The blockbuster deal between the Flagstaff Peaks and Myrtle Beach Hitmen, announced earlier this week, has conjured up painful memories of trades past. The key to that entire deal was Corbin Carroll, who was originally drafted by me in the fourth round of the 2019 winter farm draft. That summer, I traded Carroll to the Hitmen for Travis Shaw.
Shaw was an absolute beast that year. He hit .279/.416/.588 for us over the second half of the season. Unfortunately, his bat fell asleep throughout the entire playoffs. We somehow managed to win our one and only World Series title despite that. That winter, I had to pay a young Hunter Renfroe to get Shaw's $5 million salary off my books.
You could make the argument that if any trade leads to a BDBL championship then it was worth it. However, I can't help but wonder how many championships I sacrificed to make that one trade. There is never any way of knowing if a high school kid like Carroll will ever pan out. For every Carroll, there are 1,000 Jake Skoles (a high school kid drafted in the same spot as Carroll in 2010). Still, it eats away at me wondering what our team would look like today if I had simply held on to all the young talent we had.
Well, it would look something like this:
1. C Adley Rutschman
2. CF Corbin Carroll
3. RF Aaron Judge
4. 1B Matt Olson
5. LF Yordan Alvarez
6. DH Shohei Ohtani
7. 3B Rafael Devers
8. 2B Alex Bregman or Carlos Correa (playing out of position)
9. SS Trea Turner
How many trophies would a team like that have won? That is easily a 1,000+ run lineup, year after year.
And then there is the pitching staff:
Shohei Ohtani
Gerritt Cole
Aaron Nola
Yusei Kikuchi
Max Scherzer
Oh well.
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