Brains! 2060.4: First Place Zombies Acquire Takehide Gertrudes For Top Prospect

[aaronweiner]

The Jacksonville Zombies have been in the BBA playoffs during most of GM Aaron Weiner's regime, but for the first time, they have found themselves in first place. Charm City's hegemony over the JL Atlantic has been fairly absolute over the past few years, and they are still lurking close behind. So, in the sort of move that Jacksonville owner Aaron Weiner makes very seldomly, the Hurricanes traded top outfield prospect Thomas Blanchard to the Phoenix Talons in exchange for former Jacksonville draft pick and player Takehide Gertrudes, who is 36 years old and a likely rental.

"We're thrilled to acquire a player with the resume and recent success of Takehide Gertrudes," said Weiner. "That guy's such a workhorse and has such a big arm - he's a great addition to the team."

Gertrudes is expected to take John Jensens' rotation spot. Jensen, who was signed to an extension this year despite his struggles, has been - what's the word - terrible this year, with an ERA over 6.5 every month thus far despite not pitching especially badly; he has been at replacement level with an 8ish ERA all year long. Jensen has singlehandedly led Jacksonville to the highest team rotation ERA in the Johnson League; just removing him from the rotation moves them to 11th, and adding in Gertrudes' 82 innings of 4.14 ball moves them to 10th.

"John's a big part of our team going forward, but he's having a rough year and we want to take the pressure off him," said Jacksonville manager Farri Agymah. "And we can't think of a better way to do that than to bring in a former Jacksonville star."

It was not surprising that the Zombies went out to get rotation help, but the price they paid was unusual. While the addition of injured outfielder Pablo Lara will cause the Zombies to barely take on any additional salary by adding Gertrudes, Blanchard is a powerhitting two-way outfielder with a big bat that has been ranked in the top half of the top 100 prospects in each of the past two seasons. However, he has had serious injury issues and the team finally forced him to DH this year - where he was hurt anyway.

"Thomas is a heckuva prospect and a really good young man," said Weiner. "We'll miss him. But we didn't really have a spot for him on the roster. We wanted Gertrudes, and we figured that Blanchard was the sort of player which would shut out other teams."

It's true. Blanchard is very talented, but he doesn't play center field. Two of the top three prospects still in the organization are outfielders, Benedict Daniel and Vlad Wishenkoff, both healthier and better defenders than Blanchard. Steve Holcombe is either the DH or the left fielder. Last year's BBA walk leader Bae Pae is the current right fielder. And two more of the team's top hitting prospects are 2060 first rounder Felipe Flores and 2058 first rounder Julio Navarro, both of whom play first base.

"We have a bit of a logjam at outfield and DH, and Thomas has been hurt as much as he's been healthy," said Weiner. "Most of the players on the list you just mentioned are very durable players who are likely to be in the lineup a long time. They're talented, too. And we really needed a guy like Gertrudes this year."

Could this move come back to bite the Zombies? Well, first of all, medical research has shown no ill effects from biting zombies - apparently it's in their saliva. Secondly, for sure: if Blanchard lives up to his potential and makes it big on the Talons, and the Zombies drop off, this move might look awfully silly in a few years.

But for now, the Zombies, who pushed Charm City to six games in the Cartwright Cup last year and are now leading the JL Atlantic, are obviously going for it.

"We're excited to have a guy like Gertrudes to join our team," said Holcombe, who has been one of the JL's better players this season. "To have a guy who bridges the gap between the last great Jacksonville team and us - it's such a great thing to have him here."

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[Krathan]

This looks like a good move in your current situation.

[aaronweiner]

This looks like a good move in your current situation.

Necessary for sure. TBH, I could have replaced Jensen with almost anyone and they wouldn't have had an 8 ERA, but Gertrudes might end up the most productive pitcher on the staff.

[Lane]

looks like a win-win trade