Huntington / Kansas City

To KC: Curtis Jeter

To Huntington: Brett Wheeler

It appears that KC's bullpen is fatigued after trading away most or all of their long relievers. Wheeler is a very capable reliever who should help solidify Huntingtons bullpen for the rest of this year and possibly 1-2 more until he reaches arbitration and commands more than the league minimum. Jeter is pure garbage, and can barely get the ball across the plate, but he does have one talent, a rubber arm. He will eat up innings and help give the more talented arms in KC a rest every now and then. This trade boils down to one thing. Wheeler is a major league arm, and Jeter is not.

Verdict: Huntington 66% (0 vetoes out of 10)

Huntington / Jackson

To Huntington: Manuel Melo

To Jackson: Pedro Vazquez Sun-Woo Cheng and 2.1mil Cash

Pigs fly as these two GMs come to an agreement on a deal at the deadline. Melo is a former 6.7m IFA first baseman, who bats left and has a career avg of .300 while averaging about 20 Hrs in Jacksons pitcher friendly confines. Melo should help to form the core of the future in Huntington. What Huntington needs to do now is turn many of their DH/1B/C types into various positions or pitchers.

Jackson receives 33 year old Vazquez, who will be a free agent this season and also has a career average over .300 with less power than Melo and has no defensive position. Cheng looks to be a younger version of Vazquez whom for some reason has had a very slow development but looks to be rounding the corner and could surprise a lot of people. This trade comes down to two things. 1. Do you think Cheng will fulfull his potential, and 2. Do you think Vazquez will get signed by another team in the offseason and bring compensation to the Jackson franchise?

Melo seems like a low risk for Jackson to take here. Melo is clearly the best player here and he is still young, I like the gamble Jackson is taking here (especially because Vazquez should drop with Huntingtons low training budget dropping him to a B comp from an A so he should get signed, while Huntington adds a much needed middle of the order bat for the next decade. So to me the trade looks like this in a year, Cheng and a future quality middle reliever ( B comp) for Melo...I like this deal for Huntington.

Verdict: Huntington 55 % (1 veto out of ten) because there is more cash being traded than received

Houston / Kansas City

To Houston: Vernon Corey

To KC: Rafael Mercedes

Kansas City has been inquiring about Mercedes for 3 seasons from GM Diamond and it looks like the two teams have finally come to an agreement. With Houston having starting pitching problems and KC having an abundance of back end starters filling long relief roles, the two GMs were able to come to an agreement. Corey will pitcher above average but not spectacular and eat up a lot of innings while attempts to stay in the playoff race. Merecedes did make his major league debut earlier this season pitching 6 games with a .227 OBA and a 1.16 Whip, while Corey looks to rebound to his season 22 form where he posted a .246 OBA and a 1.31 Whip with 16 wins over 198 IP.

KC will add to a growing stable of good but not great relief arms at the major league level. This trade boils down to a classic question, would you rather have 80 good innings a year or 200 above average innings. This is a  very even deal, although Houston fills an immediate need and KC is now succeptible to not having an innings eater in the bullpen.


Verdict: Houston 51% (0 vetoes out of 10).

The International Game

Roberto Herrera Seattle Samurai Age: 19 B/T: L/R Born: Villa Vazquez, DO Position(s): 2B View Hardball Dynasty Profile

Hideo Yamaguchi Trenton River Rats Age: 18 B/T: L/L Born: Tokyo, JP Position(s): P (ClA) View Hardball Dynasty Profile

In the last couple of days there have been two significant offseason signings. Seattle signed Dominicans 2nd baseman Herrera for 20m, while Trenton signed Japans pitcher Yamaguchi to a 16.4m bonus. Both project to be future impact players at the MLB level. It is scary how good this Seattle team is looking and that their payroll is low enough to be able to afford the luxury of such international dollars.

Herrera projects as a middle of the order left handed bat that should result in many all-star game appearances. Paired with the prize IFA from a few seasons ago, Tsubasa Cheung this looks like a strong middle of the order for many years to come. Expect Herrera to be in the big leagues by season 25.

In Trenton Yamaguchi is an enigma. He can turn out anywhere from a good number 2 to a great number 3-4 starter. It will be interesting to see how Yamaguchi turns out as he appears to have a lot of top pitches and good velocity but his vs RHP is only average, while his vs LHP projects to be Yamaguchi will also struggle to throw more than 5-6 IPs in most games but will make up for that by being available every 4th day (assuming he can stay off the DL).

Regardless both of these players are great signings at this point in the season.

Mexico / Jackson

To Jackson (4): Al Bennett Ahmad Kirby Rock Painter

To Mexico (12): Harry Reynoso and 2million in cash

Jackson sends future Hall of Famer in his prime Reynoso for Lefty slugging Al Bennett who will be a very nice hitting, poor fielding SS and should have a very fine career. Kirby's value is pretty equal to zero, while Painter is a very nice pitcher who is who he is at this point. He is a nice number 3, or poor 2. Painters splits are nice however, his pitches and control both being non elite are what hold him back. In four MLB seasons thus far, he has 0 all-star games, 42 wins, and a career Whip of 1.29. It is however a much better trade than the last trade.

Verdict: Mexico 100% (10 vetoes out of 10).

LA / Texas

To LA (12): Fernando Ortiz Don Kell

To Texas (14): Louis Camilli and 448k cash

Texas and LA hook up yet again for another trade. This time Camilli waives his no trade clause to Texas. Louis has had a fine career but at this point is a situational player who can provide a good glove with little range off the bench. LA had no intentions of signing Louis long term and he would not bring compensation in the offseason so scoring some low level prospects is a decent return. Kell is a right handed DH who is pretty much useless defensively and can be used in a platoon situation vs lefties, the only question is where will he be used in the National League. Ortiz is a switch hitter and can be used vs righties, as a base runner and defensively at a variety of positions.

Verdict: LA 60% (0 vetoes out of 10)

Texas / Houston VETOED

To Texas (4): Bernie Belliard Kevin Johjima Chris Brooks

To Houston (16): Antonio Ono Harry Reynoso Ozzie Shin and 3.2mil CASH

Looks like 'Machine Gun' Kelly arrived at the doorsteps of the mudcats and stole two premiere pitchers in all of WIS, yet alone the Mike Greenwell world. Ono, possibly the greatest pitcher in the history of the world, who may one day be unseated in that category by Reynoso are sent to Houston along with Shin, whom is a decent hitting offensive catcher head to Houston with some cash, for Belliard who is a nice player for the 3/4 of a season that he can play. Brooks is a lower end of the rotation future starter who should max out with a mid 70 vs Rhp rating, which is more than 15 below each of Ono and Reynoso. Kenji is a nice bat but as we've mentioned many times over, a DH is a dime a dozen when theres only 16 positions for them to play and over 50 of them in the league. I'm sure the next owner of Jackson appreciates a 4 advance scouting rating doing the rebulding for him.

Verdict: Houston 100% (10 vetoes out of 10)

Monterrey / Jackson

To Monterrey (0): Vernon Diaz and over 2mil in cash

To Jackson (4): Theodore Hume Vladimir Lee Norm Ebert

(brackets beside the teams signifies their advance scouting budget)

The dismantling of the Jackson franchise has begun (departing owner has said he is rebuilding the club for the next owner) with 29 year old and multiple time all-star short-stop Vernon Diaz. Diaz is a former gold glove winner as well and multiple time silver slugger (although I think this is a bit more to being in a league that favors defense more than offense) and will definitely be missed in Jackson. Coming to Jackson in return is Ebert who holds a similar bat to Diaz only behind the plate. Diaz is however a weaker defensive catcher. Lee is a future cf/2b type who will definitely have a future at the major league level. and carries a nice bat. Lee will be a subpar defender in center but a very nice addition defensively if he plays second. He also will hold a low overall but play better than that, thus in the future he will cost his team less in a long term contract. Rounding out the haul is SS Hume. Hume will provide very capable defense. Hume also has a surprisingly decent bat despite low contact as he has nice splits and they are magnified by being a switch hitter, although I think this is small sample size and if played full time his stats will drop.  Diaz's high overall should of brought back more and this is definitely a victory for Monteray. A 3 for 1 rarely works out in favor of the team receiving the 3, especially when there are no true stars in that group of 3, not too mention that Jackson is paying most of the remaining salary for Diaz. I think next years Jackson owner will be very dissapointed looking back at this deal.

Verdict: Monteray: 100%, (10 vetoes out of 10)

Mexico / Pittsburgh

To Mexico: Terry Watkins Rudy Clinton

To Pittsburgh: Gill Tanaka Norman Volstad Neftali Maradona

Mexico grabs future hall of famer, Watkins, and his career .325 avg (although its .290 this year), along with an above average defensive SS in Clinton who hits .270, Mexico also receives 4.25m to help pay for all of this. Pittsburgh continues to move all talent out of the pilgrims clubhouse. Coming in is Gill Tanaka and his horrible 2 year 5.4mil contract. Hopefully Tanaka is arrested for grand theft, from every owner whose ever had to pay him a dime, before next season begins so that Pittsburgh can appeal to the whatifsports to have the contract thrown out on the basis that Tanaka is in jail. Maradona will continue his great effort at breaking the all time Mike Greenwell strikeout record. Has there ever been a player to strikeout 600 times in his first 5 seasons before? Also heading to Pittsburgh is Volstad, who carries a nice stick on him but unfortunately Pittsburgh plays in the NL and can not play a DH. So to wrap this up, Pittsburgh agrees to give up the two best players in the deal, take on 5.4mil next season and will play Volstad at DH for 6 games a year and for the other 120-130 games a year that he will play he will put his best effort forth to not commit 30 negative plays a year.

Verdict: Mexico 90% (9 vetoes out of 10)

Texas / LA

To Texas: Gerald Liang Al Moya

To LA: Ernest Grimsley Johnnie Mench Howard Aspromonte

Texas receives borderline hall of famer Liang, who is finishing up his career at age 39, and the prize of the deal Al Moya. Moya is a perenial all-star caliber player who can play almost anywhere in the field. This should really help Texas as they appear to be building a very nice squad to challenge for the NL crown. Heading to LA is Grimsley who is an above average ML starter but will never live up to his first overall amateur draft status. He should however be compensation worthy in the off-season. Hopefully for LA he becomes a B comp and not an A comp as I am not sure anyone would want to surrender a pick for him in free agency. Mench is a quality yet overpaid utility player, and the big sscore for LA is prized prospect Aspromonte. He will end up as a nice player who should be able to squeak out an all-star game appearance or two and is cost controlled. He will however never reach the levels of Moya.

Verdict: Texas 90% (8 vetoes out of 10)

Boston / Huntington

To Boston: Clarence Payton John Kell Orval Brown

To Huntington: Jeffrey Lee

Wow a lot to analyze here. Heading to Boston is Payton, whom is one of the more underrated players in the league. He provides gold glove caliber defense at CF or 2B and is on a very comfortable 2.1m salary for the rest of this year and next year. Orval Brown who has been tossed around a lot this season for a pitcher with his potential. If developed right he could be a very nice middle of the rotation starter. Its unfortunate his big league clock has been started already. In order to take on these two pieces Boston has to take on Kells big 4mil contract. Huntington receives a downgrade in CF from Payton to Lee and the all important cap space to try and sign their first round pick. This trade boils down to, do you think Brown is worth taking on a 4mil contract, and I think it is for Boston. Payton is also nice and its not a guarantee someone like him will be available for so cheap this offseason. Huntington has now fired all their bullets on the trade market to sign Poseidon. Lets hope he's worth it.

Verdict: Boston 90% (vetoes 3 out of 10)