WHIV 2063.5- It Started On June 18th

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June 18th, 2063. The Hustlers were going nowhere. GM Matt Rectenwald had seen enough. He decided it was time to start wheeling and dealing. Hustlers fans know how this goes. They've seen it before. "We don't rebuild, we reload" is Hustlers canon at this point. And so, it began. The first three trades of what would become twice that. Six trades that helped to change the trajectory of this team.

1. Traded 24-year old SS Jorge Madrid and 20-year old minor league RHP Abdul-Khaliq Khoury to the Austin Shredders, getting 26-year old RHP Pepe Rivera and 20-year old minor league RHP Cipriano Menéndez in return.
Analysis: Madrid's time in Las Vegas was soon to be up. This deal opened the door for Antonio Edison to get his call to the majors. He'd immediately make a big impact. Meanwhile, the Hustlers saw some promise in Rivera, who was being used as a reliever by the Shredders. Vegas put him straight into their starting rotation and ever since, he's been really, really solid. Might have found something there. Menendez is another promising reliever who is a couple years away.

2. Traded 24-year old CF Chandler Larkman to the Des Moines Kernels, getting 23-year old 1B Alonso Flinn in return.
Analysis: The shine had come off of Larkman a bit since the Hustlers drafted him. Still, a passable center fielder is hard to find. That's why the Kernels were so into Parkman that they gave up a player in Flinn that Vegas now sees as a potential lineup cornerstone. They needed a first baseman, which seems crazy to say given that in the past year they seemed overloaded at that spot with Czar Mamatulin (soon to be out for the year and having a dismal year anyway in between various ailments and minor league stints), Luigi Canavan (lumped and back in AAA), and Tadataka Yoshikawa (out for a couple of months and a pending free agent anyway).

3. Traded 29-year old SS Mario Romero and 29-year old LHP Dave Hill to the Charm City Jimmies, getting 20-year old RHP Allam Suhayb and 23-year old 2B José Aguilar in return.
Analysis: Romero had been a target of Charm City for some time now, and the Hustlers finally decided to give in. They got Suhayb, a promising but far away pitching prospect; and Aguilar, a decent utility player. They also gave up Dave Hill, a depth pitcher.

July 2, 2063
4. Traded 37-year old LHP Owen Geddes to the Phoenix Talons, getting 22-year old minor league RHP Randy Sheffield in return.
Analysis: Geddes wasn't going to be back next year so it made sense to move him for something. Sheffield is a bit more than something, another pitching prospect to add to a system that was in desperate need of more promising arms. Ironically, this opened up a spot for John Rasmussen III (which has been discussed ad nauseam at this point).

July 9, 2063
5. Traded 19-year old LHP Clarence Oveur, 30-year old LHP Bret Harrell, and 23-year old RF Ricardo Hernández to the Louisville Sluggers, getting 24-year old RHP Josh Sang, 20-year old RHP Titus Katsantonis, and 22-year old RHP Juan Alonzo in return.
Analysis: Why would a franchise who openly admit in the previous trade analysis that they needed pitching prospects trade away their top pitching prospect? A couple of reasons. It was necessary to jettison Bret Harrell's contract. Katsantonis is as underrated as Oveur is overrated, in our opinion. Fine reasoning but not the biggest reasons. Those are named Sang and Alonzo. Sang would come right up to the Hustlers pen and join Rafael Gonzalez and Augusto Dominguez as the Hustlers would go back to their preferred bullpen alignment of three stoppers. Alonzo won't be far behind, either. Sure. we had to give up Ricardo Hernandez too, but he's been slow to develop and outfield is not necessarily a thin position in the system.

July 16, 2063
6. Traded 18-year old minor league RHP Marc Brown to the Yellow Springs Nine, getting 26-year old SS César Aybar in return.
Analysis: This one was done out of necessity. Didn't want to move Brown, but we needed a temporary shortstop with some injuries.

[BaseClogger]