Chows get back what they lost - ILL #1 and ILL #2

Illinois Times - Last year Chows owner/GM Brad Sherlag mortgaged the future between the draft and opening day by trading away their 1st and 2nd round picks. Today, the Chows give up on this year and reacquire both picks in a series of moves.

First, Illinois traded Angel Pagan for the ILL #2 draft pack. Interestingly enough, that was an identical move to the one that brought Pagan to ILL. Combing the tradewire:

LVI sends Angel Pagan to ILL for Chad Gaudin and ILL#2

VFS sends Jim Thome to LVI for ILL#2

ILL send Angel Pagan to VFS for ILL #2

Sherlag explained the deal as follows, "I guess this shows that we did not overpay for Pagan last year. While he is a nice player, he did not have the type of season we expected. We wish Angel luck this season with his new club. Trading Pagan for a pick lets us keep both of our on the bubble guys. Fukudome will move into the role as our primary RF this season and Willingham will have more time in the field and less at DH."

Moments later, the Chows consummated a 2nd trade this time trading their #2 starter Chris Carpenter and a #5 for Max Scherzer, the ILL #1 and TRY #10.

Sherlag explained this trade as follows, "We feel that Carpenter is a cornerstone type player, even at the age of 35. We drafted him high in the 1st round last year despite his age and he did everything he could to get the Chows to the postseason last year. Unfortunately we didn't give him the run support he deserved. We tried to see what type of value Chris would bring early in the offseason and determined we were better off keeping him. But, when this deal came along we had to go for it. Scherzer is the type of arm we love and getting our #1 pick back just felt right. We think we have the makings of a good young rotation to back Halladay with Anderson, Scherzer, Volquez, Duensing and Wells. When you factor in Zambrano, we have a lot of darts to throw at the wall for 2012 and see what sticks. If all goes well, we will not have to draft starting pitching high in 2012 and will be able to concentrate on upgrading our offense. We do have a plan, time will tell if it works or not."

Rumor has it the Chows have done absolutely no draft preparation. In years past they had conducted multiple mock drafts by this point and knew who they would be taking in the first couple of round under any scenario. This season, the Chows did not feel the need to prepare with no picks until late in round # 3.