[moore4807]

GM Moore spent most of the morning in the improvised spring training "War Room" with Operations V.P. Penny Layne his former secretary, his current secretary Eleanor Rigby, the coaching staff and Manager, and Asst GM Neal Huntington.

After getting the go ahead from the owner and identifying our goals here;
1) Trade away as many players as we are receiving to maintain the 40 man roster.
2) keep the salary structure close to what it is pre-trade level.
3) Identify our weaknesses after trades are completed.

I start making calls to San Diego's GM A.J. Preller and Seattle GM Jerry DiPoto. San Diego's Preller seems relieved that I called him back. I told him that SP Joe Musgrove was off the table for this deal, he quickly jumped to a laundry list of options he must have been sitting on.

His choice of SP Framber Valdez made everyone sit up and notice, pitching coach Hanrahan immediately put his hand up in a thumbs up gesture (Joel has been taking the brunt of Valdes lobbying to be in the starting rotation.) there were no negative motions to that, but of course V.P. Penny Layne pointed to #1 priority of even exchanges - so I offered Nicky Delmonico (who is struggling mightily at the plate) to Preller as eveners. Preller accepts quickly and we are done except for the paperwork, which Eleanor Rigby is already sorting out to send to MLB offices.
I next call Jerry DiPoto and tell him we have a deal for SP Musgrove... IF I get both players we selected and he accepts one of my OF's in return. DiPoto either had microphones in our war room or is just a mind reader... "Sure, you want to keep it even and within the 40 man roster" DiPoto says, that makes everyone here look around at each other. DiPoto immediately picks LF Jason Martin... I put him on hold and poll the room, nobody objects outright - but Bench Coach Tom Prince says we are going to lose a steady player who helps keep the team together. After polling I put GM DiPoto back on the phone and agree to his trade. Eleanor Rigby is again moving the necessary piles of paperwork and V.P. Layne moves next to her to help her. I should be doing the helping but Penny Layne knows the business so much better than me AND they are already halfway done that I just keep my mouth shut.

V.P. Layne is done and she apparently phoned the P.R. folks who come knocking 10 minutes later to get our slant on the trades. This woman is awesome! The P.R. representative is sure we will get good reviews for the trades, and shoos his staff out of the room, Manager Brian Esposito seems happy with the changes and already has his new lineups and pitching rotation sorted out with his coaches. I will be keeping an eye on the Free Agent and waiver wires for SP to take the 5th spot, but he wants to give his guys a chance first.

We now break for lunch and the coaches head downstairs to get back to the fields for tonight's game.