Omaha Trade History Series(Part 1)--POLL included.

[niles08]

For fun, at least for me, I am going to take a look back at every trade I have made as the GM of the Omaha franchise and take a look towards what wound up happening after the trade was complete. How did each player’s career’s project or drop, and also post a poll allowing you to vote on each trade as to who the winner was? This may be something that eventually winds up being a league-wide function where I analyze all the trades from a specific year (typically 5 years back to allow time for the prospects to function). Anyhow, for now, I will do Omaha.

Below are the first trades that I made in the league beginning in 2030 when I first took over, up to December 2032. Along with each trade is a small write up analysis and follow up on what happened to the players involved in each trade.

December 1st, 2030—Trade #1

Las Vegas receives SP Hector Mata
Omaha receives SP Mike Bailey and 1B Buck Munoz.

This comes down to basically being a salary dump for Las Vegas. They wanted to get out from the contract they owed Bailey and here I was a newcomer to the league and coming off a sub 60 win season who figured why not? Bailey pitched in 2031 for us, accumulating a 3.3 WAR before I shipped him out in 2032. He retired in 2038 with a career 28.3 WAR.

Buck Munoz was my freebie in the deal, a 26-year-old batter who I thought could be our first baseman for numerous years. He played with us all the way to 2037, accumulating a pedestrian 9.9 WAR.

Mata, who went to Vegas in the deal was a 20 year old at the time with 9/7/6 ratings, but who failed to ever make an impact at the BBA level.

August 4th, 2031--Trade #2

Vancouver gets: 2B Boys Altena, SP Lambert Snabel, and SP Juan Guerrero.
Omaha gets: OF Aymeric Barajas, RP Ruben Martinez, RP Tony Caraballo, OF Saikaku Aoki

Altena played a total of 2 seasons in Vancouver as his career winded down, but he did accumulate a 2.1 WAR over 2030-2031. Snabel, who is actually a pitching coach in the Omaha organization now spent 2 seasons in Vancouver as well before turning to Omaha in 2033. From 2031-2032 Snabel had a combined WAR of 4.0. Juan Guerrero actually finds himself pitching for Edmonton now, but at the time he had the makings to be potentially a great starter with potentials of 7/7/9. He did manage to start in Vancouver and put up a 5.5 WAR in 2035 cushioned between a 1.2, 1.5, and 2.0 WAR season for the Mounties.

As for Omaha, Barajas played 6 seasons in Omaha with around an average 2.8 WAR per season, and can currently be found in the UMEBA. Ruben Martinez never made an appearance in Omaha, Caraballo had a career -0.2 WAR in Omaha over 37 games and Saikaku Aoki was drafted in the expansion draft by Boise in 2034.

August 25, 2031.--Trade #3

Brooklyn receives SS Luis Soto, 2B Jesus Martinez, and RP Gilberto Clarici
Omaha receives C Bob Wagner, 3B Michael Starr, 1B Edgardo Jaso, and CL Gary Peters

Another cause of a team in win-now mode vs Indy(Omaha), who were still trying to figure out the pieces to the puzzle and hoped to win 65 games. Luis Soto had been a cornerstone for Omaha, but went to Brooklyn nabbing up 8.9 WAR over the 3 seasons in Brooklyn before moving onto Edmonton, where he was unable to match that production. 2B Jesus Martinez only spends the 2031 season in Brooklyn, accumulating a 0.5 WAR in 26 at-bats for the Robins. Gilberto Clarici didn’t amount to anything.

Bob Wagner(8/4/3) stepped in Omaha’s catcher and held onto it for 3 seasons, and another additional 3 as a backup accumulating a total of 7.0 WAR. Michael Starr was a salary balancing move and he only had 30 at-bats in Omaha. Edgardo Jaso was the same, only accumulating 28 at-bats. Gary Peters, who maybe looked like the bigger name in this(10/5/7 RP) threw 16 innings for the club before being placed on waivers.

May 13, 2032--Trade #4

Montreal receives: SP Mike Bailey, RF Pancho Ramirez
Omaha receives: SP Troy Downey, SS Angel Garcia, SS Anastasio Santana.

Montreal as in win-now mode, and needing a starting pitcher. Bailey wound up pitching for Montreal for 2032 and 2033, accumulating a 5.6 WAR over that time, while Pancho Ramirez contributed very little.

As for Omaha, Santana was a salary dump on Montreal’s part and he played a total of 21 games in Indy before becoming a free agent and actually resigning with Montreal. Downey(8/6/8) looked like a steal in 2033, but quickly fell off and although he pitched In Vancouver through 2038, never materialized. He can be found in the UMEBA currently. Garcia(5/7/8) looked like the real deal with his glove and would be the long term replacement for SS Luis Soto who they had just traded away. Garcia has gone on to a great career in San Fernando (accumulating 28.4 WAR since 2035).

While Omaha should probably feel bad about letting Garcia go, the real positive here is that they acquired these players on a salary dump by Las Vegas(Mike Bailey)

December 05, 2032--Trade #5

Havana(San Fernando) gets: SS Angel Garcia
Omaha gets: SP Edris Mtume, RF Jesus Rojas, SS Juan Rodriguez

When it looked like Omaha was going to have its replacement for Luis Soto at shortstop, the club tuned and pulled this one. As mentioned, Garcia has done very well in San Fernando, accumulating a 28.4 WAR since 2035.

Omaha did pull in some stable players though as Edris Mtume(8/7/5) was a staple in the rotation through 2039, accumulating a 15.5 WAR in those 7 seasons. Juan Rodriguez only spent 2033 in Omaha as he was released in July of that season. Rojas(7/7/4) spent 6 years with the club, playing a variety of positions, but typically being just a 1 WAR player.

[usnspecialist]

hey angel garcia!! The first of 3 trades he has been involved in for me...

[RonCo]

I cheated and basically said Havana won the Montreal deal (because they then won the Garcia deal!) so that I could make one of the other trades a "both win" scenario.