[Syd Thrift]

## Standings / Recap / Comments
HERE COMES THE BIG STUFF!

## Major Transactions
November 27: The Rangers claimed 1B/OF Chris Seek (.256, 3, 15) off of waivers from the Giants. Seek hit .310 as a 24 year old for San Francisco back in 1969 but has seen his average drop every year since. He's still probably better than anything Texas currently has at the position.

November 27: The Astros traded minor league 2B <redacted> (.281, 4, 38) and minor league P <redacted> (11-14, 4.50 in A Cocoa Beach) to the Mets for 1B Joshua "Superman" Waltenbery (.245, 24, 78). This one's gonna huuuuurt for New York fans. They get the #57 prospect in <the pitcher> and <the middle infielder> is pretty close to major league ready and could compete with Rule V pick Bora Dugic at the position. Of course it leaves a gaping hole at first base but the Mets are not contenders. The Astros, meanwhile, filled a big, big hole both at first base and the cleanup slot and essentially walk away from the Jaden Weaver trade with this.

November 27: The Indians traded P Noah Bando (3-3, 2.74) to the Mets for minor league P Pablo Corrales (6-9, 5.62 at AAA Tidewater) and minor league P <redacted> (4-5, 4.05 at AAA Tidewater). Maaaan the Mets are bad trading partners for this. They were scraping the dregs last year at the major league level and let's just say their organizational depth at pitcher is... wanting. Corrales is 22 but several years away: he had good K numbers but allowed 31 HRs in 157 innings, hence the high ERA. <redacted> is probably closer but even there I only left his name out because the Indians will probably be bad enough to have to use him. New York gets back Bando, bringing their count of under-30 pitchers on the major league roster to 2 guys now.

November 27: The Indians traded 1B Ernesto Garcia (.296, 68, 166) and 2B TJ Pritchett (.266, 6, 19) to the Yankees for C John Lennon (.259, 4, 30), SS German Ybarra (.180, 5, 16), 3B Nick Hodzic (.278, 15, 52 at AAA Syracuse), and minor league SS Massimo D'Alema (.272, 1, 8 at A Fort Lauderdale). This was the big one! To be fair to the Indians they extracted a pretty penny from the Yankees: Lennon and Hodzic are pretty much locks to start (Hodzic taking over at first base) and both Ybarra and D'Alema will be in the shortstop mix with Mitt Romney. The GM reactions actually got to the point to where I had to throw in the perfectly-decent TJ Pritchett in as a kicker. Either way, though, the Yankees did in fact acquire the best hitter in baseball. You would be SURPRISED to note that fan interest in Cleveland crashed following this trade.

November 28: The Astros trade 2B Jon Sherron (.340, 3, 17) and minor league 3B Bubba James (.218, 1, 9 at AAA OKC) to the Cardinals for C Jonathan Hyde (.213, 1, 12). Sherron will likely compete for the 2B job, as scouts are really pessimistic about Tom Depew's ability to rebound from his .215/6/23 season. He's not a great fielder but that should make him right at home in St. Louis. Houston gets back a guy in Hyde who himself can compete with a guy who had an awful 1972 - catcher Dan Rigdon (.193, 3, 38).

November 28: The Reds trade minor league P Hugo Reyes (5-10, 5.25 at AAA Indianapolis) to the Cardinals for minor league OF Dylan Dockery (.194, 4, 16 at AAA Tulsa). This is halfway about two teams trading from (relative) strength to fill a weakness and half teams swapping out guys who weren't cutting it in the current organization.

November 28: The Angels trade SP Ken Hansen (14-16, 2.46), OF Lou Morgenstern (.228, 11, 60), and minor league OF Anatoly Karpov (.300, 16, 51 at A St. Cloud) to the Dodgers for OF Paul Stewart (.262, 12, 50), 3B Larry Hunter (.255, 2, 15 at AAA Albuquerque), P Carlos Figueroa (8-18, 3.43), P Derek Massey (1-1, 3.86), and C Mauricio Alvarez (.181, 5, 15). Another blockbuster! This one is primarily about payroll cutting for California: although this only dropped the payroll by $44K, it also spreads it out among several guys who should individually be easier to trade. The Dodgers add Hansen, a top-line starter, and Morgenstern, who was kind of good with the Angels in spite of the low average, and don't give up a whole lot.

November 29: The White Sox trade P Obe Olthof (13-12, 3.74) to the Giants for OF Carl Weathers (.214, 14, 57) and P Bibi Netanyahu (0-1, 6.06). Mostly this is a trade of two more guys who didn't work out for their now-former clubs. Olthof will be on his 3rd team in 3 years and will hope to show better promise as a guy in the back of the rotation instead of a #1 starter. Weathers just plain didn't look all that great last year (also RIP).

November 29: The Twins trade CL Travis Livingston (8-7, 2.10, 24 Sv) to the Cardinals for RF Gilles Villeneuve (.259, 4, 18) and RP Paul Boerger (1-1, 1.57). The Cards are quietly building up a pretty nice looking bullpen. Livingston's only 25 and was a lot to give up but the Twinkies did get back a potential RF of the future in Villeneuve.

November 30: The Brewers signed RP Montay Flores (6-4, 1.07, 22 Sv with Yucatan) out of the Mexican League, because why not? Milwaukee is hard pressed for pitching and this guy is it.

November 30: The Tigers purchased OF Alejandro Cortes (.247, 3, 15) from the Twins. Cortes, 35, doesn't really have a place with the Twins anymore, and the Tigers, WS winners or no, have a bit of a gaping hole in left right now.

November 30: Cincinnati purchased CF Jake Leone (.202, 2, 10) from the Padres. Leone was San Diego's up-and-coming starter as recently as 1971 but a bad season and the emergence of Ed O'Neill spelled the writing on the wall for him there. Cincy is in "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" mode in center.

November 30: The Indians traded P Jake Callaway (3-3, 3.82) to the Rangers for 1B Phil Stevens (.200, 6, 25). Cleveland has a big gigantic hole at first now for some reason and... well, Callaway wasn't very good but hey, he could stick as a specialist vs righties or something.

November 30: The Cubs traded RP Eddy Grant (8-1, 1.72 at AAA Wichita), P Bill Lucas (17-10, 3.85), and minor league P <redacted> (3-5, 4.63 at AA Midland) to the Twins for P Mike Larsen (17-8, 2.85). The Twins' rotation... gets older with Lucas but also the staff as a whole gets younger with the guys added in to sweeten the pot. Chicago moves on Lucas, who has pitched a lot of innings for them but leaves them with a 4.04 ERA in 4+ seasons with the club.

November 30: The Mets traded PH/OF Gabe Martinez (.260, 1, 18) to the Padres for P Brian Johnson (0-0, 1.65). Hey, Martinez is clutchy, I guess. Neither side is exactly getting a lot and neither side is giving up all that much in return.

November 30: The Reds traded 1B Alonzo Rivera (.302, 7, 52) and P Joe Hagan (8-13, 4.48) to the Royals for RF RJ Dominguez (.251, 19, 77) and P Rick Rodriguez (6-6, 2.74). Rivera's one of these guys who could be a 10 year starter in the right place and that right place could be Kansas City. The Reds get a chance to unload Joe Hagan on someone and still get value back, as Dominguez is a guy who really should be starting.

December 30: The Twins traded 3B Mike Brookes (.204, 13, 34) to the Phillies for 3B Matt Highfield (.303, 1, 28), P Manley Carter 6-5, 4.61), and P Matt Brock (8-6, 2.53, 18 Sv). Brookes had a really bad year and, former MVP or no, the Twins didn't want to wait around to see if the drop-off was permanent. They bring back Highfield, who is 9 years younger, at least, plus some pitching help, including a replacement for Travis Livingston.

December 30: The Indians traded RF Nelson Vargas (.290, 14, 54) and minor league C Danilo Bonana (.313, 13, 56 at A Reno) to the Phillies for RF Bobby Corley (.237, 10, 23) and RF Brandon Anderson (.243, 9, 35). As I'd WARNED ABOUT in the Cleveland write-up, they wanted to cut salary and Vargas was on the block. The Phillies basically traded away the two parts they were trying to cadge together to make RF fit before they found John Belushi (who himself can easily move down to first base now).

December 30: The Braves traded 1B Dante Chairez (.226, 28, 68) and minor league P <redacted> (10-17, 4.96 in AAA Richmond) to the Orioles for P Santos Rodriguez (16-10, 2.20), 1B/C Jon Hernandez (.254, 13, 67), minor league P <redacted> (1-1, 4.44 at A St. Paul), and minor league 3B <redacted> (.263, 6, 21 in rookie ball). It's a rare trade that both sides hate... the Braves get their ace in the rotation in Rodriguez but give up a looot for it. Never mind that era; <redacted> was in AAA as a 22 year old, which is saying a lot as it is. The Braves do at least get a replacement for first base: Hernandez is obviously no Dante Chairez but it's not a gaping hole now either.

## News
November 27: Aaaaand we open with the Rule V Draft!

1. Milwaukee picks SP Kenny Jones (9-14, 2.45 at AAA ) from the Twins' organization. Like, Jones had a good year and all but he's 31. On the flip side, the Brewers are kind of desperate for pitching right now.

2. Cincinnati picks CF Gaudi Rodriguez (.257, 14, 45 at AAA Tulsa) from the Cardinals. Rodriguez is also on the older side and nothing special at 27. The Reds are not exactly well stocked in center field and Rodriguez will compete with Robert Hopkins (.254, 1, 10) for the job there.

3. The New York Mets pick SS Bora Dugic (.267, 17, 57 at AAA Toledo) from Detroit. Dugic is a pretty good player to just leave out like that but a. he's blocked in the Tigers' organization and b. he's not going to stick at shortstop. The Mets can get right on down to teaching him a new position though.

4. The Expos pick P Richard Dean Anderson (10-12, 2.54 at AAA Albuquerque) from the Dodgers. Hey, if I was choosing who freaking MacGyver would be, he'd be a toolsy infielder. I guess I can choose but I didn't. This guy's a 22 year old who throws some good heat but who fell out of the top 100 prospect rankings last year and wasn't going to break into this Dodgers' rotation any time soon. At least, that's my excuse for leaving him off the protected list.

November 30: As you can see above, the Winter Meetings were a bit insaaaaaaaaane this year. A little recap of who made off the best and worst, at least according to last year's WAR:

1. New York Yankees +10.4
2. Atlanta +6.4 (apparently Jon Hernandez was a 3.2 WAR guy and Dante Chairez was only worth 1.4).
3. Philadelphia +6.3 (and that's with the game only counting Mike Brookes at 1.6 WAR)
4. Houston +4.1
5. St. Louis +3.5

20. Minnesota -5.5 (and again, that's with Brookes not counting for much)
21. Milwaukee -6.6 (hard to believe they had this much WAR to give up)
22. Cleveland -7.0
23. Kansas City -7.1 (RJ Dominguez was apparently worth 4.5 WAR last year)
24. Baltimore (in addition to losing Hernandez, Santos Rodriguez was worth almost 7 WAR last year, apparently, which is crazy)

The quick and early returns: The Yankees are back in business, both Atlanta and Houston are working to push themselves ahead of the pack in the NL West, Minnesota, Cleveland, and Baltimore are waving white flags, and Milwaukee... could lose 110 games.

## Teams in Review