2042.10 - The Long Beach Independent - Minor Trades

[Lane]

DANIEL OFF TO OMAHA

August 11, 2042
Long Beach, CA

As the trade deadline approaches, the Surfers made two minor trades today with an eye toward the future. In the midst of a 44-71 season, nearly every Long Beach player is on the block, especially those that are pending free agents.

Sloan 'Doodle' Daniel is the latest player to be shipped out. Playing mostly at first base this season, he has been one of the only bright spots on the team. With his 98 OPS+ and excellent defense at first base, he's been worth 1.0 WAR this season (for comparison, that's 2.1 WAR more than Brett Compton, who is now a Beirut Cedar).

Once described as someone who "might be a player," and "Mark Simpson with less power" and even "one of my best draft pick[ s]," he never quite followed up on his 5.3 WAR, Gillstrom Award Winning rookie season. A 3.2 WAR sophomore season was quite good, but he totaled 2.3 WAR over the next 5 seasons, never breaking over the 100 OPS+ mark.

Doodle wouldn't be the first Long Beach Surfer draftee to have a promising season and then flame out. And he surely won't be the last. In return, the Surfers receive Omaha relievers Mutsuhito Imai and Bob Cummings. Imai is the real prize here, at least on paper. He's the Surfer's type, good movement, mediocre stuff, but he's not known as a good clubhouse personality, and he's not performed especially well lately. In Cummings, the Surfers receive a flyer with good movement who will need a significant improvement in his stuff to see time in the bigs.

In a minor move with Boise, the Surfers received a potential platoon partner for Manuel Hernandez in minor leaguer Tomas Borge from the Spuds. Borge is rated 5/6/5/6/5 against lefties and plays above average defense at the keystone. In return, they sent minor league reliever Eric Crowley off to the land of potatoes.

[jleddy]

WIth apologies to Stanislavski, "there are no minor trades, only minor general managers."