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MISSION 1983: SCOTT FLETCHER
With Bill Madlock no longer able to play 2B, we've had to shuffle around the infield a bit this year. I took a while to pull the gun on this trade, for reasons I'll explain, but the good news is that Scott Fletcher is coming to the Rangers.
Fletcher played shortstop for the Rangers historically between 1986 and 1989. Interestingly the AI in my dynasty traded him from the Cubs to the White Sox, where I got him from, and that's also the route he took in real life. Just doing it a little earlier. I love to have a guy with great range at SS, and Fletcher fits the bill.
Unfortunately the White Sox were tough to deal with. I gave them Dave Schmidt who was part of the real life trade, but I also had to give up Ron Darling. I tried a bunch of different ways to make it work, but basically it boiled down to the Sox only willing to do the trade if it involved 1 of my top 2 prospects -- Ron Darling or Julio Franco. I didn't want to give up Franco, who had some good years for the real life Rangers, so Darling is the odd one out as more of a Mets guy in real life.
I wanted to keep Ron Darling around, maybe if not to pitch long-term, but to use as trade ammunition for future deals. I'm going to want to acquire Rafael Palmeiro pretty soon (I think he pops up in 85 or 86), so I need pieces. I think I'll get Sammy Sosa around the same time though, and trading Sosa to the Cubs for Palmeiro just makes way too much sense for everyone. Hope it works out that way.
Anyway, Fletcher should give us a very good defensive infield, but he can't hit all that much right now. I've got it penciled in like this:
1B: Mike Hargrove/Bill Madlock (Madlock against LHP and RHP split more evenly)
2B: Buddy Bell
3B: Toby Harrah
SS: Scott Fletcher
It looks good to me. Hopefully Buddy Bell can settle back into his more iconic 3B role, we'll probably do that when Harrah retires or no longer is good enough with a bat. Julio Franco will fit into the infield pretty soon, and I have him rotating with these guys now.
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