2063.02: Trades and Reasoning - Part One

[shoeless.db]

Journal Entry
November 7, 2062
GM Shoeless

Within hours of taking over the Brooklyn Robins (to be known as the Cobble Hill Robins moving forward), a team who was much loved by departing GM Ben Herring but one that couldn't find its proper stride, I set myself to work culling the organization of the burdensome contracts of some of Brooklyn proper's favorite stars. Here are the results:

TRADE ONE -- DEALING WITH THE MONSTER OF THE MONSTERS

To Twin Cities (described well here)
$2.8m ARB -- RF Chao Yuan (ML) to Twin Cities
$5.6m ARB -- 3B Jorge Canó (ML) to Twin Cities
$10.6m/$10.6m/$10.6m(v) -- RP Harold Nothard (ML) to Twin Cities
RP Luis Gonzáles (AAA) to Twin Cities
LF António Meléndez (R) to Twin Cities

To Cobble Hill
SS Juan Martínez (ML)
SS Nicolai Pletnikov (AA)
C Eduardo Medine (A)
RF Kosami Ota (A)
$5,000,000

I'd be lying if I didn't say that once this trade was agreed upon I let out a massive sigh of relief. Removing the disastrous Nothard contract from Cobble Hill's red-inked-filled accounting books was a massive win regardless of what we had to give away for him. I had planned to keep Yuan in a Robins jersey as he an extremely solid player at a very low arbitration salary (read Alan's tremendous breakdown of the deal here), but the River Monsters had other ideas and were willing to take Nothard to get him. The addition of Cano and the two very promising prospects going west to Minnesota and the $5m coming back east made the deal more palatable for both of us. A friendly trade made in an effort to improve both squads ... what could be better?

All four players coming to Cobble Hill in the trade will find playing time with the big club in abundance. Looking at them, it doesn't take a brain astronaut or a rocket surgeon to realize my plan for the Robins these first several seasons. To win in the Brewster, a team needs to be elite at something. The league is a never-ending arms race, and I just didn't see us competing if we tried to build a team full of the same types of players coveted by most GMs. Instead, the plan is to have Cobble Hill go from last in the league in fielding in 2062 to first in 2063. If a guy is elite in the field, I couldn't care less if he's completely ignorant as to how to hold a bat or let alone swing it. That man is going to play in Cobble Hill this season, and, hopefully, we'll awkwardly stumble through some defensive battles into some 2-1 victories.

[BaseClogger]

I was hoping we'd get some posts like this. As excited as I've been for some TN posts since Ron took over Seattle.

[Lane]

Looking at them, it doesn't take a brain astronaut or a rocket surgeon to realize my plan for the Robins these first several seasons.

It's so clear that even infamous brain astronaut gayle king can see it (from space, of course)