2044-00001: Talons Trade for Don Smith is the Worst in BBA History, and It's Not Even Close

[jiminyhopkins]

Phoenix, AZ--

With the injury setback to SP Don Smith leaving his future very much in doubt, some are proclaiming the Talons trade that brought him here from Des Moines as the worst in BBA history -- by a long shot.

What's more, those proclaimations are coming from the franchise itself.

Having been burned before on ace level starting pitchers, namely Ignacio Rodriguez and Lawrence Columbus LaLoosh, the Talons decided to once again make a splash and shoot for the stars. According to team thinking at the time, the club had more than enough offense to afford unloading a significant amount of it to improve their pitching staff. And even though Smith was "fragile", the organization thought that by setting the pitch count to 95, they would be spared the worst of the injury risk. Well, obviously that didn't happen.

And what's more, the trading away of all that offense was made that much worse by a global change to the offensive settings by the BBA commissioner, which affected the Talons perhaps more than any other team, at least anecdotally. Plus, to top it all off and really twist the knife, the throw-in INT pitcher that was included in the Des Moines package, rated 6/4/4 at the time, is now a legit prospect for the Kernels.

You probably didn't care to read the thoughts of the Reclusive Talons GM, but here they are anyway: "We thought we could afford to lose those bats. I mean, Phoenix has never had a problem with offense. How were we supposed to know that some change to the OOTP settings would affect us that badly?? Plus, we thought we'd be safe with a 95 pitch count. Guess not. We thought that our trainer, who dramatically improved the Talons injury incidence practically the day he was hired, would help keep Smith healthy."

"Well we thought wrong. Now, the Kernels have an amazing offensive core and a 75 rated pitching prospect, and we will end up with a broken down former phenom who will cost us 100 mil if we decide to sign him long term. Everyone who said they told us so, feel free to repeat it. Loudly. I feel just so stupid about it and I don't even care anymore."

"And I wont even bother to post links to those players we traded away. Just look up the top five leaders in Des Moines offensive WAR. They're all there. And for the other guy, just look up the top prospect in their organization. He shouldn't be too hard to find."

"What an absolute joke we have become. Even our stupid Team News articles just perpetuate the joke. It's just not worth it. I hate myself."

[GoldenOne]

Charlotte would be happy to see if we can get you can write a TN that says how wrong the title of this TN is.

[RonCo]

That injury is a gut-wrencher.

[sjshaw]

I hate that series of injuries for you. One is almost expected, but this many is awful.

[Ted]

I hate that series of injuries for you. One is almost expected, but this many is awful.

There will always be someone it's happening to. It was San Antonio before this. Whenever it stops being Phoenix, we will notice the next franchise that has a series of crippling injuries. That's how randomness works. It doesn't evenly distribute. Someone is always getting crushed. Someone else is always getting lucky. The sample size need for things to even out is on the order of hundreds of seasons. And that's for franchises. With GM turnover, there's no way this will be ever be equitable.

[HoosierVic]

Oh, please. That trade is not even close to the worst trade in BBA history. I’ll see your Smith trade and raise you Timo Dooley and Andre Ly for Pavel (I just threw up a little in my mouth) Bure and Luis Gonzales. Neither Bure nor Gonzales is with the Sox any longer, while Dooley is at worst the No. 2 SP in the Omaha rotation and Ly is their starting RF.

The Talons rolled the dice on an extremely talented but fragile pitcher. It didn’t work out, but there’s an argument to be made for the trade.

As for the Sox deal, it involved Pavel Bure. I rest my case.

[CTBrewCrew]

Phoenix is the San Antonio Ted . I saw the brochures

[RonCo]

Yeah, that's nowhere near the worst. I once got Bob Frazier for Tobias Wulms.