Winter Meetings Thoughts

[Matt]

Just a quick take on things from my perspective, feel free to chip in.

Calzones trades.

The trade we made early in the day was very minor, Kendrick for Martinez. We needed someone with a pulse to fill our rotation this year.

The deal with Kentucky we like. Murdoch was a player we liked for a long time, and we had a big enough need on the infield to go after him hard. He's just 23, and if he plays into his prime like we think he can, we have a solid corner infielder for the next 10 years. We felt he was worth the price. A gamble no doubt, but one we think is well worth it considering his skill set.

The trade with Tempe was in the works for a while in different forms. At the end of the day, here's what deal amounted to. Pexago had to move because Tempe was over budget and had too many holes to fill. We needed a big bat in the lineup, one that we could sign for the next 3-4 seasons. I'm not a great fan of Hunter, but there is so little pitching to be had in trade that I decided to roll the dice. The CF Thomas I love, I think he has great upside, and believe it or not, he was the key to the deal for me. Tempe does well in the deal, shedding salary, and picking a few players who can fill holes now, like Yoshida and Robinson. They get good prospects in Sharp and Hull, and a couple of high risk/high reward types in Maldonado and the pitcher Sima. If nothing else, Tempe improved thier depth in the minor leagues with these players as well as 4 draft picks, two of which are in the early part of the draft.

The late trade with CL, Watts for Thomas, was made with a desire to bring any type of additional pitching talent into our system. We were kicking ourselves for awhile for not drafting Thomas when we had the chance, taking Watts instead with that pick, so this just evened that up our in mind. I think both teams dealt from where they had depth, and hopefully it works out well for both teams. It's just going to be a shame to not get to see Watts play in his hometown of Joplin.

I'll add some other thoughts later.

[Alan Ehlers]

The deal with the Calzones changes the complexion of my team and plugs some holes with my team still capable of being .500.

With Fargo shedded some more salary and picked up Lopez who my scouts love. Not thrilled with giving up a fourth round pick but you have to give up to get what you want.

The deal with Florida gives me another quality starter which will help my bullpen out.

All in all I think I had a great meetings I shed a bunch of salary and got a lot younger

[Leones]

I only made one trade in winter meetings, which looks have been half of the LRS output, probably due to budgetry concerns more than anything else I suppose. I was pretty happy with the deal, Minty should hopefully give me a third good young pitcher along with Taniguchi and Nakayama. Dealing away Parker hurt, but if he declines that deal is going to look worse because he will count against the foreign player limit and he is under contract for the next 5 years, so he can't be bought out easily. Didn't like giving up my closer as well, but he had to go in order to maneuver the tricky financial situation, and I think Takeuchi should be able to help me in a few years.

[Coqui]

The deal with the Calzones changes the complexion of my team and plugs some holes with my team still capable of being .500.

I'll bite. How? You weren't even close last year and I don't see a 15 game improvement in there.

I think San Antonio may have gotten taken in the Watts trade. I see a 19 year old 3rd base prospect as more valuable than a 22 year old reliever who was only mediocre at short season A ball.

Of course, those are the opinions of a GM who did exactly nothing.

[Tyler]

Geez guys, just got the new file and have 39 messages. Did y'all trade much?

Sorry I had to miss it - I was at my brother's JV doubleheader. They took two!

[Matt]

As for the Knights being .500, that might be a stretch for this year, I'll agree there.

But, he had to clear up salary because he was about 6 mil over budget and that left him with NO room to fill multiple holes. With the trade with SA and with Fargo, he opened up much needed financial room. The dropoff in production from Pexago to Yoshida should be offset by the ability to fill other holes on the team. In the long term, the opportunity to add a lot of depth to his minor league system might have been the best thing that came out of the deal for Tempe. I can't predict .500 there, yet, but if he manages to fill his other holes wisely he could pull it off.


As for Watts for Thomas...I agree to a point. My point would be we dealt away where we were strong, and filled in where we were weak. And as for mediocre at A ball, it seems everyone is mediocre at best in their first season of pro ball, no matter how high they are drafted. Watts didn't exactly tear the league up. A better guage will be how he does in yr 2 and 3. Also, from our perspective, we have the financial freedom to add bats at the PEBA level, but finding pitchers has been near impossible. The interesting thing about trying to trade for pitching is this. When I have the pitching, everyone says their position player is more valuable. When I want pitching, every says their pitching prospect is more valuable. It's difficult to do a position prospect for pitching prospect trade in either direction because everyone wants to sit on both sides of the fence when it comes to that.

[Badgers]

Yay! My fan interest jumped to 78 with the addition of Hernandez and a couple points from CPs!

[klewis]

I traded Alejandro Torres and a 5th rounder for Reno's 4th rounder. Torres was slated as my 5th outfielder and perhaps platoon bat against righties. Since he was my 5th outfielder, I was willing to part ways with him. I recently acquired him in a waiver wire pick up so I figured it was not a bad deal to move up a round in the draft.

Dave Cox was shipped to Tempe. He was in a similar situation as Torres. A former rotation guy, he was pushed into the emergency starter role. He was not too happy with me for being bumped out of the rotation. So I took up Tempe's deal for a 5th rounder and Orlando Maldonaldo. Maldonaldo gives me some cheap insurance in case I need a spot starter.

So with these two trades, I was happy to get some modest draft picks. Being ranked as the 3rd best farm system, I recognize this is in due large part to Luis Torres and Douglas Bonsink. So I am hopeful these extra picks will help me get some more farm depth.

The hardest trade was most definitely the Richardson deal. My fan interest nearly dropped 10 points after trading him! But it was a deal that had to be done. A pending free agent, he wanted big money. Due to his injury, it was hard to risk big money for that much uncertainty. So in the end I had to pull the trigger. I hope over time my fans can forgive me for this lol. John's deal was an attractive one. Kichida gives me a legit starting infielder who also has displayed superb on base skills and speed. He will instantly be my leadoff hitter. Ricardo Gabriel provides me some infield depth at the AAA and PEBA level. I would like to also comment that there was another team in the Richardson sweepstakes. The other team was very gracious and negotiated well. I appreciated talking to that team and hope for more future talks.

All in all, I walked away from the meetings feeling alright. I disappointed by the fan interest drop but it was a necessary move. The deal also help me get some more budget dollars to use on free agency.

[Maulers]

Well it was a doozy of a trade between Manchester & Aurora. I believe that it may well go down as the biggest all-prospect trade in the history of PEBA (at least thus far). I was very hesitant to deal Miguel Garcia, who is an absolute stud ready to explode in the next year or so. I also like Martin Bido quite a bit, and think that he will be a legitimate everyday player at the ML-level. And, of course, I hated to lose my 1st round pick.

On the other hand, the opportunity to acquire both Benitez and Hanna was simply too good to pass up. Benitez is, to my mind, the best catching prospect in the league, and, at 22 years old, he is ready for the ML-level. He has great defense, preternatural plate discipline (11 k's in 470+ at bats!), and my scout thinks that he will add power as he ages. Hanna is one of the three or four best middle-infield prospects in baseball - outstanding defense at every infield position, superb plate discipline, and legitimate line-drive power. He's 23 and is, I think, a half season of AAA-ball away from arriving in Manchester. The opportunity to acquire two middle-of-the-diamond, potentially elite players at the very beginning of their major league careers was simply too much to pass up.

[Steel Dragons]

I only made one trade in winter meetings, which looks have been half of the LRS output, probably due to budgetry concerns more than anything else I suppose. I was pretty happy with the deal, Minty should hopefully give me a third good young pitcher along with Taniguchi and Nakayama. Dealing away Parker hurt, but if he declines that deal is going to look worse because he will count against the foreign player limit and he is under contract for the next 5 years, so he can't be bought out easily. Didn't like giving up my closer as well, but he had to go in order to maneuver the tricky financial situation, and I think Takeuchi should be able to help me in a few years.

As the other half of this trade I can concur that Noel got the better of this deal long term. I've been in the market for pitching upgrades since the offseason began and haven't been close to meeting any teams expectations on what a players worth is. The LRS market is filled with teams looking to trade overpaid upper 30's injury prone players for top prospects. To accomplish my winter goals I was going to have to give in a little.

In this deal I was able to get a 25 year old closer with a sub 3 era the past 2 seasons and while Parker isn't close to the #2 type starter I've been dreaming of, he's still in his prime, can give me 200 innings and win 13-16 games. I think he'll also be able to pitch a little better for Kuwana due to ballpark factors. His salary is defiantly somewhat of a burden that I will regret later when he becomes a 37 year old making 3+ mil. But if I can win one or two Neo Tokyo Cups before then, it will all be worth it.

The big loss is Takeuchi who I think will be a very productive LRS first baseman and the biggest talent in this deal. I really didn't want to let him go but first base is the easiest position to replace and I do have two other top 100 prospects there. In the end I viewed this deal as potentially giving me a 15 game winner and a shut down closer while only yielding what I feel is my 5th best prospect. I just have to remember that in 5 years when Takeuchi is .310 30 hr 100rbi every year for a division rival while Parker is chucking and ducking.

[John]

My 3 AM thoughts:

• Kevin and Jeff were a pleasure to deal with. After a couple trades I've developed a level of comfort negotiating with Jeff. This was my first trade with Kevin and he made life much easier for me by laying out his goals clearly from the start. It's always nice to have communicative trade partners.
• The Borealis ended the day a weaker organization in 2010 than they started. Naoaki Kichida frustrated at times last year, but he remains one of my favorite players. I adore his speed and on base skills. Obviously I lust over the potential of a healthy Mark Richardson in 2011, but it's going to be sad not seeing the speedy Kichida at the top of the order this year.
• What a prospect-for-prospect deal that was with Manchester! I don't know if I'd have had the guts to do that if I wasn't a lame duck owner. At least now I can pull off this deal knowing that, if it blows up, I'm out of town before the rabble can storm my offices with torches and pitchforks.
• You guys make the Winter Meetings what they are. Do you know how rare this is in the OOTP world? In most leagues the "Meetings" are a total non-event, blown right by in the rush to a new season. Here they're an extravaganza. Not only do you have the trades, but you have over 20 owners talking, joking, having a great time together. It's worth every minute of setup time. Thanks for making it so.

[John]

My 10:30 AM thought: I'm looking forward to seeing who all steps up with Winter Meetings trade round-ups.

[Nigel]

My only trade was a real doozy, as I let go my most popular player and lights out closer Rafael Hernandez. I didn't think it was smart business to have Hernandez and Mora's salary taking up about 20% of my payroll. It was a luxury I really couldn't afford. Patrick was really easy to negotiate with and we came up with the deal in short order. Robles obviously bolsters my practically non-existent minor league pitching and McKinney will be respectable in the bullpen as well. A huge key to the trade from my point of view was that Patrick was willing to take on Rafael's full salary. It gives me a little wiggle room for the upcoming season to try and shore up a few holes. Even though it made sense to do it, I had a hard time pulling the trigger. I knew my fans were going to burn me at the stake for trading Hernandez, but it wasn't as horrible as I had imagined. Gaining Robles and using a few CP on fan interest made it only a 2 pt. loss, so I'm fairly happy with that.

[Denny]

My 3 AM thoughts:

• You guys make the Winter Meetings what they are. Do you know how rare this is in the OOTP world? In most leagues the "Meetings" are a total non-event, blown right by in the rush to a new season. Here they're an extravaganza. Not only do you have the trades, but you have over 20 owners talking, joking, having a great time together. It's worth every minute of setup time. Thanks for making it so.

For evidence of the above, see the event chat transcript.

[Duane]

We are (drunken) curious here in Kentucky as to who will step up for the Winter Meetings Trade Review ... We would like to contribute our intoxicated thoughts and burps I mean blurbs.