Topes Trade for Hamilton, Hope for Posada Part Deux

Springfield (AP) - For the second straight season, GM Doug Sherlag has made a blockbuster trade before Block 2 of the NASBL season. The Isotopes sent its closer for the last season plus, Jonathon Papelbon, along with young centerfielder Carlos "Go Go" Gomez and Springfield's first round pick in next year's NASBL draft to the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs. Coming back, the Topes will get centerfielder/run producer Josh Hamilton and Matt Capps. This comes on the heels of last year's post Block 1 trade where the Topes added Jorge Posada to its squad in a deal with the Vermont Fighting Sioux. That trade worked out extremely well for the Isotopes as Posada hit .368 with an other-worldly 1.137 OPS in 400 plate appearances for the Topes, and Jorge proved a key cog in bringing the Topes its first NASBL Championship.

Papelbon has not had the success anticipated by the Topes faithful since Joe Nathan was traded last year, blowing fourteen saves in fifty four opportunities (including five blown saves in thirteen opportunities so far in 2009). "Joe's shoes are pretty big to fill and Jonathon tried really hard out there to fill them. Unfortunately, we've been leaving a lot of wins out there in the 9th inning since Joe left," said GM Doug Sherlag. Topes fans are used to success from its closers. Since 2002, three different Topes closers have won the Tastes Great fireman of the year award (Nathan, Octavio Dotel, and Jose Mesa). Papelbon was expected to join this group, but for some reason was unable to, including compiling an ugly 5.01 ERA in 2008. Matt Capps has been perfect in 2009 and was dominant as a part time closer in 2008. "You can't go wrong getting a guy with a 0.00 ERA and Matt should plug right in as our closer for the remainder of the season," said Sherlag in regards to Capps.

Although shoring up the closer role for 2009 is a nice bonus, the key to the deal for the Isotopes is bringing in Josh Hamilton. Josh Hamilton has not produced as anticipated offensively since he was Lehigh Valley's 2nd round pick in the 2008 NASBL draft, but he fits the Topes bill as a power hitting left handed hitter and it is not a reach to believe Hamilton will get a benefit by moving to a more friendly ballpark for his style. One thing that Hamilton has done since coming to the Pigs is catch and throw the ball on par with the best of them in centerfield. He will plug in as the everyday centerfielder and a middle of the order run producer for the Istopes.

According to Sherlag, "I hate giving up 1st round picks, but our goal is to defend our NASBL championship. In our division, if you don't make any moves to get better during the season, you could find yourself on the outside looking in come playoff time. Last year, the Posada trade carried us to our first NASBL chamnpionship, so I saw first hand how adding a big time player to the middle of your order can benefit a team. Plus, Hamilton's still a young guy (27) and when I looked at his age, I realized that we both share a birthday. It just seemed like good karma."

"I don't care about karma," said Topes fan Justin Gates, "I care about championships. If this trade doesn't bring us a championship then Sherlag has a lot of explaining to do mortgaging the squad's future like this."