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Westheim · 07-23-2012, 06:30 PM

The end of the season brought news that the Portland Raccoons had been sold by lenient penny-pincher Xavier Bravo to tolerant charitable Paco Alicea. This was good news! We had sucked Bravo out of having fun with his team and now had Alicea, who actually didn’t rob the team of all the money it had made in ’79. We had a quarter million cash to start with.

Five players had expiring contracts and had not resigned by season’s end, these were MR Bill Baker, C Darryl Maloney, 1B Hoyt Cook, 2B Angel Costa, and CF Johan Dolder. Maloney was a type B free agent. We offered arbitration, but in reality I was hoping he would refuse. Lawson had been equally bad and I didn’t need two of those. The others all had arbitration figures submitted, although in the case of Dolder it was a long thought process. Baker and Costa had had horrible seasons, but had proven before that they were much better than that.

Infielder Freddy Lopez retired at age 35. He had a career line of .213, 4 HR, 37 RBI. It was not the biggest loss possible.

Tony Lopez had a $210,000 team option for 1980. This was a big pile of money for a middle reliever with an ERA of 3.58, but you had to consider one thing: his ERA was inflated from a few starts I had given to him, he had been sharp in relief by season’s end. It was a toughie, but I executed the option. I needed five right arms in the pen anyway and he was at least #4.

1979 had seen several Raccoons players in a huge slump, like Costa, Zuniga, Berrios, and even Ed Sullivan late in the season. He had been around .280 at the All Star break, but ended just over .240 after a horrible summer.

Daniel Hall had been the best base stealer (despite spending half the season between the minors and the disabled list), and Ben Simon was the league’s home run king. I still was hopeful that Hall would be able to turn things around. Those two were among the few that were not considered for trade, with Romero, Evans, Jenkins, Johnston, and maybe a few others.

What did the Raccoons need? Foremost two things, a quality starting pitcher and more offense. This meant cutting loose some stuff, and while I didn’t touch a lot of pieces last year, I was ready to ship bigger names this time (with the exceptions mentioned above).

October 31 – 2B Angel Costa receives a Gold Glove. Lucky Angel, he had no chance at a hitter’s award.
November 3 – Best pitchers are announced, the honour goes to SAC Juan “Mauler” Correa (25-8, 2.08) and OCT Ralph Hoyles (23-8, 2.50).
November 4 – MVP’s are announced: CIN Jeremiah Carrell (.394, 3 HR, 93 RBI) and Hector Atilano (.332, 14 HR, 72 RBI).

Arbitration hearings went 3-1 for the Raccoons. Baker, Dolder, and Costa received contracts of $99,000 each (albeit all of them were a bit higher than my offers), but Hoyt Cook received a $125,000 contract according to his demands. Darryl Maloney refused to go to arbitration.

The hot part of the off season was about to start. This time (and with the larger budget allotted to the team) I would aggressively pursue star free agents. This meant possibly forfeiting draft picks, but I hadn’t been too lucky with my pickings so far anyway.

November 18 – The Wolves send infielder Chris Scott and a prospect to San Francisco for outfielder Alfonso Marte and a minor leaguer. Both Scott and Marte are .300 batters.
November 25 – The first big free agent signing of the season sees the Portland Raccoons acquire former Crusaders SS Ralph Nixon. A career .333 hitter, Nixon, 33, signs a 4-year contract worth over $3.4M (last year is a team option).
December 1 – The Rebels sign former Capitals CF Jimmy Hunter, a .300+ slugger for $4M over five years.
December 1 – Three pitchers are selected in the Rule 5 draft, two by the Knights and one by the Capitals. The Raccoons are not affected.
December 2 – The Raccoons acquire C Stephano Bocci, 31, a career .295 batter with some power and good defensive capabilities, and pitching prospect Jose Nieves from the Condors in exchange for infielder Ed Sullivan (.270 with 41 HR in his career), outfielder Rob Pickett (.259 but with no power), and minor league 1B Ray Lee.
December 4 – The Raccoons send reliever Ned Ray to the Gold Sox in exchange for two (admittedly long shot) prospects in reliever Justin Neubauer and outfielder Enrico Acevedo. Neubauer *could* reach the majors, and become a lefty specialist. Or he could not.
December 5 – The Rebels send two minor leaguers to Dallas in exchange for 2B/SS Jorge Huerta.
December 6 – The Titans send infielder Paul Kavanagh and his .275 lifetime average to the Blue Sox (with a prospect tied to his back), and receive reliever Jamal Williams (ERA of 3.37 lifetime, but 4.75 last year). In turn the Titans also send reliever and occasional closer Burton Taylor to Pittsburgh for outfielder Ben Law and pitcher Dave McDormand, who has been rocked hard in the majors so far.
December 7 – The Raccoons sign free agent Daniel Mitchell to a minor league contract. Mitchell is a utility infielder and should he show hitting ability could make the transition to the majors despite being already 32.
December 13 – The Cyclones trade starter Juan Luis Maldonado (39-37, 4.13 ERA) to the Loggers for outfield slugger Tom Simmons, who has 50 career homers.
December 19 – The Scorpions land former Aces reliever Octavio Morin for $1.1M over three years. Morin has a 3.50 average and can also start or close.
December 23 – Just before Christmas the Scorpions and Cyclones agree on a trade that sends slugging CF Jack Williams to Sacramento in turn for 1B Carlos Sandoval (38 career HR) and a prospect.

Well, this means we lost our second round draft pick to the Crusaders. If someone signs Maloney, we will still get a supplemental pick, which would be just as fine (since our dismal 55-107 record gives us the first pick anyway).

Nixon is best at shortstop, so Simon will play third base next season, most likely. I will miss Ed Sullivan, his offense (except for the last two months in ’79) was good to have, but Bocci matches his numbers. Defensively the trade should help us big, since Sullivan was an error sink with almost 30 errors last year, 22 at 3B and a few at SS and 2B.

Fireworks are bursting in the sky as the 70s end with a bang and the 80s are upon us. Would it be a good decade for the Raccoons?

07-23-2012, 06:30 PM	#56
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 11,903	The end of the season brought news that the Portland Raccoons had been sold by lenient penny-pincher Xavier Bravo to tolerant charitable Paco Alicea. This was good news! We had sucked Bravo out of having fun with his team and now had Alicea, who actually didn’t rob the team of all the money it had made in ’79. We had a quarter million cash to start with. Five players had expiring contracts and had not resigned by season’s end, these were MR Bill Baker, C Darryl Maloney, 1B Hoyt Cook, 2B Angel Costa, and CF Johan Dolder. Maloney was a type B free agent. We offered arbitration, but in reality I was hoping he would refuse. Lawson had been equally bad and I didn’t need two of those. The others all had arbitration figures submitted, although in the case of Dolder it was a long thought process. Baker and Costa had had horrible seasons, but had proven before that they were much better than that. Infielder Freddy Lopez retired at age 35. He had a career line of .213, 4 HR, 37 RBI. It was not the biggest loss possible. Tony Lopez had a $210,000 team option for 1980. This was a big pile of money for a middle reliever with an ERA of 3.58, but you had to consider one thing: his ERA was inflated from a few starts I had given to him, he had been sharp in relief by season’s end. It was a toughie, but I executed the option. I needed five right arms in the pen anyway and he was at least #4. 1979 had seen several Raccoons players in a huge slump, like Costa, Zuniga, Berrios, and even Ed Sullivan late in the season. He had been around .280 at the All Star break, but ended just over .240 after a horrible summer. Daniel Hall had been the best base stealer (despite spending half the season between the minors and the disabled list), and Ben Simon was the league’s home run king. I still was hopeful that Hall would be able to turn things around. Those two were among the few that were not considered for trade, with Romero, Evans, Jenkins, Johnston, and maybe a few others. What did the Raccoons need? Foremost two things, a quality starting pitcher and more offense. This meant cutting loose some stuff, and while I didn’t touch a lot of pieces last year, I was ready to ship bigger names this time (with the exceptions mentioned above). October 31 – 2B Angel Costa receives a Gold Glove. Lucky Angel, he had no chance at a hitter’s award. November 3 – Best pitchers are announced, the honour goes to SAC Juan “Mauler” Correa (25-8, 2.08) and OCT Ralph Hoyles (23-8, 2.50). November 4 – MVP’s are announced: CIN Jeremiah Carrell (.394, 3 HR, 93 RBI) and Hector Atilano (.332, 14 HR, 72 RBI). Arbitration hearings went 3-1 for the Raccoons. Baker, Dolder, and Costa received contracts of $99,000 each (albeit all of them were a bit higher than my offers), but Hoyt Cook received a $125,000 contract according to his demands. Darryl Maloney refused to go to arbitration. The hot part of the off season was about to start. This time (and with the larger budget allotted to the team) I would aggressively pursue star free agents. This meant possibly forfeiting draft picks, but I hadn’t been too lucky with my pickings so far anyway. November 18 – The Wolves send infielder Chris Scott and a prospect to San Francisco for outfielder Alfonso Marte and a minor leaguer. Both Scott and Marte are .300 batters. November 25 – The first big free agent signing of the season sees the Portland Raccoons acquire former Crusaders SS Ralph Nixon. A career .333 hitter, Nixon, 33, signs a 4-year contract worth over $3.4M (last year is a team option). December 1 – The Rebels sign former Capitals CF Jimmy Hunter, a .300+ slugger for $4M over five years. December 1 – Three pitchers are selected in the Rule 5 draft, two by the Knights and one by the Capitals. The Raccoons are not affected. December 2 – The Raccoons acquire C Stephano Bocci, 31, a career .295 batter with some power and good defensive capabilities, and pitching prospect Jose Nieves from the Condors in exchange for infielder Ed Sullivan (.270 with 41 HR in his career), outfielder Rob Pickett (.259 but with no power), and minor league 1B Ray Lee. December 4 – The Raccoons send reliever Ned Ray to the Gold Sox in exchange for two (admittedly long shot) prospects in reliever Justin Neubauer and outfielder Enrico Acevedo. Neubauer could reach the majors, and become a lefty specialist. Or he could not. December 5 – The Rebels send two minor leaguers to Dallas in exchange for 2B/SS Jorge Huerta. December 6 – The Titans send infielder Paul Kavanagh and his .275 lifetime average to the Blue Sox (with a prospect tied to his back), and receive reliever Jamal Williams (ERA of 3.37 lifetime, but 4.75 last year). In turn the Titans also send reliever and occasional closer Burton Taylor to Pittsburgh for outfielder Ben Law and pitcher Dave McDormand, who has been rocked hard in the majors so far. December 7 – The Raccoons sign free agent Daniel Mitchell to a minor league contract. Mitchell is a utility infielder and should he show hitting ability could make the transition to the majors despite being already 32. December 13 – The Cyclones trade starter Juan Luis Maldonado (39-37, 4.13 ERA) to the Loggers for outfield slugger Tom Simmons, who has 50 career homers. December 19 – The Scorpions land former Aces reliever Octavio Morin for $1.1M over three years. Morin has a 3.50 average and can also start or close. December 23 – Just before Christmas the Scorpions and Cyclones agree on a trade that sends slugging CF Jack Williams to Sacramento in turn for 1B Carlos Sandoval (38 career HR) and a prospect. Well, this means we lost our second round draft pick to the Crusaders. If someone signs Maloney, we will still get a supplemental pick, which would be just as fine (since our dismal 55-107 record gives us the first pick anyway). Nixon is best at shortstop, so Simon will play third base next season, most likely. I will miss Ed Sullivan, his offense (except for the last two months in ’79) was good to have, but Bocci matches his numbers. Defensively the trade should help us big, since Sullivan was an error sink with almost 30 errors last year, 22 at 3B and a few at SS and 2B. Fireworks are bursting in the sky as the 70s end with a bang and the 80s are upon us. Would it be a good decade for the Raccoons?