#Baltimore Black Sox
At 41, Dick Hall‘s decent year at AAA was more surprising than his retirement announcement.
Some bad news from the medical staff: Sean Marshall, who was stellar over about half the season for Baltimore, will require surgery on his injured shoulder, putting him out through at least the middle of the season.
And, some very, very good news on the free agent front: Gavvy Cravath, easily the pick of the free agents this winter, signed with Baltimore, with the 35 year old OF/DH joining the Black Sox on a 3 year, $39M deal.
Baltimore released reliever BJ Ryan after he refused to be removed from the 40 man roster.
The Black Sox decided Aaron Heilman is worth a flier despite his significant struggles in the WBL last season, signing the free agent to a 3 year deal.
#Chicago American Giants
The American Giants announced 2 retirements at the close of the AAA season: Jason Isringhausen was effective in his 5 innings of work, but it was only 5 innings. More notably, Koji Uehara, who put in 32 highly ineffective innings with Chicago at the start of the year, decided to hang them up as well.
#Houston Colt 45’s
Houston decided to take a flier on Kent Tekulve as they try to revive a struggling bullpen.
#Kansas City Monarchs
Buck Fausett–predictably nicknamed Leaky–had a decent year at AA (4-2, 3.57 in 29 relief appearances). But at 36 he saw that making the WBL was unlikely, and decided to retire.
RP Jesse Haines retired at the end of the AAA season.
#Ottawa Mounties
P Turk Lown retired.
In a bit of a surprise move, the Mounties released 3B Anthony Rendon. They also released Ps Joe Mays and Kirk Reuter, who had appeared at the WBL level last season, but those moves were expected.
Even more of a shock was 3B Larry Parrish‘s decision to walk away from the game. Parrish wasn’t an all-star, but he was certainly part of the conversation at the hot corner as the Mounties moved into the season.