Hello everyone and welcome back to This Week In Trades. I, Cheese, am once again your host this evening and joining me as usual is everyone’s favorite king of the undead, Chros. But tonight we have a surprise entrant and a very special guest, the one and only Gerth! Gerth joins us from the our nation’s capital to weigh in on this week’s exciting extravaganza of moves, twists, turns, and heartache.
Before we get started looking at the trades this week I would like to remind everyone that all opinions expressed are our own and biased by our own experience and thought patterns. These are not meant to be hurtful to anyone in any way shape or form and we accept all feedback and welcome more voices to provide their own unique insights.
Our most active trader has declined once again to provide a rebuttal or insight into his thought processes, so that mystery will stay shrouded for now. This week has definitely been intense and it’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out. Without further ado…onto the trades!
| CLE | CF Jon Huband | MON | 2040 PORT 1st Round 2B Hang-ki Chung |
Huband reads like a 4th OF. For the Pandas sake, I hope we’re all very wrong about him.
There are so many questions here:
(1) Why?
(2) Has Panda filed a police report?
(3) Does Grog feel any remorse?
I just… I don’t… what? Full disclosure, when Panda said he was looking for a good defensive CFer, I immediately checked my AAA roster for a 4th/5th OFer type. I thought maybe my broke ass could get a bit of cash. Little did I know I would have landed a potential Top 15 pick! Panda’s scout needs to be fired immediately before he flushes away more 1st round picks. Even OSA says this guy isn’t great. Granted he’s a great glove with great speed, but he can’t hit and there’s plenty of 4th OFers like that. Not something I trade a Top 15 pick for. With a payroll in the teens for the forseeable future, I wouldn’t even criticize him if he signed a new scout for an amount equal to or greater than his entire payroll. I love you Panda but consider this an intervention.
Interesting trade. Montana is receiving a outfielder that is a very good defender but will be lucky to bat .220. Cleveland is receiving a future AAA benchwarmer that will be lucky to bat .200 plus a first round draft pick. Montana will be able to improve their team quickly but the cost of a first round pick seems a little high for a terrible hitter even if he is a future gold glover.
| ACKC | CF Takahashi Yano (R) | OAK | Hector Velazquez |
I don’t hate it, sometimes you just need a filler piece with a good personality. Seems pretty straight forward.
Nice little move for ACKC here. They get a decent player and a clubhouse guy and give up nothing of interest.
ACKC adds some needed depth in the outfield. This addition will help them reach the playoffs this year. Oakland receives a prospect. I don’t have high hopes for the prospect but they aren’t giving up too much for him. Pretty even trade helping both teams in the direction they are building towards.
| VAN | LF Urs van Munster 2040 VAN 4th Round $4,300,000 | MON | 2B Haechan Mae (R) 2040 MON 3rd Round |
I may be predisposed to thinking poorly of Panda’s trades but my only concern here is that van Munster is dying, otherwise I don’t hate it at all. Vancouver pays for the rest of 2039 and I’m sure he’ll be shipped out by the 2040 season to a new team before Panda has to pay him a dime. Seems straightforward enough.
Pandas add a nice leadoff type hitter here and didn’t give up much. I like the move, but I’m just not sure what their goal is this season. Perhaps they’re building for next year and are planning on going full Chase-mode this offseason?
Montana adds a big name player and only has to give up an average prospect. Money is being sent to pay van Munster. Pitchers are not going through enjoy facing the Pandas for a couple weeks until all Montana’s players get traded elsewhere.
| CLE | RP Ignacio Uribe (100%) RP Ricky McCauley (100%) RP Bob Christison (100%) SP Remi Ribeiro (AAA) (100%) | MON | 2040 TOL 1st Round |
I’m going to “trust the process” because I can’t see the why for any of this. Otherwise I’d say Montana was feeding Cleveland picks for pennies this week.
Unfortunately, my earlier comments about an intervention didn’t make it out in time before this disaster. Grog returned to the scene of the crime, an earlier robbery, and this time committed murder. I’m starting to feel bad because it feels like I’m being mean and picking on Panda, but my god this is just absolutely terrible. The likely #1 overall pick was traded for a 5th starter (if he’s lucky), and three dime a dozen relievers that you could sign for 2m or less in free agency. The best of the bunch is Uribe who could be a decent setup guy. Still, this is not something I trade the #1 pick for. A likely future superstar was traded for a Cleveland steamer.
Montana adds 4 pitchers. They seem pretty good and a couple of them could start in the rotation. 1st round picks are nice but I think Montana is getting a lot for this pick. My only question is what is the goal for the Pandas first this year? They traded what will be a top-5 pick for 4 pitchers. Pandas need to go from last to playoffs to make this worthwhile.