2060-12 Guess who's back. Back again

[Knucklehead254]

"F**k it let's do it"

I hang up the phone. Am I crazy for doing this? We're supposed to be rebuilding. I think to myself.

It's a bizarre time to be GM of the Vancouver Mounties, we barely sit below .500, 6 games back of a wild card spot, yet I'm buying for a 31 year old pitcher who hasn't had a season under 4 ERA his entire career? Well it's a bit more complicated considering the absolute crapshoot trying to find a starter for the #4 and #5 spot has been. Originally Rusty Miller looked prime to hold the spot but early struggles gave me no choice but to send him down to AAA, maybe he'll get another shot at some point this year. Other pitchers came and went but it felt like each time they came up it was a guaranteed L. So which pitcher did we get to help offset that?

The pitcher I'm talking about of course is Antonio Baldez, who will now be joining the team for the second time in his career. The first time last year went swimmingly well, as he was brought in alongside current #2 starter Tom Miller before immediately being turned away at the border for Long Beach. In that deal I received Greg Clover (shoutout to him for making his first All-Star game) and Javier Valles. It's not like I didn't want Baldez, but our season at the point felt like a lost cause and Long Beach's offer was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

One year later, we're sort of in the hunt due in part to some key pitchers (Dirk Bessi, Sam Fisher and Jesus Garcia) as well as a young offense that isn't completely terrible? So I decided to act upon Baldez also having a somewhat good season by dealing prospects Fadueka Hadonov, Antar bin Mahir, and Bogdan Comsa alongside future hall of famer Tony Frost. Long Beach also agreed to retain half of his salary this year, which boils down to a $3.3 million cap hit.

So in a way, this deal actually saves me a tiny bit of money this year since Tony Frost will induce a $3.5 million cap hit. On one hand I feel bad trading him away when I wanted to get his 3000th hit, but his early struggles coupled with a last second trade for Sam Corkum basically forced him off the roster, as I was actually just going to release him anyways. The other 3 prospects are tough to trade but I felt that I had enough depth from my teardown last year to offset them leaving.

[RT60]

Makes sense despite Baldez being such an enigma.

[BaseClogger]

Wow, you did so well for yourself in that original trade. Clover looks great.

[BaseClogger]

You're six games back of the wild card but there's also two teams tied for that last spot and you have to pass both. I was surprised to see you buy but I'm not in love with any of the prospects you traded so not much harm.

[Knucklehead254]

You're six games back of the wild card but there's also two teams tied for that last spot and you have to pass both. I was surprised to see you buy but I'm not in love with any of the prospects you traded so not much harm.

He also has one more year of contract at 6.6 mil so at the point we may have a better chance of making a push.