A week or so ago, I made my first trade in the IAL. We did it with our ol’ trading buddy, DonS and his Molly Putts Marauders. At first sight, it looks like a barn-burner:
My first round pick and Ramon Hernandez
for
Highlanders’ first round pick and Mark Hendrickson
…and I guess it is. But consider that my 1st round pick was the second pick in the draft and the Highlanders’ first round pick (which Molly Putts picked up earlier in the off-season) was the first pick in the draft. So we essentially switched the order of the picks. For his trouble, DonS got Ramon Hernandez, who is may not be incredible at the plate but his 1-0-0 isn’t horrible (the alternative from my end was Jason Varitek). In addition, Hernandez retains his C-8 rating.
To round out the deal, I got Hendrickson, a D who can eat a lot of innings. He’s no Zambrano but not too bad with the stick either, it seems.
Why did I make this deal? I haven’t made too much of a secret of my desire of getting Geovany Soto in this upcoming draft. Of course, I did that when I was in last place and some 10 games behind the next team. Then I started winning and ended up with the second pick. Gah!
So this was just a little insurance. I didn’t want to take the chance that Soto wouldn’t be there.
And psst… between you and me, some might think that Hernandez and Hendrickson might be a downgrade. Where my team is at now, it’s a wash. I had five pitchers retire or get injured last year. I desperately need the innings. With our D double innings rule, having Hendrickson’s 250+ innings helps me more than having three catchers.
As an epilogue to this, it turns out that DonS no longer has my first round pick. He’s a man with a plan who probably had this concocted before the off-season. He’s swapped first round picks with the commish in return for trading lower picks.
I don’t know his plan but I don’t think he’s done yet.
I’m the guy who made the trade with TomN, so this is the other side of the story.
First of all, I would have taken Soto. So he was right.
At catcher, I have Bengie Molina and no backup. So in exchange for Soto, I got the Second Pick (the “next best player”), covered my limits at catcher, and still have the same number of draft picks (6).
I have since traded that pick for the Third Pick (the “next best player after that”) to move up 5 spots in the Second Round (#13 instead of #18).
I am unlikely to trade the First Pick down any further because I think the first “dropoff in talent” is after the top 3 players. I think the next dropoff is after 5 and I have Pick #8, so I need a couple of guys to “mess up their pick.” Wonder how likely that is.
Marcus says the next dropoff is after 7, so under his scenario I would need only one “screw-up.”
*whew* I’m glad I made the deal then though Longoria would have made a nice consolation prize.