2024 Winter Trades

We began this winter with so many issues, it seemed that rebuilding in 2024 was our only option. My first order of business was putting our best trading chit, Framber Valdez, on the Selling forum to see what the market looked like.

Mostly, it looked like crickets chirping alone in the dark.

So, I pivoted to "compete" mode. The problem with pivoting is that it required dumping a ton of salary. In order to do so, I'd have to sacrifice the future, and I wasn't willing to sacrifice the best of our prospects to make that happen. Fortunately, I found a way to make it work.

***

Trade #1: Traded Ranger Suarez, Kyle Teel, and Wade Meckler to Philadelphia for Kutter Crawford.

At $10 million in salary and suspect MLB numbers (especially given the huge difference between MLB and BDBL numbers last year), Suarez was the biggest albatross hanging around my neck this winter. In order for me to have any shot of competing in 2024, I simply needed to dump that salary. Unfortunately, it came at a very steep cost. But then, doesn't it always?

Teel was a steal for us in the midseason farm draft last summer. He hit the ground running and posted phenomenal numbers in his pro debut. For better or worse, though, he was expendable due to the presence of Adley Rutschman and Ethan Salas on the Mulligans roster. With the DH, we have room for two catchers, but not three. Sacrificing Teel was an evil necessity, but an easy decision due to that traffic jam behind our plate.

Meckler was a much more difficult decision. I stand by my original assessment when we first signed him last summer: he will have a Wade Boggs-like career. Sacrificing two prospects of such high quality was difficult, but getting Crawford in exchange softens the blow a bit. The former Cowtippers prospect looked good last year, and is still young enough to have some upside.

Trade #2: Traded David Bednar and A.J. Minter to Flagstaff for Ricky Tiedemann and Jarlin Susana.

We won a championship in 2019 thanks in large part to our dominant bullpen. A dominant bullpen carried the Los Altos Undertakers to their fifth championship last month. Darien and Charlotte also enjoyed great success last year thanks to their bullpens. Trust me, I know how important quality bullpens are. Unfortunately, we have a much bigger issue we needed to address this winter, and sacrificing two quality bullpen arms was an absolute necessity.

That issue was simply this: we had no pitching whatsoever beyond the 2024 BDBL season. Shohei Ohtani will not pitch the entire 2024 MLB season and may never pitch again. We lost Jon Gray to free agency, and Framber Valdez is a free agent at the end of this season. We also lost Luis Garcia to an injury that will rob him of his entire 2024 MLB season as well. The only starter remaining on the Mulligans roster was JP Sears, and he remains an enigma.

Starting pitching is incredibly expensive. It is also incredibly difficult to predict which of today's mediocre pitchers will become tomorrow's aces. Two years ago, no one could have predicted that Spencer Strider, Kevin Gausman, Zac Gallen, Justin Steele, Zach Eflin, and Pablo Lopez would all be top-ten pitchers. Yet, here we are.

Needless to say, we need to add as many quality arms as possible to our roster, ASAP, and just pray that one or two of them becomes the next Spencer Strider. Tiedemann is as good a bet as any. He missed most of last year with an injury, but was considered a top-ten prospect previously and had a strong showing in the AFL. He could be that future ace we're looking for. The huge and hard-throwing Susana is icing on the cake.

Trade #3: Traded Mark Canha and Ryan Noda to Lake Norman for Marcus Stroman, Daniel Bard, and Josh Royas.

I had Canha penciled in as the everyday center fielder in 2024, and Noda as our platoon against lefties. I wasn't thrilled with either one, though, and Canha's $6.5 million salary was a tough pill to swallow. Trading for the $10 million Stroman meant we were adding a decent 130-IP starting pitcher for a difference in salary of "only" $3.5 million. Add the two penalties from Bard and Rojas and that made him a $4.7 million pitcher.

I took a look at the 2024 free agent market very early on and determined that I wanted no part of it -- at least in terms of filling a starting pitcher slot. There are only a handful of free agent starters available who have 150+ innings, and nearly every one of them will get a Type H salary due to the low supply and high demand. Adding a pitcher of Stroman's quality for under $5 million was a no-brainer.

***

At this point in the game, I had managed to cut $10.2 million in salary. That gave me enough cap space to fill the gaping holes in our roster: one quality reliever, half of a quality starter, a 1B against lefties, a full-time second baseman, and an outfielder against righties.

I could have sat tight at that point. In fact, I thought I was done trading for the winter. However, I was still worried about our starting rotation in 2025 and beyond. Other than Tiedemann, and possibly Sears and Crawford, we had nothing. I did not want to be stuck filling those gaping holes through expensive and aging free agents. I began looking for a way to swap Valdez and/or Stroman for young arms we could use down the road. That's when the Highland Freedom came calling.

***

Trade #4: Traded Framber Valdez, Daniel Bard, and Josh Rojas to Highland for MacKenzie Gore and Casey Mize.

Like Tiedemann, Gore and Mize were considered to be among the top pitching prospects in the game not that long ago. They have come nowhere near fulfilling that potential, but that doesn't mean a thing in the prospect game. They both have the stuff to succeed. They just need to put it all together.

Obviously, losing Valdez leaves an enormous hole in our starting rotation. However, we now have enough money to fill that hole through free agency if we want to do so. At least now it is an option. Unlike Valdez, whoever we sign will be with us for two more years after this one, which solves our 2025+ problem.

Trade #5: Traded Luis Garcia to Flagstaff for Aidan Miller.

I was on the fence about keeping Garcia. He is owed $1.1 million this year, but won't pitch hardly at all. Next year, we'd have to pay him $2.1 million not to pitch. Which means he would only pitch a full season (maybe) in 2026, at a salary of $3.1 million. Granted, he could be an absolute bargain at that point. However, I regretted giving up Miller in the first place, and I'm happy to have him back. It saves us an additional $1.1 million, and it allows us to now trade one of our three third base prospects. Which brings us to...

Trade #6: Traded Marcus Stroman and Brayden Taylor to Virginia for Jesse Chavez.

Although I only paid $4.5 million for Stroman, I realized that freeing his salary was worth more to this franchise than the 130 innings he would pitch for us in 2024. With that, I tried to market him based on his 2024 BDBL value, which should be significant, especially in this shallow pitcher's market. I received no bites, even when I offered to take back unwanted salary to soften the blow of his $10 million salary. So, I switched tactics. Instead of selling Stroman's 2024 BDBL value, I sold Brayden Taylor's future value as a prospect. The addition of Miller made Taylor expendable.

Tony Badger took the offer and added Chavez to our bullpen as well. It's a win-win for both teams. I really like Taylor, and believe he can have many .300/.400/.500 MLB seasons ahead of him. But with Brock Wilken and Miller on our farm, and several shortstops who could likely move to third base, he was a luxury we didn't need. (Of course, I remember saying the same exact thing about Alex Bregman at one point.)

Trade #7: Traded Travis Sykora to Jacksonville for Michael Lorenzen.

After trading Valdez and Stroman, we were about 300 innings shy of having enough innings from starting pitchers to get through this season. Lorenzen brings that number down to 150, which is what we feel will be attainable in this auction/draft.

***

I started out this winter with no direction and no money. Now, I have both. Our direction is very simple. We are looking to compete in 2024. If that fails to happen in the first few chapters, we will bail and look to 2025. I began this winter with a budget of around $5 million for 15 players. I now have over $26 million to spend. That puts the Florida Mulligans in play for arguably the best auction pool we've seen in a decade or more.

2023: Season in Review

Final record: 83-77 (.519)
Record excluding Chapter Two: 62-70 (.470)
Record excluding Chapter Five: 76-56 (.576)
Record excluding both chapters: 55-49 (.529)

So...were we a good team, a bad team, or a mediocre team? Beats the fuck out of me.

Rafael Devers, MLB '22: .295/.358/.521, 42 2B, 27 HR, 739/931
Rafael Devers, BDBL '23: .237/.317/.419, 34 2B, 21 HR, 728/740

Not even close. Not even remotely the same player. On the bell curve, we're talking about four standard deviations to the left. Off the chart.

Shohei Ohtani, MLB '22: .273/.356/.519, 34 HR, 788/921
Shohei Ohtani, BDBL '23: .231/.320/.410, 20 HR, 720/736

Again, not even close. Not the same player. Four standard deviations to the left. Statistically impossible.

Ranger Suarez, MLB '22: 3.65 ERA, 8.6 H/9, 3.4 BB/9, 7.5 K/9, 0.9 HR/9, 537/756
Ranger Suarez, BDBL '23: 6.44 ERA, 10.9 H/9, 4.4 BB/9, 6.9 K/9, 1.6 HR/9, 678/1.027

Nowhere near the same player. Not even remotely resembling the same player. Actual MLB statistics completely irrelevant. Game is broken.

Framber Valdez, MLB '22: 2.82 ERA, 7.4 H/9, 3.0 BB/9, 8.7 K/9, 0.5 HR/9, 505/620
Framber Valdez, BDBL '23: 3.96 ERA, 9.5 H/9, 3.4 BB/9, 8.8 K/9, 0.7 HR/9, 885/719

Okay, somewhat resembles the actual Framber Valdez if you ignore all the hits and those ridiculous splits. The "Framber Valdez" in the BDBL can't get lefties out to save his life. So, is he actually Framber Valdez? Or is he some bargain-basement Aldi's-brand knock-off? Because I acquired the actual Framber Valdez under the premise that he would actually be THE Framber Valdez.

Statistically speaking, it's mathematically possible that one of these four players could have shit the bed this dramatically. Let's call it a one-in-a-million chance that it could happen. What are the odds that ALL FOUR players could have shit the bed this badly? It's way above one in a billion. I would say it's statistically impossible. Which means this game is broken. Utter bullshit. What a waste of time this entire season was.

On to 2024, so we can repeat this bullshit all over again.

2024: Go For It? Or Rebuild?

The 2023 MLB season has officially come to an end, which means it is now time for us to look forward to the 2024 BDBL season and decide whether we're going to go all-in or rebuild. First, let's do some inventory.

Lineup vs. LH:

C Adley Rutschman: .304/.414/.481
LF Aaron Hicks: .349/.446/.524
RF Lane Thomas: .331/.375/.573
2B Nick Senzel: .347/.389/.619
CF Mark Canha: .264/.361/.464
DH Shohei Ohtani: .245/.358/.532
3B Rafael Devers: .273/.335/.488
1B Ryan Noda: .200/.340/.413
SS Trea Turner: .229/.295/.426

The top half of this lineup is very strong and the bottom half is very weak. Noda's numbers against left-handers took a nosedive in September. He was a very strong asset a month ago. Today, he's a borderline cut. Turner got off to an infamously slow start before busting out in the second half. But he, too, fell into the toilet in September, making him mostly useless to us next year.

There are teams in the BDBL right now who are leading their divisions with weaker lineups than this one. Of course, all of this depends on the BDBL numbers resembling these MLB numbers even remotely. As we've seen this year, that doesn't always happen.

Lineup vs. RH:

C Adley Rutschman: .267/.359/.419
DH Shohei Ohtani: .327/.431/.701
3B Rafael Devers: .270/.357/.505
1B Brandon Belt: .256/.375/.515
SS Trea Turner: .282/.331/.472
RF Lane Thomas: .242/.292/.427
CF Mark Canha: .261/.350/.369
LF Andrew Benintendi: .261/.327/.343
2B: TBD

Again, the top half of the lineup is very strong and the bottom half is very weak. Benintendi has been a disappointment from day one, and he's only become more and more useless every year. I listed Senzel as a second baseman against lefties, but it is very likely that he won't be rated at that position. If that happens, we have no second baseman against lefties AND righties. We had that same problem this year, and we've all seen the results of that.

Overall, the lineup against lefties and righties needs help.

Starting rotation:

1. Framber Valdez: 198 IP, 166 H, 19 HR, 57 BB, 200 K
2. Shohei Ohtani: 132 IP, 85 H, 18 HR, 55 BB, 167 K
3. Ranger Suarez: 125 IP, 129 H, 13 HR, 48 BB, 119 K
4. JP Sears: 172 IP, 165 H, 34 HR, 53 BB, 161 K
5. Alex Faedo: 65 IP, 48 H, 12 HR, 20 BB, 58 K

Yikes. Framber's numbers are similar to his numbers a year ago, and we've all seen how he has struggled in the BDBL all season. Ohtani should be great, but very limited in usage. Then, our rotation swirls down the toilet. In an ideal world, I would never want to start Suarez or Sears under any circumstance. Sears allowed 34 homers in the cavernous Oakland home park. How many would he allow in our park? 50? 60?

Bullpen:

David Bednar: 67 IP, 53 H, 3 HR, 21 BB, 80 K
Ian Hamilton: 58 IP, 45 H, 2 HR, 26 BB, 82 K
AJ Minter: 65 IP, 56 H, 6 HR, 21 BB, 82 K
Robert Stephenson: 52 IP, 30 H, 8 HR, 16 BB, 77 K
Dauri Moreta: 58 IP, 39 H, 4 HR, 24 BB, 76 K
Kyle Nelson: 56 IP, 59 H, 12 HR, 14 BB, 67 K

This is a decent bullpen. I would be happy heading into a season with this bullpen. We're about 35 innings short on usage, but that shouldn't be difficult to find.

Next, let's take a look at the money situation. Assuming we don't have any more penalties for over-use (and that is always an issue regardless of how diligent I am), here's where we stand:

22 players, at a total of $56.6 million.

Which leaves: $6.9 million for 13 players.

Again, I say: Yikes. In order to contend in 2024, we would need to fill two gaping holes: a starting pitcher and a second baseman. $6.9 million could not buy ONE of those two players, never mind two. Unless we dump some salary, there is no way we could fill those holes through free agency.

Whose salary would we want to dump? We could start with Ranger Suarez, who will make $10 million for being a part-time, mostly-useless, bum. No one in the league would take his salary unless we parted with a prospect along the lines of Wyatt Langford or Ethan Salas. And that ain't happening.

I would love to dump Benintendi, but he is a franchise player. (I stupidly signed him to a longer contract than Trea Turner.) Turner, in his final year under contract, would be another guy I would like to dump, but he, too, is franchised. Mark Canha ($6.5M) and Brandon Belt ($6.5) are overpaid for what they contribute, but would be tough to trade. Trading them would also create two more gaping holes in our lineup.

Honestly, it's hard to believe the salaries of these players add up to $56.6 million. I just had to double-check that, it's so incredible. But it's true.

Go For It

If we decide to go for it, it will require tremendous sacrifice. Langford and Salas are untouchable. We also can't afford to move Brooks Lee, as this is Turner's final year under contract and Lee is likely to slide right into our shortstop slot next year. That leaves prospects like Brock Wilken, Chase Dollander, Brandon Taylor, and Kyle Teel. We love those guys, but I'm guessing most people in the league don't even know who they are.

Going for it will require too much sacrifice. I'm not willing to trade away the future of this franchise for a longshot -- especially when we've already seen how this game can't be trusted to simulate reality in the first place.

Rebuild

Let's say we decide to rebuild. Who could we move in trade to get pieces for our future? Benintendi, Devers, Ohtani, and Turner are all franchised, so they can't be moved. That leaves Valdez as our number one trading chit, and he would fetch quite a lot in return. David Bednar, Aaron Hicks, AJ Minter, and Nick Senzel could fetch a good amount in trade as well. Ian Hamilton, Dauri Moreta, and Lane Thomas have trade value, but also have some possible future value.

Let's say we traded Valdez, Bednar, Hicks, Minter, and Senzel. Of the five, only Bednar is signed beyond 2024, so we lose nothing going forward. We would free $13.6 million in salary, which we could use to sign free agents with future value. We could snag several players in trade that could combine with Devers, Ohtani, Turner, Rutschman, and possibly Lee, to form a strong 2025 team. Our greatest need would be starting pitching, which we could easily fill through trade and free agency.

Go For It? Or Rebuild?

It seems ridiculous to throw in the towel on a team that includes Adley Rutschman, Rafael Devers, Trea Turner, Framber Valdez, and Shohei Ohtani. Yet, we had those same players this year and we're struggling to finish with a .500 record. Having great players is no guarantee of success in the BDBL. You also have to have a heaping pile of luck on your side -- which has never happened in our franchise's history.

At this point, I'm leaning toward throwing in the towel. I will stick my finger in the air and see which direction the wind is blowing. If I'm tempted enough, I will blow this mother-F'er up. If not, maybe I will wait until the middle of the 2024 season to do so.

Chapter Five Autopsy

In lieu of the usual chapter review, I present the chapter autopsy. In my 25 seasons of playing this game, this has been, by far, the dumbest of all seasons. It is so insanely dumb that if it had happened in our first season, there wouldn't have been a second. The only thing stopping me from quitting this game and spending more quality time with my family is my BDBL family.

As I have written here before, the underlying premise of this game is that the players on our team will perform somewhat like the real players themselves. We allow for a good deal of wiggle room due to random fluctuations on the bell curve. But in general, our players should mostly resemble their real-life selves. Otherwise, what's the fucking point?

We are now 83% into our season. Any huge random fluctuations should have been ironed out by now. Yet, as I type, Shohei Ohtani and Rafael Devers -- two of the best hitters in baseball a year ago -- are sitting at 29 homers combined. They hit 61 combined in MLB last year. They will need to double their output in the next 28 games to get to that number. If they hit even half that many home runs next chapter (which would be a near-record) they would not even finish anywhere near their MLB output for the season.

Devers owns a .412 slugging percentage. Ohtani, arguably the game's greatest power hitter, sits t .381. Ranger Suarez, owner of a 3.65 ERA in MLB '22, currently sits at 6.82.What is the fucking point of this?

Two chapters into this season, we owned the best record of any team in the BDBL not named the Los Altos Undertakers. We sat comfortably in first-place in our division by three games. At the all-star break, we owned a sizeable four-game lead in the OL wildcard race and sat just one game out of the division lead. Heading into this chapter, we shared the wildcard lead.

Today, one chapter later, we are so far out of the wildcard lead (six games) that a playoffs spot is highly-unlikely. We went 21-7 in Chapter Two. In Chapter Five, we went 7-21. This is the SAME TEAM, folks! We didn't trade anyone. In fact, we added a few players to our roster through trade that were supposed to help this team win.

2023 has become a lost season for the Florida Mulligans. We came into this season with sky-high expectations, based on the fact that we owned so many great hitters, a one-two punch of Ohtani and Valdez in the starting rotation, and a decent bullpen. All of that has gone out the window. As we now look forward to 2024, I see plenty of reasons to believe we can contend. However, given what we've witnessed this year, it seems that having great players on your roster doesn't matter when those players don't perform anywhere near their MLB numbers. So, again, what's the fucking point of this?

The Latest Additions

The final trading deadline of the year came and went without any major deal on our part. We did manage to pick up one more arm for the bullpen. I have no doubt whatsoever that Dany Jimenez will be every bit as effective and productive as our last bullpen acquisition, Chase De Jong. And yes, that is sarcasm.

I did everything I could to make a Nic Weiss "arbitrage"-like deal. Luis Garcia is done for the MLB season and is having a terrific BDBL season. I figured I could get something for him. Maybe unload a bad contract. But no. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. So, I now look forward to cutting him in December.

The big midseason draft allowed us to prune some dead branches of our farm system and replace them with fresh new budding young talent:

• Kyle Teel: The 14th pick in the MLB draft by the shitty Red Sox, and the 7th-best prospect in the draft according to MLB.com. He is a catcher by trade, which means he may become trade bait unless he shifts positions -- which is highly likely. He is coming off an outstanding year with Virginia (.407/.475/.655, 13 HR, 32/36 BB/K), and will likely move quickly through the minor leagues.
• Jose Perdomo: He is considered to be at or near the top of the International prospects ranking for 2024, along with our #1 pick last winter, Fernando Cruz. The scouting reports for both shortstops are nearly identical. Both are roughly the same size, are advanced hitters, top athletes, and likely to stick at shortstop.
• Wade Meckler: An 8th round draft pick in 2022, Meckler has done nothing but hit since turning pro. In 361 career pro PA's, he's slashing .375/.465/.521 with a 51/54 BB/K ratio. He has already reached the Double-A level in only his second pro season. Another guy named Wade (Boggs) hit .318/.412/.386 in his minor league career. Just sayin'.
• Jacob Cozart: Yet another catcher! Kiley McDaniel ranked Cozart as the #5 prospect in the 2024 draft, citing his "above-average defensive skills and raw power." As a sophomore at NC State, Cozart hit .301/.392/.546 with a 24/38 BB/K ratio.
• Christian Moore: This league is so ridiculous, it's become nearly impossible to find any top prospects who are eligible for a draft that is two years from now. Many of the players expected to be selected at the top of the 2025 draft are already claimed. Moore (.304/.444/.603, 17 HR), an outfielder with the University of Tennessee, is one of those prospects.
• Yuki Matsui: One of the best and most consistent relievers in Japan, the 27-year-old Matsui is eligible to come to the US following this season. This year, he has posted a 0.55 ERA in 32+ innings, allowing just one home run and five wallks, while striking out 44. For his career, he owns a 2.41 ERA, with only 5.9 H/9, 0.5 HR/9, 4.0 BB/9, and 12.1 K/9.

Chapter Four Review

It was fun while it lasted. Our 2023 season unofficially came to an end this chapter, as it has become crystal clear that the Florida Mulligans will never reach the potential we have this season. This season reminds me in so many ways of the 2021 season, when we had the best pitching staff (by far) in the entire BDBL and somehow managed to avoid the playoffs. On paper, this year's team should be good enough to win a spot in the playoffs -- if not a division title. Instead, we're barely scraping by.

We finished Chapter Four with an abysmal 10-14 record. Set aside our bizarre Chapter Two, in which we went 21-7, and we're a .500 team (38-38) the rest of this season. I believe .500 is the true representatation of this team's ability. That second chapter was a drastic outlier.

This team's under-performance can be blamed squarely on three factors:

1. Shohei Ohtani may win the OL Cy Young award this year. He may even win the league MVP. But he has been an abysmal failure at the plate for us this year. Through 102 games and 382 at-bats, he has managed to hit just 12 homers. He is on pace to hit just 18 this year, which is nowhere near the 34 homers he hit in MLB a year ago. What is the point of having Shohei Ohtani in your lineup if he doesn't hit like the actual, real, Shohei Ohtani? I have no idea who this imposter is, but he's nothing like the real deal.

2. Rafael Devers is the absolute worst, most disappointing player, I have ever managed in my 25-year career. His BDBL numbers (.232/.308/.381, 10 HR) are nowhere near his MLB numbers (.295/.358/.521, 27 HR.) We expected him to be useless against left-handers, and yet he's been better than expected. His problem is right-handed pitching, bizarrely enough. In MLB, he hit .304/.375/.557 against righties. This year, he's hitting just .215/.291/.354. Again, what is the point of having a top-30 hitter in our lineup if he performs like a bottom-30?

3. We have seen many, many, many teams in the BDBL's recent past who have had no-name, no-nothing, bullpens that performed extraordinarily well in the BDBL. We have a bullpen filled with no-name no-nothings, and yet we can't catch a break with any of them. They all suck. Carl Edwards (6.46) and Chase De Jong (6.49) have pitched worse than any position player in baseball. On the starting side, Ranger Suarez (6.49) and J.P. Sears (6.57) have been worse than useless. Before the game even begins, I know we're going to lose when those two are on the mound. Automatic losses. All four pitchers own ERA's over three runs higher than their MLB ERA's. Again, what is the point of having pitchers with good MLB numbers if they don't translate to the BDBL?

I am officially done trying to compete this year. Especially in this environment with the Undertakers running away with yet another BDBL title, there is no point in trying to improve this shit sandwich of a team. I have tried, and continue to try, to trade whatever I can for future value, but the trade market is abysmal this year.

We're now tied with the Ravenswood Infidels in the OL wildcard. The Infidels gave up on the season a few weeks ago, but then turned around and added a pitcher for this year. So who the hell knows what Skizm is up to. The direction of his team depends on the direction the wind is blowing. I know which direction we are heading: DOWN.

About That Trading Deadline

The first thing you learn when you participate in your first BDBL auction is that there is always someone -- and it only requires one person -- who is stupid enough to make an asinine decision that will ruin his franchise for years to come in order to satisfy an immediate need. Because of that, you will likely not get the player you desperately need at what anyone would consider to be a reasonable price.

The same holds true when it comes to trading. If you have your sights set on a player that fits perfectly for your team, you'd better be willing to do something extremely stupid and trade away your franchise's future or someone else will inevitably beat you to the punch.

To say that Brian "Skizm" Potrafka is a volatile character would be the understatement of the century. You never know what you will get from Skiz from one moment to the next. The only predictable part about him is that he is so unpredictable. Against all odds, he was winning his division in a tight race with the defending-champion Akron Ryche. He did not receive a single vote in preseason polling to win that division, and yet there he was enjoying a comfortable lead halfway through the season.

Last chapter, the Kansas Law Dogs placed Albert Pujols on the trading block. Pujols is exactly -- exactly -- the type of player we need in order to have any shot of winning our division and/or advancing in the playoffs. Pujols, however, is a three-chapter rental. He has no value whatsoever beyond this season. As such, I was not willing to sacrifice a significant piece of my team's future to get him. I did, however, offer several players with good value and invited Kansas GM Chris Luhning to select from ANY player on my roster, which I would then consider.

Instead of responding to my trade offer, Luhning went ahead and traded Pujols to Skizm. In fairness, I would not have offered as much as Skizm did. (See above: there is always someone willing to do something more stupid than you.) In essence, Skizm agreed to take on Zack Greinke's $6.5 million salary next season, which is something we can't afford. Still, it would have been courteous of Luhning to at least respond to my offer instead of ignoring it completely. Of course, when I called him out on that, he responded with his usual snark.

After stealing Pujols from under my nose, it took precisely fourteen days for Skizm to suddenly change his mind about the 2023 season. Despite still owning sole possession of first place in his division, he threw one of his patented temper tantrums and blew up his team. Set aside for a moment the damage that does to the league. This rant is about trading.

I made the same offer to Skizm as I did to Luhning -- opening the door to anyone on my roster. And he responded in the same snarky way as Luhning. Obviously, these people seem to believe that two chapters of Pujols is so valuable it's worth blowing up my team's future.

To be blunt: fuck that. The days of sacrificing our future for a 1,000-in-one shot at winning the trophy are over. I refuse to be pushed into making a stupid decision just because others are so willing to make stupid decisions. If I could get a sweetheart deal like the one Tony Chamra received from Skizm, that would be a no-brainer. But I'm clearly held to a different standard, so I will act accordingly.

The Florida Mulligans are good enough, as currently constituted, to win a spot in the playoffs. With the Undertakers and Blue Wave dominating at such a historic level, the odds that we would advance far into the postseason -- with or without Pujols -- are astronomical. So I plan to stand pat through the end of this season and expect an early exit in November. I'd rather lose the OLDS than lose a franchise player.