Last year I traded Matt Kemp of the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for Nick Swisher. Let me introduce myself, I’m Tedd Mallasch, aka Teddy Ballgame, and I’ve been managing the Chicago Champions of the Illowa APBA League, a diceball league, for nearly 35 years. I’m also a White Sox fan, John Brandeberry, the manager of the Rising Bammbeanos, the proud new recipient of Kemp, is a Dodger fan, since the Dodger days of yesteryear when they played at the Polo Grounds in Brooklyn. So the deal made sense as far as major league allegiance is concerned, but did it make sense APBAwise?
Brandeberry’s Rising Bammbeanos were rebuilding, so getting the younger Kemp for Swisher made sense. But how about from a Chicago Champion perspective? Nick brought his high onbase percentage to a Champion lineup that was ready to do some serious scoring and quickly found a home in the two slot. Swisher is second in the league with a .413 onbase percentage and is second in the league with 84 bases on balls, through 125 games. The Champions are currently in first place, on a 100 win pace (for the first time in team history), and hoping to win their 11th Championship (haven’t won in over ten years). So it seems as though the trade worked pretty well for both sides, at least for this year.
With the Yankees Nick looks like he’ll be moving over to firstbase, but the Champs have Justin Morneau at first. The outfield also looks pretty good, with Carlos Lee, B.J. Upton, & Grady Sizemore, from left to right. Swisher will not be of much use next year, after a truly disappointing season on the Southside of Chicago, but should provide a Gene Tenace like presence off the bench. While Matt Kemp just keeps on getting better & better. Still if I had it to do over again I’d probably still trade for Buckeye Nick.
Hey Teddy, nice to see you grace your awesome presence. :)
admit it, you got snookered in the deal. :)
though I admit I like Swisher… you know what you’ll get with him. and he translates great to APBA. power and on-base.
a former Big Ten player.