Only 2 seasons from being the champ, but coming off of a 22 game slide from last season, the Hot Heads are rebuilding. The deal moves 2 of their 3 biggest assets all at one. Carlos Valdvia is a first ballot Hall of Famer at the tail end of his peak. An 8-time all-star, 3-time MVP, 5-time silver slugger he still has the ability to hit well over .300, slug 35 home runs, steal 35 bases efficiently, and have a .370+ OBP. He won’t be winning any more MVP’s but he could be on the fringe if things go well. Vargas is 27-year old that is first rate setup man. He could be a closer if needed, but will be hat his best as the first guy out of the pen.
The Hot Heads clear had a Draft Day mind set, their slip of paper reading “Lorenzo Rosario no matter what”. Bingo and what a prize they got! A 23-year old CF will be a 40/30 guy this season. Think Andruw Jones with only average range. Rosario will not have the career Vladvia has, but should be a better player by season 44. Clemens is “just a guy” setup man, but he ML quality and is 24 and cheap. Chong is can replace Vladvia position wise, and is 26 and fine. He’s a below average ML starting RF or overqualified backup. Both Clemens and Chong are totally usable and not the AAAA guys that can sometime be trade fillers.
This Hot Heads has to give up a lot start their rebuild, but mission accomplished. The Fake ID’s are clearly betting it all on repeating their World Series and this deal makes them the dominate team in Roy Hobbs. However, given Valdvia’s age if they do not win another World Series championship in the next two seasons this deal is a mistake.
The Pittsburgh Dream Eaters trade Julio Cano and Miguel Cedeno to Montgomery Scotts for Vasco Alonso, Josh Long, and Marv Lemon.
The “other” huge deal so far. Cano is a terrific. The 30-year old right hander is a #1 starter full stop. With 2 years left on his deal and only being 30 he shouldn’t see any decline whatsoever. An amazing pickup for the Scotts. Cedeno, 31, is a classic setup A with era’s consistently around 3.50. He’s had success as a closer, but would be below league average in that capacity. As a setup A’s a top 10 guy. Not as good as Vargas from the previous deal, but only one step below. Another nice pick up.
The Scotts get a nice haul as well. Alonso may become what Cano is a top flight prospect. I do not have them ranked, but eye balling it I’d guess some where between 6-10 in the league. A fair trade for Cano on his own. Long is a high variance 24-year RF’er. One season he will hit 35 HR’s and drive in 100. The next he won’t even be able to sustain his spot in the line up. A useful piece as long as he isn’t one of the main cog in your machine. I had a girlfriend at lot like Marv Lemon. Half the time I couldn’t stand her, but when I would take her to party or home for a holiday everyone loved her. Lemon’s defense is so elite all 32 teams could find a spot on their 25 man for him, but that bat will make him hard to sustain in the line up. In the end I love this trade for both sides. Very fair and probably improves both franchises. Wait, I don’t want the Dream Eaters or the Scotts to win. I want to win. I HATE THIS TRADE!!!!
The Colorado House of Horrors trade Butch Vaughn to Kansas City Jayhawks for Brian Neill and K.J. Morse
Butch Vaughn is a 19-year old prospect who projects to be 3rd/4th starter. Like Dakar’s HBD skills, serviceable, but nothing special. Brian Neill in a nice reserve, shortstop with elite defensive skills one year from getting paid more than he is worth. K.J. Morse is a strong bench player with defense enough to play everywhere but SS and C and enough power to make some late innings trouble. If he’s starting for you than you will not make the playoffs. However, a decent piece.
This trade is Dakar plowing under his crop because he isn’t yet ready to compete. Dakar was going to get no value out of the 2 wins Morse and Neill would produce and Colorado might. In return, KC gets a guy they will eventually package into something they really like and will be some middle-of-the-road team’s back of the rotation starter. A fair trade for both teams.
The Oklahoma City Apocalypse trade Frank Graham to Colorado House of Horror for Alan Martin
Frank Graham is one my favorites. I know I am an NL team, but I’ll get him back at some point anyway. He already 40 HR power and he is barely old enough drink. Couple that with plus contact and batting eye and he is he is a 900 OPS for days kind of guy. He just lacks any obvious defensive position. Other than a strong arm, he can’t really do anything. Couple that with some durability issues and he is an imperfect player, but a fun one.
I am not sure what Alex Martin is. I think he will be able to graduate from LF to 2B which will make him more usable. He as a strong enough arm he probably would be able to play 3rd eventually if he had to. At the plate other than a nice speed/base running combo he lacks any obvious marketable skill. He runs the strong possibility of being a tweener Not enough bat to play COF or 2B and not enough glove to justify 3B or SS.
I like this trade for Colorado as it takes no imagination to see what Graham is as a ML’er. I do not like it for OKC. It smacks of a situation where blanch had decided to trade him and then took the best offer. There is just no reason Graham needed to be traded now. He would have probably benefited by banking Graham and waiting for the right deal to use him as a piece for.
The Jacksonville Fake ID’s trade Vasco Salas to the Colorado House of Horrors for Murray Hermansen and $200,0000
A very minor deal. The Fake ID’s send a guy they were going to cut for an emergency catcher should one of their ML catchers get injured. The Fake ID's pick up a tiny amount of cash just to even the value proposition out. Colorado saves probably a million over what Salas have received in free agency for a league average pitcher.
Honolulu Luau Dawgs trade Carlos Polonia and $1,776,000 to the Jackson Mississippi Moonshiners for Jumbo Uchida, Weldon Barker, and Jung-ho Chen.
This is the most interesting trade made so far and the one I am the most jealous of (from the Jackson side). First, is that a terrific amount of money or what!!!! I once had a trade in Cobbfather where the guy demanded getting cash from me, I said the trade was fair without the cash, he reiterated that he wasn’t doing it without me deferring at least a little bit of the salary and me offering the same trade with $1 in cash. He accepted and said it was worth accepting just for the laugh of having it go the league with $1 of cash attached to it. When I trade for Polonia at the deadline don’t be surprised.
Anyway, Polonia is a lot like my basketball game at age 42. Terrific in short bursts (consistently over 900 OPS, super high on-base, able to play at least 4, if not 5 positions, just with super low durability). He’s kind of like bread at Outback, no one goes to Outback for the bread, but you know you have 3 pieces once you are there. Polonia is not going to lead you to the playoffs, he can’t give you enough at bats. However, if you already have a playoff caliber squad then you go real easy on him though the year—250 at bats—so that once the playoffs start you can unleash the firepower of a fully armed and operational battle station. With that much rest he’ll be 100 all the way through and probably be your personal playoff MVP. Trust me, SOOOO valuable in the playoffs. Plus he’s only has 1 year left. . . so jealous Jackson got him.
Honolulu did fine back. They saved 3.1 million or so. Plus Uchida is a functional long reliever, nothing special. Barker is only in the deal to make the money I am sure. He’s not worth a roster spot to me, but he can be useful in single batter opportunities I guess. Chen is the nice asset here. 2 years away from the majors, he projects as a really high-end utility likely to his all of his defensive projections.
Honolulu saves money by giving up an asset that was not in their future plans while still picking up a nice defense first SS, Jackson gets mf’er at that tail end of his contract. Everyone did fine.
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