Behind the Trade

[Coqui]

Behind the Trade

USA Today, by Staff (contributions by the Canton Repository, the Omaha Global Crier, and the Yuma Lightshiner)

An informal Q and A session with the GMs behind the first three team trade in PEBA history was conducted by staff writers of the USA Today, today. This is an actual chat transcript with the three men behind this stroke of genius.

USA Today – Who, for you, was the most important player in this trade?

Brad Dobney (Canton): Robert McGillivantic. Without him, I would never have made this trade. I need the starting pitching.
Bryan Dobney (Omaha): Eric Morse. I think my interest in him got the whole ball rolling and eventually lead to Jare being brought in so you could get the value you wanted for him. There are only a few catchers who bring that type of hitting and defense to the table.
Jared Dobney (Yuma): Tom West. Getting him as a reliever freed me up to make some more moves... plus, I needed to deal some better players to be able to free up some budget room to make some improvements. Getting West made the Kennedy trade a little easier to swallow. Granted, Kennedy was a closer, but West is not too much worse than he is.


USAT – Did you have to part with someone that you did not originally intend to trade?
Omaha: I did not come into the trade with the idea of moving West but I like Bill Goff better and West became expendable. West is a guy I did not really want to trade but it is not everyday you get a shot at having a player like Morse. McGillivantic had been inquired about before and was slated to be #4 so I figured if I could fix my massive hole at catcher with him it would be a reasonable thing to do.
Canton: I had only planned on moving Morse but Jared wanted more so I gave up an eighth rounder. Who cares though?
Yuma: I had hoped to hold on to Jackson just because he was so versatile in my outfield when I needed to give someone a break... and he wasn't too bad at the dish. In the end I realised that, to get anything at all, I'd have to part with someone worth something.

USAT – Financially, what does this do for your team? Was that a consideration?

Canton: Morse was heading to arbitration and was going to be worth a ton. He wanted $10 million a year (did you know that Bry?) and I think he was going to get a lot of it. I want the budget space more than a catcher. I have a catcher now (Luis Navarro) anyway.
Omaha: Absolutely was a consideration. Morse is arbitration-eligible in the offseason but with some of the salary we have moved this offseason it should be no problem to keep him. One of the reasons we went with the trade was the exorbitant fees asked by some of the Free Agent catchers we looked at. We know the price for Morse is good for the production we will receive.
Yuma: It wasn't as much about financials as my Aurora trade was... really, I was more interested in talent for this trade than the money, but I think I did make a small move in a good direction.

USAT – Was this trade different because it was negotiated with your brothers?

Canton: I think so. For one, most GM's would have assumed I was stalking them had I contacted them as frequently as I did Bryan. I think he was beginning to have doubts himself. So yes, it definitely did. Also, no other GM would so blatantly question my... preferences.
Omaha: I think there is no other way it would have worked on any level because for about three nights Brad and I kicked it around and were getting to a point where, with any other GM, I would be about ready to call it undoable. But it always came up in everyday conversation and eventually Jare decided to get a deal going and so I asked if he had some of the pieces Brad needed and we worked from there just in conversations until we had an idea what we were each getting.
Yuma: Bry mentioned it in passing and got me interested in trying for a trade... from there, I got into talks with Brad and the rest, well, Bryan just said.

USAT – Any final thoughts on the trade?

Canton: Yes, I made an awesome deal here. I got Jackson and Valentín to cover in case he (Jackson) is really as bad as my scouts say he is. Of course, no one could be that bad. Honestly, I usually like to feel vastly superior to everyone after a trade and this one was no different.
Omaha: Well I think Morse (6'4" 215#) will put way less strain on our post-game spread than McG (6'2" 225). Was hoping to get Christina Milian-Halloway in the deal but Canton was asking Chris Harris in return and she does not look that much better in a bikini than he does so I stuck with the one of the two who can hit. With the dealing of West, the greatest all-PEBA teammate rock band – the Wonderboys – lose their bassist. However, rumor has it that new SP Chris Grinnell has some chops of his own.
Yuma: Be right back... really gotta poop.

USAT – How does this affect the Omaha-Canton rivalry?

Canton: Look, I'm not the same as him. He has hair; I don't. He's chunky; I'm fit. He likes Mike Owen; I prefer the far more talented Frank Lampard. Despite that, we work well together and this was a step in the right direction. Our teams will always be after each other. That is just how it is.
Omaha: It was nice to see two sides put their differences aside and work on getting each other what they were looking for. Of course, now Eric Morse and Robert McGillivantic are the first guys on both sides of it so ask them.

And with that classy ending, we once again head off to reporting on things like elections, storms, finances and other things not nearly so interesting as baseball.