[Westheim]

Ricardo Garcia, right-handed batting former Aces outfielder, was the declared #1 goal inside our clubhouse. Unfortunately the first round of talks with him a few days after he became a free agent were just really fruitless. BNN had rumored it that he sought a 9-year deal in the $30M area. Well, BNN writes a lot of stuff if the day is long enough for it, but in this case they were actually right. Garcia was looking for 9-yr, $3.4M, and that was well out of our ballpark.

In my keenest dreams I had imagined I could get him for 6-yr, $15M, which would still eat up the very most part of our available money, and would also put him even ahead of Brownie into the top earner’s spot on the roster. Garcia, however, had none of merely the title of being the least ragged of the Portland Paupers, and respectfully declined. He kept declining until we gave up after a 7-yr, $18.7M offer.

So, that was a great start to our winter! The only hope now was that Garcia would remain on the market until the new year, but that seemed … unlikely.

So what was Plan B? Jose Morales was not an option, for a) he was fragile, and b) he demanded even more money. Never mind that he’s the better batter among the two. Keith Ayers as the starter was a pretty poor Plan B.

No, we had to look for something else. The rest of the rightfield free agent class was not all that great. The entire second level beneath the Alstons, Moraleses and Garcias was basically not represented. We had to look for a trade. In that pursuit, I quickly stumbled upon the panically rebuilding Aces.

…

November 21 – The Raccoons trade 24-yr old 3B Ricardo Martinez (.260, 18 HR, 99 RBI) to the Rebels for 25-yr old SP Bill Conway (10-19, 4.40 ERA, 2 SV).
November 21 – 31-year old SS Dave Hutchinson (.303, 107 HR, 856 RBI), who was with the Gold Sox becoming a free agent, announces his retirement. Hutchinson had torn his labrum in August, and despite having it repaired surgically will not be able to play baseball anymore.
November 23 – A deal is made between the Raccoons and the Aces, in which 32-yr old LF/RF Logan Taylor (.302, 80 HR, 410 RBI) is sent to Portland for 28-yr old 1B Ralph Myers (.331, 7 HR, 31 RBI) and a pair of 23-yr old AAA relievers, Willie Navarete and Chris Roberts.
November 26 – The Buffaloes pick up ex-SAL CL Kevin Johnston (23-25, 2.76 ERA, 53 SV) for 3-yr, $3.66M.
November 26 – The Canadiens sign 29-yr old ex-OCT C Robert Rucker (.297, 16 HR, 195 RBI) for 1-yr, $510k.
November 27 – The offseason has barely started, and the first really big free agent is already off the table as the Titans scoop up 35-year old ex-CIN SP Tony Hamlyn (223-127, 2.56 ERA) for 3-yr, $9.72M!
November 29 – The Gold Sox come to terms with ex-CHA CL Luis Hernandez (40-35, 1.84 ERA, 279 SV), signing him to a 3-yr, $4.56M contract.
December 1 – The Bayhawks sign ex-POR LF/RF Ron Alston (.292, 298 HR, 954 RBI) to a 6-yr, $11.92M contract. The Raccoons receive the Bayhawks’ first round pick and a supplemental round pick in compensation.
December 1 – Rule 5 draft: nine players are selected in a single round. The Raccoons are not affected.
December 1 – Longtime Titans reliever Ramiro Román (67-39, 2.81 ERA, 82 SV), who spent his entire 13-year career in the Titans’ pen, signs a 2-yr, $1.26M contract with the Thunder.
December 1 – The Thunder also reunite with INF Takahashi Higashi (.266, 185 HR, 979 RBI), paying him $3.44M over two years. Higashi, 36 and the 1999 CL ROTY, spent the first nine years of his career with the Thunder before traveling through Nashville, Boston, and Washington.
December 2 – The Indians sign 33-yr old ex-NAS RF Juan Ortíz (.270, 233 HR, 1,031 RBI) for 4-yr, $9.6M.
December 2 – The Rebels send SP Bartolo Ortíz (58-80, 4.53 ERA) to the Warriors, receiving two prospects in return.
December 3 – Ex-OCT INF Marcos Garza (.285, 50 HR, 395 RBI) agrees to a 7-yr, $13.44M deal with the Blue Sox.
December 3 – The Loggers pick up 25-year old, but well-travelled C Raúl Hernandez (.269, 2 HR, 27 RBI), sending the Cyclones 30-year old MR Scott Boone (8-8, 3.93 ERA, 3 SV) and #49 prospect SS Ronnie McKnight – a puzzling trade, to say the least, from the Loggers’ point of view.
December 3 – Veteran SP Dave Crawford (171-169, 3.91 ERA), last with the Canadiens, signs a 2-yr, $1.76M contract with the Thunder.
December 3 – The Bayhawks keep adding, signing INF Kunimatsu Sato (.278, 4 HR, 31 RBI) to a 1-yr, $690k contract.
December 4 – The Cyclones sign ex-POR SP Javier Cruz (235-151, 3.68 ERA) to a 1-yr, $1.04M contract. The Raccoons receive a supplemental round pick for the loss of the 38-year old veteran.
December 7 – Another addition for the Thunder, who pick up 29-yr old 1B/2B/LF Dave McCormick (.308, 92 HR, 444 RBI), who spent his time with the Scorpions so far, on a 7-yr, $10.92M contract.

…

That’s what I needed: Tony Hamlyn to get five or six starts against the Critters after choking them in the World Series…

Also, Scott Boone (who was a Coon way back in the Dark Days) was due to make six bucks per day over the league minimum, so the Loggers frantically traded him. That franchise is truly in the gutter…

But the rage of the day is of course the fact that Ron Alston had the balls to demand over $4M per year from the Raccoons, and then went on to sign for just over $2M per season with the Bayhawks. I am quite simply stunned by such treachery! How dare he!!

This is just outrageous. Seems like he really didn’t like it in Portland and intentionally sabotaged our World Series efforts. Yes, that will be the narrative from here on forth! Henceforth, Ron Alston shall we known as “Monti” Alston, after Martin James Monti. This Second Lieutenant defected from his unit in 1944, stole a P-38 Lightning and handed the plane over to the Germans, and joined the SS. Yeah, this is a splendid fit!

…

Ricardo Martinez was obviously done in Portland. His splash debut in 2008 was fun, cringing defense here or there, but apparently every rock thrown into a river splashes only once. Since then the Raccoons spent over $6M on Jon Merritt, and Martinez has no other position and we don’t feel like having him learn one forever.

Bill Conway might be the #4 starter, or he might not. He has two options, so he could just as well form part of our AAA reserve. His control isn’t the best, and he walked 86 in 2010, so roughly as many as Brownie, while striking out about half as many as Brown. But he has a splitter that keeps the ball on the ground and isn’t very home run prone, which is always a goody in Portland. The trade is also salary neutral, as Conway won’t be arbitration eligible until next fall.

Originally I tried to send them Ralph Myers for Conway, but the Rebels had none of that. They did like something (SOMETHING) about Martinez, though. Now watch him hit 30 homers in 2011… Ralph Myers continues to be expendable, even more so with Adrian Quebell locked up. All pure first basemen can happily go their way now.

Fun fact about Conway: he was the #4 pick in the 2006 draft, picked one spot behind somebody we have talked about at length, Jimmy Oatmeal. No, he’s still not managing to bat .200 in AA.

The Myers case was resolved in the Logan Taylor trade. Taylor costs $1M in 2011, and $1.28M in 2012, after which he will be a free agent. He is certainly no Ron Alston, but he should be a good notch better than Keith Ayers. However, he’s a left-hander, and part of Ricardo Garcia’s appeal was that he was batting right-handed, helping us a bit to balance the lineup. That won’t happen, but at least we still have Ayers around to replace either Pruitt or Taylor against a left-handed pitcher.

…

I might have said this before, or maybe not. The trade AI in 16 is a joke (I know I said that). I’m using a mixed easy/average trade mode, where I use easy to identify potential trades (like the Aces offering Logan Taylor for Ralph Myers, a ridiculous steal on easy), but the actual trades are done virtually always on average, at least until the Raccoons will eventually rebuild again, when I will go back to easy to even allow for a rebuild. The Ai won’t give up any prospects on average. So the Logan Taylor trade looks like a steal, but the Aces are really desperate to get rid of any big contract and want to pick up prospects, no matter how dire the outlook on them might be.

I even would have been able to get Logan Taylor for JUST Myers and either Navarete or Roberts – on normal! They are really throwing out all the silverware…