[Westheim]

The Raccoons still had five years to get anything done with big expense Tyler Wharton, so trading him after one year (in which his stats ultimately turned out *fine* considering he missed 28 games, although he also did not come close to the OPS values of recent seasons) in the brown shirt was not something we were considering. Yet.

So how to build up what was around him? As usual, something to put on base ahead of him would be nice, a task in which the Raccoons were routinely failing. Jared Duhe had hit .238 for two years with the Raccoons, with a .366 and .355 OBP in those two seasons after a .409 between two different teams in 2067. It wasn’t easy to fill the #2 hole, either, and maybe George van Otterdijk needed more playing time. At this point, though, I was not entirely against adding another expensive bat just to get the lineup to thicken. Remember, last in runs scored, and Joel Starr was leaving. Was this a good time to mention that Boston’s Steve Humphries, though 33 by April, was currently heading for free agency, was a strong defender in leftfield, and had reached base on a .408 or better rate in five of the last six seasons (and the outlier was a .393, boo!)?

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October 28 – SP Eric Stengel (32-42, 4.47 ERA) is traded for the second time in three months, this time from the Falcons to the Rebels for two prospects, including #177 SS Ramon Fernandez.
November 16 – The Falcons acquire SP Gary Peoples (25-25, 4.34 ERA) from the Aces for quad-A infielder Elijah Fountain (.233, 11 HR, 124 RBI) and the same #177 prospect they picked up three weeks earlier.

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For the time being, the Raccoons settled with their three arbitration cases. McMahan got $910k, Rios got $650k, and Tony Gaytan had to take $620k, which means he’ll earn $3.50 for every homer allowed next year.

Joel Starr and Pizza declined salary arbitration and became free agents in the middle of November.

With the books cleared then, the Raccoons had about $12.1M of budget space, or in other terms, one-and-a-third Whartons. That oughta buy a #2 hitter, I think. And Steve Humphries is a type-B free agent. His salary expectations are type-A, though. For the time being we made an offer to a 27-year-old right-handed reliever coming in from Mexico, but he was asking for pesos compared to Humphries.

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2069 ABL AWARDS

Players of the Year: CIN OF Melvin Avila (.309, 23 HR, 118 RBI) and MIL 1B/RF/LF Cesar Ramirez (.339, 33 HR, 135 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: CIN SP Jose Aguilar (21-4, 1.93 ERA) and TIJ SP Jason Brenize (19-3, 2.02 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: DEN RF/LF Steve Millen (.319, 21 HR, 98 RBI) and MIL INF Sean Van Leuuwen (.308, 9 HR, 73 RBI)
Relievers of the Year: CIN CL Marc Timmons (8-5, 2.40 ERA, 42 SV) and NYC CL John Faughnan (11-2, 1.63 ERA, 41 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P LAP Melvin Lebron – C WAS Chris Willhite – 1B WAS Armando Curiel – 2B SAL John Katzman – 3B DAL Dallas Stockton – SS NAS Jordan Sellman – LF CIN Melvin Avila – CF DEN Chris Tuck – DAL Victor David Morales
Platinum Sticks (CL): P POR Tony Gaytan – C MIL Manuel Rodriguez – 1B MIL Cesar Ramirez – 2B CHA John Schmidt – 3B ATL Jon Schomer – SS OCT Jose Palominos – LF MIL Carlos Dominguez – CF VAN Dan Moore – RF SFB Jake Ward
Gold Gloves (FL): P PIT Steven Fenstermacher – C SFW Jamie Clark – 1B RIC Bill Joyner – 2B CIN Matt Murray – 3B DEN Beau Metz – SS DEN Alex Gonzilez – LF LAP John Miller – CF LAP Mike Hulett – RF RIC Willie Ospina
Gold Gloves (CL): P POR Vinny Morales – C SFB Hugo Valdez – 1B TIJ David Cline – 2B NYC Ryan Philpot – 3B ATL Jon Schomer – SS VAN Roberto Barraza – LF OCT Johnny Parker – CF IND Jose Hilario – RF ATL Jaden Wilson

Hey, mom! Our pitchers won two awards! – Which ones? Uuhm. Gaytan and Morales! – Oh, you mean, which awards! Welllll…..

Sure beats winning *nothing*. We already won nothing last year…