-year deal with this clusterfluff of a franchise and settled for $1.44M while counting the days until he’d be a free agent (1,095 – roughly – at this point).

But the big news was the 8-year, $19.6M deal that Nick Walla signed with the Raccoons that would carry him all the way through the 2075 season with the Critters. The deal started at $800k for the upcoming season and would have $600k tacked on every year until it reached $3.2M, the going rate for the last four years. It was heavy with incentives, but I wouldn’t be angry if Walla won a couple of Pitcher of the Year medals along the way… Walla thus replaced Jose Corral as the Raccoon due the most remaining dosh.

Neither Rich Monck nor Ramon Lopez accepted salary arbitration offers required to qualify us for compensation picks, and thus became free agents. Monck had been with the Critters for five years, winning a home run crown in ’64, and hit 131 home runs and had 477 RBI in total while batting .288. Lopez had been here two years, batting .263 with 25 homers and 134 RBI. In a better time, we would have tried to keep both.

Farewell also to Chance Fox, the #3 pick in the 2053 draft, who had made 276 appearances (243 starts) across ten seasons for the Raccoons, going 89-77 with a 3.79 ERA and a save. He collected 1,110 strikeouts in 1533 innings. In 2061, he was an All Star in an 11-9, 3.04 ERA season.

A number of minor leaguers also filed for free agency there, of whom Marco Campos, Jeff Applegate, Sandy Pineda, and J.J. Sensabaugh (!) had pitched in the majors for us. Sensabaugh, who had come in with Justin DeRose in a deadline deal in 2057 and had pitched quad-A duty for a decade, had compiled a 16-15 record with a 4.98 ERA in 93 games (29 starts) for Portland. He had made 224 appearances (115 starts) in St. Petersburg in that period.

+++

October 30 – The Warriors send SP Adam McDonald (33-43, 4.04 ERA) and cash to the Rebs for #134 prospect SP Matthew Stratford, who just three months earlier had gone the other way between the two teams in the Luis Olvera trade.
November 2 – The Thunder acquire 3B/SS Brian Robinson (.300, 22 HR, 239 RBI) from the Miners in exchange for OF J.D. Johnson (.273, 30 HR, 201 RBI) and a prospect.
November 7 – The Condors seem to have tired of the 2067 season’s #5 prospect, MR Matt Guadagno (4-2, 2.27 ERA, 2 SV), and send him to the Knights for two new prospects.
November 18 – The Titans send 2B/1B Rich Cabrera (.258, 96 HR, 398 RBI) to the Cyclones for UT Dave Canning (.231, 1 HR, 3 RBI) and #114 prospect OF Mario Valverde.
November 19 – The Raccoons trade 36-year-old veteran SP Ryan Musgrave (118-135, 4.03 ERA) to the Pacifics for 27-yr old CF/RF Eddy Ramirez (.248, 66 HR, 302 RBI).
November 20 – Portland snatches right-handed swingman George Kehoe (3-0, 2.13 ERA, 4 SV) from the Blue Sox for the price of 2B Ryan Bonner (.298, 0 HR, 19 RBI).

+++

Semchez’ review of our pitching staff was less than glowing and he considered Musgrave toast, so the Raccoons got something out of him before he could get buttered and jammed for a full season. Ramirez gives us a solid right-handed bat for the bench, and he’s on almost an identical contract to Musgrave, so the move wasn’t costing anything. On the other paw, we were now down to four starting pitchers.

Semchez also recommended purging Bonner, who had ****** defense and was a singles slapper that had to hit over .300 to be worth anything. In turn, the Quebecois Kehoe had a devastating knuckle curve, and while there were some yellow flags in his file, he had been a fairly good starting pitcher in AAA, but had never gotten a starting assignment from the Sox. He had only two-and-a-half pitches and mediocre stamina, but on the other paw … (dramatically flicks a paw around, palm up) … we had Cody ******* Childress posting a 7.01 ERA across a pawful of awful starts late this year.

Now, Semchez had indeed more ideas of whom to get rid of, but we still needed a minimum of 25 players to be viable, so we had to take this step by step… Hey, maybe we could sign a free agent!

Due to some savings on Nick Walla (and foregoing bothering with Barton any longer) the Raccoons managed to clear some more dimes off the books and would enter the offseason with just over $12M of budget room, plus $2.32M in cash. While that would certainly get a player or two acquired, it wasn’t gonna build a working team, so competing in 2068 was not even on the roadmap. Also… (points at the bucket in the corner of the office that catches a slow drip from the ceiling) …it’s getting wet in here in more ways than one. So that’s gonna cost some coins to fix.

Well a catcher was needed for sure, but right-handed backup catchers were a dime a dozen, and the big hole was probably at third base if you accepted that Carlos Gutierrez’ best position was second base and didn’t want to get rid of Novelo just yet – although Novelo could also play third base in case a slugging shortstop who was also a Gold Glover fell into our laps. And he could also sit his tush on the ******* bench.

How funny that we had seven infielders on the roster, and once you subtracted the set Starr and Gutierrez, you had five guys (Novelo, Arantes, Arredondo, Gates, Davis) that couldn’t hit a singular lick between them… Improvement would definitely come on the infield, because our starting outfielders had all hit for a 110 OPS+ or better (with a max of 117 on Dowsey, so keep your shirt on please) in ’67, and margins were slim with our limited funds and reluctance to give up (second-round) draft picks.

Unfortunately it appeared like Rich Monck was pretty much the best left-side-of-the-infield guy out there and clearly above-100 OPS+ guys were not going to be available just like that. Richmond’s Jason Turner was a type-A free agent. Longtime Boston infielder Diego Mendoza was on the market; batting right-handed he could balance a lineup that was left-handed to a fault last season, and that was before we went to a left-handed hitting catcher for a primary. However, expecting more than league-average batting from Mendoza would be foolish. He had won a Gold Glove at third base in ’63, and had led the league in doubles a few times and was good for double digit homers, but he was allergic to ball four and struck out a lot.

One suggestion was to go for both Mendoza and Jared Duhe – who had been traded for each other in May! – the latter still being on the Cyclones. Duhe was one of the best OBP guys in the league right now and would fit very well at short, with Mendoza at third base. Duhe would lead off and Jared Wilson would fit better in the #2 hole anyway, opined Semchez, attempting to make himself useful.

+++

2067 ABL AWARDS

Players of the Year: DAL CF Tyler Wharton (.308, 33 HR, 126 RBI) and MIL 1B/RF/LF Cesar Ramirez (.354, 26 HR, 134 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: DAL SP Alex Quevedo (16-7, 3.39 ERA) and BOS SP Jason Brenize (22-6, 2.45 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: SFW LF/CF/1B Beau Metz (.275, 9 HR, 63 RBI) and LVA RF/LF Alfredo Rosado (.306, 11 HR, 49 RBI)
Relievers of the Year: CIN MR Pedro Valentin (6-3, 2.51 ERA, 3 SV) and OCT CL Erik Swain (2-5, 1.64 ERA, 44 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P SAL Jimmy Nelson – C PIT Nick Dingman – 1B LAP Alejandro Olivares – 2B DAL Adam Yocum – 3B SAC J.P. Gallo – SS NAS Tony Gaines – LF SFW Danny Perez – CF DAL Tyler Wharton – RF NAS Austin Gordon
Platinum Sticks (CL): P OCT Danny Baca – C BOS Jorge Arviso – 1B MIL Cesar Ramirez – 2B MIL Tim Goss – 3B LVA Alex Alfaro – SS MIL Fidel Carrera – LF LVA Victor Lorenzo – CF BOS Eddie Marcotte – RF MIL Carlos Dominguez
Gold Gloves (FL): P DAL Andy Canada – C SAL Fernando Contreras – 1B SAC Jon Barrientos – 2B RIC Alberto Bonilla – 3B DEN Dallas Stockton – SS SFW Tomas Guangorena – LF CIN Melvin Avila – CF DAL Tyler Wharton – RF RIC Willie Ospina
Gold Gloves (CL): P ATL Keith Thompson – C TIJ Mike Brann – 1B OCT Ian Stone – 2B CHA John Schmidt – 3B POR Rich Monck – SS CHA Trent Taylor – LF BOS Steve Humphries – CF OCT Coby Thore – RF SFB Jake Ward

Yay, finally a trophy! – and then right out the door with him. -.-