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Westheim · 06-09-2019, 09:47 AM

It was definitely worth talking money and expectations before making any offers. First off, Steve from Accounting reported that even with the reduced budget, the Critters could expect to have about $4.5M in budget space heading into the offseason proper. That was awesome!

And yet, it solved none of our problems.

The problems are manifold. For example, we will have nary an outfield left after the free agency departures. Matt Jamieson is under contract for another two years and $3M, half of each on a player option. Him aside, we had nothing but a flurry of demi-prospects and hopeless boys that had sure grown old quick. Ryan Allan had batted .299, but was probably not the future given that he was already 28 during his breakout season. Wilson Rodriguez had been terrible, and Magallanes and Catella had not been far off. Jimmy Wallace had arrived with a splash, had gotten hurt, and finished his debut season going 6-for-41. That was a whole lot of hot air for no gain at all. Granted, it was also the least of our problems, given that we had money to throw at the issue. Given that Wallace was the youngest and most-promising, he might have a role in rightfield to begin the 2031 season and we were really looking for a centerfielder, preferably younger than Abel Mora…

Then however there was the rotation. No amount of money thrown at it could fix the rotation. Between them, Mark Roberts, Tom Shumway, and Rico Gutierrez were owed another $25.6M. Some of those were options, but you wouldn’t expect Shumway to waive his player option for ’33 and 3.3, and we could only ditch Rico Gutierrez three years from now, and even then it would cost us $1.1M to buy out the last two years of his contract. And nobody was going to trade for anybody in that sad trio. I would have thought I’d be able to move Shumway at the trade deadline, and – nothing. Behind those four was Dave Martinez quietly leading the team in wins in exchange for nothing more than the league minimum, which was daft. The fifth spot was open; Raffaello Sabre wasn’t going to hold it on Opening Day. Maybe another 1-year rental like Jose Menendez to keep the spot warm. I don’t think I can stomach a full season of Sean Rigg. And I don’t think Jason Gurney (2-3, 4.91 ERA) will be any better in the long run…

So there was a pretty big roster sore, and the next one was the backstop slot. Mike Pizzo was gonna go, but Elias Tovias was going to hang out for another year for no particular reason. He had been the primary catcher for most of the 2020s. There had been a few good offensive seasons in the sense that a .750-ish OPS from the catcher was better than what most catchers usually displayed. But of his last six seasons, five had been for an OPS of .702 or worse, and for an OPS+ of 97 or worse, including 2030 (.619, 75) – much worse. Elliott Thompson, 20, was a good two or three years away. Another hole to plug.

And the bullpen? Well, Boles was going to be back, and we still had Ricky Ohl under contract for one more year. Nobody yet knew whether Brotman and Surginer would be back (they would NOT have been if they had meant a draft pick), but besides a 4-year deal signed with Garavito late in the season we had not much to show. Jonathan Fleischer had been largely abysmal in the second half, and the last guy from the Opening Day roster, Matt Stonecipher, had been shanked in May for walking EVERYBODY and had dropped all the way to Ham Lake during the year, and pitched only one more inning for Portland the rest of the year. Ironically, that was a scoreless inning for an extra-inning win over the Knights in August. He was not even called up in September.

The rest of the ramshackle relief rodeo had been various degrees of annoying to grating. Either they were walking everybody (Ramm, Bates), getting suspiciously good defense (Derks), or were just outright dull (Rabbitt), and some were just routinely assaulted for their naughty spots (Rigg, Barzaga, Costilow, Reed). The lone bright spot had been Chris Wise, fleeced from the Crusaders for Dan Delgadillo and Jamie O’Leary, neither of which managed to out-pitch Rico Gutierrez (5.32 ERA) in ’30.

Well, at least there were no worries about the infield. Matt Nunley, Alberto Ramos, and Tim Stalker were holding down their positions hard. If only because one of them might bite if you tried to remove him, and another one had batted for a .650 OPS while making $3M this year… It deserved mention that Rich Hereford was also under contract for another year, so there was another potential corner outfield candidate. And given that he had batted for all of a .700 OPS, I had no hope to shift him, either given that he came with a $2.48M commitment for ’31.

But with Kevin Harenberg on the way out, a hole was opening at first base. For a while we had considered Craig Hollenbeck, our second-rounder from the 2025 draft, a replacement candidate. Unfortunately, Craig Hollenbeck was a bit of a dud. He had now played two-and-a-half seasons in St. Petersburg. He had hit only 12 homers in all that time. His OPS had been .769 in ’29, but had dipped to .721 in ’30. He was hitting 30 doubles, yeah, but a first baseman that couldn’t even hit double digit dingers? What was that supposed to be? Rich Hereford has never played first base, so we’re not sure that’s an option…

We should mention as well that Ryan Allan and Chris Baldwin both had first base experience, packed first base gloves, and neither of them had hit a homer in a combined 416 at-bats in 2030.

Holes, holes, holes! – Yes, Matt, there are also good holes. – Yes, like the holes in the donut. – Matt, did you eat ALL the donuts? – There were three boxes of- … Maud! Maud! – Matt Nunley ate all the donuts! Do something!

Sigh.

Of the five non-compensation-eligible upcoming free agents, Billy Brotman was the only one receiving an extension offer. Cristiano Carmona had compiled some colorful chart and talked to me about WAR and FIP and WPA and OWOBA a lot, which was probably all some youth slang and not entirely appropriate to the topic. He said that Kevin Surginer was just not worth holding on and had been held together by defense, but that Billy Brotman was steady enough to retain despite the command issues he had displayed throughout his career.

However, no deal came together; Billy Brotman was insisting on a multi-year deal and a significant annual raise, and the Critters weren’t eating that.

While the Raccoons did a minor shift or two on the trade market (see below), I also found out already that Mark Roberts was going to invoke 10/5 rights on any deal, including one to the Bayhawks, his team of old.

In the week prior to the salary arbitration hearings we came to agreements with Jonathan Fleischer ($300k) and Juan Magallanes ($325k) for 1-year deals, but not with Sean Rigg, who was taken to arbitration. The team offered $395k, which was quite a lot for an ERA creeping near seven, and Rigg was rightfully laughed at by the arbitrator for asking for as much as $480k. The arbitrator ruled in favor of the team.

Kevin Harenberg refused arbitration and became a free agent, but we now were eligible for a set of draft picks. We hope we get something nice to go with our protected #5 pick! Harenberg is one of 11 type A free agents this year, a class that also includes fellow 2026 Coons first-sacker Jon Gonzalez (last with the Arrowheads of course). The Condors – like they needed draft picks – were the only team with two type A free agents (Jose Fuentes and Adam Potter). I can also confirm that we will not under any circumstances sign a type A free agent ourselves, even when there are guys like David Lessman who would definitely plug a gaping hole, this one at catcher.

+++

October 25 – The Raccoons trade 29-year-old SS/3B Butch Gerster (.251, 7 HR, 37 RBI) to the Blue Sox for 25-year-old 1B Jarod Howden (.269, 18 HR, 105 RBI).
November 3 – The Blue Sox ship CL Jimmy Souders (17-19, 4.69 ERA, 49 SV) to the Warriors for two prospects.

+++

Curb your enthusiasm about the Howden deal. Well, we turned a more or less useless player into a candidate that was certainly not worse than Craig Hollenbeck. Howden had been a rule 5 selection by the Blue Sox prior to ’29 and had been splitting first base duties for a while. There was *some* power in that bat, but he was no Harenberg, not a by a long shot. It was certainly bringing in an option for how to proceed, and he made the league minimum, too.

Neatly, at that point this minor deal fired the Critters all the way to the #1 in the early revision of the BNN WAR gains board. At least we’re #1 in SOMETHING!

There is also more significant news to report. In late October the Raccoons avoided arbitration with the two more obvious cases that begged for the players’ retention. Josh Boles refused a long-term deal, but settled for $900k for 2031, slightly less than the arbitration estimate.

Alberto Ramos however DID sign the long-term deal this time. The Raccoons splurged on this one, shelling out an eight-year deal worth $20M! The contract is flat at $2.5M per year, but there are also incentives of almost $400k annually. The final year of the contract (for the 2038 season) is a team option with a $650k buyout. Alberto thus replaces Rico Gutierrez as the Raccoon with the longest guaranteed contract (when including team options; if you do not count those as guaranteed, Tim Stalker had the longest guaranteed contract). Ramos was thus going to draw the fourth-biggest paycheck in ’31, narrowly edging Hereford and behind only Tom Scumbag ($3.3M), Stalker ($3M), and “Launchpad” Roberts ($2.6M). None of those were likely to be traded during the winter, and not because we really, really wanted to keep them…

+++

2030 AWARDS

Players of the Year: PIT 1B Danny Santillano (.360, 34 HR, 105 RBI) and OCT 2B/SS Alex Serrato (.302, 29 HR, 98 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: LAP SP Dave Christiansen (22-4, 2.36 ERA) and MIL SP Francisco Colmenarez (18-6, 2.03 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: NAS 3B Jim Allen (.332, 8 HR, 60 RBI) and IND C Juan Herrera (.268, 18 HR, 67 RBI)
Relievers of the Year: PIT MR Ramiro Benavides (6-5, 1.79 ERA, 1 SV) and BOS CL Jonathan Snyder (6-2, 1.79 ERA, 37 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P LAP Dave Christiansen – C DEN Jeremiah Brooks – 1B PIT Danny Santillano – 2B WAS Enrique Trevino – 3B PIT Omar Lastrade – SS SAC Matthew Crabtree – LF CIN Kelvin Winborn – CF LAP Justin Fowler – RF SAL Luigi Banfi
Platinum Sticks (CL): P VAN Joe Martin – C OCT Mike Burgess – 1B SFB Tomas Caraballo – 2B OCT Alex Serrato – 3B OCT Dave Garcia – SS POR Alberto Ramos – LF LVA Dom Dunlap – CF SFB George Hawthorne – RF VAN Brian Wojnarowski
Gold Gloves (FL): P RIC Tony Fuentes – C CIN Pat Sanford – 1B SFW Kumanosuke Henderson – 2B SAC Tim Stackhouse – 3B CIN Ricardo Rangel – SS CIN Frank Eisenberg – LF TOP Ken Hess – CF PIT Carlos de la Riva – RF CIN Ken Gibbs
Gold Gloves (CL): P SFB Jesus Blanco – C CHA Matt Cooper – 1B CHA John Elliott – 2B BOS Rhett West – 3B POR Matt Nunley – SS MIL Wayne Morris – LF BOS Dustin Acor – CF MIL Gabe Creech – RF VAN Brian Wojnarowski

Congratulations Matt Nunley for winning a gold glove (his second) at age 39!

06-09-2019, 09:47 AM	#2878
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 11,903	It was definitely worth talking money and expectations before making any offers. First off, Steve from Accounting reported that even with the reduced budget, the Critters could expect to have about $4.5M in budget space heading into the offseason proper. That was awesome! And yet, it solved none of our problems. The problems are manifold. For example, we will have nary an outfield left after the free agency departures. Matt Jamieson is under contract for another two years and $3M, half of each on a player option. Him aside, we had nothing but a flurry of demi-prospects and hopeless boys that had sure grown old quick. Ryan Allan had batted .299, but was probably not the future given that he was already 28 during his breakout season. Wilson Rodriguez had been terrible, and Magallanes and Catella had not been far off. Jimmy Wallace had arrived with a splash, had gotten hurt, and finished his debut season going 6-for-41. That was a whole lot of hot air for no gain at all. Granted, it was also the least of our problems, given that we had money to throw at the issue. Given that Wallace was the youngest and most-promising, he might have a role in rightfield to begin the 2031 season and we were really looking for a centerfielder, preferably younger than Abel Mora… Then however there was the rotation. No amount of money thrown at it could fix the rotation. Between them, Mark Roberts, Tom Shumway, and Rico Gutierrez were owed another $25.6M. Some of those were options, but you wouldn’t expect Shumway to waive his player option for ’33 and 3.3, and we could only ditch Rico Gutierrez three years from now, and even then it would cost us $1.1M to buy out the last two years of his contract. And nobody was going to trade for anybody in that sad trio. I would have thought I’d be able to move Shumway at the trade deadline, and – nothing. Behind those four was Dave Martinez quietly leading the team in wins in exchange for nothing more than the league minimum, which was daft. The fifth spot was open; Raffaello Sabre wasn’t going to hold it on Opening Day. Maybe another 1-year rental like Jose Menendez to keep the spot warm. I don’t think I can stomach a full season of Sean Rigg. And I don’t think Jason Gurney (2-3, 4.91 ERA) will be any better in the long run… So there was a pretty big roster sore, and the next one was the backstop slot. Mike Pizzo was gonna go, but Elias Tovias was going to hang out for another year for no particular reason. He had been the primary catcher for most of the 2020s. There had been a few good offensive seasons in the sense that a .750-ish OPS from the catcher was better than what most catchers usually displayed. But of his last six seasons, five had been for an OPS of .702 or worse, and for an OPS+ of 97 or worse, including 2030 (.619, 75) – much worse. Elliott Thompson, 20, was a good two or three years away. Another hole to plug. And the bullpen? Well, Boles was going to be back, and we still had Ricky Ohl under contract for one more year. Nobody yet knew whether Brotman and Surginer would be back (they would NOT have been if they had meant a draft pick), but besides a 4-year deal signed with Garavito late in the season we had not much to show. Jonathan Fleischer had been largely abysmal in the second half, and the last guy from the Opening Day roster, Matt Stonecipher, had been shanked in May for walking EVERYBODY and had dropped all the way to Ham Lake during the year, and pitched only one more inning for Portland the rest of the year. Ironically, that was a scoreless inning for an extra-inning win over the Knights in August. He was not even called up in September. The rest of the ramshackle relief rodeo had been various degrees of annoying to grating. Either they were walking everybody (Ramm, Bates), getting suspiciously good defense (Derks), or were just outright dull (Rabbitt), and some were just routinely assaulted for their naughty spots (Rigg, Barzaga, Costilow, Reed). The lone bright spot had been Chris Wise, fleeced from the Crusaders for Dan Delgadillo and Jamie O’Leary, neither of which managed to out-pitch Rico Gutierrez (5.32 ERA) in ’30. Well, at least there were no worries about the infield. Matt Nunley, Alberto Ramos, and Tim Stalker were holding down their positions hard. If only because one of them might bite if you tried to remove him, and another one had batted for a .650 OPS while making $3M this year… It deserved mention that Rich Hereford was also under contract for another year, so there was another potential corner outfield candidate. And given that he had batted for all of a .700 OPS, I had no hope to shift him, either given that he came with a $2.48M commitment for ’31. But with Kevin Harenberg on the way out, a hole was opening at first base. For a while we had considered Craig Hollenbeck, our second-rounder from the 2025 draft, a replacement candidate. Unfortunately, Craig Hollenbeck was a bit of a dud. He had now played two-and-a-half seasons in St. Petersburg. He had hit only 12 homers in all that time. His OPS had been .769 in ’29, but had dipped to .721 in ’30. He was hitting 30 doubles, yeah, but a first baseman that couldn’t even hit double digit dingers? What was that supposed to be? Rich Hereford has never played first base, so we’re not sure that’s an option… We should mention as well that Ryan Allan and Chris Baldwin both had first base experience, packed first base gloves, and neither of them had hit a homer in a combined 416 at-bats in 2030. Holes, holes, holes! – Yes, Matt, there are also good holes. – Yes, like the holes in the donut. – Matt, did you eat ALL the donuts? – There were three boxes of- … Maud! Maud! – Matt Nunley ate all the donuts! Do something! Sigh. Of the five non-compensation-eligible upcoming free agents, Billy Brotman was the only one receiving an extension offer. Cristiano Carmona had compiled some colorful chart and talked to me about WAR and FIP and WPA and OWOBA a lot, which was probably all some youth slang and not entirely appropriate to the topic. He said that Kevin Surginer was just not worth holding on and had been held together by defense, but that Billy Brotman was steady enough to retain despite the command issues he had displayed throughout his career. However, no deal came together; Billy Brotman was insisting on a multi-year deal and a significant annual raise, and the Critters weren’t eating that. While the Raccoons did a minor shift or two on the trade market (see below), I also found out already that Mark Roberts was going to invoke 10/5 rights on any deal, including one to the Bayhawks, his team of old. In the week prior to the salary arbitration hearings we came to agreements with Jonathan Fleischer ($300k) and Juan Magallanes ($325k) for 1-year deals, but not with Sean Rigg, who was taken to arbitration. The team offered $395k, which was quite a lot for an ERA creeping near seven, and Rigg was rightfully laughed at by the arbitrator for asking for as much as $480k. The arbitrator ruled in favor of the team. Kevin Harenberg refused arbitration and became a free agent, but we now were eligible for a set of draft picks. We hope we get something nice to go with our protected #5 pick! Harenberg is one of 11 type A free agents this year, a class that also includes fellow 2026 Coons first-sacker Jon Gonzalez (last with the Arrowheads of course). The Condors – like they needed draft picks – were the only team with two type A free agents (Jose Fuentes and Adam Potter). I can also confirm that we will not under any circumstances sign a type A free agent ourselves, even when there are guys like David Lessman who would definitely plug a gaping hole, this one at catcher. +++ October 25 – The Raccoons trade 29-year-old SS/3B Butch Gerster (.251, 7 HR, 37 RBI) to the Blue Sox for 25-year-old 1B Jarod Howden (.269, 18 HR, 105 RBI). November 3 – The Blue Sox ship CL Jimmy Souders (17-19, 4.69 ERA, 49 SV) to the Warriors for two prospects. +++ Curb your enthusiasm about the Howden deal. Well, we turned a more or less useless player into a candidate that was certainly not worse than Craig Hollenbeck. Howden had been a rule 5 selection by the Blue Sox prior to ’29 and had been splitting first base duties for a while. There was some power in that bat, but he was no Harenberg, not a by a long shot. It was certainly bringing in an option for how to proceed, and he made the league minimum, too. Neatly, at that point this minor deal fired the Critters all the way to the #1 in the early revision of the BNN WAR gains board. At least we’re #1 in SOMETHING! There is also more significant news to report. In late October the Raccoons avoided arbitration with the two more obvious cases that begged for the players’ retention. Josh Boles refused a long-term deal, but settled for $900k for 2031, slightly less than the arbitration estimate. Alberto Ramos however DID sign the long-term deal this time. The Raccoons splurged on this one, shelling out an eight-year deal worth $20M! The contract is flat at $2.5M per year, but there are also incentives of almost $400k annually. The final year of the contract (for the 2038 season) is a team option with a $650k buyout. Alberto thus replaces Rico Gutierrez as the Raccoon with the longest guaranteed contract (when including team options; if you do not count those as guaranteed, Tim Stalker had the longest guaranteed contract). Ramos was thus going to draw the fourth-biggest paycheck in ’31, narrowly edging Hereford and behind only Tom Scumbag ($3.3M), Stalker ($3M), and “Launchpad” Roberts ($2.6M). None of those were likely to be traded during the winter, and not because we really, really wanted to keep them… +++ 2030 AWARDS Players of the Year: PIT 1B Danny Santillano (.360, 34 HR, 105 RBI) and OCT 2B/SS Alex Serrato (.302, 29 HR, 98 RBI) Pitchers of the Year: LAP SP Dave Christiansen (22-4, 2.36 ERA) and MIL SP Francisco Colmenarez (18-6, 2.03 ERA) Rookies of the Year: NAS 3B Jim Allen (.332, 8 HR, 60 RBI) and IND C Juan Herrera (.268, 18 HR, 67 RBI) Relievers of the Year: PIT MR Ramiro Benavides (6-5, 1.79 ERA, 1 SV) and BOS CL Jonathan Snyder (6-2, 1.79 ERA, 37 SV) Platinum Sticks (FL): P LAP Dave Christiansen – C DEN Jeremiah Brooks – 1B PIT Danny Santillano – 2B WAS Enrique Trevino – 3B PIT Omar Lastrade – SS SAC Matthew Crabtree – LF CIN Kelvin Winborn – CF LAP Justin Fowler – RF SAL Luigi Banfi Platinum Sticks (CL): P VAN Joe Martin – C OCT Mike Burgess – 1B SFB Tomas Caraballo – 2B OCT Alex Serrato – 3B OCT Dave Garcia – SS POR Alberto Ramos – LF LVA Dom Dunlap – CF SFB George Hawthorne – RF VAN Brian Wojnarowski Gold Gloves (FL): P RIC Tony Fuentes – C CIN Pat Sanford – 1B SFW Kumanosuke Henderson – 2B SAC Tim Stackhouse – 3B CIN Ricardo Rangel – SS CIN Frank Eisenberg – LF TOP Ken Hess – CF PIT Carlos de la Riva – RF CIN Ken Gibbs Gold Gloves (CL): P SFB Jesus Blanco – C CHA Matt Cooper – 1B CHA John Elliott – 2B BOS Rhett West – 3B POR Matt Nunley – SS MIL Wayne Morris – LF BOS Dustin Acor – CF MIL Gabe Creech – RF VAN Brian Wojnarowski Congratulations Matt Nunley for winning a gold glove (his second) at age 39! Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 83 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.