I had the idea for a TN series summarizing all the trades I've made since taking over the San Fernando Bears in 2051 because who doesn't love looking at their old trades? Bonus points since this topic naturally involves many of the other teams in the league. It ended up being a list of more than 50 trades so I started breaking them down into eras, and while doing this I realized you could really see my development as a GM through this lens. The letter grade represents how well the trade worked out for San Fernando.
Obviously this post covers the first era, The Early Years (2051-2053).
| Year | Wins | Losses |
|---|---|---|
| 2051 | 66 | 96 |
| 2052 | 82 | 80 |
| 2053 | 75 | 87 |
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12/16/2050 RF Angel Gonzalez traded by the San Fernando Bears to the Rockville Pikemen, along with CF Manuel Salinas, in exchange for SP Alan Gray, SP Neil Davies, RF Pedro Mendoza, and 3B Ray Hoskins.
It took me a couple of seasons to learn the relative value of player ratings (9 stuff was average for a pitcher back then) and the league's financial system. I inherited a team with enough committed salaries to consume our entire budget despite having lost 97 games in 2050. Trading a veteran outfielder who had one year left on a very expensive contract and was staring down his age 31 season made some sense.
But Gonzalez wasn't just some ordinary outfielder; he finally retired at the end of the 2062 season and will undoubtedly enter the Hall of Fame on his first ballot. Gonzalez's prime was spent in San Fernando where he averaged 7.5 WAR per season. If I wanted to jumpstart our rebuild I needed to get more in return. Although I will note, Gonzalez wasn't worth at least 3 WAR again until 2054.
The other player traded by the Bears, Salinas, inexplicably played in 361 games for the Pikeman with 0 WAR to show for it.
So what was the return? Gray was coming off a 3.56 ERA season with Rockville but was completely out of the league within a few years. I thought Davies might be capable of starting but he only had one good season (FIP-wise) with the Bears as a reliever and then a few more around the league on his way to more than 11 years of service time. Mendoza had a 4 WAR season on the back of his baseball card and we thought he'd give us some power on the cheap. He would eventually bounce around the GBC but his BBA career ended after his .527 OPS season for us in 2051. Hoskins was a pretty good prospect that we foolishly sold for cash the following season just so we could sign our draft picks. Hoskins played eight seasons in the BBA even though only one went for more than 1 WAR. I think he's just about washed up now.
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06/02/2052 SS Aniruddha Meenakshisundaram traded by the El Paso Chilis to the San Fernando Bears, along with 1B Esteban Carrillo, in exchange for 1B Naoaki Kurioka.
The Bears surprised people and managed a winning record in 2052. I hadn't actually improved much as a GM and it was more of a blip than anything else, proving the offense we inherited could have won some games with a serious pitching staff and several pitchers lucked into having decent seasons. For years I would struggle to find a competent shortstop and this was my first aggressive attempt to resolve the position. "Rudy" as Montreal would affectionately come to refer to Meenakshisundaram was a competent enough fielder and OBP guy to accrue nine years of BBA service time but was miscast as an everyday shortstop. I do give myself credit for shaking things up and identifying a player who would catch the eye of seven different Brewster GMs before all was said and done.
Funnily enough, Carrillo and Kurioka have nearly identical ratings these days as they toil in the GBC and its affiliates. It's worth noting I would eventually bring Kurioka back, use the PPT age inquiry reward on him, and he'd play 228 games with San Fernando at basically replacement level.
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07/07/2053 3B Roberto Rivera traded by the San Fernando Bears to the Des Moines Kernels in exchange for RF Tommy Harrison.
By 2053 I was starting to understand the league's ratings environment but still didn't have a complete grasp on finances. Our modest success in 2052 increased our revenue and convinced me a free agent spending spree was prudent. It wasn't. We were back to losing a lot and midseason trades of veterans for prospects will become the norm for the mid-2050s.
Rivera is unlikely to receive enough HoF votes to stay on the ballot this year but he was probably the best player on the Bears in the early 2050s. After 2051 we'd given him a two-year contract extension and 2052 was the best he'd played up to that point (4.3 WAR). 2053 looked like it might be the beginning of the end for the veteran, but thankfully former San Fernando GM Randy was now at the helm of a resurgent Des Moines Kernels and wanted old pal Rivera to come along for the ride. Rivera would play even worse in Des Moines before reinventing himself in Twin Cities. He would eventually return to San Fernando as a member of my first playoff team.
Harrison was an underachieving teenager in the DM system. He'd been a second round draft pick and had decent enough ratings but nothing indicated he'd be capable of the 4.8 WAR season he had when we did finally make the playoffs in 2057. We avoided free agency by signing Harrison to a four year extension in the middle of 2062 and he rewarded us by getting back to being worth 3+ WAR.
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08/25/2053 3B Kenan Reis traded by the San Fernando Bears to the Rocky Mountain Oysters in exchange for 1B Cristobal Cruz.
We claimed Reis off waivers in 2053 and turned him into a prospect at the deadline. After hitting .314 in San Fernando he hit .387 (!) for Rocky Mountain. Reis would stick around for a couple more years but that second half would ultimately be his last gasp of relevance in the league.
The teenage Cruz would eventually become an interesting enough prospect to warrant a 40-man spot but he's never made it past AAA.
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11/05/2053 RF Jose Hurtado traded by the Omaha Cyclones to the San Fernando Bears in exchange for C Heui-seong Park.
Heading into the 2054 season we wanted a RH power bat to replace the departed Rivera in the batting order. Hurtado had posted an OPS over .800 two years in a row for Omaha, albeit as a lead footed short-side platoon guy. We expanded his role and he hit .231/.360/.424 in his one season as a Bear. Hurtado would hit 31 HRs on his way to 3.1 WAR the following year in Phoenix, which in my mind justified his worthiness as a target.
Park had a flukey good season thanks to a .256 BA as Omaha's backup catcher in 2054 before his contact issues caught up with him.
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12/01/2053 CF Arvin Duggan traded by the San Fernando Bears to the Charm City Jimmies, along with SP Ed Audet, in exchange for 2B Rodger Rutherford, RF Tynan Rose, and SP Jov Trachuk.
Duggan was part of that 2052-2053 offseason spending spree and finally filled San Fernando's hole in center field by posting 3 WAR for the Bears in 2053. Set to turn 32 and an expensive luxury for a 87 loss team, we decided to see what Duggan would fetch on the trade market and reinvest his salary. He was the final piece of the puzzle in Charm City where he'd find more success and win a Monty. Duggan would eventually sign a five year contract to reunite with Yellow Springs that followed a predictable WAR progression of 2.6-2.0-1.5-0-0 considering his age.
Charm City also got lottery pick Audet who failed to amount to anything interesting.
This trade was an important learning experience for me. I let Dave drive the negotiation as he limited me to a list of prospects I didn't like. There was no reason I had to trade Duggan before the 2054 season and should have held out for a worthy return. Rutherford was a tweener who had to move to first base and couldn't hit enough to escape the minors. Rose did accrue four years with the Bears highlighted by his 2057-2058 seasons. In 2058 he managed 2.3 WAR in just 202 PAs thanks to a .358 BA. Trachuk never got past AA.
