In an effort to rip off a network I don't respect, I propose to you "The List," the first of many on the VUFSA blog, I hope. There will be plenty of things to list...like weekly performances, good moves, season possibilities, team name judging, whatever. Here's where we begin, with the Top Ten Baseball Moves in this year's VUFSA. Feel free to let me know where I missed.
The Ten Best Moves in 2005
1. Gun’s draft: If you look at picks 3-6 for the Gun, you’d never imagine that the soon-to-be-titleholder drafted so well. Fortunately he followed up the successive selections of Jason Schmidt, Francisco Rodriguez and Eric Chavez with Derrek Lee in the seventh. Then he pulled off the unquestioned steal of the draft when he got Chris Carpenter in the 14th round. Pedro Martinez in the eighth didn’t hurt either.
2. April 21: JR picks up Andruw Jones off waivers. At the time, Jones was scuffling beyond repair and had one of the most forgettable months imaginable. Turns out it was forgettable – everyone has forgotten as he’s evolved into a frontrunner for the NL MVP.
3. March 21. Champ scoops up Dontrelle Willis, a likely 20 game winner, off waivers. He drops Jon Garland in the process, which makes the move less excellent, but Willis has been stellar all season.
4. April 27: Gun trades Travis Hafner and Troy Glaus to JR for Roy Oswalt and David Wright. Hafner and Glaus have been solid, if unspectacular, while Oswalt and Wright have had standout years. Gun used Oswalt for a while and then traded him back to JR as a key piece to the puzzle that garnered Vlad Guerrero and Brad Lidge. Wright was dealt to acquire front line closer Jason Isringhausen.
5. June 9: Ed picks up Morgan Ensberg off waivers. Amazing, really, that it took this long for the third baseman in his breakout year to find a permanent home.
6. April 28: JR acquires Roy Halladay from Champ for Brian Giles and Corey Patterson. Patterson, who sucked balls, was traded later that day to Gun along with Carlos Delgado for Kelvim Escobar and Brad Wilkerson. All around, a tough day for Champ, who later waived Giles (May 3), Wilkerson (May 24) and Escobar (July 23). Injuries have hampered Halladay and Delgado, but both are keeper considerations.
7. June 4: Viano picks up Chase Utley, in the midst of a breakout year with the Phillies. He also added spice to the potential keeper conversation in snatching Zach Duke (July 20) and Jhonny Peralta (Aug. 3) off waivers.
8. June 18: Gun takes Lance Berkman off waivers, enjoys him for a month and then pushes him off along with Huston Street for Jake Peavy and Jason Bay. Peavy, one of the best strikeout pitchers in the game, is a likely keeper, although his roster is bombarded with possibilities.
9. April 12: Stem takes a flier on Clint Barmes and gets an incredible couple months out of the deal.
10. May 24: Champ has a good day on the waiver wire, picking up Ken Griffey, Jr. (but later dropping him, ouch) and Todd Jones on the same day.
3 comments:
"Patterson, who sucked balls, was traded later that day..."
Not sure why that is in the past tense. Nevertheless, I just laughed out loud at my desk here at work.
So NOBODY thinks any of these are misplaced or that there are better alternatives? It's really just the three of us reading, isn't it?
I can really only speak for my moves, but I think grabbing 30+ save guy Dustin Hermanson as well Jorge Posada (to replace the terrible Jason Kendall) off the wire is a little better than picking up a guy who was later waived and more impactful than an injured rookie.
I also think that there were two better trades than the one you have at #4.
Jason Giambi's pickup was nice, but this list slurps the Gun enough.
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