The Bullwhip - 1996.4 - Serrano Dealt, Purge Continues

[DoubleB]

The Record
July 21st, 1996
Hackensack, New Jersey
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Continuing their flurry of headline grabbing trades, the Hackensack Bulls traded OF Clemente Serrano to the Calgary Marauders tonight in exchange for Calgary's 3rd round pick in the upcoming MBBA Amateur Draft. Serrano, 34, was hitting .263 with a .706 OPS in 316 at bats for the Bulls this season and is signed for another two seasons at $6.5 Million per season. Bulls manager Antonio Gonzalez had already made it known that Carl Erickson would be the starting left fielder going forward after taking over the managerial position last week. The trade puts the total salary purging by the Bulls at about $80 Million over the next 2 1/2 seasons and into a very stable financial position.

"We're fortunate to have some depth in the outfield and we wanted to get younger overall," said GM Brian Boulton. "Initial impressions of the roster were that we had too many veterans signed to 3 or 4 year contracts... contracts taking players close to 40 years old. Given the young nucleus we have that's approaching the end of arbitration years in the next couple of seasons... the writing was on the wall."

[DenverZeppo]

He was awfully disappointing for us in his first sim here. I'm hoping he turns it around and provides some help for us in the outfield and the bottom third of the order though.

Zep

[lynchy34]

He's got great speed and defensive skills, but I don't think you can expect more than a .700 or so OPS from Serrano at this point.

[DenverZeppo]

He's got great speed and defensive skills, but I don't think you can expect more than a .700 or so OPS from Serrano at this point.

A .700 OPS would be an upgrade from what I was getting there. Regretfully he OPS'd .393 in his first sim.

Zep