9-News: 35.037 – Bobovnik Next Into The Vegas Pipeline

[RonCo]

Reliver Ventura Acquired for Ex-2nd Rounder


In the third deal with the Las Vegas in the past two months, the YS9 front office acquired 25-year-old left-handed reliever Vincente Ventura in return for one-time 2nd-rounder Steven Bobovnik. Ventura is a diminutive sprite from San Juan, Puerto Rico, standing only 5’8” on the mound and collecting gravity with only 165 pounds worth of body mass. He’s struggled at times with the Hustlers, so much that with only a year and a half’s service time, he found himself out of options--among the reasons we assume Vegas GM Matt Rectenwald decided to trade him.

“We’ll use him against lefties as often as we can,” said manager Bret Richards about the deal. “I’m looking forward to having him on the team—he’s always bubbly, one of those guys you can’t really get to shut up but who still makes you happy even when you know you’re getting annoyed. Besides that, I love seeing a guy who looks like he’s sixteen throw a ball 97 miles an hour.”

Richards then went on to talk about a kid he knew in high school who did just that, and I listened until I got annoyed…but admittedly, it was an enjoyable anger.

The deal allows the team to send young lefty Jose Valenzuela back to AAA so he can get innings as a starter, which makes the deal pay off double good as far as the club is concerned.

BOBOVNIK DEALT

Bobovnik, 19, has not lived up to his press clippings since joining the Nine after the 2033 draft. Scouts say he’s been focusing inward more than has been helpful, and that he hasn’t been able to shake off the emotional effects of the biceps strain he suffered last year. As a result his stuff just hasn’t been where it needs to be, and his ability to find the plate has been suspect.

The Hustlers obviously hope a change of venue will be helpful.

Three Deals, In Retrospect

Combining the three separate deals that the Nine has made with Las Vegas in composite makes for an interesting thought experiment. Ultimately, it becomes:

LAS VEGAS GETS:

SP Steven Bobovnik
C Benjamin Clark
OF Ines Cloots

YELLOW SPRINGS GETS:

RP Vincente Ventura
SS Joaquin Torres
OF Travis Lara

We’ll leave the thought part of the experiment to you.

[recte44]

That's a good way to look at the three deals, in a vacuum as one big deal.

I think Clark will be the best player in the deal, and the old adage is that the team that gets the best player wins the deal. You have to give some consideration to the fact that as of NOW, Lara is the best player in the deal. Bobo vs. Torres is kind of the "lottery ticket" wash of the deal. Lara > Cloots in overall talent, but roster flexibility and Lara's shitty attitude made that deal easy for me to make, of course Ron can wave his magic PP wand at Lara in the offseason to "fix him" if he wants to.

Wow that was rambling, but anyways what I'm trying to say is this:

Rank of players:
1. Clark
2. Lara
3. Ventura
4. Cloots
5. Torres
6. Bobovnik

Or head to head by comparables in the deals:
Lara >Cloots (but not by as much as you'd think)
Clark >Torres (by a lot, IMO)
Ventura > Bobovnik (by a lot)

If you look at NOW, Yellow Springs wins. If you're thinking about future and roster flexibility, Vegas wins.

[RonCo]

Like most of these things with minor leaguers, the great development wizard will have a lot to say about this. Clark is the best prospect, and I think Cloots is by far the better long-term guy over Lara. Torres, at 22, needs a little bump someplace, but if he gets it could leap that list quickly. If nothing else he can be a utility guy...I think. The reason I did Clark was that we're planning on having another guy behind the plate for awhile. It was probably a bad trade for us, but it filled our organization better (remember, I tend to draft to fill positions, silly or not).

But, yes, we made these deals to fill a couple holes we had right now and gave up guys we don't think fit into our plans.

- Lara was the perfect fit as out utility #5 OF to semi-platoon with Rodriguez
- Torres was a perfect fit in the SS slot at an organizational level we needed filled
- Ventura (we think) is a perfect fit for what we needed now (a cheap LOOGY so we can let Valenzuela take one more shot a getting innings as a starter. ). I also think he'll be better in our park and our division than in Vegas, but I've been wrong on these things before.