S11 in Shoeless Joe is barely a week old, and the trade activity here has been crazy to say the least. Lots of well known players are being shipped around, with huge amounts of cash as well, just so teams can get that opportunity to head into the playoffs, and possibly even the World Series. Here are some observations that are worth pointing out:
It's quite obvious that the San Francisco Voodoo are attempting to cut payroll quite a bit. Okay, forget attempting.. they're succeeding quite well. In four separate deals, they've sent Jim Bailes and Donnie Bird to the Philadelphia Cheese Steaks, Larry Gonzales to the San Diego Padres, Hi Priest to the Oklahoma City Redhawks, and Jonathan Rivera to the Boston Stricken Gods. All within a matter of days. Of course, they've had to send a collective 20M to those teams to make the deals work, but the VooDoo got a good amount of prospects back for the future, plus future salary cap relief. Keep an eye on P.T. Ortiz, who they got from OKC. He's going to be a big time pitcher when he's ready. Alex Borders, who they got from BOS, is a poor man's George Garcia.
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HEINIE ROBERTS
There's no doubt that Heinie Roberts is one of Shoeless Joe's most versatile, and most talented players. He's not the type of player you'd expect to be traded as many times as he has. However, when a man commands a 9.5M per season salary (the contract he signed last season with VC), so come high expectations. When you don't live up to them, it makes it rather easy to deal you. And that's exactly what the Little Rock Lightning did. After trading for Roberts from the VooDoo a season ago, LR went right ahead and dealt him to the Milwaukee Naturals. The Lightning picked up ML talent back in return, as HR hitter William Yamaguchi and LF Eddie Fultz head to the Lightning. Yunel Mendez is a decent looking LR prospect, and he was sent to AAA.
Another team on the verge of shedding payroll, is the Pawtucket Fire Cats. Not on the level that the VooDoo are, but it was made rather clear that PAW needed to get younger, and lighter in the team wallet. They started things off by quickly reaching a deal with Little Rock, as they sent Jimmie White to LR, in exchange for defensive 2B Rod Green. The two teams just recently agreed on another deal (pending league approval), as PAW sends Pablo Ramirez over in exchange for prospects Torey Siqueiros and Dingo Belinda. PAW then reached out to the Seattle Fish Mongers (pending league approval), who agreed to take Josh Miller in exchange for Al Spencer. We really like Spencer, as he can contribute in a year or two to the ML club. |
EDWARDS OSIK
Wow, I didn't realize Little Rock was involved in this many deals. The Lightning are looking to make an impact one way or another, and they did just that by sending Edwards Osik to the Atlanta convicks (pending league approval), in exchange for Sal Feller and Alex Munson. This deal appears to be more of a salary relief move than anything else. Feller has a chance to be a decent LR option down the road, but Munson doesn't "WOW" us in the least bit.
This is just the beginning, folks. For those teams who haven't struck a deal yet, don't worry. Lots of time remaining to make deals. Plenty of opportunities will come to improve your team.
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