While many APBA baseball leagues are in their off-season now, an article I wrote nearly four years ago is once again appropriate. It’s entitled 10 Tips for Trading in an APBA League. I was re-reading it last night and while it was written in 2010, all ten tips are just as relevant now as they were then.
I bring this up because there’s been a flurry of trade talk in the Illowa APBA League in the last week. Trade offers, bantering and yes, a few deals were even consummated. As a matter of fact, one IAL deal was announced on Christmas Eve and another was even announced on Christmas Day. The IAL hot stove league takes no holiday!
One of these trades involved my Twin City Thunderchickens. While I certainly wouldn’t call it a blockbuster trade, it has potential to help me in the long run.
The deal:
The Thunderchickens trade C Yasmani Grandal for the Missoula Rattlesnakes’ (formerly the Rising Bamm Beanos) 4th round draft pick.
My Thunderchickens have been getting what they could out of the quite mediocre tandem of John Buck/Geovany Soto for a few years now. We thought Grandal (pictured above) would be the answer to our problems. First he was caught juicing and was suspended for the first 50 games of 2013. Once back, he never got into the groove and only batted 88 times. I half expected Yasmani to be uncarded by APBA’s cutoff mark they implemented for the benefit of leagues. No luck.
The above deal was offered by my buddy Brando and I took it. Here’s the catch, though… Buck and Soto may not cover me for a full season so I’ll be looking for a catcher either in the draft or in a trade. That’s a blessing in disguise though. Buck and Soto are both has-beens and I need to look long-term for that position. That’s where the “potential” part of this deal comes in.
Do I have a strategy? You bet I do but I’m not about to play my hand quite yet. Too many devious IAL managers read this blog and I don’t want to give away too much.
