{"id":835,"date":"2015-03-21T08:07:11","date_gmt":"2015-03-21T15:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/?p=835"},"modified":"2015-03-21T09:03:13","modified_gmt":"2015-03-21T16:03:13","slug":"blockbuster-trades-steal-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/?p=835","title":{"rendered":"Blockbuster Trades Steal Show"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/455614686?et=5GcXAbwWRj9cZstOi0teqw&#038;sig=aznLBjS7b--KLAKdLQmwrc0RX9-fGagHJHpObo4SX5E=&#038;caption=true\" width=\"445\" height=\"296\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"display:inline-block;\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nThe 23rd annual DTBL Draft began a week ago Thursday. The beginning of the draft always brings plenty of intrigue. But this year, the early rounds were mostly overshadowed by a string of trades that were completed over the first few days of the draft. In total, seven trades were made in four days involving six different teams. And for the most part, these weren&#8217;t minor deals involving role players and draft pick swaps. Several of the league&#8217;s biggest stars are now on new teams. Some of these trades indicate new philosophical directions for entire franchises. \u00a0But before I get to the details of all of those trades, I don&#8217;t want the first round picks to feel left out. \u00a0So I&#8217;m going to do my usual first round recap first. \u00a0There were plenty of interesting picks made there too.<\/p>\n<p>Some years there is a fairly obvious player available for the team with the first pick in the draft. \u00a0Other years, there are several strong candidates for that slot. \u00a0This year was the former. \u00a0In what should have been a surprise to nobody, the Cougars used the first pick in the draft to select White Sox slugging first baseman Jose Abreu. \u00a0The Cuban star made his MLB presence felt immediately in the MLB. \u00a0He slugged 36 homers with 107 RBI and a .317 average on his way to winning the AL Rookie of the Year award. \u00a0Not bad for a guy adapting to a new league, not to mention a new country. \u00a0Abreu is the second straight Cuban player to be picked first in the DTBL Draft, following Yasiel Puig a year ago. \u00a0The Cougars badly needed an offensive boost after finishing last in all five categories a year ago, further making Abreu the obvious choice. \u00a0Really the only slight negative about him is that he is 28 years old. \u00a0That makes him the oldest first overall pick since the expansion Naturals took Jeff Bagwell back in 2002. \u00a0Curtis Granderson was just a couple months younger when the Choppers picked him in 2009. \u00a0Nonetheless, Abreu profiles as a guy who should help the Cougars for many years to come.<\/p>\n<p>After Abreu came a string of four straight young outfielders with big upside. \u00a0With the second pick, the Gators selected the most established of the four when they picked up Corey Dickerson. \u00a0The Rockies slugger hit .312 with 24 home runs in his breakout season of 2014. \u00a0Playing half his games in Coors Field makes it easy to believe those numbers could get even better with a full season of playing every day. \u00a0Next, the Darkhorses selected George Springer of the Astros who displayed his immense power by hitting 20 home runs in his rookie year in fewer than 300 at bats. \u00a0He has five tool potential if he can cut down on his strikeouts a bit. \u00a0With the fourth pick, the Moonshiners took one of the bevy of up-and-coming Cubs superstars, Jorge Soler. \u00a0Somewhat overshadowed by a couple of those other Cubs prospects, Soler is the one who has already proven his worth at the big league level putting up solid numbers after his late season promotion last year. \u00a0Finally, the Kings used the fifth pick on another outfielder with big potential, Mookie Betts. \u00a0Betts can do it all. \u00a0His only current obstacle is a crowded Red Sox outfield, but you would think they will find a way to get him in the lineup one way or another.<\/p>\n<p>The Jackalope ended the string of outfielders by going with the draft&#8217;s first pitcher with pick number six. \u00a0They selected Cubs hurler Jake Arrieta, who broke out in a big way last season. \u00a0This was not a surprising selection on the heels of the trade the Jackalope made immediately prior to the pick, which I will get to in a bit. Arrieta figures to be a major part of their rebuilt rotation. \u00a0The Choppers also took a pitcher in the seventh spot, selecting Tyson Ross. \u00a0The Padres pitcher had an outstanding season a year ago, but didn&#8217;t garner a ton of attention. \u00a0That should change this year thanks to the revamped Padres lineup.<\/p>\n<p>As is their custom, the Mavericks were able to pick up an extra first round selection in a deal with the Demigods. \u00a0So they had two consecutive picks late in the first round. \u00a0They used those picks to draft Yankees relief pitcher Dellin Betances and Cubs shortstop Javier Baez. \u00a0These were both high risk\/reward picks. \u00a0Betances put up ridiculously strong numbers out of the bullpen last year, but his value in fantasy depends largely on whether or not he will be a closer this year. \u00a0That seems likely, but he hasn&#8217;t been officially handed the job. \u00a0He can help the Mavericks in ERA, WHIP and K&#8217;s though, even if they go a different route (especially since they picked the other leading Yankees closer candidate later, Andrew Miller). \u00a0Baez is about as big of a risk\/reward pick as you can get. \u00a0On one hand, he has immense power that could blow away all other middle infielders on the board. \u00a0But on the other, he has shown no plate discipline at all at the big league level and could easily wind up in AAA. \u00a0Of course, the Mavs have plenty of other players ready to fill that spot if Baez doesn&#8217;t pan out. \u00a0Finally, the defending champion Naturals finished the first round by selecting another good, young pitcher in Carlos Carrasco. \u00a0Slightly overshadowed by Indians teammate Corey Kluber last year, Carrasco could become a Cy Young candidate himself this year if he pitches like he did in &#8217;14.<\/p>\n<p>So that first round was all well and good, but it was most certainly NOT the biggest story of the past ten days. \u00a0There were four huge trades made on the first day of the draft before Abreu was selected with the first pick. \u00a0Then three more major deals were completed before two rounds were in the books. \u00a0These trades range from championship contenders looking to solidify their rosters, to second tier teams trying to plug major holes, to major franchise overhauls. \u00a0It is difficult to pinpoint which teams will be the big winners and losers from these deals, but one thing is for sure: \u00a0the players\/picks involved in these trades will play a major role in determining how teams finish this year.<\/p>\n<p>The first domino to fall was the Naturals trading Zack Greinke and their fifth round pick to the Moonshiners for Wilson Ramos and a second round pick. \u00a0Star pitchers being dealt was a big theme of the week and Greinke was the first. \u00a0The Moonshiners badly needed an ace to anchor a rotation that hasn&#8217;t really had a standout performer in recent years. \u00a0Greinke held that ace title for the Moonshiners for about a day. \u00a0The Naturals needed a catcher to fill the crucial spot held by Victor Martinez last year. \u00a0They used that early second round pick to select Garrett Richards, who they will count on to replace Greinke. \u00a0This is the second time Greinke has been involved in a major March trade. \u00a0The Naturals acquired him from the Jackalope in 2011 in a deal that saw Ryan Howard go the other way. \u00a0Greinke had four tremendous seasons for the Naturals and should be a major piece of the future for the Moonshiners as well.<\/p>\n<p>The next trade was something you don&#8217;t usually see in March: \u00a0a one-for-one trade of star pitchers with no other picks or pieces involved. \u00a0The Mavericks traded their first round pick from a year ago, young starting pitcher Gerrit Cole, to the Jackalope for one of the best closers in the league, Aroldis Chapman. \u00a0This was the first of many changes for the Jackalope, who felt the need to get younger, particularly in the rotation with ailing veteran Cliff Lee&#8217;s season being in jeopardy. \u00a0Meanwhile, Chapman (along with first round pick Betances) give the Mavericks an almost unfair bullpen full of fireballers. \u00a0Their rotation isn&#8217;t too shaby either. \u00a0If I had to pick one team as a lock to win one category this year, it would be the Mavericks and strikeouts. \u00a0Barring injury, they look pretty solid in the other four pitching categories too.<\/p>\n<p>As it turns out, the Cole\/Chapman deal was just a precursor to a couple more one-for-one deals involving superstars. \u00a0The Jackalope immediately turned around and dealt their first overall pick from a year ago, Yasiel Puig, to the Naturals for third baseman Anthony Rendon. \u00a0This would have looked like an insane trade a year ago considering the Naturals nabbed Rendon in the sixth round. \u00a0But he was quietly one of the most valuable players in the league last year and plays a much more difficult position to fill. \u00a0Of course, his switch from second to third created a bit of a problem for the Naturals who were already loaded at the corners. \u00a0Unfortunately for the Jackalope, Rendon wound up injuring his knee right around the time this deal was made, which was part of a pretty tough week of injury news for their squad. \u00a0However, Rendon&#8217;s injury isn&#8217;t considered to be too serious, but will be worth watching as the season approaches. \u00a0Meanwhile, the Naturals are happy to have Puig and hope he can bounce back from a slightly disappointing season a year ago. \u00a0He clearly has major talent and big upside at his young age.<\/p>\n<p>The final pre-draft trade skewed a little older. \u00a0The Mavericks dealt slugging first baseman Edwin Encarnacion to the Darkhorses for shortstop Hanley Ramirez. \u00a0The Darkhorses acquired one of the most consistent power sources in recent years while the Mavericks picked up a power source of their own at a premium position. \u00a0This figures to be Ramirez&#8217;s last year at shortstop though since the Red Sox plan to play him in the outfield. \u00a0Only Marc knows for sure, but I&#8217;m not positive this deal would have happened had they known they would be able to pick Baez in the draft. \u00a0As it currently stands, the Mavericks have five middle infielders and dealing Encarnacion temporarily left them without a first baseman. \u00a0But that is a much easier position to fill than 2B\/SS. \u00a0The Darkhorses are hoping two ex-Mavs players will help boost their power output. \u00a0They also drafted former Maverick Carlos Santana.<\/p>\n<p>The start of the draft did not end the flurry of trades. \u00a0Halfway through the first round, a deal was made that somehow managed to exceed the four I just detailed in terms of star power. \u00a0The Jackalope traded arguably the second best pitcher in baseball, Felix Hernandez, along with Ian Kennedy to the Moonshiners for third baseman Josh Donaldson and a fourth round pick. \u00a0Suddenly, the Moonshiners pitching problems were a thing of the past. \u00a0The additions of Hernandez, Greinke and Kennedy is about as big of a rotation upgrade as a team can realistically make. \u00a0Despite only being 28 years old, King Felix is already 10th on the DTBL&#8217;s all-time strikeout list. \u00a0He was a workhorse for the Jackalope in his nine seasons with them, pitching at least 180 innings every season and has struck out over 200 batters in six consecutive seasons. \u00a0He will be reunited with two other former Jackalope rotation-mates with the Moonshiners: \u00a0Greinke and Jered Weaver. \u00a0This signals a huge overhaul for the Jackalope who have been slightly burned in recent years by deteriorating health of their once invincible pitching staff. \u00a0Roy Halladay and now Cliff Lee seem to have been lost without getting anything in return. \u00a0They elected to make sure the same thing didn&#8217;t happen with Hernandez. \u00a0The Jackalope rotations of about five years ago were some of the best collection of pitchers this league has ever seen. \u00a0But now all are gone, except for Lee, who may never pitch again. \u00a0Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention that the Jackalope acquired Donaldson who was the Moonshiners first round pick a year ago. \u00a0Donaldson had a huge DTBL rookie campaign and could be in for even more now that he has moved to hitter friendly Toronto.<\/p>\n<p>The next trade was of the more traditional draft day variety. \u00a0The Mavericks did what they do best, acquired an extra first round pick from the Demigods in exchange for second and third round picks. \u00a0As already mentioned, the Mavericks used that extra pick to acquire Javier Baez following their own selection of Dellin Betances. \u00a0As for the Demigods who probably had as few holes to fill as any team entering this draft, they moved down and took outfielder J.D. Martinez with that pick acquired from the Mavericks. \u00a0The third round pick turned into relief pitcher Santiago Casilla. \u00a0Interestingly, that second round slot was actually a pick they had previously traded to the Mavericks in a deal last May.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, the Jackalope had one more superstar to trade away. \u00a0They dealt franchise icon Albert Pujols to the Mavericks along with a third round pick for Adam Jones. \u00a0A couple years ago, trading away Pujols AND a pick for Jones would have been preposterous. \u00a0But Pujols is clearly on the downside of his career and is not the perennial MVP candidate that he was for most of his career. \u00a0He is the Jackalope franchise leader in home runs, RBI and runs, all by very comfortable margins. \u00a0He spent 13 remarkable seasons with the franchise. \u00a0So trading him away couldn&#8217;t have been easy. \u00a0The Jackalope will have a much different look in 2015 without Prince Albert and King Felix. \u00a0Adam Jones is no slouch though. \u00a0He has hit 25+ homers each of the past four years and has become one of the most consistent outfield contributors in the league. \u00a0As for the Mavericks, this deal was mostly about plugging that hole left by the departure of Encarnacion. \u00a0Although Pujols isn&#8217;t the hitter he once was, by normal standards of judging players, he&#8217;s still one of the better first basemen in the league. \u00a0If he stays healthy, he should have several more big seasons in him.<\/p>\n<p>So that sums up the first round of the draft and the seven deals that have been made so far this month. \u00a0It has been a well paced draft as we currently sit at the end of the eighth round with still two full weeks before the start of the season. \u00a0Thanks to everyone for keeping it moving and good luck with the remainder of the draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 23rd annual DTBL Draft began a week ago Thursday. The beginning of the draft always brings plenty of intrigue. But this year, the early rounds were mostly overshadowed by a string of trades that were completed over the first few days of the draft. In total, seven trades were made in four days involving [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,11,12,13,5,6,9,3,10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-choppers","category-cougars","category-darkhorses","category-demigods","category-draft","category-gators","category-jackalope","category-kings","category-mavericks","category-moonshiners","category-naturals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=835"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":844,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835\/revisions\/844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}