The Grundy County Grizzlies are used to having an early draft pick if not the first overall pick. In 2011, the Grizzlies wanted to draft Buster Posey. Posey, a young catcher with a lot of positive reviews and articles, is the latest qualifying baseball God until the next anti-pitcher ruler, Bryce Harper collects 200 MLB plate appearances.
Oh wait, the Grizzlies made their first playoff appearance in the NASBL by winning 87 games and passing perennial Less Filing Central Contenders, the Pocono Chin Music and the Vermont Fighting Sioux. WOE IS US. The Griz picketh 13th. Our chances of drafting Posey have been reduced.
Griz management was very sad.
But, wait, maybe we could trade to acquire the great Posey.
With the draft set to start at the end of February, Griz management pondered - "What would it take?"
First determine who had the 1st pick - Oh, Red Robbins, YUMMMM!!! The Dallas Fort Worth Spurs don't need a catcher, they have Victor Martinez, one of the top hitting catchers in the NASBL all ready. Red will want to give away that pick - We are sure. So the Griz management decided to make an offer for the pick.
So we sent Red the following offer in mid-January:
Griz's 1st, and two 2nd round picks for the #1 pick,
or
Griz's 1st, 2nd, 3rd, & 4th round picks for the DFW's #1,
or
any player on the Griz roster for that first overall pick.
Red said "No Thanks"
So the Griz decided to up the ante
The Griz offered Oakland RHSP - Trevor Cahill, Philadelphia starting catcher Carlos Ruiz, and budding outfield power prospect Alex Gordon for the first overall pick.
That would give Red one of the top starting pitching cards, a good hitting catcher that can actually catch and throw the ball, and a prospect who may have tarnished skills at this point, but at 27 still has a lot of baseball life to resurrect that potential. That would cover any direction Red would take in making the pick.
Again, Red said "No Thanks" and he indicated his appreciation for what he termed were worthy offers.
RATS!!! Denied!
But wait remember Red owns a good hitting catcher in Victor Martinez, maybe he will select someone else.
Who has the next pick? Answer - Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs commander - Kevin Burns. Kevin is usually a willing trader. Lets see if Kevin will trade us the pick.
So in early February we made a similar proposal to Mr. Burns:
The Grizzlies #1, and the two #2 picks we owned for the second overall pick (with the caveat that it would be a draft day trade assuming Buster Posey was available at that time.)
We also offered the Griz's 1st, 2nd, 3rd, & 4th round picks for the #2 pick with the same caveat, and
our final offer was Cahill, Ruiz, and Gordon for the pick to acquire Posey.
Kevin initially liked one or more of our offers. We remembered that Kevin had tried to acquire Cahill last season, so we thought that we would sacrifice the 3 players for Posey. It would be a tough pill to swallow, but we could make up for it in the draft.
As draft day neared, we sent Kevin a friendly reminder email and posed the potential trade again.
Kevin replied that he had had some other offers for the pick and he determined our offer was not good enough. He said the Griz's 1st round pick (13th overall) was to late. However, he asked if would I be willing to trade a 1B. I was willing to trade anyone on my roster, except Miguel Cabrera (I had reconsidered the possibility of losing Cabrera in my original offer to Red, and determined I was not willing to make that sacrifice), so I asked Mr. Burns to make a counter proposal.
I did not hear from Kevin after that. The next thing I knew was that the Pigs traded their pick to the league's newest manager, the Bulldogs. The trade was the #2 pick and Francisco Liriano, Minnesota's #1 starting pitcher for Jon Lester and the 5th pick. The Pigs choose another Boston starting pitcher - Clay Buchholz. Both Lester and Buchholz are an improvement over Liriano, but not much of an improvement in this person's opinion.
Thus, the coveted Buster Posey was drafted by the Slatington Bulldogs. Winner - Winner - Chicken Dinner.
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5 comments:
Nice write-up - it would be interesting to hear all of the offers that were made and the decision process. I know I made some offers to move up as well. I bet there were at least half a dozen offers for that 2nd pick.
One could debate the amount of improvement over Liriano. Lester and Buchholz are both better this season, and Lester is def better over long term than Liriano. Liriano is good but has struggled with consistancy and injury. And now the Iron Pigs have three "ace" pitchers to combat the Cannibals top starters, so I could see how he would take the one sure thing over a combination of good parts.
It all comes down to personal feelings about certain players and how they fit into your current situation weighed against future value and compeition, IMO.
I agree too, Great write up. It def was an interesting read.
("Cannibals top starters" or the "Haymakers maulers")!
Sadly, the positions that you had that would have been helpful were 1b and 3b which are manned by Pujols and Longoria. There just wasn't a match. Perhaps next time.
I like the sound of that..Haymakers Maulers. I hope they live up to the hype!
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