Grading the Trades

Royals prospect Daniel Cortes at his finest. The future of the Royals looks bright.

I think we just went through our first series of serious trades. You know, trades that weren’t done because some of us were too stupid to realize that he/she did not draft a LEFT FIELDERRRRRRRR or because people were still trying to figure out their teams or too busy dropping David Wright and Barry Zito.

SO, here were the first series of trades:

300 traded Ben Sheets, Mil SP to Royals/Cubs
300 traded Cole Hamels, Phi SP to Royals/Cubs
300 traded Dan Uggla, Fla 2B to Royals/Cubs
CRAP traded Kelly Johnson, Atl LF to 300
CRAP traded Jeff Suppan, Mil SP to 300
CRAP traded Ian Snell, Pit SP to 300

Dan Uggla was latter dropped for Brandon Phillips.

THEN…

CRAP dropped Bengie Molina, SF C to Waivers
300 traded Jermaine Dye, CWS RF to Royals/Cubs
300 traded Carlos Zambrano, ChC SP to Royals/Cubs
CRAP traded Dontrelle Willis, Fla SP to 300

It should be noted that Jermaine Dye was later dropped by the Royals/Cubs and then added by 300 who later dropped him for OF Josh Hamilton who had just recently been dropped by Royals/Cubs. It has now been noted.

300 traded David Ortiz, Bos DH to Royals/Cubs
300 traded Roy Oswalt, Hou SP to Royals/Cubs
300 traded Bobby Abreu, NYY RF to Royals/Cubs
300 traded Brett Myers, Phi SP to Royals/Cubs
CRAP traded Jason Giambi, NYY 1B to 300
CRAP traded Joe Blanton, Oak SP to 300
CRAP traded Albert Pujols, StL 1B to 300

Bobby Abreu was later dropped for Luke Hochevar who was then dropped for Jon Garland.

THE GRADE

The obvious winner here is the Royals/Cubs.

300 essentially traded all of his consistent veteran pitchers for a young, inconsistent, unproven pitcher (Snell) and two mediocre guys (Blanton and Suppan). Honestly, would you trade Oswalt, Sheets, Hamels and Myers for Suppan, Blanton and Snell? No, you wouldn’t. That would be THREE points for R-C.

The Dontrelle Willis – Carlos Zambrano deal is a wash.

Now here is where it gets interesting. When taken into account who has been added and dropped along with the trade, the following occurred:

300 got: Albert Pujols, Jason Giambi., Josh Hamilton and Kelly Johnson R-C got: David Ortiz, Brandon Phillips, Shane Victorino and started Prince Fielder in place of Pujols

R-C got the better end of this deal. Here is why:

First, aside from the fact that Pujols is cursed, he is also going to have a down season (by his standards) then next couple of years. Rolen is old, Edmonds is old, Eckstein is old, Duncan can only hit when he is batting in front of Pujols and there is virtually NOTHING coming up through the minor leagues to help him. On top of this, the word in Gay Louis is that the owner is in the process of becoming more stingy with his money, which is why they did not work to keep Suppan and seek additional pitching help. In other words, Pujols is going to hit 30+ homers, but nobody is going to be on base.

Meanwhile…Prince Fielder is going nuts with the Milwaukee offense. The team is young and on its way to talking hold of the NL Central for the next couple of years. Fielder is only 22 years old and, in terms of keeper value, is a mere 28th round (or lowest pick) choice since he was not drafted. He also has people he can drive in because people actually get on base in Milwaukee.

Second is the acquisition of David Ortiz. Ortiz was, essentially, traded for Pujols. Ortiz will walk more, hit more home runs and drive in more runs this year than Pujols will. Ortiz is already out scoring him in Fantasy (as is Fielder by the way). Giambi, who will replace Ortiz for 300, strikes out a lot and hits in a position where he will lose most of his RBIs to AROD and Abreu (when he decides to start hitting again).

Finally, 300 downgraded at more positions than he upgraded. 300 upgraded at first base and second base, while downgrading in starting and relief pitching (losing Meyers and not replacing him) and also DH. He remained neutral in the outfield. R-C meanwhile slightly upgraded at first base, upgraded at DH, upgraded in starting pitching, upgraded in relief pitching, the outfield with Victorino, and, arguably, at minimum, maintained value at second base with Phillips.

SO, 300 gets TWO points for getting better on offense and R-C gets FIVE points for upgrading at three positions on offense and two points for not losing value at any position.

Final score: R-C 8, 300 2. Final grade: R-C A, 300 C-.

NEXT TRADE

COL traded Alfonso Soriano, ChC LF to Zou
COL traded Justin Verlander, Det SP to Zou
COL traded Paul Konerko, CWS 1B to Zou
Zou traded Justin Morneau, Min 1B to Schilbies
Zou traded Carlos Lee, Hou LF to Schilbies
Zou traded Mike Mussina, NYY SP to Schilbies

This was an interesting trade. It is a trade that, I think, will end up being a better one for the Shilbies…barely.

This whole deal depends on how much Soriano improves over the next month and how much Sabathia and Maine continue to dominate.

The Paul Konerko – Justin Morneau trade, to me, is a wash. They will both put up equal numbers by the end of the season.

The Justin Verlander – Mike Mussina trade, this season anyway, will also be a wash. Both will win their share of games and strike out their fair share of batters. The difference here will be whether or not Johnson decides to keep Verlander and if Verlander continues to be dominate. If that happens, the Zou got a steal here, but only if he is kept and continues to succeed.

Now the interesting part and this is the part where trading pitching could come back to bite the Zou.

Lee is going to do very well for the Schilbies and will probably produce more than Soriano in the long run. So I can only applaud this upgrade.

The Zou had an obvious overload of left fielders (something the Smurfs does not have) and could handle trading the likes of Lee. The deal is that Soriano is both struggling and old. He is 31 and plays the same position as Grady Siezmore who could easily be more productive over the course of this year than Soriano. The other position Soriano plays is left field, which does not help because the Zou has Carl Crawford there who is a much younger, more productive player (this season) than Soriano.

The Zou made this deal to do two things: upgrade his lineup and boost the trade value of either Siezmore or Soriano to make a bigger splash for his lineup.

Here is where my problem is with this deal: there is a lot of risk and a lot of assumption. First, you are banking not wasting Siezmore at bats for a slumping Soriano. Then you must assume that someone is going to be willing to give up something of value for Soriano to upgrade your lineup. You are then also assuming that your pitching is going to hold up. Consider the following:

Sabathia, since going 17-5 his rookie season, has never lost fewer than nine games since. Remember that coming into this season, he was not even considered their Ace anymore, Cliff Lee was (not that I’m saying I agree with this, I’m just saying that is what was being said in Cleveland).

Sabathia has pitched over 200 innings once in his career, has had an ERA bellow 4 only twice and has a career ERA+ of 111, which is not a dominate number. Here are a few other things to consider: he plays in the AL Central, he plays in the AL, he plays in the AL Central and he plays in the AL. As an overview: he plays in the AL Central and he plays in the AL.

The same AL Central where every team is over .500 except the Royals. The same AL that has nine of its 14 teams over .500 (with one of the five sub .500 teams being the Yankees). The same AL Central that has four legit contenders to get to the playoffs. The same AL that lost the World Series to the Cardinals. Wait…

ANYWAY, the point is that the American League is rough. To have consistent dominance for the entire season there is going to be tough, especially when you have never been consistently dominate before. This began to show Friday when Sabathia got lit up by OAKLAND. Yeah the team that can hit absolutely nobody else except the Royals, hit two bombs, scored six runs and knocked out nine hits to give Sabathia his first loss.

To me, that is a bit of a risk.

Then there is John Maine. What Maine has going for him is that he plays for the Mets, which means he gets to pitch in Shea Stadium when he has to face Atlanta, Florida and Philadelphia. He also gets to pitch against Washington. Lucky.

But here is the deal on Maine, he has NEVER pitched more than 90 innings in the big leagues. NEVER. Yeah his numbers are AMAZING but he is also half way up to his career high in innings pitched. At some point Maine is going to fall and he is going to fall hard.

Then Johnson goes out and trades for Verlander, which is nice, but can he be relied upon in only his second season as a big leaguer? While he did pitch twice as much as Maine did last season, plus the postseason, Verlander is still only 24 and has to be on the verge of some kind of slump.

I say this because Verlander’s K/9 ratio and BB/K ratio has dropped since last season.
He is also walking people more frequently. And, as I said about Sabathia, he plays in the AL Central.

At least with Mussina, you have a battle-tested guy who is old enough to understand how to deal with AL East hitters. He also does not have to face the Yankees. And when you figure Clemens will be ahead of him in the rotation, Mussina will be going up against less superior starting pitchers.

OR, he could suck, Sabathia, Maine and Verlander will go off all season and the Zou will destroy us all. You just don’t know.

That is why I give Schilb a B for the trade and the Zou a flux D- to B+.

THE FINAL TRADE was as follows:

COL traded Mark Buehrle, CWS SP to Royals/Cubs
COL traded Eric Byrnes, Ari CF to Royals/Cubs
COL traded Kelvim Escobar, LAA SP to Royals/Cubs
CRAP traded Matt Cain, SF SP to Schilbies
CRAP traded David Wright, NYM 3B to Schilbies
CRAP traded Johnny Damon, NYY CF to Schilbies
CRAP traded Chris Young, SD SP to Schilbies

Here is my warning to Schilb – enjoy the rollercoaster ride of having one REALLY good start from Young and then one REALLY bad start from Young and so on. Same for Cain.

Young and Cain (who also walks a ton of guys) are inconsistent – Mark Buehrle and Kelvim Escobar (he also pitched a shut out for me his first time out) are not.

Eric Byrnes is in the top 5 in outfield production – Johnny Damon just got dropped by Schilb.

David Wright is the interesting part of this trade in that R-C never actually deserved to have him. He was just sitting there for no reason on the free agent market. For what I got in return for him, I’m satisfied.

Wright could end up being a huge upgrade for Schilb, but trying to break out of a slump in Shea Stadium is tough. Plus, you know the New York fans are not the most patient in the world. Still, Wright’s potential keeper ability salvages this trade for the Schilbies.

R-C gets a B+ Schibies gets a D+

Mid-Week Power Rankings, Royals Still Rule, Cardinals Get Lucky, Trade Reviews, Other Stuff Too...Wow, these headlines get kinda long don't they? Geez

I now know why AROD and Griffey wanted out of Seattle so badly...Or they were just afraid of the realization they were coming too. Either one works here. Also, my appoligies for not being able to come up with a witty "Buhner is gay" joke or something to that extent. And what is with the long caption to this picture anyway? On to the BLOG!

A miricle happened yesterday. No, The Zou did not break fifty points. The Cardinals actually won a baseball game. I assume it was on accident. Wake me up when they actually beat somebody good, like, say, the Tigers or the Red Sox or something to that caliber. 'Till then, I'll be watching the with amazement as Royals starter after Royals starter continues to do better than Chris Carpenter, Carlos Zambrano, Roy Oswalt, Aaron Harang, Ben Sheets and, oh, whoever it is who pitches for the Pirates. Ian Snell I guess????

Well, maybe not ALL of those guys. But for sure WAY better than Chris Carpenter. Way better. I guess Zambrano can almost equal Carpenter's crappiness. Just ask BF/300. But just almost.

TRADE REVIEWS THAT HAVE ALREADY BEEN DONE. NOW I AM COMING UP WITH MORE WORDS TO CONTINUE THE TREND OF UNNECESSARILY LONG TITLES, HEADLINES AND CAPTIONS. I THINK THIS WILL DO NOW. NOW, ON TO THE POINTS THAT ARE SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN UNDER THE HEADLINE!

There have been precisely THREE trades in the opening week of the season. This is not a bad number really. It is my duty to rip all three of these trades to shreds and tell you who was the "Winner" and who was the "Idiot" (Ha! you were expecting "loser" there weren't ya?). We will dissect these trades chronologically (You know, for a guy who wants to write for a living, I sure can't spell. I've already used the "Spell Check" five times. I suck.).

TRADE #1: BF/300 sends SS Edgar Renteria and CF Tori Hunter to the "I Need a New Name" Schilbies for LF Matt Holliday and 1B Kevin Youkilis

This trade was done out of necessity. Both BF/300 and , um, lets call them....the Pansies (for both the cheesy attempt at using his name in the team name and general, well, pansiness) failed to draft specific players for specific positions.

BF/300 is the obvious winner of this trade. I'd be surprised to see either Hunter or Renteria in the Pansies line-up come the end of the month. While Youkilis is going to have to be replaced at some point by BF/300, Holliday will put up huge numbers for him coming off the bench or in a starting role, using the thin air of Colorado to pad his stats.

Rule #1: Never trade a productive player from Colorado unless you are getting a high return for him or the franchise is temporarily moving their home games to Kansas for some inexplicable reason.

TRADE #2: Tones trade RF/LF Nick Markakis to the 2005 Royals (aka The Zou) for 3B Troy Glaus

This was a "depth" trade for the Tones. The trade gave the Tones a 3B to back up Ryan Zimmerman while defending NL batting champion Freddy Sanchez sits on the DL.

Markakis, honestly, does nothing for the 2003 Tigers (aka The Zou). The have more holes than, well, I can't think of anything that has more holes than the Zou. Man, The Zou sucks.

Winner: None.
Loser: None. Well, assuming you are not talking about how bad the Zou is , but that is a different subject.
Final Judgement: Push, with an edge to the Tones because of the depth issue.

TRADE #3: The Pansies send 2B Jeff Kent, 2B Robinson Cano and OF Maglio Ordonez to the Blackhawks for 2B Brian Roberts and SP Anibal Sanchez, Blackhawks release Curtis Granderson.

This trade is sort of goofy and has half of the Leagues second baseman in it. The Pansies upgrade the spot by putting the pre-season second-rated second baseman in his line-up and adds a decent backup pitcher to his rotation. He also gained a free roster spot in the trade.

The Blackhawks gain a better Fantasy RF to replace Ryan Freel and help clean up the chaos that is the Blackhawks' starting pitching rotation by taking a name out of the mix. They also gain options at what to do at second base and add trade pieces for possible, may near future, deals.

Overall, the Winner here has to be the Pansies because of the huge upgrade he made in his blackhole of an infield. It now seems to be stabilizing.

The future will tell if the Blackhawks were idiots in this trade. If the secondbase position remains stable and Ordonez proves to be more productive than Freel, than you cannot consider this a terrible trade. Maybe , at the most, a questionable one, but definitely not a terrible one.

Final Verdict: To be determined...

MID-WEEK POWER RANKINGS...AND OTHER WORDS TOO

Rankings, and one thought per team:

1) Tones - If the pitching stays continues to be what it has been (through a whoping one start each) this team will be near unbeatable.

2) Smurfs/Blue Bats (SBU prevents me from using the word "Balls" here...) - Imagine how good they would be if they had a LEFT FIELDERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

3) Blackhawks - I...I...I just don't know what to say here. I suck.

4) KC - I will not make a joke about making out with his sister. I will not make a joke about making out with his sister. I will not make a joke about making out with his sister... So...umm...yeah...How's school goin'?...I WANT TO MAKE OUT WITH YOUR SISTER! Crap. I suck at self-control. Good thing I'm not staying at his house this weekend. Wait......

5) Schilb/Panies - Dude, get a new name, you move up a spot or two. That's all I ask.

THIS SPOT IS KIMBALL

7) The Zou/Suckfest - At their worst, they are the 2003 Tigers. At their best, they are the 2005 Royals. This only furthers the stereotype that anybody associated with the University of Missouri has no idea how to run a program.

8) BF/300 - Don't wanna comment on the BLOG? Gonna try to beat me this week? Then this is where you end up Momma's Basement Boy.

OTHER THINGS YOU SHOULD READ WHILE YOU HAVE THE TIME. iF YOU DON'T THEN YOU WILL BE CURSED, JUST AS THE ZOU HAS BEEN CURSED. OR YOU WILL JUST BE DUMB. SOMETHING LIKE THAT. JUST CLICK THE LINKS.

If you haven't gotten the point yet, start paying attention...

Yes, awkward...

I don't know if I like this or MLB.TV...

Blue Springs Props...

Speaking of Buhner...

I don't know if I like this new change in the Bowling world, but what do I know?

Losers, More Losers, Trades, Greinke vs Dice-K, Maine Problems and other worthless things

First things first: Cardinals suck.

Second things second: Everyone except for Jason Wiley, some guy named Zau and myself sucks.

It must be known that the comment total on this blog for people in this league and people outside of this league is even at one apiece. Sad. Extremely sad. Everyone of you falls into at least one of these catagories:

1. You are a crap Cardinals Fan: How much Cardinal bashing has gone on this site and NO Cardinals fan has come to the rescue of their beloved World Freakin' Champions? You guys are pethetic.

2. You are a pansy.

3. Your fantasy team sucks and you have no balls to defend it. You are also, more than likely, a Cardinals fan.

4. You are a really big pansy.

5. You are a tool.

6. You drafted Jose Reyes.

7. You drafted David Ortiz.

8. You drafted Carlos Zambrano.

9. If 6-8 apply to you, then 2 and 4 automatically apply to you and you are obviously going to be single, living in your mother's basement for the rest of your life.

10. You play ball like a girl.

But honestly, I'm not a negative person.


TRADE RUMORS HEAT UP

With the first week of competition half-way through, some players have come to the realization that their team sucks. Like The Zou for instance.

Others have figured out that they have a few holes to be filled, like the Schilbies entire starting line-up (Cheer up Schilb, you could be The Zou).

A few more just see a couple of things they need to fix to have a comfortable line-up and pitching staff heading into the meat of the season.

Here are a few Needs/Wants/Haves for each team and a possible trade:

Tones
The Tones are in the best position of any team in this League through the first spectacularly long three days. Dice-K's performance today will dictate what will and will not be available from his pitching staff. Until then, he has some great postion players to help upgrade his line-up and bullpen.
NEEDS: Bullpen help - Wainwright's not going to get too many chances this year and Lidge looks like he is done.
WANTS: Me
HAVES: Great line-up, Starting pitching and depth.
POSSIBLE TRADE:

Final Thoughts: Assuming his line-up stays healthy, along with his pitching, the Tones are the team to beat.

The Butt Faces/300
The BF/300's are riding solid pitching to an early lead at the mid-way point of the week. Still, it is obvious where the holes are on this team. Expect Eric Chavez or someone else to be starting at third base really soon.

NEEDS: Third baseman and more relief pitching, like a closer on a team that is actually good. His middle infield spots, especially first base, could improve. His pitching is what is carying him right now.
WANTS: Third base and a life.
HAVES: Good outfield with depth, good catcher and starting pitching.
POSSIBLE TRADE:

Final Thoughts: There is a rumor going around that BF/300 is shopping Jose Reyes for the right deal. Reyes was BF/300's first pick in the draft and the third pick overall, so he certainly demands high value. The right combo of players could do it for him. A combination of a third baseman, second baseman and a starting pitcher could land you a very good player.

Smurfs
The Smurfs are currently Smurfing the mother Smurfing Zou. The are pretty Smurfing good at several possitions, but are Smurfed at several others.

NEEDS: It is always a good thing to have all of your Smurfing positions filled. Jason, apparently, is Smurfed about this concept. LEFT FIELDERRRRRRRRR.
WANTS: LEFT FIELDERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
HAVES: Not a LEFT FIELDERRRRRRRRRRRR and infanite more closers than LEFT FIELDERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRs.
POSSIBLE TRADE: For a LEFT handed pitcher. JK. The Zou, for all the things it lacks, like a team, does have two exceptional left fielders in Carlos Lee and Carl Crawford. Nick Markakis can also play left field so trading both Lee and Crawford is a possiblity here. Expect a trade involving Lee for the likes of either Sheffield, J.D. Drew, and or Erik Bedard or Takahi Saito.

Final Thoughts: ............................................................................................................................................ GET A SMURFIN' LEFT FIELDER!

KC
I really don't know what to say about this team. One reason is that I don't want to piss off the brother of the girl I want to make-out with sometime soon. Another is that this team could be dangerously good with the right trades.

NEEDS: Starting pitching. Lots of it. Second baseman.
WANTS: Get the image of me making out with his sister out of his head. And to punch me in the face. Oh, and a solid starting pitcher.
HAVES: Trading pieces galore. Rafael Furcal, Carlos Delgado, Derrek Lee, Orlando Caberera, Austin Kearns, Travis Hafner... All of these guys minus Derrek Lee and Hafner are on his bench...and its okay that they are. Good lord.
POSSIBLE TRADE: Delgado to 300 for Brett Meyers or Cole Hamels.

Finals Thoughts: Dude, this team is raw, but has VERY good potential. And I'm not saying that because I don't want to get punched in the face by the brother of the girl I want to make sweet, sweet out with. Err, something like that.

Blackhawks
Five words sum up this team: The owner is an idiot.

NEEDS: Jesus.
WANTS: Help.
HAVES: Pujols, which is his problem.
POSSIBLE TRADES: My team for Tony's straight up.

Final Thoughts: Good-bye crule world.

Kimball
Kimball now stands for "Vacant" or "Empty" or "Unoccupied" or "No One." Used in a sentence: "Kimball plays left field for the Smurfs."

NEEDS: An Owner.
WANTS: An Owner.
HAVES: A Roster.
POSSIBLE TRADES: Kimball for an Owner.

Final Thoughts: Jason, seriously, how do you NOT have a left fielder by now??????

Schilbies
The Purple Tellie Tubbies are on the lookout for infielders. Seriously, any infielder will sufice at this point.

NEEDS: A new name. Has Smurf disorder at DH. Kimball plays there.
WANTS: First base, second base, shortstop, DH, Closers
HAVES: Kimball at DH.
POSSIBLE TRADE: Verlander to KC for Lee or Hafner, Kent to KC for Rafael Furcal

Final Thoughts: Kimball at DH, huh? No wonder you are losing.

The Zou/The LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSers
The Zou had a scoring outburst of biblical proportions yesterday, scoring 25.5 points to raise their total points to 32! However, the Smurfin' Left Fielderless Smurfs (good God Erik, you are loosing to a Smurf and a team without a Left Fielder! Its like Jason put a degree of difficulty on himself and he is still has nearly FOUR TIMES as many points as you do...I'm...I'm not even mad, I'm impressed) somehow weathered the storm and remain on top.

NEEDS: An act of God.
WANTS: An act of God.
HAVES: No acts of God.
POSSIBLE TRADES: Adrian Gonzalez to Schilbes for Barry Zito (don't look at the names, go with reality. Zito is tradable Joel, this would be good for both of you). Grady Sizemore to Tones for Ryan Zimmerman or Felix Hernandez.

Final Thoughts: So, Erik, what are you doing with the first pick of next year's draft?

ROYALS LOSE BECAUSE THE RED SOX CHEATED

The Royals lost the Red Sox last night 7-1 in a game that was 40 degrees colder than it was on Monday. Geez. Missouri weather sucks.

The Royals had trouble getting their bats warm. Contact was not too much of an issue, they just hit the ball right at people. I would have appriciated a two-run or three-run bomb from Manny, but he was too busy getting high in the Hot Tub below the Jumbo Tron in left in between at-bats.

The Royals will take on Dice-K tonight in what may be the best game of the month. Greinke will start for the Royals, which makes this game that much better. Seriously, I cannot imagine a better pitching match-up than this. Sure, Dice-K and Johan Santana would be nice, but Santana is not nearly as goofy as Greinke and his stuff is not nearly as wacky as Greinke's either. This is not to say Greinke's stuff is better than Santana's. It's just to say that Greinke has an entirley different approach on the mound that Santana, which makes Greinke's stuff that much more bizzare.

I wonder what a conversation between Greinke and Dice-K would be like?

The game is in the afternoon, 1:10, so skip class if you have to.

MAINE PROBLEM

So, early yesterday, I decided I was going to pick up Maine to start against the Cardinals to try to close the gap between me and the Butt Faces. But I did not have an open starting postion so I dumped him.

Maine's line: 7 innings, one hit, 0 ERs, 2 BB, 6k's, QS, 33.5 Fantasy Points

Stupid Cardinals.

OTHER STUFF