Motoyuki We Hardly Knew You
Chicago Makes Inoue in a Major Deal to US Rival Toledo
Chicago and Toledo have agreed in principle to a trade. The Architects will send 28-year old RHP Motoyuki Inoue to the Neptunes for 22-year old minor league LHP Roy O'Brien, 18-year old minor league 2B Shigetoki Aoki, 20-year old minor league LHP Brian Axworthy, 18-year old minor league LHP Philippe Ferré, and $18,000,000 in cash. The deal is expected to be finalized shortly and the clubs will be introducing their new players to the press when the paperwork is complete.
Chicago will retain a portion of Inoue's remaining contract.
Lifetime Inoue has 69 victories and 52 defeats with a 3.48 ERA.
After the trade went down GM Martin released a statement regarding the trade.
In a move that I didn't think I would be making, after acquiring Inoue last May, today we have sent him to the Toledo Neptunes. The move was forced when we could not come to terms on a long term agreement for Inoue who was estimated to make $45.5 million in arbitration. While we knew he would be an expensive re-signing, the league rules changed in the off-season regarding debt. Not making the playoffs last season forced our hand and we simply could not come to an agreement that would work financially for the Architects.
In a move to re-coup as much of the trade capital as we could, Toledo offered the best package by the deal deadline that we had established. The lawyers looked over the deal to make sure it would comply with the new "agreement" and once it was blessed the deal was done.
Chicago's New Prospects
The players Chicago acquired in the deal.
LHSP Brian Axworthy (age 18 #18 overall)
Scouting report on Axworthy - The 6'8 Axworthy was selected 9th overall in the 2055 draft and was the Architects choice if he had fallen to them. The cream of his arsenal is a wicked fastball, his best secondary pitch is an equally wicked splitter. He also has a good changeup. His control is fantastic and that should let him avoid runing into walk trouble through his career. His stuff shold be pretty good too and that may be more valuable. He projects to be a #2 starter on most teams.
LHSP Pillippe Ferre (age 18 #24 overall)
Scouting report on Ferre - Phillippe throws 6 pitches with his bread and butter pitch a slider. His numbers should play well across the board once he finishes developing. All his skills are plus-caliber. Ferre is projected to fit comfortably in the middle of a big league rotation.
2B Shigetoki Aoki (age 18 B-R #35 overall)
Scouting report on Aoki - He has a significant projection for very high contact. His pure speed grades out as above average. Aoki projects to be an above average big league 2B.
LHRP Roy O'Brien (age 22 #148 overall)
O'Brien is clearly the player that is most major league ready and he will join the Architects as a non-40 roster player for spring training. Our scout really likes O'Brien who was originally a 10th (last) round pick in 2053. At his peak his repertoire should include a wicked cutter and wicked slider. His stuff can be overwhelming to batters and he has the talent to flourish in a key bullpen role.
These young arms coupled with our other top arms, last year #11 overall pick
RHSP Oscar Quirk (#12 prospect overall), and
LHSP Curt Hoplins (#15 overall prospect) (who is in camp with a good chance to make this seasons starting rotation), give the Architects a very formitable future rotation especially when you couple in
RHSP Mike Hayes (#33 overall) and
RHSP Li-zhu Guao (#34 overall).