The Veto
I got a trade vetoed by the trade committee.
I traded Bret Baty for two prospects, Jefferson Rojas and Haydn McGeary. I was selling low on Baty, and buying a couple of prospects that I thought would breakout this year. The trade was vetoed, and I’m totally fine with it. I fully expected to have some minor hiccups like this along the way and that’s why there’s a trade committee in the first place.
Unfortunately in leagues like this there’s always some sort of predatory owner who takes advantage of people who don’t fully understand the rules (like me! Wait, I’m not predatory, I don’t know the rules. Well I kinda do but there’s a LOT of them so I’m sure I’ll mess up). I was in a 30 teamer some time ago without one, and man, were there some terrible trades. The sharks circled the minnows and feasted on draft pick throw ins, prospect hoarding, and the like.
I’m not an idiot, so I’m not going to talk about any specific sharks or anything. I’m not going to be all sensitive and stuff about a lowball offer or anything like that. Plus some of these guys read my stuff and I don’t wanna be the drama king. You can slay, queen, if you want to. Of course there’s been offers trying to take advantage of a new owner, both by crazy low ball offers or by trying to sneak something past me that I might not guess the intricacies of yet. That’s the kind of thing a trade committee helps with.
I would not categorize this trade as one with a predatory owner. The Cubs owner, a kindly gentleman named Phineas, actually didn’t even propose this offer. I did! I’m at this point trying to figure out if I should revisit this or if it’s terrible. What do y’all think? Do you guys like trade committees, any good funny stories in the comments, go ahead!
Previous Owner Contact Made
One fun thing that’s happened since the last article has been being put into contact with the previous Yankees owner, and he’s been a big help. Kelder has not been a big prospect guy in the past, like at all. I had only heard of three of my 50 prospects on my roster. Mr. Yankee, who’s name I actually don’t really know, has been gracious and insightful via text message. Yes, his name on my phone is Mr. Yankee. I live in North Carolina, where a decent population consider the Civil War to be truly named the War of Northern Aggression, so Mr. Yankee is a bit controversial when his name comes on my notification screen at church.
Mr. Yankee is a prospect guy. I’ve mentioned this; I am not. The man gave me great insights on my prospects and their prognosis and I feel much more informed.
In previous paragraphs in this very article, I mentioned certain owners and their trading style. Quite interesting, this. It’s not of course the be all and end all, I am 46, (grown man yo!) and can do some thing at an adult level. Mr. Yankee, however, lets me know who’s known to try to take advantage of things, who is able to be taken advantage of, and who values their guys at like 110% and mine at 90%.
Dear league members: I love all of you as online avatar brothers and I take no offense in any of this.
Noted Fantasy Famous Guy Justin Mason
I’ve not mentioned this yet, but Justin Mason of fantasy baseball analyst note is in this league and finished 29th last year. This is not due to incompetence; it’s a sinister evil plan for long term domination. Here’s his take on what he’s doing with his team.
Justin, who is the only guy in the league with a t-shirt made with his face on it, was all-in for several years. 2020 was the apex of his success finishing third. Maybe if he’d have been better at social distancing he’d have been second? 2021-22 were successful but derailed by injuries. Mr. Mason has categorized those years as “pretty competitive teams.” Of course, trading prospects/picks for talents can lead one to having a very barren minor leagues, and having fallen short of a championship Justin hit the reset button and decided to start over. No expectation of being competitive is had for 2-3 years.
One issue he has is that he has been victimized by Trevor Bauer. No, not that way, you sickos. His contract is obviously a toxic one unless he comes back. 2 more years at around 15 millions for zero production isn’t ideal. At this point he only has 10 million in cap space.
Ozzie Albies, Bo Bichette, and Curtis Mead are a good start for fruitful rebuilding success, though. Walker Buehler could come back strong this year along the hope that Shane Bieber’s arm doesn’t fully fall off. I’ve not heard of many of the prospects, but I’m sure that he’s done the research and found guys with good upside. Justin Mason is a famous fantasy guy, after all.
He’s also super funny and fun to have on the discord chat, and although I’m a bit intimidated to be in a league with a FanGraphs guy I guess I’ll represent Razzball, gosh darn it!
Here’s my current roster, for reference:
C | Tyler Soderstrom | $590,000 |
C | Nick Fortes | $690,305 |
1B | Darick Hall | $590,000 |
2B | Edouard Julien | $708,000 |
3B | Max Muncy | $16,514,060 |
3B | Alex Bregman | $24,050,000 |
3B | Brett Baty | $649,000 |
MI | Zach McKinstry | $1,350,000 |
UT | Marcell Ozuna | $6,150,000 |
OF | Jurickson Profar | $12,200,000 |
OF | Luis Robert Jr. | $10,156,400 |
OF | Alek Thomas | $690,305 |
OF | Yonathan Daza | $681,835 |
OF | Mitch Haniger | 11,000,000 |
SP | Kenta Maeda | $5,000,000 |
SP | MacKenzie Gore | $826,000 |
SP | Alex Wood | $5,500,000 |
RP | Ian Gibaut | $826,000 |
RP | Ryan Pressly | $9,000,000 |
RP | Jose Leclerc | 3,774,400 |
RP | Elvis Peguero | $828,000 |
RP | Daniel Palencia | $590,000 |
SP | Marcus Stroman | $18,500,000 |
SP | Ryan Rolison | $100,000 |
SP | Jose Suarez | $1,420,020 |
P | Juan Then | $100,000 |
RP | Ron Marinaccio | $590,000 |
SP | Shane McClanahan | $2,966,600 |
BN | Jean Segura | $11,700,000 |
RP | Rafael Montero | $1,483,300 |
RP | Michel Baez | $590,000 |
P | Nick Nelson | $590,000 |
RP | Tyler Kinley | $575,500 |
Key prospect bench: Alexander Canario, Kevin Alcantara, Ty Madden, Brooks Lee