2033.05 - Welcome to Charm City, Carlton Winson

[bcslouck]

In a huge blockbuster trade, the Jimmies have acquired star 3B Carlton Winson from Phoenix for 3B Desiderius Kirshbaum, top prospect SP César Aguilar, former 1st round SP Cooper Estes, former top prospect 1B/DH Bartolo Ortíz, and a reported $3,500,000 in cash to cover the remaining years salary of Kirshbaum.

The team reached into an already fairly bare farm system to make the move, while also moving a former All-Star. Talks were rumored to go back and forth for a few days, but were fairly easy.

In Winson, the Jimmies get one of the top players in the BBA for the next 2 plus years at a bargain salary. He'll continue to play 3B, which will improve the defense, while batting cleanup between Alfredo Salazar and Aubrey Anderson. The hope is he can help jump start an offense that has struggled thus far. In his first 6 games with the team, he's done just that. While averaging 4.5 runs per game before his acquisition, the team has averaged 5.7 runs in his 6 games. In those games, Winson is hitting .591 with 6 HR's and 15 RBI's, adding up to a 2.212 OPS.

Kirshbaum, a former All-Star, is still only 26, is still a good hitter with a year of team control after this season left. A career .312 hitter, Slingshot can play 3B, though it wasn't up to the quality the team was looking for. In Phoenix, if appears he will step in to play CF, where he is a solid option.

César Aguilar has rocketed up the prospect lists since being drafted in the 5th round back in 2031. He's put up solid numbers in his pro career, but hasn't dominated like he has the potential too. He was in the Jimmies plans, but after losing out on Jared Gillstrom, wanted to make a big move to upgrade 3B. And a player of Winson's caliber is a fantastic consolation prize.

Estes projects to be a future mid-rotation SP who can eat some innings, but still has some development to go. He was also someone the team had in future plans as they were looking to add pitching depth throughout the system in the last few drafts, but again, when the opportunity came up to get a player of Winson's caliber, he became someone in play.

Ortíz, someone who opened the year as the teams DH, was definitely in the teams future. He made a ton of noise with his bat in 2032 and had a very good postseason in the Jimmies run to the Landis Memorial Series. After a terrible start to 2033, he was demoted to AAA. While the team loves his bat, they didn't love his lack of position. The bat is absolutely good enough to stick at DH. But the team was looking to have a more flexible bench and has some viable DH options right now.

The move doesn't fix all the teams problems. The offense overall has been disappointing and some of the teams best offensive players haven't gotten going. It's tough to say it's just a slow start with the calendar about to flip to June. Is this what the offense is? Or can Winson being put right in the middle of the lineup wake everyone up? This will also shore up the defense at the hot corner, but the defense overall could use improvement as well. The team's pitching has carried them, especially (and surprisingly) the bullpen, which has been the best in the Johnson League. The rotation has been solid, but has shown signs of regession and Behner has really struggled so far. Is he in the same spot as the offense: just a really long slow start or is this a down year? Regardless, Winson can only help the team going forward and should further establish the Jimmies as one of the favorites to represent the Johnson in the Landis.

[jiminyhopkins]

Being traded seems to have lit a spark in Winson. He seemed a little pedestrian (for him) this year for the Talons. Glad he is playing for a contender. This last sim really shows what he is capable of.

[usnspecialist]

I'm not going to lie, if I knew phoenix was going to have a fire sale, I would have dropped out of the gillstrom bidding and gone this direction.

[jiminyhopkins]

I'm not going to lie, if I knew phoenix was going to have a fire sale, I would have dropped out of the gillstrom bidding and gone this direction.

I didn't know I was going to have a fire sale either. I have resisted all offers for Winson the past couple seasons, and there have been many. But in reality, we are not nearly as close as I'd hoped to contending. Ssempa and Winson represent the first wave of great Phoenix players. I was hoping they'd stick around for the next wave of guys (Deortez, Yong, etc.) but it wasn't meant to be.

[RonCo]

Interesting deal all around.

[bcslouck]

Interesting deal all around.

Yeah. The farm is pretty thin. Unless we get some good luck with development, we may only have another 3 years. Though we are in a pretty good spot financially, so we may be able to extend it. I like having a strong farm, but I'll trade that for winning any day.