Trade Analysis by tk21775

Trade #1

Huntington Receives: Vic Redmond

Philadelphia Receives: Gene Stowers

Analysis: The Huntington Thundering Herd, no strangers to the trading table as they executed
11 trades in S9, start off S10 in the same fashion. They’ll be looking to add a key
player or two in attempts to catch Texas, who won the division by 7 games over the
Thundering Herd, and the first move is by obtaining 32 year old pitcher Vic Redmond
from the Philadelphia Owls for 24 year old RF Gene Stowers. Stowers will begin
his Owls career in Double-A ball, where he looks more suited for 1B, and brings
to the plate great contact and batting eye along with nice splits and some power.
Redmond takes his $4M contract straight to the Big Leagues where he’ll be extremely
tough against RH batters with his pin point control. He’ll look to rebound from a
disappointing S9 performance (40 appearances for 28.1 innings with a 7.94 era) and
he’ll have to do it in a tougher pitching ballpark than Philadelphia was but Huntington needed help in their bullpen as they finished below the ML avg. for team era.

When asked about the deal, owner hurricane384 commented: “Redmond solidifies the
back-end of the bullpen since we let Peter Ryan and Vinny Shigetoshi leave in free
agency. Stowers did not have a chance at making the major league team, so it was a
win-win.”

Owner jeanpaul22 on his take of the trade: “Redmond, who was not in the Owls plan for the future, has been dealt for a minor league RF who could be used in the future as DH in the ML.”

Trade #2

Huntington Receives: Ray Hansen and Timo Brinkley

Charlotte Receives: Hulk Vaughn

Analysis: Of course the Thundering Herd was far from done on the trading front, this time shaking hands with owner hopkinsheel and the Charlotte Tar Heels. The Heels take 19 year old closer Hulk Vaughn who will begin in Low A where he looks to be tough against LH batters and brings great control. Vaughn was a 1st Round draft pick (46th) in S9.

The Thundering Herd receives 29 year old pitcher Timo Brinkley and 27 year old
pitcher Ray Hansen. Both pitchers were obtained to help out in the major league
bullpen for the Herd although this will be Brinkley’s 1st season in the bigs. He played the last five seasons in AAA where he put up nice numbers. Hansen brings 3 years ML experience to the mound, appearing in 118 games for the Heels for 133 innings with a career 5.48 era.

Owner hurricane384 on the trade: “My pitching staff was a weakness last season, both
in the bullpen and the starting staff. Hansen will be able to handle the 6th and 7th
innings and Brinkley will help out in spot starts as well as bridging the gap when
starters do not perform as expected.”
Owner hopkinsheel was tracked down to give his take on the trade: "Hansen has been a
nice piece to the puzzle in our bullpen the last few seasons, but has been relegated
to the 4th "short" arm out of the bullpen...once we had the opportunity to move him
and Brinkley for a guy named Hulk, we couldn't pass it up. Typically the Heel's front office stays away from sub 20 stamina players, they took a shot here....b/c his name is Hulk"

Trade #3

Little Rock Receives: Duffy Curtis

Philadelphia Receives: Gaylord Burke

Analysis: The Philadelphia Owls were also back to the trading game, a team that captured 110 wins in S9 for the ML best record, sending 29 year old 1B Duffy Curtis to the Little Rock Razorbacks in exchange for 23 year old C Gaylord Burke. Burke will begin in AAA where defensively he’ll be an avg. C but he brings an all around solid bat to the plate, especially dominate against RH pitchers. Curtis comes to the Razorbacks with his $5.2M/ 4 yr. contract as they look to add some power to help bridge the 4 game gap that was between them and the division leader, Nashville Commodores.
As a team last year, the Razorbacks hit below the ML avg. in HR (196) and batting avg. (.263). Curtis went deep 27 times last year while knocking in 80 rbis. With their HR and rbi leader Bubbles Haynes leaving for free agency, this was a solid trade for the Razorbacks to add Curtis.

Owner jeanpaul22 during the press conference: “With the emergence of Haywood
Bryant, Curtis had no place to play anymore for the Owls. In return, they get a nice
offensive catcher that could reach the major in a season or two. Of course both trades

Owner miggyt4 was tracked down to give a comment: “In my trade for Duffy Curtis, I lose Gaylord Burke. I have been grooming Gaylord to be my ML catcher ever since I drafted him in Season 7. However, when the opportunity came up to add some more power and speed to my lineup, I couldn't pass it up. Knowing that I have Sergio Martin and Welington Calderone as my catchers this year also helped as they both were very productive last year. Sergio and Welington combined for 28 HRs with 83 RBIs and a 287 AVG. Due to that, I was willing to trade Burke for Curtis who will bring much needed power along with more speed to my lineup. I'm not crazy about how much he strikes out and that's something we hope to work on, however, I'm very excited to have Curtis in my lineup.”

Trade #4

Little Rock Receives: Michael Maddux

Arizona Receives: Saul Garrido, Cristobal Cruz, Nap Hollins, and 2 million

Analysis: The Razorbacks weren’t just done obtaining Curtis, meeting up with owner lpa2a and the Arizona Sun Devils who sent 27 year old 1B Michael Maddux to Little Rock in exchange for 19 year old 2B Saul Garrido, 25 year old pitcher Cristobal Cruz, 31 year old pitcher Nap Hollins and $2.0M in cash. Hollins, in the last year of a $2.0M contract, brings to the mound a ML career 3.64 era out of the bullpen to help out the Sun Devils.

Arizona will be a little tougher ballpark than what he’s use to in Seattle
and Little Rock. Cruz will start out in AAA although he could be called up to the
majors this season if needed. He brings great control and nice splits and has seen a
little ML action already in Little Rock (30 appearances, 30 games started for a 5.29
era). Garrido will be sent to Low A for this season as the LH batter, RH thrower
develops his defense to handle the 2B position in the future for the Sun Devils. He
has the potential with the glove and high batting splits to become an all-star 2B for the Sun Devils.

They landed 2 very nice prospects that will perform well in the majors
some day for them in this deal, although in order to do so they had to let Maddux go. He’ll take his cheap ML contract to the bigs, surprising as he’s been to arb 3 times in his career, where his ratings look to make him one of the top hitters in the league, with 84 contact, 90 power, 79vR and an 81 batting eye, although his stats wouldn’t show that. In 5 ML seasons he’s never hit 20+ HR or 60+ RBI (although his 1st 2 seasons were only ½ seasons in his defense). He was in a more hitter friendly ballpark in Arizona so only time will tell if Little Rock’s hitting coach can get him to show his full potential.

Owner lpa2a at the press conference: “I traded away Michael Maddux for Saul Garrido , Nap Hollins (cash), and Cristobal Cruz . This trade got a lot of buzz on the world
chat. I was rather surprised. My best guess is that a few people don't realize how good Maddux is, probably b/c they just look at the overall ratings.”

Owner miggyt4 on his side of the trade: “As for the questionable deal made for Michael Maddux, I gave up Saul Garrido, Cristobal Cruz and Nap Hollins. Saul was my first-round draft pick from last season. He has some decent projected ratings however he was worth trading to add Maddux to my lineup. Cruz was a international prospect from Season 7 and his projected ratings showed some promise. However, he has the work ethic of Andre Smith and hasn't quite met those projected ratings. At the age of 25, I didn't see much more growth in Cruz and he has performed poorly at the ML level for me. There was a strong chance we was going to start the season in AAA. Nap Hollins was one of my most reliable relief pitchers last season and he will be missed. He was the hardest player to part with and I'm still wondering how I'm going to replace his arm in the bullpen. However, I was suffice giving up Hollins for Maddux knowing that I have my first-round pick from Season 8 in Bill Perez on the verge of making the big league club. He dominated at High A last year striking out 91 in 71 innings. I'm hoping to give him one more year in the minors to continue working on his pitching before bringing him up to the ML level. However, if I find myself in contention early and my bullpen is struggling, you may see Perez sooner than later. Overall, I add a huge bat to my lineup that I'm very happy with. As a added bonus he's still young and only comes with a 360,000 dollar price tag.”

Trade #5

Little Rock Receives: Clay Lavarnway

Louisville Receives: Kurt Rolls and Edgardo Rosado

Analysis: Little Rock made their 3rd deal of S10 and all 3 have landed them a 1B/LF position player. This time it’s with the Louisville Cardinals who send over 30 year old LF Clay Lavarnway and his $6.8M contract (2nd arb year signing) in exchange for 26 year old SS Kurt Rolls and 20 year old closer Edgardo Rosado. Rosado will start out in Double-A for the Cardinals where he’ll develop his avg. control and nice splits against both LH and RH batters. Rosado was signed by Little Rock in S8 as an Int’l free-agent for $2.0M. Rolls goes straight to the majors where he’s been for the last 2 seasons in Little Rock, hitting for an avg. of .251 and also bringing solid defense to the SS, CF, and RF positions. Lavarnway will once again bring a power bat to Little Rock and has the stats to back it up, hitting 43 HR and batting in 117 RBI last season alone. For his ML career he’s knocked 164 out of the park while bringing in 421 rbi in 4 seasons with a solid .280 batting avg. He was the 11th pick in S2 draft and we’ll have to see how Little Rock gets all these power bats onto the field at the same time as they also have 25 year old Grant Dickerson at the majors as well.

Owner joekendall on the trade: "Clay Lavarnway is a good hitter, but we needed a SS.
We felt like we could cover his position internally but did not have any good options
at short."

Owner miggyt4: “With my trade for Clay Lavarnway, I lost Kurt Rolls and Edgardo Rosado. I lose Rolls defensive ability to play pretty much anywhere in the field along with some decent power. Rosado has a good future however I worry that his stamina will hurt him more than it will help. I gained Clay, who has averaged over 40 homers per year in his 4 ML season and has produced over 100 RBIs in 3 of the 4 seasons. He's a major upgrade in LF for me.”

Trade #6

Huntington Receives: Jeremy Livingstone, Vinny Li, and Hank Acosta

Oakland Receives: Kid Torre, Daniel Mullens, and 5 million

Analysis: Once again the Thundering Herd has managed to work out another deal, this time it’s with owner tdvy31 and the Oakland Golden Bears. Oakland sends over 31 year
old 2B Hank Acosta, 20 year old pitcher Jeremy Livingstone, and 24 year old DH
Vinny Li in exchange for 32 year old LF Kid Torre, 31 year old pitcher Daniel
Mullens and $5.0M cash. Acosta just went through arb for his 2nd time, bringing 3+
seasons of ML experience to Huntington where he batted .252 avg. in 420 games
along with a .990 fielding % at 2B. Livingstone looks to start out in AA, although
he’s unassigned at this point, where he could very well develop into a top closer in
the world of NCAA. If he reaches his projections he’ll be lights out for Huntington
against both types of batters although he carries some risk with his low health. Li
with be a nice DH against LH pitchers. Torre is in the last year of a $9.0M contract
he’s put up the numbers to earn that contract. He’s hit 30+ HR’s in each of the last
3 seasons while driving in 100+ ribs’ during that same stretch. He’ll be playing in a tougher hitter’s park this season in Oakland but that will only help the other guy in the trade, Daniel Mullens. He’s got 2 years left on his $5.6M contract and has won at least 10 games in the last 5 seasons. He brings to the mound a ML career 3.86 era and 1.29 WHIP.

Owner tdvy31 thoughts on the trade: “Was interested in Mullens last year, but couldn't get anything worked out down the stretch. Remember, I took over the team who bailed because of the new "tandem" rule so SP with stamina is a huge issue in
Oakland (and something Mullens solves). Also needed a LF and someone who
could hit RHP, but believed I could get someone in FA market for much less. On the
giving end, I'm pretty set at 1B at ML level for a few more years, hated giving up
Livingstone but know you have deal value for value. Acosta was hard to let go since
I'm without 2B this season and could have used him as stopgap until better solution,
but when hurricane and I worked on deal, found a way to make it all happen.”
Owner hurrican384 on his side of the trade: “Livingstone gives me a great closer prospect who is 2-3 seasons away, while Acosta is going to compete for the starting 2B job and Li gives me a very good pinch hitter to face lefties. Mullens didn't fit with my pitching philosophy transition, and Torre was frustrating with his high salary, high strikeouts and poor defense.”