Greetings, fellow Mafia members!
In case anyone is wondering, the League 8 trades have NOT stopped rolling in. Somebody stop them! Please!! Thankfully, the trade deadline has arrived. Let me be the first to nominate League 8 commissioner, Laura in Columbus, for ‘Busiest Commissioner of the Year’.
Enough of them for this week.
This week, I offer up a simple trade of power for speed. It took place in League 10 back in June. Given what we now know about both players involved, the review will seem like an obvious one to write, so we’ll add a bonus in that we’ll include some commentary provided directly by both participants. Let’s have at it … Team One trades Big Papi to Team Two for Ichiro.
What did our owners have to say?
Team One reports that they were middle of the pack and “not going anywhere”, so they were “looking to rebuild after subpar seasons by Ortiz, Beltran, Damon and Bay wrecked” their season.
They proceeded to say, “Big Papi was a surprise 2nd round pick by me, but I think I see why he was still around in the 2nd. Big Papi has been a shadow of his former fear-some self so far in 2007. I’m sure it will end up O.K. for him, but what really has me worried is the possibility of [having] a DH-only with declining power numbers. So I pulled the trigger and got Ichiro … who I think may be the better keeper in the long run.”
Team Two, at the time, was in 2nd place and was clearly counting on Ortiz to have a huge 2nd half. What was their take on the deal?
Admitting that Ichiro is his favorite player, Team Two reports that “any trade is on the table if it’ll make my team better” but “it had better be for a keeper, a big-time bat like Ortiz.” Being a big fan of Papi as well, Team Two says, “I definitely think Ortiz is a great candidate for 2nd half MVP and is a fine keeper.”
Team Two continues to say, “A little context on the trade helps show why I pulled the trigger. I lead the league in average by a fairly wide margin and have a lot of high-average hitters on my team … I had picked up Figgins on the waiver wire a few weeks prior, just before he got insanely hot and started looking like the Figgy of old, so his steals and huge upswing in BA allowed me to replace Ichiro with a guy who’s a lesser version of a similar type of player.”
“My biggest deficiencies … have been HRs and RBIs … [and] the upgrade to Ortiz is a big one, as big as I could make without costing myself the whole team and creating more holes.”
“At the time I acquired Big Papi, he had 13 HRs. On a team as good as the Red Sox, there’s no way that number doesn’t dramatically increase. Papi’s been hitting for a high average and making solid contact, so I think it’s only a matter of time before he starts raking.”
Both teams had very good reasons for making this trade, but how has it worked out?
Since July 1st, Big Papi has hit a mortal 6 HRs, but, as Team Two notes, even before that he was suffering a power outage. With only a dozen or so HRs at the All-Star break, Ortiz had virtually no chance of reaching the mid-40’s HR level on which we were counting. As we all know, this is because he’s been plagued by injuries all year. I’d expect that an off-season of medical attention and rest will enable Papi to make a comeback in 2008, but that doesn’t help us in 2007. For this year, given the fact that Suzuki is, and keeps, putting up vintage Ichiro numbers, I’d say that Team One has the clear edge in this trade.
From a keeper league perspective, however, this is probably a decent trade for both teams. Although both players typically maintain healthy BAs, Ichiro has the clear edge. His career BA of .332 far outpaces Papi’s lifetime mark of .286. In return, Papi has the obvious edge in power as his 250 HRs causes Ichiro’s 66 lifetime dingers to pale in comparison. But Suzuki is right back at him as his 267 career SBs leaves the heavy-footed Red Sox DH, with only 8 career SBs, literally at the starting gate. Given the fact that significant sources of SBs are typically harder to find, and with the fact that Ortiz owns a virtual lack of position flexibility, I’d have to say that, in a keeper league, I’d also rather have Ichiro. In the end, in my opinion, Team One wins this trade hands-down.