[Westheim]

The Raccoons were sold for the second time in 12 months – no wonder, NOBODY has any fun here! – and are now owned by Carlos Valdes, a demanding penny-pincher. 1981’s budget was estimated at $8.4M under Paco Alicea, but will now be $8.1M.

Pedro Sánz executed his contract option to spend another year in Portland. Wyatt Johnston’s option was a vesting one and was triggered by sufficient PA’s.

In turn we got rid of our trainer and pitching coach. We’d find somebody else. We eventually signed Andy Silver as pitching coach on November 7. He had been with the Knights the last four seasons. The next day we signed Michael Dempsey as trainer. Both had very good ratings. This team needs that stuff.

It was time to make thoughts about the roster for next year, and about our free agents. Gustavo Zuniga, Pedro Hermundo, and Ben Jenkins were arbitration eligible. I had talked to the latter two about extensions, but he had not come to terms. Backup catcher Kieran Lawson was a free agent and refused reasonable offers. We talked to all three again and Hermundo and Jenkins got new offers. Lawson would be taken to arbitration. Whether I even wanted Zuniga to go to arbitration? I didn’t even understand why he was a Super-2 case.

Both Jenkins and Hermundo signed their contracts on October 29. Jenkins would make $185k for each of the next two seasons (50% more than closer Wally Gaston), and Hermundo received a $548k escalating contract over three seasons.

October 27 – The Scorpions have just won the World Series, now they are already rebuilding. They send starter Randy Zimmermann to Las Vegas for SS/3B Jose Delgado and a minor league catcher.
October 31 – The Wolves send outfielder Matthew Beck to Boston for reliever Will Shelton. Both are in their late twenties and can be considered decent players.
November 4 – Gold Gloves are dished out. Ben Simon takes home the prize for shortstop, his second Gold Glove. He won one in 1978 for his work at second base.
November 7 – Juan “Mauler” Correa wins the Cy Young award for the Federal League after his triple crown season (28-4, 2.11 ERA, 200 K). Joe Ellis of the Falcons wins it for the Continental League with a 21-8, 2.27 ERA season.
November 8 – SFW George Lynch and SFB Rafael Lopez are MVP’s of their respective leagues.
November 9 – The Wolves acquire outfielder Angel Mejia from the Titans in exchange for Dave Myers. While Myers has 55 career saves to his credit, Mejia only broke into the majors this season at the age of 28, batting 12-35.

Arbitration hearings were on November 15. Gustavo Zuniga received a $99k contract. Kieran Lawson refused our arbitration offer, opening a vacancy at backup catcher. I was trying to get a trade done during that week, flying back and forth to Charlotte, NC twice.

The current pack of Raccoons had a few glaring needs: one was a producing centerfielder, one was a quality starter, and one was *another* quality starter while Jorge Romero was injured. Romero would not return until July or so, and anyway I faced the possibility of using Roman Ocasio for the whole season – a scary thought.

I had contemplated over Carlos Moran in the rotation, possibly even as #4. He had made two starts in September, one marred by rain, the other had been half way decent. I had to decide soon what to do with him, because if Moran pitched in the rotation, I needed to trade for a mopup guy, since none of the wealth of relievers really fit in there. There was a crowd of right-handed relievers vying for three spots on the roster five spots on the roster anyway, and Gaston and Jenkins were givens. I projected Gaston to close games again for the coming season, with Grant West in setup against lefty-dominated eighth inning lineups, then moving him to closer once he was confident there. This could happen next year, or even this year, depending on both West’s and Gaston’s performance. If Gaston pitched setup, Jenkins would go to middle relief, further crowding there.

I had a lot of options there, with Craig, Cooper, Coleman (who was decent upon his return from AAA after two years, but I still don’t like him), and even Jason White, whose ability at the major league level was not yet thoroughly assessed with a grand total of 0.1 IP …

Lefty relief had options as well, although with Baker’s and Bojorquez’ struggles (not to mention the long banished O’Rearden) Rich Hughes looked like a prime option for lefty middle relief. Unfortunately, his elbow was forked up and he would not be available for most of 1981, so I was looking at Bojorquez again. My red hot love for Bill Baker had long been chilled.

So, many things stood and fell just with the option whether to put Moran in the rotation. Even if he was put there, I *still* faced Ocasio every fifth day, which was troubling me.

And I don’t even have started about my infield and outfield woes. But as I said, I was in Charlotte this week. We’ll see what comes out of this.

November 17 – The Loggers acquire MR Jesus Aguirre from the Scorpions for 1B Gustavo Tramacci (he who went 5-5 against the Raccoons in like his third major league game) and a minor league catcher. Aguirre has a career ERA of 2.81.
November 18 – Players file for free agency. Now the mad part of off season can begin.

A Dominican international free agent appeared on the market, 27 year old Vicente Cruz. I had been bitten before by those international guys, but he looked like a #4 or #5 rotation spot pitcher. However, he demanded $300k, which I was not going to offer in any case.

Ah, decisions to make and trades to close! The pains of the GM of the worst team in ABL.