The Trade Deadline - July 31, 2055
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Today we played a game against Duluth which is the first in our 3-game home series against them. That will be covered with a report on the full 3 game Duluth series and the 2 game series against Owen Sound. These are my thoughts heading into the trade deadline.
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On this morning before the Duluth series we have a 9 game lead over the Sea Gulls and an 11 game lead over the Toledo Neptunes for the South of the Border regular season crown. My gut says we don't really need to do anything with just 40 games left in the regular season, but that doesn't stop me from seeking ways to try and improve this team or come away with something for the future if I think we can handle that sort of trade and not rock the boat.
If I were to make a deal, this is what I would be looking for at the top of my list. A LHSP that could come into the club, even as a rental to shore up our 5th spot in the rotation. Not to say I am looking for a #5 starter, but I am fairly comfortable that the 4 steady guys (Jose Cedeno, Val Imbert, Bill Lutz and Joe Johnson) we have currently give us a more than fair chance to win any game they start. Now could we find a #5 starting pitcher to plug into that spot in our lineup that was not specifically a LHSP, probably. But our entire starting group including the current 5th and 6th options (August Gonzalez and JJ Walker) are both RHSP's. Walker is at AAA and has pitched well in AAA since going down so we could just bring him up and that would solve the #5 "problem". But he isn't a lefty and I am not sure that this season, he is any better than Gonzalez who is a team leader and veteran.
The candidates for a LHSP that I have interest in and could be available.
#1 on that list is the ageless wonder, Hamilton's 44 year old Gabriel Rodriguez. Now some might say why would you want such an old fossil? Well this "fossil' is the GLBL's all time winningest pitcher and with his next win would crack 300. He is under contract for another year, which is not a priority for me and actually is a negative to me as I try to balance out our finances and keep the owner from stringing me up on the CF flag pole. But if he were available he could be the shot in the arm that we need to win the whole thing so I could deal with a payroll problem for next season or be inclined to stay out of the off-season FA market.
Hamilton is 52-52 on the season and in 4th place in the North of the Border division. They trail 2nd place Toronto by 6 games and with the moves Toronto made, it seems that would be a very steep hill for the Mounties to climb. So would Rodriguez who started his career in Hamilton (first 6 seasons), then spent 8 in Kingston and 4 with Owen Sound before coming back the last 6 seasons with Hamilton be available. After a phone call the answer I got was a swift "No". Ok no harm in checking.
#2 on the list was with division rival and still playoff contender Toledo. Now a lot of talk in the Neptunes camp is that this isn't their year, even though they have the 2nd best run differential in the GLBL behind Thunder Bay. They are playing at a -10 games below their pythagorean record and are just 11-20 in 1-run games. So while I wouldn't normally enter a discussion with a playoff rival during the tail end of a season, I figured why not see. The target was the player they got from Thunder Bay when they flipped the $29 million dollar contract of LHSP Carlos Perez (Now there is someone I would have loved to have gotten a month ago if I could make the contract work and honestly if I had known he was on the market I would have figured out a way to make it work and traded the prospect capital to make it work.) for the last year of LHSP Cliff Simpson's $20 million dollar deal. Now there is around around $5.5 million left on Simpson’s deal for this year and theoretically I have $5.23 million in budget space. The deal would absolutely enrage Mr. Bocquet Jr. but then I kind of like pissing him off only to show him my way is the right way.
So I made that call and surprisingly Toledo didn't hang up on me. I was informed that Simpson (34) was actually openly discussing an extension that would be 4 years and oh $40+ plus as his opening offer. Not an outrageous sum, but I was really looking at Simpson as a rental and I will get more into that later on. Simpson was 9-4 on the season with a 3.99 ERA (he was 6-0 in a mostly long man role with Thunder Bay with a 3.41 ERA). So he had pitched overall very well (yes a 3.99 ERA in the GLBL equates to a 121 ERA+ in this league). When I heard about the extension possibility that was a quick indication to me that would raise his price and might put him out of the range I was willing to go. We are thinking about what we would offer and how it would impact what we might want to do with the International FA prospect that will be available tomorrow 8/1).
The 3rd and least likely of the deals was a reach in my opinion. Owen Sound is in the fight for its playoff life but the pitcher I was targeting was not a starter and least not with them. I was looking at 40 year old Jay Bryant who had a 3.20 ERA in 45 set up innings. I felt he had what it took to be a SP and so did he in talking with scouts who knew him. He had started regularly since 2051 with Toledo when he made 26 starts. He mostly has pitched out of the bullpen with Toledo and Owen Sound since then except for 2 starts in 2052 for the Neptunes. He was a free agent at the end of the season, his salary was cheap and maybe he could be had. Unfortunately, all I got was a fast busy signal at the other end of the line. Whether they hadn't paid their phone bill or just took the phone off the phone because they are focused on trying to claw back the games they have lost in the standings to Toronto since that Mega-Deal.
That was the end of my pitchers that I was truly looking at. Now when I am more concerned about a rental than signing someone long term. Well we have a lot of money tied up in starting pitchers next season with over $50 million in 4 guys. That's a little under 1/3 of our budget space (say $160m for payroll). The other was I was hopeful that just turned 21-year-old #12 prospect LHSP Curt Hopkins would be ready to take his turn in our 2056 rotation. We had 3 other SP's that we were very high on as well looking for places in the starting 5 over the next 3 seasons. There really aren't any trades that I can see out there that I would trade any of those 4 youngsters. I see them as our 2060 starting rotation, at least 4 spots in it.
So while we tick down to the deadline did we discuss any other players? The answer is yes to some degree. I inquired about Thunder Bay 2B Ron Hinton who we really tried to sign when he was a FA in 2054. He went to Thunder Bay and is a left-hand hitting 2B and his contract ran for 2 more seasons at $9.5 million. He wasn't starting for the Caribou so we did inquire about him. We never really got into a discussion because TB wasn't sure they wanted to deal a player who was contracted beyond this season since they are so far over budget they won't be involved in FA this off-season. I also was unsure if 2B Walker Dunse would exercise his player option or return. If he returned I had two 2B at $18 million total and that was too much. Dunse can play SS but he really is just average at best defensively at short (much better at 2B). Hinton is average at 2B defensively but the metrics show his range is suspect so that kind of soured me a bit. I did like the lefty bat though.
We discussed internally whether to trade C Sean White who had a great 1st half of the season but has fallen off the cliff not even hitting his wife's weight in July. He has a player option for next year at $8.5 million but would love to sign a 6 year $105 million extension. So my guess is he would opt out. So if there was some great deal out there, sure I would entertain it because I am really comfortable with Juan Duran (23) at catcher and have last year's playoff hero Lee playing and being very angry at AAA. Nothing really came of the White discussions we had and it is probably for the best. I mean he has been a big contributor to this year's club and we are trying to win this season.
Nothing else was happening despite us floating rumors about potentially 2B Dunse, OF Samuel Amsden and 3B/1B Cruz Torres who will likely be on the waiver wire in the morning as we are going to bring back 2B/U player John Lambert.
So the clock is ticking.....will there be any deals? Will the clubs break the single season record for trades in a full season which is 13 (we are at 10 heading into the deadline). Stay turned, but I will say while we haven't made a deal yet, there have been 2 announced so far.