Season 43 Trade Thougths volume 2

The Jackson Mississippi Moonshiners trade Willie Eldred, Al Urbina, and Dellin Liz to the Philadelphia Erffdoggs for Vance Charleston and Cash



This is a terrific move for a team like Jackson that thinks it can win the World Series this season.  Charleston is a top flight catcher.  A switch hitter with power, he gives you enough bat and plays gold glove level defense.  He even has a little bit of positional flexibility, though is best off at catcher.  I haven’t ranked the catchers, but eye balling it, he is probably the 6^th to 8^th best catcher in the league.  I don’t like this deal as much for Philly.  Eldred is lesser version of Charleston and actually older (though in fairness offers even more positional flexibility).  Urbina is probably the reason Philadelphia made the deal.  He has a decent enough bat and is young, but can only ever be a DH.  He’s fine, but not with the difference between Charleston and Eldred in a vacuum.  Dellin Liz is a sub major league talen.



The Salt Lake City Trappers trade Harry Giansanti and Pedro Sandoval to the Philadelphia Erfdoggs for Gene Cummings and Deck Hoyt



I don’t understand this deal other than to say Salt Lake City agreed to take on salary for a fringe prospect (Hoyt).  Hoyt will not be a good ML player, but he is the only guy of any value in the trade.



The Colorado House of Horrors trade Laynce Vogelsong to the Chicago Orphans for Jensen Helms



Low key trade.  Colorado picks up a ML quality 3b for agreeing to take on season 44 and 45 money.

Week 3 Power Rankings

Teams	Rank	win	Ex rank	score	Comment
Jacksonville	1	1	1	1	Not a great week for Jacksonville, but their lead was big enough to stay #1
Montgomery	2	2	2	2	A terrible week for Montgomery, but they too were far enough ahead to stay #2
Milwaukee	6	3	3	4.35	Making a strong push to make the first tier
Jackson	5	5	5	5	A meh week for a talented team
San Francisco	3	4	10	5.05	The champs are living dangerously, but still winning.
Las Vegas	7	7	6	6.75	3rd in runs
Pawtucket	4	11	9	7.35	Though still well back of Jacksonville, made up 4 games this week.
San Juan	8	12	7	8.95	Omir Stowers leads Hobbs with 21 doubles
Montreal	11	5	11	9.2	2nd best week in the league.  Playing Boston can do that for you.
Richmond	12	7	12	10.5	Chick Rosenthal has 28 home runs and 60 runs already
Honolulu	15	7	8	10.85	Another make me look like an idiot week
Columbus	9	12	14	11.15	Not in the playoffs yet, but they continue to hang around
Kansas City	13	7	15	11.7	Couldn't handle success
Oakland	20	19	3	15.45	I've never seen a team with the 3rd best expected winning percentage and 19th most wins,
New York	14	16	18	15.6	Dominant Low A team (44-12)
Helena	19	12	16	16.15	Already has 5 pickups
Toledo	16	18	16	16.6	In the AL East .500 is good enough!
Colorado	10	24	20	16.7	Greg Ward is hitting .366
Philadelphia	23	16	13	18.4	Willis Perez has struck 56 times already
Durham	18	22	27	21.45	All minor league teams have winning records
Los Angeles	22	26	19	22.45	Has 31 more double plays than anyone else
Scottsdale	24	19	26	23	Absurdly few hit by pitches
Oklahoma City	31	12	28	24.55	Where in the heck did this week come from?  17-win week???!!!!
Florida	17	31	31	24.7	Shockingly bad this year
Pittsburgh	28	22	23	24.95	Hardest team to run against
Boston	21	28	29	25.1	The ICE of Roy Hobbs
Toronto	27	28	21	25.8	Kings of the 27th spot in the power rankings
Chicago	25	24	30	25.95	Most - plays (25)
Salt Lake City	32	19	24	26.1	Leads league in strike outs
Baltimore	26	32	22	26.8	Tied for the worst week
Houston	30	26	24	27.3	First in fielding percentage
New Orleans	29	28	32	29.45	Can Zion play fake baseball too?

SEASON 43 NL North PREVIEW

Helena Hot Heads
dbreez
SEA 43 Start: 25-21

It wasn't a terrible surprise that Helena only won 68 last year after the preseason sell-off, and it's not a surprise either that they've rebounded in only 1 season.  CF Lorenzo Rosario has picked up right where he left off after winning the Season 42 ROY - he's leading the NL with 18 homers.   Fergie Schmidt (OPS .880) and Dario Chong (OPS  .858) are paying big dividends.  Given their up-and-coming status, the Pascual Castillo trade was a surprise; although the rotation looks a bit unsettled the staff is hanging in - the team ERA of 4.03 is right at the NL average (and the 2nd piece of the Castillo trade - Gerald Gillheeney - is lurling in AAA should management feel the staff needs a boost. 

I like where this team is headed, especially if they can deal a little more and get a bell-cow pitcher.

Predicted Record:  90-72

Chicago Orphans
cretins
SEA 42:  61-101

Predicted Record:  67-95

Looks like the 2nd year of rebuilding in Chicago after a string of 70-something win seasons.  

They picked up a decent IF (Dann Tipton) in last year's tough  draft, and will pick #3 in this year's MUCH richer pool.  

They're ahead of their mwr pace and with Hong-Chih Park healthy and blasting homers again the mwr probably won't be a concern.  Matter of fact, Park might be a nice deadline trade asset.  I doubt the pitching can stay as bad as it's been (5.08 ERA - last in the NL)...I doubt Wladimir Mercado will ever earn what they're paying him, but he's likely to improve from here.  And they have other quality arms in Garces, Jaime (8 innings pitched?) and Coste.

Predicted Record:  70-92

Toronto St. Pats
bluebaran
SEA 42:  60-102

New owner bluebaran pulled off one of the offseason's biggest trades as he seeks to improve on last year's rebuild - he got young 1B Phillip Kennedy for IF prospect Benji Lopez and Kennedy has responded with a .907 OPS so far.  He could use a little help as the lineup has lagged with only 183 runs so far (13th), but I don't expect a huge jump in production as the season goes on.

The staff has gotten good starts from Pep Kawakami and Chris Houston, but 4 and 5 Izquierdo (4.82 ERA) and Flores (5.98) have really struggled.  I'd expect both to improve, so I'm optimistic they'll pick up their .435 win pace.  But they could use another trade like the one that brought Kennedy.

Predicted Record:  75-87

New York Lincoln Giants
rbedwell
SEA 43 Start:  24-22

The long rebuild has finally pushed a bunch of prospects into the Bigs, and the W-L shows it.  Yao-Lin Chen has a claim to be the best of a new generation of superstar 3B's.  Junior Burawa is the rare good-field + good-hit SS.  At 25, RF Ralph Clancy is the old hand of the brat-pack Giants, and with a cool .360 BA, could be in the MVP hunt.  The #1 and 2 starters, Clinton Waters and Myron Hobbes, both have ERA's under 3.00, and the #3, Gerald Seaver, is at 3.33.  

It's not a completely-formed championship roster yet, but it's close and there are more top prospects still in the minors.  I don't know if they have the pitchers in the system to win a WS, but they have the assets to get them.

Predicted Record: 89-73