OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post

Art Deco · 11-03-2022, 06:45 PM

While a team 2 1/2 games up in first place in mid-May hardly seems to be crying out for a shakeup, I've not been happy with what I see out of this team especially considering we've gone 13-15 after a 10-1 start. It turns out that there are some players we lost from last year whom we're clearly missing: Andrew Greckel, Wennington Romero and Tylor Megill. Greckel's big power bat being absent is a big reason why we're only 9th in runs scored in the AL and Romero (as a lefty) and Megill have been missed as the bullpen sports a 4.35 ERA, 13th out of 15 teams in the league.

As a result, I've cooked up a pair of big trades to address those problems, although these will help a lot more with the offense than the pen, where further deals could be forthcoming. First of all we decided to address the lack of production by acquiring one of the top run-producers of the last several years:

Before I get into the merits of the deal, I want to take a brief moment to explain why I forced this trade. I originally made the offer without Jesus Sanchez, got a "let me think about it" response, and submitted the trade. The next day I received this message:

So I added Sanchez per the counter-offer, went to accept it, and still got the "let me think about it". This is a recurring problem in OOTP and I'm not sure they're going to do anything about it, but thanks to the "force trade" option I was able to get the Yanks to accept their own counter-offer.

Anyway for the trade itself, one of the problems we had is that the guy getting Greckel's at-bats was Kelley and he was only hitting 237/327/414 with 4 HR. Kelley was acquired prior to the 2029 season after winning the NL RotY and was put into the lineup, but didn't hit before losing his job to Joshua Baez, who did. Last year Kelley seemed to live up to his promise, having a fine season in a 4th OF role and I figured he'd be ready to step in. But he instead reverted to his mediocre 2029 form and since the Yanks were willing to take him for Salinas, I couldn't pass it up. Meanwhile, here are Salinas' career numbers as he's rated for 70 contact and 70 power:

While he can rake he offers little defensive value (hence the muted WARs) but that's not a problem as he'll become our full-time DH with Baez putting his 60-rated glove back on and taking over RF from Kelley. Salinas, whom NY had on the trading block, is under contract for another year and the Yanks are eating 40% of his salary so we'll pay him $10M next season to DH as well.

We then made a second deal, this one with the Dodgers:

While my AGM Sam Fuld did not like this deal, I obviously did and that's why I get paid the big bucks. This is a deal of two exciting young players who are probably in the majors a bit prematurely. Brooks of course was our Rule 5 pickup from the Yankees who profiles as a future top-half-of-the-rotation starter but has struggled at times out of our bullpen this year. Still he had tremendous trade value when I shopped him and Tosado caught my eye. The 6th overall pick in the 2029 draft, he had a meteoric rise to the majors and has all the tools:

Those ratings (the current ones, not the potential) imply he should have a 900+ OPS but he's struggled this year with the Dodgers (222/295/294). He only has 2 homers but already 8 SB to his credit. Still he looks like a true star in the making and perhaps more likely to reach his potential than Brooks. We also picked up Feole in the deal, a veteran lefty reliever (rated 60/60/50) to give us a third one for the pen behind Gavin Bruni and Dax Fulton, whom have both had their struggles this year after two good seasons.

The question becomes what to do with Tosado this year, since Salinas will DH, Crumpton is entrenched at 1B and we have a Kim/Gutierrez/Baez OF which has served us well. For now we'll keep him up and demote JJ Cargill to Durham, given Tosado's better overall profile and versatility compared to Cargill's. Tosado also gives us someone who can back up Gutierrez in CF, which was Kelley's role before we dealt him.

So there you have it - two blockbuster deals which I'm hoping will help us this year and set us up for the future as well even if we did trade away a possible replacement down the line for James Hays.

11-03-2022, 06:45 PM	#903
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 7,599	Shakeup day in Tampa Bay While a team 2 1/2 games up in first place in mid-May hardly seems to be crying out for a shakeup, I've not been happy with what I see out of this team especially considering we've gone 13-15 after a 10-1 start. It turns out that there are some players we lost from last year whom we're clearly missing: Andrew Greckel, Wennington Romero and Tylor Megill. Greckel's big power bat being absent is a big reason why we're only 9th in runs scored in the AL and Romero (as a lefty) and Megill have been missed as the bullpen sports a 4.35 ERA, 13th out of 15 teams in the league. As a result, I've cooked up a pair of big trades to address those problems, although these will help a lot more with the offense than the pen, where further deals could be forthcoming. First of all we decided to address the lack of production by acquiring one of the top run-producers of the last several years: Before I get into the merits of the deal, I want to take a brief moment to explain why I forced this trade. I originally made the offer without Jesus Sanchez, got a "let me think about it" response, and submitted the trade. The next day I received this message: So I added Sanchez per the counter-offer, went to accept it, and still got the "let me think about it". This is a recurring problem in OOTP and I'm not sure they're going to do anything about it, but thanks to the "force trade" option I was able to get the Yanks to accept their own counter-offer. Anyway for the trade itself, one of the problems we had is that the guy getting Greckel's at-bats was Kelley and he was only hitting 237/327/414 with 4 HR. Kelley was acquired prior to the 2029 season after winning the NL RotY and was put into the lineup, but didn't hit before losing his job to Joshua Baez, who did. Last year Kelley seemed to live up to his promise, having a fine season in a 4th OF role and I figured he'd be ready to step in. But he instead reverted to his mediocre 2029 form and since the Yanks were willing to take him for Salinas, I couldn't pass it up. Meanwhile, here are Salinas' career numbers as he's rated for 70 contact and 70 power: While he can rake he offers little defensive value (hence the muted WARs) but that's not a problem as he'll become our full-time DH with Baez putting his 60-rated glove back on and taking over RF from Kelley. Salinas, whom NY had on the trading block, is under contract for another year and the Yanks are eating 40% of his salary so we'll pay him $10M next season to DH as well. We then made a second deal, this one with the Dodgers: While my AGM Sam Fuld did not like this deal, I obviously did and that's why I get paid the big bucks. This is a deal of two exciting young players who are probably in the majors a bit prematurely. Brooks of course was our Rule 5 pickup from the Yankees who profiles as a future top-half-of-the-rotation starter but has struggled at times out of our bullpen this year. Still he had tremendous trade value when I shopped him and Tosado caught my eye. The 6th overall pick in the 2029 draft, he had a meteoric rise to the majors and has all the tools: Those ratings (the current ones, not the potential) imply he should have a 900+ OPS but he's struggled this year with the Dodgers (222/295/294). He only has 2 homers but already 8 SB to his credit. Still he looks like a true star in the making and perhaps more likely to reach his potential than Brooks. We also picked up Feole in the deal, a veteran lefty reliever (rated 60/60/50) to give us a third one for the pen behind Gavin Bruni and Dax Fulton, whom have both had their struggles this year after two good seasons. The question becomes what to do with Tosado this year, since Salinas will DH, Crumpton is entrenched at 1B and we have a Kim/Gutierrez/Baez OF which has served us well. For now we'll keep him up and demote JJ Cargill to Durham, given Tosado's better overall profile and versatility compared to Cargill's. Tosado also gives us someone who can back up Gutierrez in CF, which was Kelley's role before we dealt him. So there you have it - two blockbuster deals which I'm hoping will help us this year and set us up for the future as well even if we did trade away a possible replacement down the line for James Hays.