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Right before the trade deadline, we decided on a move that we felt would benefit our team more in the long haul. See for yourself:
Virginia sends:
IF John Tolerton
2022 1st round draft pick
Colorado sends:
C James Walsh
2022 4th round draft pick
So what does this mean for us? Well, we don't have our catcher who has been one of our best hitter this year. He's 28 years old. I figure that we aren't going to be really ready to compete for another 3-5 years. That would put him in the 31-33 year old range. It's about that time that catchers start to deteriorate. I decided the draft pick was more valuable to me at this point.
John Tolerton is a 24-year old second baseman. He might see some time in the future, but will never be "the future" at second base. He's just not that good. Basically, this deal is Walsh for a 1st rounder.
How are you going to fill that hole behind the plate?
It's going to be tough. Walsh was a 4th round (which is the last round of our drafts) draft pick back in 2014. He developed like crazy. I never thought he'd be this good.
Enter Robert Long, our 4th round pick the following year. I drafted him because we had ZERO depth at catcher at the time. In fact, that's why I gave him the nickname "Tanocito". It's an acronym standing for "There Are No Other Catchers In The Organization." If/When Lange gets ready to play, he'll step right in, but for now, the catchers job belongs to the one, the only, our 4th round pick from 2015, Robert "Tanocito" Long.
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