Rocky Mountain busy at the deadline despite GM Change. (62.02)

[niles08]

As the sunset on August 28th, 1962, not only had another birthday came and gone for new Rocky Mountain GM Justin Niles, but more importantly a drink was poured to celebrate the moves made throughout the day.

Niles, who officially took over the team just 2 days prior, orchestrated a few big moves for Rocky Mountain.

First, in a smaller move, pitcher Tony Kaufman was sent to Mexico City for outfielder Chris Walker. Walker is ranked #332 in the latest prospect rankings for the BBA and is projected to be ready to go as soon as the team is ready to give him the call. He has spent the year in AAA and has a .283/.363/.446 triple slash with 21 home runs on the year while playing above average defense at each corner outfield spot.

Next came the bigger splash. Lucio Guevara was rumored to be willing to accept a 5-year deal in the neighborhood of $9-$10M annually but instead was shipped to Charm City along with reliever Joe Shaw. In return the team acquired:

1B Dean Howard, who finds himself just outside of the top 500 rankings.
MIF Jesus Llado, who is ranked 260th in the prospect pipeline.
OF Ricardo Gomez, who is ranked 143rd.
C Eduardo Gonzalez, who is ranked 290th.
P Jerry Raymond, who is ranked 302nd.
3B Alan Hedges, who is ranked 13th.

The biggest get is obviously Hedges, who appears to be almost ready to make his splash in the big leagues. In all, all 6 of those players are "BBA Ready" and could contribute as soon as next season.

"This was a big deal for us obviously. We went back and forth over the past few days debating on what to do with Lucio. When you have a player of his caliber who is willing to take somewhat of a "hometown discount" you certainly want to consider all options. After some intense discussion, we found the best course for all parties involved was to move on and capture the value that we were able to from Charm City. That shouldn't discount the appreciation we have for Lucio. We wish him nothing but the best."

In the final hour, Niles got on the phone with an old friend from Twin Cities and sent Max Shepperson along with prospect Francisco Rios to spend the rest of their season with the River Monsters. In return, the team acquired OF Vince Guin(ranked #167) and OF Mark Busse(ranked #352).

"We didn't feel we would be able to bring Max back so the value he would have brought to the team the remainder of the season, we instead flipped into significant value for future seasons."

Two more pieces that are "BBA Ready" and could contribute as soon as next year.

In all, the team added 8 players to their pipeline that were ranked as top 350 prospects.