The Brewster

November 25, 2029

Carolina(Rockville) received:
SP Arthur Dempster

Long Beach received:
1B Mark Simpson
P Imad bin Ibrahim
P Carl Shoebotham

Long Beach and Carolina(soon to be Rockville) couldn't have been in different places during the 2029 offseason. Rockville won just 72 games and were going south when the trade went down. Long Beach, on the other hand, had just won the Landis defeating three, ninety plus win teams in the process. They scored a BBA best 5.3 runs per game while finishing middle of the pack in allowing 4.2 per game. Those stats alone have me wondering about this trade at that particular time. Dempster was the number one overall pick in the 2029 draft who climbed four different minor league levels following the draft settling into AAA before the end of the season. He would play 15 full seasons for the Pikemen winning 235 games and three Nebraskas including a Pitching Triple Crown in 2037 and was a member of two Landis winning clubs. He won 21 post season games and accumulated over 82 WAR while with the Rockville franchise.

Simpson did his fair share and, like Demptser, is still playing into his late thirties. He played in over 1400 games while with the Surfers notching almost 57 WAR and 679 extra base hits in ten seasons before leaving as a free agent after the 2039 season. He earned two Zimmers and was named to six all star games with Long Beach but the Surfers won the Landis during his tenure despite seven playoff appearances during the ten season span. The two pitchers included in the deal never amounted to much. Shoebotham never saw the majors after an elbow injury in 2031 robbed him of his control and bin Ibrahim registered just a 1.1 total WAR while with Long Beach.

WINNER:
Rockville is the winner for sure but it's not necessarily as one sided as it might seem. Dempster was great during his time in Rockville and the three Landis trophies will blind you with their sparkle if you let them. He's a Hall of Famer for sure. Simpson's career was also, in my opinion, Hall of Fame worthy but he just didn't get the championships that Dempster did. You have to ask yourself if you are Long Beach, how many Landis trophies would we have if we had kept Dempster? Dempster wasn't a great post season pitcher but he did ok and he's a big reason why Rockville made it into the playoffs all those years.

One of the rare trades that will feature 2 HOF players that were traded for each other as prospects

I recall that negotiation, too. He reached out about Simpson, I suggested Dempster, then I pointed out that Simpson for Dempster was close, but that Dempster was probably the better player, so I threw in two relievers.

I really liked Ibrahim, too, even though he didn't make it much.

Oddly enough I don't think Dempster mattered as much as all that, and Simpson would have probably been just as impactful the way it worked out. I did have Mario Guerrer, but that would have been an incredibly potent lineup. 3/4 of my championship rotations were built from outside the organization (Gomez, Cannon, Martin). The thing that made it logical for me was time horizons; Simpson was 100% ready to go in 2030, and Dempster wasn't, and I needed another year or two to really rebuild. It's the thing I keep talking about with Des Moines.

I think the deal made a lot of sense at the time and it ended up pretty even. Like Aaron, I was pretty high on Ibrahim but he just didn't really pan out.

If I recall correctly I had some young starters that flamed out early, so I regretted not having Dempster. But Simpson was a huge part of the lineup for so long it's hard to regret the trade.

Also, this trade was before we opened up the ratings to display over the max, so Dempster was 10/10 stuff potential and ended up being 12 after the change was made. I was also concerned about his control but that clearly didn't hold him back.

Also people forget he almost won back to back Sawyer Silks after almost winning the Gillstrom. Carlos Gonzales had his epic year in 2031, and Simpson should have won it in 2032.

I think we'd look at this deal almost not differently at all if in 2030 he'd won the Gillstrom, then won back to back Sawyer Silks, but historians might.

Yeah, I forgot that he really got unlucky with the major awards. He probably should have won the Gillstrom, and then followed that up with back to back 8 WAR seasons where he could easily have won the Silk either or both years.

I'm getting caught back up in the BBA world. I love reading about these ancient deals. Great find @HerbD