Prologue | Chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12

Chapter Twelve: Finishing Touches

With just $5.3 million remaining in the Salem budget, three glaring holes still exist on Salem’s 25-man roster: a second baseman, a middle reliever and a right fielder to platoon against lefties. The Cowtippers have resigned themselves to the fact that the eighth position in their lineup will once again be filled with a no-hit defensive specialist. It has been this way for five years, so this is nothing new to the folks in Salem.

There are dozens of quality relievers on the free agent market, and once the cream of that crop is selected in the second round of the draft (a round in which Salem cannot afford to participate), the remainder will be indistinguishable from one another.

For those reasons, Glander and his staff have decided to target lefty-masher Brian Buchanan as their first pick in the draft. The question is how many other teams are targeting Buchanan, and whether or not the Cowtippers can afford to let him slide to the 11th round. Salem has two choices: either gamble that Buchanan will still be available in Round 11 and select two $2 million players in Rounds 11 and 12, or sign Buchanan for $3m in the 6th round, then wait until the 16th round to fill that vacant bullpen spot.

After considerable debate, the Cowtippers choose to play it safe, securing Buchanan in the 6th round.

“Once again, it basically boiled down to who is going to help this team more this year,” Glander explains. “Buchanan will certainly help this team more than a middle reliever or defensive specialist. Especially with certain teams in our league loading up on left-handed pitchers, it’s important to have another right-handed weapon to turn to.”

As always, Round 11 turns into a feeding frenzy for bullpen arms, leaving a wasteland of mediocrity by the time Salem’s 16th round pick arrives. The Cowtippers settle upon milquetoast middle reliever Rick Bauer. Though Salem’s primary goal was to add a left-handed reliever, and though Bauer’s ERA is a gaudy 4.51, Salem analysts feel he will be capable of providing more quality innings in middle relief than any of the other options on the board.

By the time Salem’s next pick arrives in Round 21, the Cowtippers are forced to make the embarrassing decision to select Neifi Perez. Though Perez is close to being the worst hitter in baseball, he is also the best defensive infielder in the game.

“When we lost the bid for Polanco,” Glander explains, “we knew this is what would happen. We’ve done this every year, going with a glove man at short who can’t hit a lick. So this is nothing new, really. We’ll get by just fine with Neifi.”

With all of the necessary picks having been made, Glander and his staff spend the remainder of the draft searching for bargains. The two remaining spots on the 25-man roster are filled with backup infielder Craig Counsell and lefty reliever Aaron Fultz.

Once the final draft pick has been made, Glander sits alongside Reuschel in the Salem war room, sharing a beer and a bag of chips. Both men are clearly exhausted as they gaze at the Big Board listing the 2004 Salem Cowtippers Opening Day roster. Much has been accomplished over the past ten weeks. Sixteen trades have been made. Three high-impact free agent auctions have been won. Ten other free agents have been signed as well, along with nine players for the farm roster. In the span of just ten weeks, the Salem roster has been completely torn down and rebuilt, from the starting rotation to the starting lineup to the bullpen to the bench, all the way down to the farm.

The starting rotation, which once included only Roger Clemens, Barry Zito and Tomo Ohka, has been transformed into arguably the best rotation in league history, with Clemens being replaced by Curt Schilling, Kerry Wood and Brandon Webb.

On November 12th, the Salem outfield consisted of Lance Berkman, Austin Kearns and Eric Byrnes. Today, the Salem outfield is arguably the best in the league, headed by Berkman, Trot Nixon, Luis Gonzalez and Milton Bradley, with Kearns and Brian Buchanan in reserve.

Michael Young was brought on board to give the Cowtippers a much more balanced alternative to Ray Durham at second base. Bengie Molina has given the Cowtippers an upgrade – both offensively and defensively – over the platoon of Ben Davis and Tom Wilson behind the plate. And at first base, the platoon of Teixeira and J.T. Snow should prove to be a capable replacement for Jeff Bagwell.

To the casual observer, the remarkable transformation of the 2004 Salem Cowtippers appears to be a unique, once-in-a-lifetime event. Yet to listen to Reuschel, this type of transformation has become almost commonplace around these parts. Salem fans have come to expect drastic roster turnover each and every off-season, and they trust Salem management enough to believe that the team will be better off once the dust clears.

But perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this transformation is that it has occurred despite Glander’s insistent adherence to his strict code of trading ethics. Normally, for a team to add so much talent in so little time, they would have had to make several highly-questionable, lopsided trades that landed heavily in their favor. Yet aside from a couple of muted objections over the Bradley trade, there has hardly been one complaint that the Cowtippers have taken unfair advantage of their opponents at the trading table this winter. If anything, the consensus seems to be that Salem has sacrificed too much.

The Salem Cowtippers may never reach their ultimate goal of winning a BDBL championship. As Glander says, his “(bleep) doesn’t work in the playoffs.” But if that day ever comes, Glander will be able to rest easy, knowing that no one could ever make the claim that his title was not earned fairly and legitimately.