Prior to 2008 I don't think I'd made seven fantasy baseball (or fantasy anything) trades in a 12-month span, much less a two-week span. So that was fun.
Nobody cares [etc.] -- though one of these trades did involve both my new third-favorite Oakland Athletic (behind Jack Cust and Frank Thomas) while other trades involve two my new favorite underrated-in-fantasy-baseball pitchers (neither of whom is the aforementioned A.)
From least recent to most recent...
Masters of Puppets: Acquired Andy Marte (3B-CLE), giving up Jeff Mathis (C-ANA). My AL Scoresheet team (baseball simulation), with a comically inconsequential deal (challenge trade?) involving ex-prospects who spectacularly failed to live up to their hype. I sent my third-string catcher to the team that lost Jorge Posada, picking up a 3B in plenty of time for Scott Rolen's saw-it-coming-a-mile-away breakdown (which was a few week's after Eric Chavez's own equally expected breakdown).
Jungle Patrol: Acquired Chris Davis (1B-TEX) and Yovani Gallardo (P-MIL), giving up Jake Peavy (P-SD). 5x5 "sabermetric" (OBP and total bases instead of batting average and HR) roto keeper league; let the dumping begin! Peavy was my first-round pick this year thus can't be kept; Davis will cost me a 13th round pick (somewhere in the 170-180 range)* next year. The injured ace Gallardo would cost me a 9th rounder if he turned out to be one of my six best keep options.
*- it's possible some of these keeper draft pick #s are inaccurate as I'm too lazy to look up confirmation
Jungle Patrol: Acquired Matt Garza (P-TB) and Roy Oswalt (P-HOU), giving up Jonathan Broxton (P-LAD) and Troy Percival (P-TB). In hindsight I hate this deal, because while it ostensibly helps me for 2009 (Garza will cost me a R15, Oswalt would cost me a R3 if he somehow magically rediscovered his peak self over the next few weeks), it actually gives up a shocking amount of 2009 value depending on whether Percival retires and whether Takashi Saito reclaims his old bullpen role. Tremendous future upside for the other owner AND an obvious save boost in 2008.
Harvesters of Sorrow: Acquired Hiroki Kuroda (P-LAD) and Chris Volstad (P-FLA) for Hunter Pence (OF-HOU). My NL Scoresheet team had a grand strategy fall into its lap. I got an e-mail asking who I might be interested in trading among {four or five Carlos Beltran-caliber players, plus Hunter Pence}. Wrote back that I'd deal Pence but that the others were well nigh untouchable. Got this offer, took it ASAP despite its creation of even further havoc in an outfield that's missing concussed Ryan Church, fragile(?) Justin Upton, and the degree of playing time that the Phillies unjustly withhold from Jayson Werth. (And Matt Diaz for whatever he's worth.) This deal also meant that, at the cost of a lot of defense, I finally realized I could play Jim Thome and James Loney at the same time by making the latter stand in left field. (That feels so unrealistic and degenerate, no? And yet in real life the Diamondbacks did pretty much the same thing with Conor Jackson.) Even after doing that I got a brief heavy dose of Alfredo Amezaga, hideously underqualifed corner outfielder.
Jungle Patrol: Acquired Zack Greinke (P-KC) and Brad Ziegler (P-OAK), giving up C.C. Sabathia (P-MIL). This ended a long sweepstakes. Greinke will cost me a R16, Ziegler would be a R14 if he's still the A's closer into 2009, Sabathia is unkeepable. This deal went down right after Ziegler's two-inning save in Detroit.
Harvesters of Sorrow: Acquired Mike Cameron (OF-MIL) and a 2009 round 35, giving up Brett Myers (P-PHI). Obvious counterbalance to the Pence/Kuroda deal. And, not that this was any factor in the trade, but finally the Harvesters are rid of that wife-beating oaf!
Harvesters of Sorrow: Acquired Jeff Baker (2B/OF-COL) and Chris Coste (C-PHI), giving up Jeff Francis (P-COL) and a 2009 R31. The premise for the respective rival owners is that Myers and Francis will each be among their team's 13 best keepers going into 2009. For me they'd be in line (among pitchers) behind Dan Haren, Matt Cain, Clayton Kershaw, Kuroda, Volstad, possibly Todd Wellemeyer, and maybe even Jamie Moyer! (The '08 post-trade Harvesters rotation shapes up as Haren-Cain-Kuroda-Moyer-Wellemeyer.) Baker basically becomes what Chris Burke was supposed to be (lefty-masher who platoons with Kelly Johnson and pinch-hits a lot), Chris Coste is (playing time permitting) quite an upgrade over the 2008 models of Josh Bard and/or Matt Treanor.
One thing about Scoresheet playoffs is that player performance is a combination of season-long performance with September performance (playoff lineup cards are due at the end of August), so even though the Harvesters are six-games out, there's reason to believe they previously underachieved (mainly that 40% of the April-May rotation was Myers/Francis at their worst, and that Miguel Cabrera finally remembered who he is as opposed to his first half), and it's good to stock up on good 2008 performance and jettison players whose '08 numbers are like Myers or Pence.
Posted by Matt Bruce at August 15, 2008 11:56 AM