Mitt Trades

froMITTS TRANSACTION PAGE

Over the years the Mitts have made hundreds of trades. Like yours too some have been great, others have been flopperoonies, and most are relatively even.
When I joined a different league I decided to track my trades and I've found it helpful to look back and see whether my thinking was clear or faulty.
Unfortunately my written records in the CBL are sketchy and barely go back more than a year. The earliest one I'll list below has been pieced together by recollection and may not be 100% accurate. It's the "Barry Bonds Trade".
You'll find the trade and then usually a comment as to what I was trying to do at the time.

========================================================================================================

1/31/23 Mitts trade Paolo Espino + Mitts #8 to Splash for Mike Clevinger
Bret wanted out on Clevinger who has domestic violence and sexual abuse charges hanging over his future. The Mitts were planning to draft some starting pitching innings in the waiver draft. Clevinger seems better than those guys available in the WD so we offered up our 8th round pick. Bret needed a body on his roster to toss during the waiver draft so we threw Espino, a likely cut. Paolo was handy for the 2022 Mitts as our first waiver selection. With Clevinger around we can stow Josh Winder in the minors without having to use his card which is rather dreadful against RHB.

11/13/2022 Mitts trade pick 8 to Ungulates for JP Crawford + picks 17 and 118
This deal came together in one day with a number of emails and ideas passed between Matt and me. I've liked Crawford for awhile even though in 2022 his defense seemed to have worsened. I expect a ss-2, maybe 3, range. But he's unlimited in ABs and serviceable offensively vs both righties and lefties. Meanwhile plugging him in at SS allows us to move Kyle Farmer who crushed lefties over to 3B where he'll share time with Bregman. Moving back from 8 to 17 in round 1 is a big drop and means all the elite players in the draft will be gone. I'd expect a decent outfielder, maybe a starting pitcher, can be had there. Meanwhile the later pick gives the Mitts a selection in the 6th round which was the one round in which we were going to be absent.

3/8/22 Mitts trade Jon Berti to Bombers for Nick Ahmed
In a classic trade of feeble hitting backup shortstops I suggested to Mitch that Berti who plays more positions than Ahmed and can occ'ly get on base when facing righties would be more useful to him than slick fielding veteran Nick Ahmed. Ahmed, still a ss-1, hit lefties a bit in 2021 and so will slot in as the Mitts' shortstop vs LH SP. Farmer was going to be fulltime at short but now can just work vs righties, his better side. Ahmed also can be used to tighten late game defense.

2/26/22 Mitts trade Dominic Leone + Mitts #6 to Ponies for Edwin Diaz
The Miits came out of the draft with no relief pitcher with a closer rating greater than one. Since the Mitts don't figure to be real good in 2022 we probably could have skated through without a true closer. The waiver draft offers just one that I can tell, Ian Kennedy, but one can't be sure he'd be there for us. I offered Wayne excellent RH RP Dominic Leone or excellent LH RP Aaron Loup for one of his closers. He countered that he'd take Leone + a 6th rounder for the Mets' closer Edwin Diaz. I accepted that offer.

11/7/21 Mitts trade Leury Garcia to Whiz Kids for Kyle Farmer
The Mitts' biggest hole, besides for pitching, going into the 2021 draft was at SS. We made a few attempts to pry JP Crawford from the Ponies but couldn't find common ground in talks. Jordan's Kids had three shortstops. Tatis obviously wasn't going anywhere and Kiner-Falefa, a likely ss-1 might be too pricey. Jordan said he could use outfield depth. Leury has plenty of ABs and may get 2 range in the OF corners. Meanwhile Farmer may become the fulltime SS for the Mitts or may just face righties with Erik Gonzalez reprising his role as SS-vs-lefties. This is our first swap with the Whiz Kids since a draft day one that made Mark Canha a Mitt. Before that we might have to go back to when we drafted Marlon Byrd in round 2 of the 2013 draft.

2/10/21 Splash trades Jordan Luplow to Mitts for Carlos Santana
New CBL mgr Bret is looking to turn over his sqaud. He saw that the Mitts were in the market for a RHB to platoon with Grossman in LF. Luplow is a dependable platooner with adequate defensive skills. We gave up a long-time Mitt who's always provided power and lots of walks but he is in the downhill stage of his career so we went for this offer.

2/7/20 Cubs trade Matt Adams to Mitts for Hernan Perez
In a trade that's almost too small to mention we have a move of Bargain Bin players. Don's a Cubs fan with Hernan Perez having received a minor league deal from the Cubs. I'm a Mets fan with Matt Adams just inking a similar deal from the Amazins' A match made in heaven. We both admit that these guys could still be cuts either before or during the waiver draft. But for now, it's a deal.

1/29/20 Comets trade Leury Garcia to Mitts for Daniel Murphy
The Mitts drafted Jon Berti with the idea that he'd be the short side of a platoon in LF with Joc Pederson. Pedes got his LF-3. Berti, a jack of several positions, got a 3 but it was at SS and not in the OF. Being someone who really hates putting 4s in the OF I looked around for a team that could use Berti in his best situation which would be as a part-time SS who really clubs lefties. A few teams fit, one of which was Eric's Comets. We couldn't seem to find a fit for Berti but along the way Eric mentioned that his DH vs lefties was going to be Leury Garcia who put up a high BA that way but without big pop. My DH vs lefties was to be Daniel Murphy who clubbed them well and went up big in the clutch (Leury drops bigly in the clutch). So among some other offers I suggested Murph for Leury. In this case I'll make Berti the DH vs lefties (and Bregman's backup at SS) while we'll let Leury partner up with Pederson in left.

1/2/20 Mitts trade Amir Garrett + to Icons for Guillermo Heredia
Mitts had a bit of excess at relief pitching and a need for a junior running mate for CFer Mark Canha. Bob's Icons have Trout to cover CF but a relief squad that ebbs south after his top two relievers. So it was a pretty much natural fit. Bob has his eyes more on 2021 than 2020 so while Garrett will undoubtedly help the '20 pen I'd imagine the Bob sees the lefty as having more long term upside than does Heredia. I would have been happy to have traded a RH'd RP to the Icons but tend to like the balance of a two-lefty bullpen which this swap leaves me.

11/6/19 Puckered Penguins trade Christian Vazquez + Penguins #1 to Mitts for Mitts #1, Mitts #2 + Manny Pina
The biggest holes the Mitts had going into the 2019 draft were catcher and CF. Like everyone else starting pitching is a mess so it's almost not worth counting. Carl and I had a number of discussions about Christian Vazquez and we agreed that if he was in the draft this year he'd likely be a 2nd rounder. His offensive and defensive season he had for the Red Sox was top grade. The only thing holding him back was his history of not being able to hit. This easily could have been his career season. The first round flip was only one spot (Carl will draft 10th and I'll draft 11th this way) and I wasn't going to let that kabosh a trade. Carl logically wanted a backup catcher back and it came down to Pina, good defensively and a huge bat vs LHP, or Chance Sisco, young, decent offense against righties, but poor defensively. I opted for the version of the deal that kept Sisco. It's not fun being out of the 2nd round but not doing this deal meant drafting a catcher and the draft is not a real good one for that position especially knowing that several other managers needed to fill that position too.

1/14/19 Mitts trade Sluggers #6 to Ungulates for Lucas Duda
Daniel Murphy as a 1b-5, 2b-5 was obviously only going to be the Mitts' DH vs RHP. But Murph had only 328 ABs. Even with his 20% bonus this would only get him thru two, perhaps three, blocks. The Mitts needed another bat good against righties to fill the role of DH. Looking around I decided to get a price from Matt on Lucas Duda who at this time is a free agent. It's anybody's guess whether he'll get signed to a major league deal let alone get 200 or more major league at bats in 2019. The "dude" does hit righties reasonably. I asked Matt for a price and he suggested Kevin Plawecki. This was almost funny since I'd have been happy to trade KP for Duda YESTERDAY. But what changed was that the card ratings issue came with bad news about Roberto Perez who'd been ticketted to be the Mitts' catcher against lefties. His card came out a good bit worse than expected. This elevated Plawecki to the 25 man roster so I had to decline Matt's idea. He countered with the Sluggers' 6th which I thought totally reasonable.

12/29/18 Crabs trade Adam Warren to the Mitts for Roenis Elias
Ted's team lacked a LH'd RP while the Mitts had 3 of them (counting Elias as a reliever even though he's technically a SR). I suggested this lefty for righty swap thinking that Warren was at least comparable, if not better than, the last two guys in the Mitts' pen, Clippard and Gearren.

12/19/18 Mitts trade Marcus Semien to A's for Hurricanes' #4
The A's were another team needing a shortstop to face lefty pitching. I wanted to wait until the range numbers came out before deciding the value of Semien. He ended up a ss-3 (I still a ss-2 could have been justified) which made him pretty much a 4th round talent. So we were able to do this swap quickly.

12/3/18 Mitts trade Jordy Mercer + Felix Hernandez to the Sluggers for Joc Pederson + Sluggers #6
At the time the Sluggers wanted a shortstop to face lefties to platoon with Dejong who only hits righties. While the Mitts had Semien at the time the question was whether Sems would get a 2, 3, or 4 defensive grade. Mike told me he'd do the above listed deal if I were to successfully acquire Mercer. I knew the Larks were weak at 3B so thought we could work something like this out. Pederson will be the Mitts' LFer against RHSP.

12/2/18 Mitts trade Matt Duffy to Larks for Jordy Mercer + Larks #6
I suggested this to Bill who had little going on at 3B while he had Mercer sitting third string at SS. This swap allowed me the ammo to make the deal the next day with the Sluggers that brought Pederson to MidHudson

11/29/18 Mitts trade Jorge Bonifacio to Larks for David Freese
Logically one can look at this and say, "why would the Mitts ever want another 3Bman?". And certainly on the face of it this is silly. After all with Bregman, Justin Turner, Matt Duffy and a young Yandy Diaz in the minors, the Mitts are certainly overrun at that one position. When we selected Joey Rickard at the end of the draft it was clear that he'd be a better corner OF platooner than would be Bonifacio who we'd expected to use. This made Jorge a candidate for the minors. Scanning rosters I noticed that Bill's Larks were covered in center and right but his other OFers all were poor vs lefties. He was already advertising Freese's availability so I suggested this move. The Mitts will keep marketing Duffy and then use Freese to cover 3B when Turner can't (Justin is not unlimited). Meanwhile the key to Freese is his 1B rating. Carlos Santana is only so-so vs righties. We can use Freese at 1B vs some of the more backwards righthanders.

11/18/18 Mitts trade pick 117 to Comets for Roberto Perez
This one is so small that it's almost not worth mentioning. Mitts got late into the draft and were unsure about which catcher to use vs lefthanded pitching. Plawecki would offer bad defense and high onbase. Gattis hit lefties OK but played so few innings at catcher that his defense would be atrocious and he might not get a defensive rating period. Eric's Comets had three catchers all of whom hit better against righties. I private messaged him saying I'd give up my upcoming pick #117 for any of his three catchers and he selected Roberto Perez who is a great defender with a high on-base percentage against lefties. Of course his BA is ridiculously low and there's no power to go with it. Like I said, not a biggie.

11/20/17 Bombers trade Hernan Perez to Mitts for Brad Brach + Sandy Leon
This add came out quite a bit pricier than we'd expected. When Mitch advertised Hernan's availability it became clear that this player could do multiple things if we could get him onto the Mitts. The Leon part of the deal was not too hard since Sandy, at best, was headed back to our minors and might have ended up cut before or after the waiver draft. He does represent a modest upgrade at backup catcher for the Bombers so I could see where they could make use of him. Mitch was hoping to perhaps nab Felipe Rivero but I just couldn't see moving our best RP even though in Brach we've given up our #2. Here's how I see Perez fitting in (1) his SS rating will allow us to move Marcus Semien to the minors since he was the only other SS rated player we had other than Bregman. If Sems retains his ss-3 we might even consider putting him up for trade in mid December (2) If Perez gets a 2B-3 while both Lowrie and Neil Walker get 2B-4 then we likely platoon Hernan with Lowrie freeing us to perhaps trade Walker and his power card to someone in need of help at 2B or 3B or 1B. (3) If Perez gets a 2B-4 but is OK in the OF then he can platoon with Markakis even if it means forcing Duvall from LF to RF. So the player really fits our needs and depending on how the ranges come out it sets the table to possibly do other stuff later on.

11/13/17 Mitts trade Austin Jackson + Mitts #7 to the Huskers for Carlos Gomez
Chris told me recently that he's not the biggest fan of Carlos Gomez's hacktastic approach and the Mitts, reallly not in great shape in CF, were eying Gomez before, during, and now since the draft. Chris said he had his eye on Austin Jackson and the Mitts grabbed him a bit before he could get to him. Given Gomez's somewhat better defense (Gomez likely CF-2, Jax likely OF-3) and the fact that Gomez offers more ABs a draft pick was used to even out the deal. For the Mitts it means that Jon Jay can be used primarily vs LHP either in CF (if he retains his CF-3) or in RF as Markakis' platoon mate. It's our hope that Gomez can hold down the fort while Brett Phillips develops into the Mitts' CF of the future.

11/12/17 Mitts trade Jake McGee + pick 105 to Crabs for Huskers #2 in 2018
Ted told the league he would move the Huskers #2 in exchange for a good pitcher, starter or reliever. I suggested McGee to him since Jake has a good card and generally a solid history as a backwards LH RP. Ted suggested the pick for one of my other lefty RPs but I declined but countered by adding a 6th round pick to McGee in return for the #2 in the next draft. That worked to our mutual satisfaction.

11/12/17 Mitts trade Michael Brantley to Ungulates for Jon Jay
Some small trades take virtually no thinking at all. This is not one of them. The Mitts' headed to the offseason in sorry shape as far as starting pitching and totally empty in CF. The Ungulates, starting a rebuild, wanted draft picks and/or rebound candidates. Matt made both Adam Jones and Jon Jay available. Of course, we wanted Jones, the more established player with a regular job, lots of ABs and power. But our trade pieces were limited and we just don't move draft picks all that often. Matt had interest in Brantley who will have a good offensive card and if (a big IF) he can come back healthier in 2018 figures to be the kind of rebound guy the Ungulates want. Jay is an on-base guy and what mostly has scared us off has been defensive metrics that make me think he won't retain his CF-3 rating. Going into the draft it will be our attitude that if Jay gets a 4 in CF but hopefully retains a 3 elsewhere, like in right, then we can use him as a platooner with Markakis. In any case it was just too lopsided having three LFers, no CFer, and a RFer who is adequate at best vs RHP.

3/9/17 Sluggers trade Sluggers #8 to Mitts for Erick Aybar
This is a quick simple Bargain Bid deal. The plan was to keep Aybar in the minors as the 7th guy out of 8. In round 1 of the Waiver Draft we'd lop off the #8 guy. If we opted to take someone else in round 2 - probably 60-40 that we would - then it would have been Aybar cut.

3/6/17 Mitts trade Jon Papelbon to Larks for Larks #7
Recently Bill emailed me a question regarding rosters and cut-downs. After replying I double checked something about his roster and noticed that he lacked a closer of any kind. One of his relievers was a closer-1 but no one else had even that. I suggested Papelbon to him and assigned me a Bargain Bin price of a 7th rounder. Bill liked it as a cheap solution to the problem. This ups the Mitts' draft pick count back up to 8 although most of them are late ones.

3/2/17 Mitts trade Steve Pearce + Corey Dickerson to the Sluggers for Adam Duvall + Tyler Lyons
This one came together quickly and almost by accident. I mentioned to Mike that Pearce would fit well with the Sluggers who needed help at 1B which is Pearce's best position. We didn't care for Ichiro or Pagan but liked Duvall. A one-for-one wasn't going to work so I added in the power potential of Corey Dickerson in return for a decent LH'd reliever. Lyons will bump Alvarez to the minors and will take over the #2 LH RP role on the team. It somewhat alters what our strategy during the waiver draft may be. I'll miss the two hitters that we've traded but a Duvall/Rosario time share in LF (Rosario vs hard RHSP and Duvall against everyone else) is functional. We've given up a decent amount of offense against lefties but LF goes from playing a 3 (Rosario) half of the time and a 4 (Pearce and Dickerson) the other half to having Duvall's 2 out there most of the time.

2/17/17 Mitts trade Dallas Keuchel + Mitts #5 to Bombers for Matt Duffy
Once we laid out our starting rotation it became clear that Keuchel was headed to our minors. He's an excellent bounce-back candidate so we offered him up in trade. Mitch expressed interest and where he had some excess I was still smarting from spending so much of the off-season trying to make the team's shortstop situation passable. The Bombers are solid at short with Cozart and Tim Anderson. The Mitts have just Semien and the backup this year would be Bregman whose major league future is more likely to be at 3B. Duffy was very familiar to me given that I drafted him onto my SBA team in February of 2016 in round 2 of that draft. He figures to be the Rays' shortstop this season and between Semien and the Duffster I am hoping to not have as big a mess at the position as I did this offseason. An interesting question now is who becomes the short half of the Mitts' 3B platoon (Justin Turner is excellent against righties but unimpressive against southpaws). The candidates are Duffy who has just a 702 OPS against lefties but a delicious 3B-1 rating or Alex Bregman whose bat is a bit better but whose glove is 2e34. I'm leaning towards Duffy because he does have good on-base numbers (22 hits, 16 walks) but Bregs is the guy good in the clutch (up +8 while Duffy is a downer at -9).

1/4/17 Mitts trade Mitts #6 to Hurricanes for Cory Gearrin
The Mitts came out of the draft down a couple of relief pitchers. We figured our depth at catching and starting pitching would, along the way, get us some relief help. But the catchers (Wolters and Chirinos) did not bring back relievers and to date the starting pitching excess hasn't attracted any takers. So we swapped a 6 for Gearrin who will have a good card albeit a bit light in innings. He'll likely get to close a few games for the Mitts also. It is still possible we'll grab another reliever come Waiver Draft night.

12/27/16 Mitts trade Robinson Chirinos + Mitts #8 to Huskers for Huskers #6
The Huskers have the very competent Yadier Molina as their unlimited #1 catcher. On those occasions when he goes down injured the backup options were quite poor. Chirinos is a very competent backup catcher whose only 2016 fault was not reaching 150 ABs. We explored some options with outfielders headed back to the Mitts but none of them flew. So we settled for this simple tradeup.

12/12/16 Mitts trade Tony Wolters + Mitts #3 to Comets for Marcus Semien
Ever since draft day the Mitts have been looking for an upgrade at shortstop where only Erick Aybar and Alexei Ramirez were on the roster. Our top three targets were Elvis Andrus (Rogues), Marcus Semien (Comets), and Tim Anderson (Bombers). We considered approaching Don's Cubs about Villar but figured it would be very pricey and the player looks to not have the position shortstop in his immediate future. Fallbacks might have included the Crabs' Freddie Galvis but his lightweight bat was not enough compensation (at least for me) for his outstanding defense. The key players Mike and Mitch wanted for their guys were just players I did not want to surrender. The Comets' catchers, while numerous and quite respectable against LHPs did not hit righties too well so Tony Wolters looked like a fit for California. Eric preferred to wait until he knew for sure Semien's defense before doing anything. Since he was one of the game company's reveals last week he now had enough info to pull the trigger after we upped our offer a bit from one we had offered a few weeks ago. For Semien it's a return to his original drafting team. The Mitts drafted him in the 7th round of the 2013 draft. Looked back at the top seven prospects we had listed for that draft: T.d'Arnaud, Zunino, Jackie Bradley, Semien, Wong, Marisnick. They've all panned out reasonably well.

11/23/16 Mitts trade Matt Adams to Cubs for Cubs #3
I sent an email to Don just wondering why a team with Brandon Crawford would draft Jonathan Villar very early in round 1. He explained that he loved the offense and the speed that the player offered and just thought he fit in better than the pitcher he was thinking about. My email also inquired whether he was looking for something better at 1B than Yonder Alonso, good glove, no bat. We discussed Matt Adams a bit who I still like but had just no room for on the major league roster. He offered a 3 for him which I think is totally equitable.

11/13/16 Mitts trade pick 152 to Bombers for Bombers #7 in 2017
No magic here. Scanning the depleted board I was hardpressed to find anyone of interest. Mitch had his eyes on Tommy Layne so I moved the pick to him for the 7th in next year's draft.

11/13/16 Mitts trade Matt Kemp + pick 92 to Ungulates for Leonys Martin + pick 60
This swap happened quickly and occured about half an hour before we drafted. Matt wanted Kemp and offered the 60th pick and wanted a late pick back. I looked at his roster and saw that he had Adam Jones solidly implanted in CF, a position of need for the Mitts, so asked about Martin who is not much of a hitter but an elite CF defender. In Kemp the Ungulates get a great DH vs lefties and a decent hitter against righties. He may be headed for RF/LF 5 status so playing him in the outfield would take some guts.

10/8/16 Mitts trade Jedd Gyorko + Josh Harrison to Bombers for Evan Gattis + Eddie Rosario
This is a rather classic 2 for 2 exchange of hole-fillers. Bombers best 1bman before the swap was the rather awful James Loney. Joe Panik is the 2nd baseman but he did not fare well against lefties. Gyorko will likely slot in at 1B although with his versatility he may move to 2B, 3B, or DH depending how the draft and trade season goes for Mitch. Meanwhile Harrison would make an idea platooner with Panik. For the Mitts Gattis returns as the almost full time catcher. His 447 ABs means he is not unlimited and it could be a challenge for him and holdover Robinson Chirinos (147 ABs, bummer) to cover all the needed AB's. Some research may have to be done to decide how to handle the position. Rosario will play a lot of LF for the Mitts and if he retains his CF-3 rating then he may get the majority of time at that position.

2/8/16 Sluggers trade Matt Kemp to Mitts for Greg Bird + Angel Pagan
For a simple 2-for-1 swap you'd be surprised to see how many different offers passed between Jim and myself. It started with his mentioning his willingness to trade a late pick for Bird if we were serious about considering cutting him. This happened just about the time Bird was taken in the 4th round of the SBA draft which made me reassess his value to me and in general. Most of our trade offers also involved shortstops moving from one team to another. But we could not get them to match up to mutual satisfaction. Bird will do backup duty for the Sluggers in 2016, will sit in their minors in 2017, and hopefully (for them) will be an important cog in 2018 and beyond. The Mitts have lacked right handed power in the outfield. Kemp is quite the flawed player, certainly defensively. But he can put balls over the wall and that's mostly what we'll ask him to do.

1/29/16 Bombers trade Comets #6 to Mitts for Evan Gattis + Zach Putnam
We opened the Bargain Bin on the morning of 1/29 and at 8pm Mitch submitted the bid. Gattis is good balanced hitter with a whole bunch of suprise triples. His OBP is low and he's not defensively usable as a LF-5. Had he remained a catcher, even sparingly, he'd likely still have some solid usage value. The Mitts did not need him for a DH so discounted him. Putnam is also caught in a numbers crunch as he would be the team's #7 reliever and we usually just carry six of those.

1/16/16 Mitts trade Avisail Garcia + Matt Shoemaker to the Ungulates for J.A. Happ + Ungulates #4
Matt offered the draft pick for Avisail. He hits lefties well and is young. His RF-4 was a blow but not a surprising one. This made him less desirable as Markakis' running mate in right field. I declined the offer but countered with the one that includes the pitchers. With Geltz not given a starter rating the Mitts' starting staff was already pretty mediocre. Shoemaker has much potential but his card is filled with HRs and diamonds making him a tough swallow to use this year. We will put Happ right into the starting rotation probably to replace Teheran. Our #5 starter will be Tommy Milone and he will share the slot with either Niese or Teheran. Ironically the Mitts have always avoided having lots of lefty starters now have Keuchel, Kazmir, Happ, Milone, and Niese accounting for a whole lot of starts. Unless we can find an outfielder to face lefties we may need to use Ben Revere full time instead of just against righty starters.

1/2/16 Mitts trade Jason Grilli + Cubs #4 to Slugggers for Erick Aybar
It's been an off season featuring shortstops on the move. Between 3's getting 4's (like Jose Reyes and Jhonny Peralta) and others who can only hit from one side there have been a bunch of teams looking to improve at SS. We don't pretend that this is a major upgrade but with Alexei Ramirez dropping from a 1 to a 3 and having a sketchy season versus RH'd pitching a move to Aybar, a switch-hitting SS-2, does push the meter a bit in the right direction. Grilli's best feature is a good card and a bunch of saves to make him a complete, or at least partial, closer. At this point the Mitts can either platoon Alexei and Erick or could move Ramirez in trade to the next needy team.

11/16/15 Cubs trade Avisail Garcia + Cubs #4 to the Mitts for Cody Allen + Mitts #6
One of the things we had hoped to do during the draft was to obtain one or more outfielders. Unless you count Clint Robinson who really is more of a 1bman than an OFer we failed to do that. Meanwhile the CBL Cubs, one of a number of teams in need of a closer, did not come out of the draft with one. So on draft day +1 Don and I did this. Garcia is a RH'd outfielder who has not hit for much power in his young career but at 24 there is still some room for growth in that department. We will likely give him the job of platoon RFer with Nick Markakis. Meanwhile the Cubs were busy not only bringing in the fine closer Cody Allen from the Mitts but also swapping a 2nd round pick to the Crabs in exchange for Joakim Soria.

10/5/15 Mitts trade R.A. Dickey + Hurricanes #7 to Titans for Daniel Murphy
I admit it. I'm a sucker for the guy. Hated to part with him in the Harrison deal so felt I might have something to offer Rich to get the Murphster back in the fold. Rich's team is strong offensively and the top of the rotation looks good. But his #4/#5 starters weren't too impressive so Dickey should fill one of those roles for him. As for Murph I would expect him to play 1B and DH a bit. He'll be a backup guy at 3b and 2b.

3/3/15 Mitts trade Glen Perkins + Ungulates #7 to Bombers for Kevin Jepsen
During the late January SBA draft I had Jepsen rated rather highly, in fact a few slots above Zach Putnam. When my SBA team was looking for a RH RP I tried to acquire Jepsen from the mgr who selected him but couldn't get him. So when Mitch and I were recently discussing another player (a deal that didn't happen) I tossed in some offers that included Jepsen. When we made the swap shortly after the draft where he got Chris Young (the pitching one) and I got Torres it was my hope to use Torres as the bullpen long man plus give him about 4 or 5 block-4 starts in place of the limited Matt Shoemaker. What I didn't realize was that his one major league start in 2014 was not going to get him a starter rating in strat. So he became the mop up guy in the Mitts pen. In getting Perkins, an accomplished lefty closer coming off an admittedly off season for him, Mitch gets a guy to share closing with the over 40 LaTroy Hawkins. If Perkins has a bounce back year for the Twins in 2015 this deal could work out very well for the Bombers. Meanwhile Carlos Torres with all of those available relief innings will head to the trade block.

1/20/15 Mitts trade Nick Swisher to Cubs for Cubs #8
This is a straightforward Bargain Bin swap. We posted Swish's availability in the morning and within a few hours Don said he'd take him for the Cubs. I've always liked Swisher a bit more than your average Mitt. Between his moderate power, switch-hitting ability (some years he has been a dominant lefty and other years a platoonable righty), acceptable defense at 1b and the corner outfield it's been a nice package. At this point he was in a tough race for 32nd man on the Mitts roster. The trade just makes cutdown day that much easier. I do hope he can bounce back and be a useful player for the CBL Cubbies.

11/26/14 Mitts trade Cubs #3, Canes #6, and Mitts #8 to Hurricanes for Ben Revere + Canes #7
The Canes' search for a 1bman had us discussing big deals that could move Matt Adams to Boynton Beach. We couldn't agree on the big piece that would come back and along the way I noticed that one of the available Canes was Ben Revere, a high-BA slap happy CFer with a very poor arm but impressive numbers against LHP. He batted .341 against the southpaws. This was a Mitts' weakness because Nick Markakis, relatively powerless himself on that side, had a sub 700 OPS vs lefties. I suggested a late 3rd round pick for Revere and by the time the haggling ended had to go with a much earlier #3 and the combination of late picks coming and going. This swap gave Troy the ammo to make a deal with the Bombers netting him Michael Morse for 1B. We will likely make Swift Ben the leadoff batter vs lefties and hope he can set the table adequately for the big guns like Pearce and Gattis to follow.

11/24/14 Mitts trade Chris Young (the pitcher) + Gerald Laird to Bombers for Carlos Torres
The Bombers were hoping to get Chris Young in the draft while the Mitts took him as what we saw as the best talent available in round 6. The plan had been for Matt Shoemaker to share a rotation slot with R.A. Dickey (perhaps with Jon Niese). Noticing that the Bombers were likely to use Torres as a starter to bring their deGrom/Stroman up to enough starts I proposed this deal. This adds to the Bombers' starting pitching situation and certainly Young figures to come out as a starting pitcher in a year -if he can stay healthy - while Torres, at best, for the Mets figures to be a setup reliever. The Laird part came only since the Bombers needed a CBL-legal backup catcher. One would expect him to find someone better either in the trade market or the waiver draft.

The day after making this trade I realized that Torres with just one start might not get a SP rating. Research of about a half dozen pitchers in the previous set shows rather conclusively that a mostly-reliever needs at least two GS in order to get a starter rating. This makes Torres the Mitts' long relief RH'd reliever.

11/16/14 Mitts trade Jorge Soler + Daniel Murphy to Cubs for Josh Harrison
When the lottery was over it was clear that Andy planned to take Jose Abreu at #1 and Don would take Josh Harrison #2 even though he likely would have take the Chicago Cub uber-prospect Jorge Soler had he been saddled with the 4th or 5th pick of the draft. Had the Mitts won pick 1 we'd likely also have taken Abreu and with pick 2 we would have gone with Harrison. The biggest reason for Don taking Harrison was that he had a big black hole at 3B. The Mitts had a fellow who could cover 3B acceptably for him AND put Soler on the Cubs. Our agreement was that he'd take Harrison and that if Soler was not the 3rd pick of the draft that I'd pick Soler and then add Murphy to him for Harrison.
This did a lot of good things for the Mitts. It should improve 3B defense and Harrison's ability to play the corner OF meant that if the Mitts couldn't find enough outfield help in the draft but could find infielders then Josh could be shuttled out to the outfield at least on a part time basis.

11/16/14 Crabs send Huskers 2015 #3 + pick #72 to Mitts for Marcus Semien
Both Ted's Crabs and Mitch's Bombers had expressed interest in the White Sox's infield prospect, someone who might well win the 2B job in the Windy City. I offered up Semien in packages trying to move up to Mitch's 11th pick of the draft and to Ted for his 12th pick. When I originally made the offers of a trade-up from 18 to 11 (or 12) it was with the intention of grabbing George Springer or Steve Pearce. Springer was the 3rd pick of the draft to the TItans so we still made these offers in hopes of getting the Baltimore OF/1bman. Both Mitch and Ted went the other way. Later I offered up Semien to Ted as part of a package for Josh Reddick but that was shot down quickly. When we were in round 4 at about pick 70 Ted offered pick 72 plus his 3rd round pick in 2015 for Semien. Considering that I had drafted Semien in round 7 in 2013 and had plans just to keep him in the minors for CBL 2015 I saw this as a more than generous offer. I accepted but since there really was no one particularly exciting to draft I immediately offered up that 4th rounder for a 3rd pick in 2015. Both Don and Mike McC quickly chimed in that they would do this. Don's offer came in before Mike's so I accepted the Cubs' offer.

11/16/14 Two trades involving 2015 picks
Mitts trade pick 122 to Canes for Canes #6 2015
Mitts trade pick 141 to Ungulates for Ungulates #7 in 2015
Pretty self-explanatory.

3/9/14 Mitts trade Garrett Jones to Ponies for Ponies #8
A simple Bargain Bin move. Would have been nice to get a 7th rounder for him but Wayne didn't possess one.

3/8/14 Mitts trade Mitts #8 to Whiz Kids for Burch Smith + Kids #8
Jordan and family were visiting for the weekend. He was telling me who he planned to cut. When he named Burch Smith I recognized the name since I had him rather highly rated for the GWN draft that was going on at the time. The Mitts hoped to carry one more SP if possible in the minors so I offered a tiny something, just a trade up in round 8, for Smitty. It's entirely possible that we'll cut him in the waiver draft but the last time we made a tiny little swap like this was a few years ago. The player then was Daniel Murphy who obviously has panned out. Maybe Burch Smith will too.

1/5/14 Mitts trade Ryan Raburn + Brandon Phillips + Mitts #7 to Comets for Neil Walker + Comets #2
This is a most interesting trade because it arose from two separate unsuccessful negotiations. A while back Eric contacted me with interest in Raburn which stemmed from the fact that his attack vs lefties was less potent than the one vs righties. Choo, while having decent on-base numbers vs lefties, hits with no pop at all vs them. I spelled out that I was looking for something just above the value of a 2nd round pick. This is where we dropped the discussion because Eric, having just traded his #1 for Quintana, was hesitant to move himself out of the top two rounds again. A week or two later I broached the idea of a swap of Phillips for Walker. The Comets' D would improve, the attack vs lefties would be somewhat better, and with his club's high OBP the expected high plus clutch number for Phillips would maximize RBIs from his card. Eric studied it and decided that he didn't want to take the hit to his offense vs RHP that it would entail. And so it stood thru the New Year's break. Then I combined the offers while taking something off of the price for Raburn. I pointed out that by doing the double deal the presence of Raburn and his 2b-4 secondary rating would allow the Comets to pinch-hit late for Phillips and not have to burn an extra player since 'Burn could finish the game at 2B. Eric had already said that he's always liked Phillips as a player anyway. I think this is a good swap for the team trying to repeat as champions and the team hoping to find its way back to the playoffs in 2015.

12/27/13 Mitts trade Bobby Parnell + Mitts #4 to Rogues for Cody Allen + Rogues #3
The Rogues have the closer Huston Street but the problem on that street is not too many hits and walks but rather an awkwardly high number of HR's allowed and therefore diamond shots. Mike asked about obtaining one of the Mitts' four closers. We priced them as Papelbon (cheapest), Parnell, and then Perkins. Mike expressed no interest in Jim Henderson. Since the Mitts have just six RPs I wanted a reliever back if I traded a closer. Then it was just a matter of finding what the "closer premium" would be. Parnell should have a superior card to Allen albeit in fewer innings. Allen is the younger pitcher and would appear to be the healthier of the two. The Mets are hoping to have Parnell back for opening day but the rehab for neck surgery is not the easiest to predict.

12/27/13 Mitts trade Alex Rodriguez to Cubs for Cubs #7
Don contacted us saying he was willing to gamble a late pick on AROD. He made clear that he would not go beyond a 7th round pick. At the moment the notorious Arod was vying with three others for the 32nd spot on the roster (Uggla, Garrett Jones, and Corey Dickerson). We are leaning towards trying to keep the youngest of the group, our 8th round pick Dickerson. So getting a little something for Alex is better than nothing. Meanwhile Don can use Rodriguez as a backup 3bman if he wants to. If the suspension he is facing is pared down to just 50 or 60 games there still would be time for him to get 200-300 ABs in 2014. That would pay off well for an investment of a late pick. If the big suspension stands then the Cubs' gamble won't work out.

11/17/13 Crabs trade pick #15 to Mitts for Steve Cishek + pick #54
This was the first of three draft day trades made by the Mitts. Ted had been hot in pursuit of Cishek for several weeks, even to the point of having a contingency deal in place where the Mitts would trade Cishek + pick 14 to the Crabs for pick 5 if either Y.Puig or Will Myers were still on the board. They were taken 2/3 so that didn't happen. The Crabs did vacate pick 5 and picked up pick 15 as part of the deal. Shortly before the Mitts were to pick at 14 Ted offered pick 15 to us for Cishek and third rounder pick 54. In retrospect adding a 3rd round pick to Cishek who probably in himself was worth pick 15 was probably an overpay. But the result allowed the Mitts to fill two of the three biggest draft needs at once. We expected to take Zach Wheeler and Gyorko with those two picks. Even better, when the Revival took Wheeler it left us Julio Teheran who was slotted one spot higher on our draft board.

11/17/13 Kids trade pick #59 and Whiz Kids 2014 #1 to Mitts for Marlon Byrd and pick #74
We selected ex-Mitt Marlon Byrd late in the 2nd round for two reasons. One was that we had a serious need for another outfielder and the other was that he was top value at that point. Not having the talent to compete for the playoffs in 2014 I made clear that I could trade the veteran Byrd. Jordan was quick to step up offering the Whiz Kids' 2014 #1 for him. I felt that he was worth a bit more than that and suggested that the Mitts put pick 74 into the deal in exchange for pick 51. Jordan countered with pick 59 and we settled on that. This actually set the stage for our third and last draft day trade.

11/17/13 Mitts trade pick 59 to Titans for Michael Brantley
A few moments before the Mitts were on the clock for pick 59 Rich private-chatted an offer of 59 and a later Mitts pick for two Titans picks. I don't recall the exact numbers but declined since the Mitts were still at least one outfielder short and the talent was thinning fast. Chances are that we would take Juan Lagares with pick 59 but I have some doubts that he'll ever hit enough to be a viable CBL player. After declining Rich's offer he said he would add Michael Brantley to his offer and that tipped it. Problem was that the second Mitts pick was one I had already traded so I had to pass on his offer. Rich then offered Brantley straight up for the 59th pick. I quickly decided I liked the idea of having Brantley more than having Lagares so we took that one.

11/10/13 Ungulates trade Ungulates #2 to Mitts for Tim Hudson
Matt expressed interest in the veteran starter (I believe to share a spot with Johnny Cueto in his rotation). We tried hard to get a certain pudgy 3Bman in the deal but it was not to be. We each offered some proposals but when push came to shove it was a straight draft pick deal putting the Mitts back into the 2nd round for the first time since we traded that pick to the Kids for Jake McGee. The Mitts' pick count is 11 now which only trails the Blackjacks who have 13.

3/8/13 Mitts trade Brandon Lyon + Mitts #7 to the Bombers for Mitts #5 + Rogues #8
Once we made the decision to keep Cishek on the major league roster it made backwards righty reliever Brandon Lyon the #7 guy in the minors. Never being a fan of relievers in the minors (with true closers being a rare exception) we looked for a team that could use an extra solid arm. I thought the best fit might have been with the Rogues but Mike and I never could find common ground. Mitch's flurry of deals left him one RP short and his plan was to pick one up during waivers. We both knew that Lyon is better than any reliever that figures to be in the waiver draft so we made this little swap. As to who now gets slot 32 for the Mitts.... Ryan Raburn's hot spring has improved his odds. Mike Pelfrey could get the nod or we might take someone off the waiver draft list. It is likely that if we take a waiver draft selection it will be somebody's cut since I don't recall much of anything decent surviving our November draft.

1/28/13 Crabs trade Glen Perkins + Ryan Lavarnway to Mitts for Jeremy Affeldt + Tyler Flowers
When we decided that Affeldt's card was not lefty killing enough we looked around and approached some teams about a tradeup. The discussion with Ted hinged on the notion that Perkins clearly has a better card than Affeldt but that Affeldt has had a long track record of being a serviceable reliever. We recognized that Perkins' current value meant that we would have to add to JA in order to land Perk. Ted wondered if I could improve his minors and I suggested the catching swap since we both agree that Flowers figures to outhit and play superior defense to Lavarnway. Also it would seem that Flowers is in line for more playing time in the upcoming 2013 season. By improving the Mitts' ability to handle tough LHB's this will free us to perhaps trade effective backwards righty Brandon Lyon while keeping Steve Cishek as a righty-killer/backup closer.

12/21/12 Crabs trade Sam LeCure + Revival #6 to Mitts for John Axford
Ted asked about Axford a few days ago. Since his role had been reduced to sitting in the minors until block 4 rolls around I told him that he was available even though we had no particular impulse to trade him. He offered a RP I was not interested in plus a 6th round pick. A few days later I wrote that it was too bad we couldn't find a fit for Ax. He was still interested so I said that I could be interested in the guy I drafted in Nov. 2011, Sam LeCure. So offered him and a #6 and that was that. Once the cards are out I'll determine which of these three guys: LeCure, Brandon Lyon, or Cishek gets Axford's place in the minors. It may end up being Cishek since while he dominates righties, the lefties give him a bit of trouble.

12/13/12 Mitts trade Michael Morse + Mike Aviles + DeWayne Wise + Mitts #5 to Bombers for Ryan Ludwick + Garrett Jones
Now this is a tricky one and a bit of a departure for the Mitts. The key thing to know is that the discussion started before the range ratings came out but was completed a few hours after they were revealed. Perhaps the center of the deal was Aviles who was likely headed to the Mitts' minors. He played 2b, SS (mostly), and 3b and could have been a 3 or 4 at each of those positions. Lamanna said ss-3 and 4 elsewhere. But SOM gave him 3's at all spots. The Bombers have Jeter coming back from a serious injury and their only other SS was Brian Dozier, not a hot prospect, restricted to one position who received a SS-4 (Lamanna projected a 3).
Mitch, in passing, mentioned to me the other day that if we wanted to trade Morse he'd be interested. I made the mis-assumption that Ludwick would get the LF-3 that Lamanna had projected. Our plan was to put Ludwick in LF and slide Swisher to 1B. There were a couple versions of our offer to Mitch. The original offer didn't include Wise but I realized that Mitch wanted to upgrade his OF defense and my original offer (again assuming a Ludwick 3) was going to take him the other way. So I ponied up a few offers to include Wise.
So what the Mitts will do is leave Swisher in LF and make Ludwick the DH. The first base platoon will be Garrett Jones/Jesus Guzman (although we could improve the offense by playing Ludwick and his 4 in LF while DH'ing Ransom - more thinking needed on this). Also the 3-for-2 takes us down to zero tough cuts. It's been a tussle bringing the roster number down and we're finally where we want to be in that department.
The reason this trade is a departure for the Mitts is that in recent years the team has had excellent starting pitching, OK relief pitching, better than average defense, but barely adequate hitting especially lacking in power. This move will worsen the defense especially since any OF injury will force us to use a 4 in the OF. But in return we've added power and on-base. The Ludwick card is a real force vs LHP. Meanwhile the starting pitching should still be top drawer and we feel we have the best pen that we've put together in many years.

11/30/12 Mitts trade Jerome Williams + Jesse Crain to Larks for Jonathan Papelbon + Larks #5
This deal started when I looked around to see what teams might be good fits for the starter/reliever Williams. The Larks have enough innings to just about eke out the 160 games but it meant investing 20 or more starts in J.A. Happ who could get pretty well beaten up by RH'd lineups. We also were starting to feel antsy about our closer corps of Cishek/Axford. I presented some offers to Bill and hoped to add Williams to Axford to bring back Papelbon. I also hoped to include a swap of shortstops where he could have the Chicagoan Alexei and we could bring another Met to MidHudson in Ruben Tejada. The shortstop part didn't happen mostly because of the age disparity. Bill also preferred to acquire Jesse Crain rather than Axford. He has Broxton so getting a replacement closer was not crucial. We accepted a counter offer he proposed. An extra benefit to the Mitts is again bringing down the roster number. At this point we are down to no more than one difficult cut - quite a better place to be than where we were a week ago.

11/29/12 Cubs trade Cubs #7 to Mitts for Nyjer Morgan + Mitts #8
Talk about your quick tiny trades. Once Don made his deal for de Aza I asked him whether he wanted to take his ad down where he was looking for a good fielding CFer without much concern for the offensive side. I mentioned to him that I'd forgotten that I had all defensive spaghetti-armed Nyjer Morgan. I said he could have him for an 8th round pick (is there a lower price that could be offered?) or if he didn't want to lock himself in by dropping down to six picks then he could have Nyjer + an 8th rounder for a 7th. He liked that idea better and voila.

11/25/12 Mitts trade Reed Johnson, Francisco Liriano, and Lucas Harrell to the Hurricanes for Jon Niese and Hurricanes #3
I would call this a truly functional baseball trade. You have two teams trying to accomplish very different things and I believe we've both succeeded. Troy inquired about Johnson undoubtedly to fill a role as a corner OFer against LHSP. But his recent trade of Kendrick weakened the bottom of his rotation so he also expressed interest in the enigma, Francisco Liriano. Meanwhile those two were among 10 or 11 guys vieing for a minor roster spot with the Mitts. Our job was to cash some of those folks in for draft picks to make cut-down day less painful. You'd have thought that Mitts' 1st round pick Harrell and young lefty Niese were the keys to the trade but they weren't really. We tried hard to get a 2nd rounder in the deal but Troy held fast. He would have preferred RJ + 'Cisco for a #3. So we relented on the pick providing we could swap the unlimited starters. Both starters should have very good cards but each has a cross or more to bear. Niese is a southpaw and we rarely go out of our way to bring pitchers of that persuasion aboard. But he's young, talented, and a Met to boot. Meanwhile Harrell plays in the bandbox in Houston AND has to watch his team go from the easier league to the harder one. It should be interesting to see how each of these pitchers fare in the next couple of years.

11/11/12 Mitts trade 2013 #2 to Whiz Kids for pick #39
While we rarely draft relief pitchers in round 1 we often find that some of the better ones get draft grades commenserate with that round. We thought Jake McGee was a guy who would surely be selected somewhere in the range of pick 15-25. When Jordan was on the clock with pick 39 he said that he wanted a 2nd rounder in next year's draft for the pick. Jordan felt this was an extraordinarily weak draft and likely felt he could do more with the Mitts' #2 in 2013 than he could with the Kids' #2 in the current draft. For the Mitts McGee will be a late inning (though not closing) backwards lefty. Takahashi was very successful in that role for the '12 Mitts and McGee figures to have a better card than Takahashi did.

10/7/12 Mitts trade Crabs #3 to Bombers for Angel Pagan
This is a trade that we didn't so much want to make as much as we felt we had to make. The biggest hole the Mitts have to fill this offseason is CF where we have just nothing (unless Reed Johnson gets a 3 there which he has had in some past years but just as often gets a 4). The last thing we wanted was to have to spend multiple draft picks in November to create a CF platoon. The Harpers and Cespedes folks will be long gone by the time we get to the second half of round 1. They'll both actually go during the lottery selections. We tried to get Mitch to bite on various offers involving lower picks plus a late pick or a player. He insisted he needed that #3 and we acquiesced. The Bombers have very good depth in the OF and Granderson figures to be their fulltime guy.
As to Pagan himself I am not a huge fan having had him on the Mitts and seeing him on the Mets. I don't believe he works as hard as he can and it seems he's not the best guy to have in a major league clubhouse. I have little confidence that he'll have a good 2013 if he gets a multiyear contract offer. Hope I'm wrong about it but the feeling pervades the bones.
His card should be usable both ways. He'll probably bat 1 or 2 vs righties and 8 or 9 vs lefties. He has had defensive ratings from 1 to 3 in CF. I would expect a cf-2 in the next card set.
The trade allows us to use the draft to upgrade either at 1B or elsewhere in the OF. Swisher can be our 1bman or LFer depending on how the draft plays out.
We'll also keep an eye out for another SP, a couple of relievers, a catcher to back up Carlos Santana, and maybe some help at 3B.

3/5/12 Bombers trade Mike Pelfrey + Bombers #7 to Mitts for Aaron Harang + Bombers #6
This can best described as betting on a Met rather than betting on a vet. Clearly Pelf and Harang are #4/#5 type starters with projected ERAs in the mid 4. Harang's card for 2012 is a bit better than Pelf's which could help Mitch and the Bombers' rotation. For the Mitts it's just a matter of placing the big guy who likes to lick his fingers in the minors and hope that he can refind his once decent sinker. The Mitts did well a year ago betting-on-a-Met. That time it was Daniel Murphy. Can lightning strike a second time?

2/8/12 Blackjacks trade Blackjacks #7 to Mitts for Kosuke Fukudome
This one is straight from the Bargain Bin. The Fuk-ster was on the cusp and well could have been a cut. His good corner OF defense and reasonable on-base vs righties gives him some value. I am guessing that Randy plans to use him as a defensive sub and will give him some starts vs tough righties.

1/15/2012 Mitts trade Ramon Santiago + Javier Lopez + Mitts #3 to Crabs for Mike Aviles + Francisco Liriano
When Ramon came up with his altered card we started looking around for someone who could share 3B with ARod and who possessed a SS rating. There were about five possibilities with Aviles being among the top couple of choices. The rest of the names have found themselves in prior discussions between Ted and me this offseason. I was more convinced than Ted that he could use help in the LH RP'ing department but he was particularly anxious to get his club back into the 3rd round of next year's draft. The Liriano part was my preference for having multiple SPs in the minors in case one or more of the big-5 on the major league roster goes down. Liriano's card is marginally playable so we'll activate him in block 4 to give him a "taste" of life as a Mitt.

12/30/11 Rogues trade Nick Swisher to Mitts for Delmon Young + Eduardo Sanchez
Noticing that Mike lacked a true LH RP we approached him with an offer of Delmon + a lefty reliever for Swisher. He liked the idea of getting the younger (no pun intended) outfielder but didn't care to add the southpaw. He countered saying that if we'd substitute the prospect Sanchez then he would do that. I very much wanted to hold on to Sanchez but agreed to the swap because Swisher could help the Mitts in several ways during the upcoming season. His high on-base card vs lefties will definitely help against lefty starters. His corner OF rating of 3 with a very low error rating is better than Delmon's. And finally since Swish is not a total give-up vs RHP we can put him in as a defensive sub in LF for Eric Thames who disappointed by receiving a LF 4 rating. I do believe that Delmon will be successful now that he's in Motown but Swisher, a long time favorite with his power/walks combo, is (hopefully) not over the hill at 31. I can rationalize taking on still another Yankee given how disgusted I am with the state of the Mets this offseason.

12/8/11 Mitts trade Edwin Encarnacion + Mitts #2 to Crabs for Crabs #2 and Crabs #3
Ted and I danced around about Edwin a number of times. The sticking point was not so much the player's worth as much as the fact that Ted fiercely wanted to hold onto his draft picks. Once it was determined that a pick was necessary to make this fly it was not that hard to find a trade which can be said to be just the slightest bit more than a 3rd round pick for the defensively challenged corner infielder.

12/3/11 Mitts trade Fausto Carmona to Ponies for Titans #4
This is as straight-forward as it gets. Shortly after the Ponies/Crabs trade in which Wayne gave up two SPs and got one back (+ Mr. Posey, of course) he mentioned to me that he might need to add another starter. I mentioned Aaron Harang and Fausto Carmona. I pointed out that Harang would have the better card for the coming season but Carmona probably has the better upside for the next couple of seasons. We left it at that until Saturday afternoon when Wayne offered that pick for his preference, Carmona. Done. For the Mitts it mostly cuts the tough cuts list down by one.

11/17/11 Mitts trade Sam LeCure to Crabs for Delmon Young
This was our first trade with Ted since he began his second term as a CBL manager. It is not the trade I envisioned when we had an AIM chat on the 16th. There was another Mitt that I expected to trade but the swap would have involved a draft pick, something Ted adamantly did not want to consider. So near the end of our chat I suggested this where the Crabs could add a solid starter/reliever. I believe their plan is to let LeCure and Villanueva share a starter slot rather than using Porcello (weak against LHB) or Liriano (only so-so vs RHB) in the rotation. As for the Mitts we have no pretensions that Young will ever live up to the hype generated in 2006 when the Mavs made him the 1st pick of that draft. Our plan had been to let Ryan Raburn platoon in left with Eric Thames. Recently I noticed that RR would be a 3 in LF but with an odious e21. Young's bat may be a bit lighter than Raburn's but his likely e10 will be a bit friendlier. Our best hope is that 2010 wasn't a total fluke year for him (.298 BA, 21 HR, 826 OPS). He just turned 26 so it's not like we've brought aboard an elderly player.T

11/13/11 (during the draft) Mitts trade Angel Pagan + pick 81 to Bombers for Nyjer Morgan + Bombers #6 in 2012
Mitch was in the midst of a 2+ round sit out before his next pick was to be. Meanwhile we had fulfilled our minimum needs already. With two 5th rounders coming up I felt I could comfortably trade one. Looking down the Bombers roster I noticed Morgan who may be a cf-2 with good numbers and high on-base vs RHP. Angel Pagan, who when motivated and thinking straight, is probably the long term better player but his upcoming card is pretty tepid. He certainly won't retain his cf-1 rating and could drop as low as a 3. I think this made for a good fit since Mitch is thinking long term while I was hoping to enhance the 2012 club.

3/6/11 (deadline night, 2 minutes left) Mitts trade Tim Wakefield + Mitts #8 for Rogues #7
Mike has expresssed modest interest in the old knuckleballer for weeks. And at the very end we lowered the price to one he could hardly refuse. It's tough to part with such a longstanding vet but I also didn't want to put a 44 year old in my minors. So it was either sending him to a good home or just cutting him. The Mitts had been without a 7th rounder for months now and snagged one with less than 90 seconds left in trading.

3/6/11 (deadline night) Mitts trade Bombers #8 to Bombers for Mitts #8 + Daniel Murphy
Mitch had just made a trade of two draft picks for a player further complicating his cutdown situation. Murph was going to be lopped but was ineligible for the waiver draft. This deal moved the Bombers up in the last round of next years draft - a pittance but not nothing. We might not keep Murph. There could be someone better to take in the Waiver Draft. But recently the Mets have said they are thinking "offense first" at 2B so Murph could get the gig, or could be the long half of a platoon (maybe with Brad Emaus) or he might get the role as utility infielder subbing at 1b, 2b, and 3b. Do I think he can get better than a 4 at 2b or 3b? No way. But if he can hit enough he could make a useful backup.

2/23/11 Mitts trade Boone Logan to Cubs for Bombers #8
This is a simple Bargain Bin transaction. Check below for similar trades like: 2/20/08 Mitts trade Darren Oliver to Baseball for Baseball #7 and 1/23/08 Cubs trade Cubs #7 to Mitts for John Grabow. Generally speaking the going rate for a #2 LHRP is a 7th round pick. I might have tried for one from Don except that he had no 7th rounder and I couldn't think of anything particularly creative to match the value of a #7. He did give me the choice of his two #8s. It was clear that the Bombers #8 was going to come earlier than the A's #8. Logan is usable but not someone I could foresee storing in the Mitts' minors.

1/29/11 Mitts trade Alex Gonzalez to Cubs for Cubs #5
No surprise that the Mitts traded this shortstop and not a surprise about the price since recently we sent out an email to a few managers advertising his availability at that price. The surprise is the buyer since Don was not among the managers to whom I'd sent the email. But when I saw him logged into AIM I took a quick peek at his roster to see that his SS situation (Brendan Ryan ?) was pretty bleak. So I offered A-Gonz to him for the same price I'd offered him to others. Don said, "I'm interested and will let you know later." About 10 seconds later he said, "It's a deal." That's what I call being willing to pull the trigger. Meanwhile this commits us to using Ramon Santiago as our backup middle infielder. I'm down with that.

1/21/11 Mitts trade Scott Podsednik to the Bombers for Bombers #4
Mitch and his Bombers made two trades earlier in the day with the Titans. In the bigger deal he gave up the fine OFer Andre Ethier bringing back a significantly less talented outfielder, Nyjer Morgan. In the meantime the Mitts have been shopping Podsednik for the last few days. One manager was willing to offer a 5th rounder but no more. I suggested to Mitch that for a 4th rounder he could upgrade his LF situation a bit and he agreed.

1/20/11 Mitts trade Mitts #7 to Ungulates for Ramon Santiago
This is a different kind of kind of trade for us. It's our first deal since the dispersal draft. Ordinarily you make a trade for a player knowing how you'll use your newest acquisition. In this case it was a matter of seeing a very useful card (46 on base vs lefties, and 34.5 vs righties), 2b3, ss3 with moderate e-numbers and a decent number of ABs (320 -->384). This allows us to trade Alex Gonzalez without necessarily getting a SS back. He also would give us a backup at 2b who isn't a rock-glove like Raburn and Uggla. And I wouldn't dismiss the possibility of including Santiago himself in a deal later in the trade season. Like I said, not your typical draft pick deal.

11/21/10 Mitts trade Ryan Ludwick + Mitts #8 to Bombers for David Murphy
For the Mitts this slightly improves the team's attack vs RHP (both Murph and Luddie are much better vs righties than lefties) and makes us a smidge younger. For the Bombers this adds some flexibility in that the Bombers are now free to deal a pick in another deal. Ludwick has shown himself to be a better power source the last couple of years.

11/16/10 Mitts trade pick 103 (Mitts' 6th round pick) + Mitts' #6 (2011) to Ungulates for David Aardsma
Another Mitt returns to the fold. Where the Mitts went into the draft with zero usable closers we came out with 2-1/2 once the K-Rod deal was announced, Takahashi was drafted, and Aa was acquired. It's not a given that we'll have both closers on the roster come opening day but one can surmise that the Mitts have a better closer department than perhaps we've ever had.

11/16/10 Mitts trade Mike Stanton + Jonny Gomes to Huskers for Carlos Santana + Josh Willingham
I could write a book about this trade. But suffice it to say we think Stanton and Santana are bound for huge things. The Mitts have not had an AllStar quality catcher in like ever. Chris very much wanted the slugging RFer. We balanced the trade by swapping Gomes, a solid veteran DH, for Willingham whom I have always liked. Willingham's offense vs lefties and righties is moderately better than Gomes'. If 'Ham gets a decent LF grade we'll use him out there. Otherwise he'll draw the lion's share of DH at bats.

11/16/10 Mitts trade Jeff Keppinger to Dream for Dream #3 (pick #54)
This was Carl's suggestion. He wanted a utility player who could man 2B well. He realized that a few decent candidates might drop to that spot but wanted to be sure so he made the offer. While we like Keppinger he was a bad fit for the 2011 Mitts since he primarily was a 2bman and Brandon Phillips has that as a fulltime gig. We didn't take the pick with the idea of drafting Kepp's successor but we ended up doing so when we tabbed Mike Aviles with pick 54. Aviles plays 2b, ss, 3b. If his fielding grade is a 3 at SS we plan to platoon him with Rollins since Aviles hit righties quite well in 2010.

11/16/10 Mitts trade Russell Branyan + Huskers #3 (pick #45) for Francisco Rodriguez (NYM) + Baseball #4 (pick #61)
Annually the Mitts have struggled to find a closer that can keep the job for more than a single season. This year we hoped to land a closer in the trade mart before the draft even though the draft offered at least two reasonable closer options. Branyan had a somewhat worse 2010 season than he had last year but with the drop in overall power in the baseball he became a more attractive trade option for Wayne and some others who asked about him. We'll miss his power and ability to cover 1B (especially with Youkilis' light AB total) but he's not young, has no defensive value, and is very weak vs LHP. The pick swap reflects the fact that K-Rod is younger and is more likely to still be a pitching factor in a few years while Brannie might be at the retirement home.

3/7/10 Bombers trade Ryan Raburn to the Mitts for Jason Hammel
Fortuitously Mitch jumped onto AIM about 9:50pm. After a few niceties I asked him if he liked any of the SP's just found themselves on the block. He did and specifically mentioned Jason Hammel who was the second of the Mitts' 2nd-round picks in November. He suggested Ben Francisco or Ryan Raburn could be had. As luck would have it, Raburn is available in a draft I will be in later this month. Not 10 hours earlier I was studying his stats and reading his profile in Baseball Prospectus. I was impressed by his versatility and lefty-thumping, the latter of which was sorely needed by the Mitts. Remember we'd recently traded Andruw Jones who does have 40 on base vs lefties and Mike Cameron who beats the tar out of them. So we needed some stick that way and opted for Raburn. On AIM Mitch wrote "Done" and I noted the time: 9:58pm. I told him to email it to me and his email slipped in a 9:59 making this the second time the Mitts have completed a trade in the last minute of open trading.

3/7/10 Ungulates trade Chad Qualls and Edwin Jackson to Mitts for David Aardsma and Mitts #4
Talk about a deal coming out of the blue!!! At about 9:15pm on trade deadline night Matt introduces the idea of his sending Edwin Jackson plus Evan Meek to us for our closer David Aardsma. I hadn't the slightest intention of trading Aa whom we picked with the 2nd pick of the second round of the draft. As crappy as we'll be in 2010 we'd at least have a shutdown closer, albeit one with a short track record. We declined the offer since I wasn't going to leave the club without a closer entirely. So Matt put about bringing in Chad Qualls from the Ponies. When you have bountiful resources you can do that sort of thing. Then, since Qualls make Meek look meek we had to add some stuff from the Mitts' side to make it work. We went back and forth as the clock ticked and at about 9:45 the deal was done as shown above. Matt and I both have questions about Edwin's long-term sustainability but there's a shot he can settle in as a solid #2/#3 SP. The new problem was that the Mitts had more starting pitching, at least innings-wise, than were needed. Could we find a trade in 15 minutes? We sent out an email to the league - and we'll let this story continue in the comments that describe the Hammel-Raburn swap.

2/28/10 Mitts trade Mike Cameron + Mitts #5 to Hurricanes for Angel Pagan + H'Canes #3 + H'Canes #6
Let's count the teams that were in on Cammy this offseason (some to a larger extent than another): Zips, Rogues, Cubs, Titans, Baseball and finally the team that landed him, the Hurricanes. I imagine that the Canes, rated 19th on defense in Mark's power rankings, saw in Cameron a player who could upgrade CF defensively and would help significantly the attack vs LHP. As for the Mitts who are eyeing 2011 a lot more than 2010 we were looking for that ethereal "future value." The big problem in constructing this deal and others before it was that the Canes did not have a 2nd rounder to deal. Others who were in on Cammy also were missing (or unwilling to deal) that particular commodity. Further complicating the deal was that the Andruw Jones deal recently reduced the Mitts' OF count to a minimum. We couldn't comfortably do just a draft pick swap because that would make Jonny Gomes our 4th OFer - shudder to think. Pagan may or may not make it to the finish line as a Mitt this offseason. He is another player who might be more helpful to a contender.

2/24/10 Mitts trade Joel Hanrahan to Revival for Juan Cruz
Nothing really to see here. This is a straight-up bargain bin swap. I've always liked Cruz and wouldn't mind him being my #6 RP or even sitting in the minors. Being in the AL could be tough for him but he's not old and could become a decent #3 type RP again. Then again he best not get too comfortable as a Mitt because he will probably have to sweat waiver draft day.

2/24/10 Mitts trade Andruw Jones to Baseball for Oliver Perez
Wow, it's been almost two months since our last trade. Just shows what a sluggish offseason it's been for the Mittropolitans. This is a straightforward challenge trade that I first proposed to Wayne about six weeks ago. He had plenty of SP for his minors and we were trying to add more to our minors. Andruw has some functionality for the 2010 CBL season and both Wayne and I are hoping that some past glory can be regained by these two disappointments.

12/30/09 Mitts trade Joe Crede + Brad Thompson + Cubs #6 to Huskers for Huskers #3 + Chad Durbin
There was a surprisingly strong market for Crede who has an interesting mix of skills. On one hand his 3b-2 rating, ability to hit with power and to hit RHP reasonably well is an attraction. His ouchy back is well known and how he'll fare in the future is anyone's guess. For the Huskers he'll clearly represent an upgrade over Mel Mora. The Mitts get a nice draft pick out of it. Crede's position became expendable when Youkilis got a 3b-2 rating to go with his annual 1b-1. As for the pitchers, neither is a star but we rate Durbin as a better bet to be a usable bottom of the pen option in 2011 than would be the recently acquired Thompson.

12/28/09 Mitts trade Jamie Moyer to Ponies for Cubs #6
Another small one. From Wayne's POV he wanted to have a high IP guy so that his rotation wouldn't be totally littered with 80 IP starters. While Moyer is not real good and is definitely real old he is signed to be with the Phils another year and. who knows, maybe he can still perform a bit. Meanwhile the Mitts open up a roster spot. The trades bringing in Harang and Thompson pushed Moyer further down the depth chart and he certainly isn't the kind of guy anyone would stow in his minors.

12/24/09 Mitts trade Ramon Vazquez to Comets for Brad Thompson
OK, nothing much to see here. Eric mentioned to me that the only thing his team needed at this point, actually just to stay legal, was a utility infielder to cover 2b and SS. I mentioned that Ramon qualifies and didn't figure to have a place on the 2010 Mitts. Eric supplied a list of his extraneous material and we took "innings eater" Thompson. He's a SR with 80 IP and kept his OPS under 800 vs both lefties and righties. We might use him as a starter or long reliever. We might stow him in the minors and certainly he could be trade fodder. While he's admittedly not all that much, neither really was Ramon.

12/16/09 Mitts trade Wil Nieves to Bombers for Bombers #8
The Hudson trade that brought in Ramon Hernandez pushed Wil Nieves to #4 catcher status. And while we all agree that Nieves sucks he actually sucks less than what the Bombers had at backup catcher which was Rob Johnson. I pointed out to Mitch that Johnson hit .233 vs RHP with an OBP of .303 - and that was his better side. Nieves hid a respectable .276 vs the righties. So rather than wait til the waiver draft to pick up a guy like Nieves Mitch decided to spend a very late pick for him.

12/16/09 Mitts trade Orlando Hudson + Darren Oliver to Ungulates for Brandon Phillips + Aaron Harang + Ramon Hernandez
Matt was disappointed when Phillips got a 2b-2 rather than the expected 1 rating. He offered Phillips (or Kendrick) plus Hernandez, a catcher he knew we liked, for Hudson. We had earlier expressed interest in SP Harang while Matt wanted to add Oliver to his pen. The deal came together quickly and figures to meet our respective needs.

10/10/09 Mitts trade Mike Adams to Ungulates for Ungulates #3
This was a trade that was necessary but not fun to make. Adams' limited innings card is going to be fabulous but it would be wasted on a team that has no playoff aspirations. The worrisome aspect is that if Adams can stay healthy (I realize that that is a big IF) he may enjoy several years as a dominant set-up reliever. Perhaps he'll even become a closer and wouldn't that be just another finger in my eye? All that being said the Mitts now have a pick in round 3 to go with the two #2's so the draft situation which was modest is now almost up to average.

3/7/09 Mitts trade Yorvit Torrealba + Bombers #7 to Huskers for Wil Nieves + Huskers #8
One would think that making a small trade like this involving two nondescript backup/platooner catchers would be an easy, one email process. And one would be wrong. Chris and I had a fundamentally different take on these two modest talents. Chris felt that because Nieves has a better card vs LHP for the upcoming season that the Huskers were entitled to a draft pick compensation in addition to Torrealba. I tried to make the case that Yorvit is younger (yes, just by a year), better defensively, has a more secure job during the upcoming major league season, and projects to out-hit Nieves during the major league season. Then it just came down to a haggling of what smattering of extra draft pick value would even it up sufficiently for Chris. This is what we came up with.

3/1/2009 Mitts trade Paul Loduca + Icons #8 to the Bombers for Bombers #7
In a way this is a reversal of the trade made a year ago when the Mitts traded a #7 to the Bombers for Matt Treanor + a #8. LoDuca is old and poor defensively but he still represents an upgrade at backup catcher for the Bombers who otherwise might have had to use the terrible Johjima card. Meanwhile the modest price restores the 7th round position that was vacated when we traded for Colome.

2/28/2009 Mitts trade Revival #7 to Blackjacks for Jesus Colome + Icons #8
When we made the trade bringing in Greg Zaun we gave up Jose Veras who was slated to be the team's #6 RP, admittedly not a crucial position. We were ready to turn the job over to Tony Pena who has a good arm but had a mediocre 2008. Colome would seem to be an upgrade at that position and will allow us to store Pena in the minors or perhaps trade him. The price, just a bit more than a one round bump late in the draft, was not prohibitive.

1/10/2009 Mitts trade Lyle Overbay + Aaron Cunningham + Mitts #1 to Huskers for Aubrey Huff + Huskers #2
It was no secret that we thought our offense at DH vs RHP was a bit light with Overbay who we thought would be best positioned as someone's platoon 1bman. We knew that Huff could be had if enough future value could be added to Overbay who should make a nice 1b platoon partner for Paul Konerko. Cunningham is a solid prospect who has a shot at some playing time in the Oakland outfield. Meanwhile the big attraction for Chris was getting a 1st round pick albeit one that should come late in the round.

1/8/2009 Mitts trade Matt Treanor + Jose Veras to Sluggers for Greg Zaun
The Sluggers desired to add some relief pitching. The Mitts wanted to use something stronger than LoDuca and/or Treanor when Salty's ABs run out. It is a pretty natural fit. Veras was slated to be the Mitts' #6 RP. His job now falls to Tony Pena whose card is slighly inferior to Veras' but who can close in a pinch and has more available innings. The tradeoff at the final RP slot is minor while Zaun should be a better bat in the 9-hole for about 100 ABs.

12/5/2008 Baseball trades BJ Ryan + Jamie Moyer to Mitts for Erik Beddard + Tim Redding
The Cannonball club had two good closers (Ryan and K-Rod) but did not expect to contend. The Mitts had a modest excess at starting pitching with plans to use Bedard for about 16 starts. We agreed that the SP for closer idea could work and that the Mitts were entitled to a slight upgrade elsewhere since Bedard offerred more innings and the potential to be a #2 or #3 SP in the future. We traded veteran pitchers with Moyer being a better #5 starter for the Mitts than Redding would have been.

11/17/2008 Baseball trades Mike Cameron + Darren Oliver to Mitts for Alfonso Soriano + Wil Ledezma + Mitts #3
When Cameron got a cf-1 rating it made him attractive to our team (and several others). He will become the team's CF'er vs all LHP and will either start vs some RHP or be available for late game defense. Oliver is a better pure reliever than Ledezma who is a balanced LH SR. The draft pick was in there to balance the value since the Mitts received back more firepower for the upcoming season. Not only will the Mitts' D be better in CF vs LHP but the trade allows us to move Edwin Encarnacion (3B-4) to DH while Jeff Keppinger (3B-3) will step in at the hot corner when we face a LH SP. Soriano's power figures to play well in Cannonball's HR friendly park.

11/12/2008 Mitts trade Tim Byrdak + Mitts #8 to the Revival for Dontrelle Willis + Revival #7
The trade we made on 11/11 which brought Dennys Reyes to the Mitts pretty much sealed the fate for veteran LOOGY Tim Byrdak. We noticed that Andy's Revival team had one LH RP and we know that many mgrs prefer to have two southpaws coming out of the pen. The approximate value to this type of pitcher is about a 7th round pick. We've made this kind of trade often enough to know. Will Willis be cut or be in the Mitts' minors? That probably won't be known til cutdown day. We have this impish thought that Willis might resurrect his career a la Rich Ankiel and come back as a slugging LF'er or 1Bman.

11/11/2008 Mitts trade John Lannan + J.C. Romero to the Dream for Justin Masterson + Dennys Reyes
There was never a doubt that Lannan and Masterson were close to even in talent. The Mitts took Lannan with the 18th pick of the draft. The Dream took Masterson with the very next pick. When the smoke cleared the Dream had an unenviable 5th starter situation while the improved Mitts' bullpen still had areas that needed bucking up. The lefty relievers gave the Mitts a slight upgrade at the second LH RP slot to make up for the fact that Lannan should give the Dream 32 starts while Masterson will be coming out of the Mitts' pen for just about 100 innings.

11/9/2008 Mitts send Mitts #4 (pick 78) + Cubs #7 (pick 126) to Ungulates for Joe Crede + Sluggers #8 (pick 146)
We had an announced need for a 3Bman to face RHP. Edwin Encarnacion will have a big offensive card vs the lefties. Matt had the rather unusual Joe Crede available. Crede will be horrid vs lefties yet should pound righties (910 OPS that way). He is also a defensive oddity as Lamanna predicts a 3b-2 e35 rating. We decided that Crede was probably worth a 3rd round pick but the Mitts didn't have one so we supplemented a 4th rounder with a one round late swap in Matt's favor.

10/20/08 Mitts trade Bobby Crosby to Cubs for Yorvit Torrealba
This is your prototypical minor trade. Crosby never blossommed for the Mitts after being an early 1st round pick. Injuries have marred his career which had the promise of above average defense combined with 20 HR power. His '08 season for Oakland was relatively healthy but resulted in a modest offense with OPS under 650 both ways. Torrealba is rather poor vs RHP but about average vs lefties which is where he'll get his ABs. With numerous teams looking for catching help we hoped to get some help in this area before the draft. Between Yorvit and Salty most of the catching ABs will be covered. It is possible that we may need to go out and get one other catcher to fill the position.

3/2/08 Mitts trade Mitts #8 to Bombers for Matt Treanor
Straight from the "Bargain Bin" on deadline night. Saltalamacchia has 369 available CBL ABs. I started figuring that he could run out of ABs by season's end and this would force us to use LoDuca vs righties and Duke don't hit them much at all. Treanor has a nice card vs RHP but admittedly no long term value. I see us mixing him in as a part-time starter in block 4.

2/28/08 Mitts trade Jo-Jo Reyes + Jonathan Sanchez + Mitts #5 to Huskers for Marlon Byrd + Huskers #7
The original form of this trade that I proposed to Chris included Brad Wilkerson + a prospect. When it turned out that he had no need for Wilk but liked the lefty prospects we went this way. Reyes and Sanchez go from the Mitts' minors to the Huskers while Byrd will use his first decent strat card to become a part-time CFer for the Mitts. We may use him in CF vs RHSP and in LF vs lefties. Andruw Jones will go from fulltime to part-time and well-paid defensive back-up.

2/20/08 Mitts trade Darren Oliver to Baseball for Baseball #7
Not too much here. Ollie was on the "bargain bin" list. His card is very good vs righties and quite mediocre vs lefties. It was unlikely that he would have escaped the cut on cut-down day. Meanwhile Baseball can spot him vs righties and get reasonable mileage from the veteran southpaw.

2/13/08 Mitts trade Jose Vidro to Comets for Jeff Keppinger
This trade is a natural fit for both teams. Eric did not have a quality leadoff batter on his roster. Vidro is unlimited with a very high OBP both ways. He'll plug in at 1B for them. For the Mitts who didn't need most of the ABs that Vidro offered we get a superior card albeit fewer at bats. One of the best parts of the trade for the Mitts is that Kepp is a 3b3e19 which is a defensive improvement that we can use late in games for Encarnacion. This trade could definitely go down as a win-win.

1/26/08 Mitts trade Hayden Penn to Sluggers for Jeremy Reed
In a chat session with Mike L we discovered that his patience with Jeremy Reed had justifiably run out. He said he'd probably cut him. So I listed the Mitts' probable cuts and we made a deal. He took back oft-injured pitcher Hayden Penn for oft-injured outfielder Reed.
It is quite possible that on cut-down day both Reed and Penn will be sent a'packin. But perhaps one will stick and justify this tiny little deal.

1/23/08 Cubs trade Cubs #7 to Mitts for John Grabow
Well, trades don't come much smaller than this. Grabow was the Mitts' third option for #6 RP. He has a card that gets lefties out and is only so-so vs. RHB. Don's Cubs have been looking for a southpaw for the pen and this was an inexpensive option for him.

1/19/08 Rogues trade Kevin Youkilis + Rogues #5 to the Mitts for Hank Blalock + Chris Iannetta + Mitts #3
The 2008 Mitts will be a pitching/defense team. To that end we went hard after Youkilis a defensive wiz (1b1e0). Youk will become the team's fulltime 1bman but may be needed to cover 3B vs LHP if Edwin Encarnacion is injured. It was very hard to give up Blalock but it was the only way a deal like this was going to happen. Iannetta has a very solid future but clearly we've invested our hopes in Saltalamacchia as the "catcher of the future."

12/15/07 Mitts trade Casey Blake + Kevin Cameron to Ponies for Brad Wilkerson + Todd Jones
The main target was Jones who while quite old upgrades the closer position for the upcoming season. He will get most of the save opportunities for the club while Al Reyes will take the rest. Joe Borowski's status with the club becomes questionable. Blake received a 3 at 3B which was a pleasant surprise. He upgrades the Ponies at that position. Wilkerson did not have a great 2007 but even still hit lefties well and was a 3 at RF and 1B.

11/11/07 Mitts trade #6 to Zips for picks 138 and 158
This was a trade made during the draft. While others were bemoaning the fact that no one good was left we had a decent number of inviting candidates on our board. With pick 138 we took RH RP Kevin Cameron and expect to use him or trade him. We rated him as 4th round value (clearly we were alone in that assessment) and were pleased to snag him this late. With pick 158 we took LH SP prospect Jo-Jo Reyes. We hope to be able to make him the #7 guy in our minor league roster.

3/5/07 Mitts trade Jae Seo to Lumberjacks for Ramon Martinez
Seo and Carlos Pena were vying for a tenuous spot at the end of the minor league bench. Meanwhile the Mitts were seeking a utility infielder since no one but Bobby Crosby qualified as a backup SS. The deal allows Crosby to be in the minors. Ramon is a capable backup and this is not his first tour of duty as a Mitt. Meanwhile the Ljacks had no room for Ramon and had adequate backups at all positions. Seo may not remain a Lumberjack for long.

2/27/07 Mitts trade Juan Rincon to Baseball for Tony Armas Jr.
This was a spur of the moment deal. Wayne reported that he needed a RP who can get LHBs out. Rincon can do that altho' his card vs righties is a good bit worse than his usual one. In Armas the Mitts get a SP who is better than John Thomson would have been as part of the 5th SP slot. How much Armas will be used in '07 will be yet determined. My philosophy has always preferred gathering starters over relievers. Rincon has been a very good Mitt and will be missed. But if Armas can finally find his way he could grab the #4 or #5 SP position on the team for the next couple of years

2/26/07 Mitts trade Ruddy Lugo + Mitts #6 to Dream for Brian Sweeney + Chad Paronto
This was a trade to even out the L/R balance of both teams' pens. The Mitts pen had several reverse RH RPs and was going to have trouble getting out RHBs. The Dream's pen did not have relievers effective vs lefties. The draft pick was needed since the Mitts were getting back 112 IP for the 85 being traded away. Sweeney is a one year card since he will not play in the U.S. during 2007.

2/12/07 Mitts trade Jason Lane to Titans for Irish #4
Wow. Didn't see this coming. About 12 hours after Lane was acquired as the minor league fodder in the Branyan-Vidro trade Rich Shirey emailed with interest. We like Lane and expect him to bounce back but a 4th rounder esp'ly one that figures to be quite early was just too hard to not jump on. Carlos Pena might just make the squad yet.

2/11/07 Mitts trade Russ Branyan + Kirk Saarloos to Bombers for Jose Vidro + Jason Lane
Branyan, a corner infielder and part-time OFer with power had no role on the Mitts major league roster while Overbay was not strong enough to face LHP. Vidro, a natural 2bman, will become Overbay's platoonmate. Meanwhile Saarloos may have to fill in a few starts for the Bombers and Jason Lane will probably head to the Mitts' minors hoping for a rebound season.

1/16/07 Mitts trade Mark DeRosa + Mitts #5 to Baseball for Edwin Encarnacion + Titans #3
This was a move to get a younger, more balanced hitter. Encarnacion is only 24 and may develop into an elite hitter and hopefully can improve on his "4" fielding rating. DeRosa has an excellent card, esp'ly vs LHP and can play lots of positions. At 32 he may have just had his career year in which case he was traded at his peak value. This is a totally understandable move for Baseball as they are making a playoff push for the season.

12/18/06 Mitts trade Andy Sisco to Ponies for John Thomson
Sisco is a talented young LHP coming off a bad year. He would have only sat in the Mitts minors and we just don't like to put LHP down there. Thomson has some serviceability as a SR.

11/15/06 Mitts trade Jason Hirsh + Mitts #4 to A's for Joe Borowski + A's #5

There are trades you make because you want to and those you make because you have to. The Mitts sent Jason Hirsh to the A's for closer Joe Borowski and swapped some draft picks with the A's picking up a round next year.

Jim obviously agrees that the monumentally tall Hirsh has a high ceiling (pun intended). But the only closer the Mitts had was Danny Baez with limited innings and limited saves. The number of teams with multiple closers was limited so we did the best we could under the circumstances.

8/15/06 Mitts trade Roy Halladay, Matt Holliday, Felipe Lopez, Placido Polanco, Corey Hart, Paul Maholm and the Lumberjacks #1 to the Lumberjacks for Brandon Webb, Lyle Overbay, Alfonso Soriano, Erik Bedard, Orlando Hudson + Cubs #1
This is probably the biggest trade the Mitts have ever made in their history - both in terms of the quantity of players and their relative quality. Of most interest to Tyson (Ljax) were Halladay and Holliday. It can be argued that taking on Webb and A.Soriano may be a step down from our side. OTOH the aspects of Overbay vs Lopez who was a redundancy at SS would seem to favor the Mitts. Also Bedard for Maholm and Hart would look to also be more helpful, esp'ly in the short run, for the Mitts. Orlando Hudson would also seem to be the better for 2B than Polanco. While the swap of draft picks swap favors the Jacks there may end up being just one to three slots involved which is not real big considering the backdrop of this swap.

1/14/06 Mitts trade Mike Hampton + Titans #6 to Terror for Bombers #4
By my count we would have needed Hampton for very few starts if any. Since his injury reduces his future value to a great extent we decided to not tie up his roster spot. At this writing we have an extra 4th rounder, 5th rounder, and a 1st rounder that figures to be earlier than the Mitts'.

1/10/06 Mitts trade Mitts #4 + Mitts #6 to Cubs for Mike Lieberthal + Cubs #5
This was simply an attempt to solidify the #2 catching spot. Lieb and LoDuca are similar offensively vs LHP but Lieb may have an edge on Paul vs RHP. The actual cards will determine how much help this trade will provide.

1/5/06 Mitts trade Lew Ford + Olmedo Saenz to Bombers for Junior Spivey + Casey Blake.
Saenz is a natural DH and this trade gives him that job for the Bombers. Meanwhile the Mitts lose a little defense in the outfield corners (Ford's a 2, Blake's a 3) but add a "2" parttime at 2b where Spivey should be very effective vs LHSP. Polanco will move to 3B vs lefties.

1/5/06 Mitts trade Jhonny Peralta + Mitts #1 to Lumberjacks for Jimmy Rollins + Lumberjacks #1 + A's #4
We hate to give up good hitters esp'ly if they are young and play the infield. But the Mitts defense was in shambles given Peralta's 4, Rollins is a good fielder who hits OK, and the Ljacks #1 may turn out to be in the top six picks. This is the kind of deal that could look silly in a year or two but for the moment it IMHO had to be done.

12/15/05 Mitts trade Jason Frasor to Irish for Titans #6
Frasor has a good arm and has a card that is tough on LHB. He ranked #7 in the Mitts pen. I rarely like to reserve slots in the minors to relievers preferring to draft them.

12/7/05 Mitts trade Travis Lee + Mitts #8 to Irish for Irish #6
Lee was ticketted to the Mitts minors since his bat was not equal to those of Carlos Pena or Russell Branyan. The trade makes cutdown day a bit easier to face. Rich's best 1b-man at the time was Hatteberg who was inferior to Lee both offensively and defensively.

11/15/05 Mitts trade Glendon Rusch to Cubs for Paul Maholm
This was an interesting quantity/quality, veteran/youth trade. Don was seeking SP innings while we calculated that we needed someone with 45 or more IP to share Halladay's pitching slot. Don got the bonus of bringing another Cubbie on board.

11/8/05 Whiz Kids trade Kirk Saarloos to Mitts for Dmitri Young.
Jordan was deep in starting pitchers and was willing to move one of his lesser ones. We were deep in 1b-men all of whom were less than sterling.

2/19/05 Comets trade Comets #7 to Mitts for Ramon Martinez
Eric and I have shuttled this guy between our clubs a few times. He's no great whoop, obviously, and went for a low price.

11/28/04 Irish trades Matt Holliday, Placido Polanco, Danny Baez and Dmitri Young to Mitts for Sammy Sosa, Scott Hatteberg and Jim Brower
With Bonds gone we were in full dismantle mode. Rich had significant interest in Sosa so we did this. The key guy was Holliday who I hoped would be a LF-3. I'm still waiting for that even though he has been everything we could ask for offensively. Polanco was brought on to be the RH'd platoon partner for D'Angelo Jimenez. A year later Polanco is the fulltime 2b-man with an impressive BA well over .300 vs lefties and righties. Baez was brought in to be another set-up guy for closer Urbina and has graduated to being the Mitts' closer. The Young<-->Hatteberg part was pretty much a wash at the time.

11/14/04 Mitts trade Jose Valentin to Bombers for Scott Hatteberg
This was a draft day trade made after Bobby Crosby was drafted. Valentin's work as a SS were no longer required so we made the swap for Hatty thinking he'd be part of the DH/1B mix. As you'll see moving up the page, Hatteberg was only a Mitt for a fortnight (I've always wanted to use that term and there was the perfect opportunity).

11/14/04 Mitts trade Orlando Cabrera to Mavs for Mav #3
This was another draft day trade of a SS. At that point the team held Felipe Lopez, and the newly drafted Bobby Crosby so we moved Cabrera for a pick. I believe we ended up drafting Scott Hairston with that extra #3 so that would did not pan out well except for a one year platoon DH vs LHP.

9/28/04 Comets trade Dan Miceli to Mitts for David Weathers
This was a swap of mediocre RH'd relievers. The only difference was that Miceli dominated RHB and got murdered by lefties while Weathers swung the other way,

9/7/04 Lumberjacks trade Orlando Cabrera and Carlos Pena to the Mitts for Jimmy Rollins
The Mitts did not expect to be contenders in CBL '05 so the attraction of this deal was to bring aboard Carlos Pena. We're still waiting for his talent to flower but he occasionally shows flashes of being a very sound power hitter who can play a reasonable 1B.

date=? Mitts trade Barry Bonds, Tony Clark + Mitts #5 to Baseball for Shawnees #1, Bombers #1, someone’s #3, + Karim Garcia.
This is the granddaddy of Mitts trades when we made the decision that the odometer on Barry and Sammy was getting up there and that we had to start retooling the club. My only regret in the deal is that I got suckered by his fast start into thinking that Karim Garcia was a good ballplayer who could take over the job in one of the OF corners. At the time of the deal Jason Bay was on Pittsburg's DL. I was tempted to ask for him instead of Garcia but was scared off by his injury. Shortly after the trade Bay returned to action and has been hitting like crazy every since. The Bombers #1 pick was traded later to get the Mitts Paul Lo Duca. The Shawnees #1 was used to select Bobby Crosby for whom we retain high hopes.