With another season in the books and spring training fast on its way, the Winter Meetings have been in full swing where some blockbuster trades have taken place.
First up is the Montreal Royals, where two winter deals have started to shape a slightly different team then last year. First the team dealt SP Deivi Escobar and his $6.35 million salary to Buffalo Wings for CF Posiedon Hudson. Hudson steps in right away and fills a void in center for the Royals and bolsters their offense, while Escobar steps right in to bolster the starting rotation in Buffalo.
Montreal made another big splash in trading away SP Brian Choi and RP Kenny Groom to the Tampa Bay Waves in exchange for SP Sean Faulk and RP Javier Gonzalez. Another salary dumping move, Montreal got a comparable SP in Faulk to Choi who is younger and less expensive. Montreal did good in both of these trades improving their team, it remains to be seen who will be the teams 5th starter when the season starts but expect the team to find a suitable arm in the Free Agent market or via another trade.
Staying in Tampa Bay, the team made a deal with the Kansas City Black and Blue Brachiosaurus, who recently relocated from Burlington (the second time the team has moved from Burlington to another city). Tampa swapped contact hitting, base stealing RF Pedro Benavente for SP Jerry Liniak. A good trade for both teams, Tampa improves a starting rotation that ranked 21st in the majors last year, while Bur-I mean Kansas City improves an offense with a new game plan of contact and speed. Good trade by both clubs as KC has plenty of young starting pitching.
Kansas City stayed with their plan to trade away some of their young, expendable starting pitching and beef up their offense when they dealt SP Lance Watson (Who starts at AAA for his new club) to the Dover Devils for CF Albert Fuentes, who won't scare pitchers with his power, but makes up for that with the contact he makes and his eye, not to mention his Elite Range and Glove that make him an early season Gold Glove candidate. Both teams did very well in this trade, Dover gets a good young starter and KC continues to improve a team that could push Philly for the Division Title this year.
The biggest trade of the Winter goes to the Jacksonville Dolphins and Salem Witch Doctors. Salem acquired the top starter on the market in Jesus Fernandez but he didn't come cheap. The club had to give up 2 young solid starting pitchers in Phil Gibson and Ramiro Vargas, along with slugging 1b Jim Wallace. While Jacksonville gave up a frontline starter, they got a lot in return, two good starting pitchers and a decent 1b, biggest for the club was losing the $20 million salary that Jesus was owed this year. The club agreed to pay $5 million of this last years salary. The biggest part of this deal is the $24 million / 3 year extension that Jesus agreed to before the trade.
The Dover Devils and the Hartford Yellow Jackets agreed to a trade that sent power 3b Pedro Montanez to Dover in return for SP Pat Martin and 1b Morrie Butler. Butler is a solid 1b but I am not sold on Martin and his lack of control. I give the nod to the Devils in this one.
The Little Rock Jaeger Bombs and the Vancouver Giants agreed to a 6 player deal that sent P Jose Ibarra, 3b Gregg Mann and SP Fausto Manuel to Vancouver for Ace SP Bruce Dougherty, ss Bo Flanagan and RP Von Colangelo. While the Jager Bombs gave up a very good 3b in Mann I think they get the edge in this deal for locking up a stud SP in Dougherty.
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