August 4, 2042: Sacramento -- General Manager Shoeless and new Crusader's manager, Pepe Perez, spent their first several hours together quickly retooling the ball club to secure the Pacific Division and push the surging Heartland in the playoffs. In the first move of possibly many today, California traded for
José 'Silky' Cortés from division rival Seattle this afternoon. In compensation, the Crusaders sent
SP Aurelio Castillo AAA,
RP Francisco Conception A, and
2B Xue-qin "Gorilla" Man BBA to the Storm.
José 'Silky' Cortés"Look, we've had
Quant Kouros playing out of position for two years now," Shoeless said, addressing a small number of media from his office at South Pacific Field. "With the addition of Cortés, we're able to move Quant back to his natural first base position."
Cortés was targeted due to Shoeless' penchant for players adhering to
The Right WindTM philosphy -- a philosophy stressing solid defense, solid at-bats, and speed.
"We had to give up some future chips," Shoeless continued. "But we grabbed a guy who's a captain in the clubhouse, a former Zimmer-winner at third base, and a guy who can get on first base and swipe second with the best of them. We're over the moon to have Jose' with us."
The move comes with additional shuffling of the lineup.
Dusty Rhodes, who had just found himself
penciled into the lineup as the DH against both righties and lefties, now finds himself in a pinch hitter role once again.
