We Got Wood - 42.17 - Portland Beefs Up the Farm

[7teen]

It's an exciting time to be a fan of the Portland Lumberjacks! The team is off to a 5-7 start, it's best start in franchise history. The team managed to get over the .500 for the first time in franchise history recently. The team has some promising young prospects on the horizon. And now, several big name players have signed on to be mentors for the Lumberjacks farm system, giving the fans of the Portland farm system something to cheer about.

This past week, six somewhat high profile names signed on with the club with a minor league deal for 30-days in hopes of getting the call up to the big league squad. Many of these names had solid 2041 seasons and were hoping to sign on with a BBA team during the winter. But the off-season came and went and none of these guys found homes. So the group of six all agreed to join on with Portland where they'll mentor the young guys and hope GM Chris Wilson calls them up to Portland.

"Why not?" said Albert Gaona, "I wanted to play baseball. No one had called me all winter. So why not spend some time with Portland, play down in the minors, give the fans a show, and hope to either get he call up to play with the Lumberjacks or see where the next 4 weeks takes me." Gaona, a very solid BBA player who put up a 5.9 WAR as recently as 2039, hit 34 homeruns last season with Charlotte and posted an .835 OPS in 142. He's been assigned to Double-A Alpine Valley where fans have reportedly already sold out the next 8 home games in excitement.

Joining Gaona in Alpine Valley will be Designated Hitter George Robertston and Left Fielder Alfredo Salazar. Robertson posted a .935 OPS last season with Yellow Springs as a platoon DH that led him to a 2.1 WAR season. Salazar, the age 40 veteran, is on his final legs as a pro baseball player. The potential hall of famer was a negative WAR guy last season. "What the hell, it'll be fun" commented Salazar. "At least we'll all be doing this together."

One one more player will be joining the trio in Alpine Valley. , third baseman Carlton Winston. Yes, the guy who once hit 64 homeruns in a season with Charm City will be spending some time with former BBA guys with the Snow Creatures. "I got greedy" laughed off Winston. "The Lumberjacks actually reached out to me early this winter about signing on to play 3B with the club. But then the team took on Mendoza and we cut off talks. I was hoping for some more green but after Portland backed out no one appeared to want a 39 year old 3B with bad legs who struck out more times than he got on base. Maybe I have one final hurrah in the BBA. I'd love to have a shot at 15 more homeruns and 500 for my career. But we'll see how it plays out."

The club also signed Allan MacHugh to a minor league deal. MacHugh will be going to Triple-A Quincy where he'll be the starting catcher. "We needed catching help in AAA and MacHugh adds that" said Wilson. "I'm not going to lie, all of the guys we signed are BBA guys or at least AAA guys. But we have guys already in place at AAA that need to play and we don't want these guys stealing time from them. They understood their chances at getting to the BBA were no higher or lesser by going to Double-A opposed to Triple-A."

The final minor league signing has already been told to report to Portland. Just hours after signing a minor league contract, Jon Mick was told to just catch a flight to Portland. Mick, the franchise leader in most offensive categories for the Lumberjacks, had a 2.8 WAR with the club last season. With the early struggles of Sadaharu Oh III, Wilson decided he'd bring the fan and personal favorite back to Portland to be the DH. Mick will get paid $3 million for making the BBA roster.

"Truth be told" added Wilson, "we were hoping to sign and trade these guys. But we didn't pay attention closely to team rules. None can be traded for 30 days. By that time, all 5 of the guys in the minors have the right to return to free agency. I was also up front with them all and said if I felt we could work out a deal, we could see all 5 of them in Portland if something gets worked out. We won't hold them hostage here. If we call any of them up in 30 days then they become trade eligible by June 1. We still have some valuable assets with a couple of these players, we'll see how it plays out."

Each player has a guaranteed deal in place if they are called up to Portland. Prices range from $3 million for Mick and Gaona, to $1 million for MacHugh.

[RonCo]

I should have picked Robertson back up. Lots of good moves there.

[7teen]

I should have picked Robertson back up. Lots of good moves there.

I was excited for the last sim just to see if any of these guys would actually take the offer. All of them were asking for the 30-day ML deal and I figured I might get one. Was hoping to get Mick obviously. When I saw they had all signed I was shocked. I assumed someone out there would offer them a lowball BBA deal. I know 1B/DH is flooded but these guys are pretty good.

I think Gaona and Robertson have trade value if I can figure out how to keep them on my roster in the next 30-days.

[RonCo]

Promote them for a week. I assume they have options.

[RonCo]

Robertson should probably DH in front of Oh, anyway.