North African and European Baseball Leagues

[Cactusguy21]

I'll now jump ahead in the picks to the notable players.


At pick 6, Paris took Davide tuzzi, a speedy, defensively gifted outfielder with an incredible hit tool and zero power.




At 7, Warsaw made the worst pick of the draft with Guilhem Bolgheri, a catcher. His bat projects to be just average, and he has no other carrying tool.


At 8, Marseile takes the first pitcher, Arnauld Recchi. This guy has a huge repotoire and good movement.

[Cactusguy21]

Stockholm takes the best power prospect in the draft at 9. This is a good upside pick, you are dreaming on elite power potential, but there's definitely substantial swing and msis in this game, and his defense can't really carry him, despite being listed as a center fielder.


At long last, the projected 3rd pick goes to London at 10. Milosevic is an elite hitting prospect with huge power/contact potential and a line drive profile. His defense in the corner outfields is passable if unexciting.


Speaking of upside, at 15 Rome drafts a huge upside pitcher. The drawback is clear and obvious: his curveball is not going to cut it in the majors and his changeup needs a ton of work. But if it develops? He's going to be a star.

[Cactusguy21]

We have another trade consummated, let's break it down.

Bordeaux (21-22) receives 28-year old minor league 1B Benjamin Pihl (free agent at end of year).

Stockholm (23-20) receives 24-year old IF Pauli Wilhelm (2 years beyond this one remaining.)


With both teams in the thick of playoff races, we have another trade by Cristian Benea, the free-wheeling GM of the Falcons.

Grades:

Bordeaux (D) - Pihl makes no sense as an acquisition for this team. It is understandable that they might want to add an impact bat to their lineup, and Pihl has been tearing the cover off the ball at AAA. But there's a reason Stockholm never promoted him, his bat probably can't hold up as being much more than average in the majors. He also pushes Frederik Visser out of the lineup, who is hitting a respectable if unexciting .288/.339/441. Pihl doesn't even have big platoon splits. Trading away Wilhelm from a position of depth is a good move, but the return is weak.

Stockholm (A) - Stockholm pulled off the sort of move that makes you respect their GM: turning a AAA journeyman into a young talent. Wilhelm is probably not much more than a bench player, but he's a very useful one, with a league average bat and positional skill everywhere in the infield. The Austrian infielder had been playing pretty well for BDX too, although they have adequate replacements in the infield.

[Cactusguy21]

Unfortunately the substantial bugs in OOTP24 have caused a flurry of trades to appear a month before the deadline. I will cover the important trades here.

[Cactusguy21]

Rome has gone full fire sale mode from the bottom of the eastern league standings. They have given up their first round pick from the Inaugural draft, Bogdan Visser.

Admittedly, drafting a 1 year rental in the first round wasn't smart. But I figured that Rome would sign him to an extension, being only 29. That um, didn't happen. Instead they ship him off to Prague amidst a disappointing season with the bat for a light return.

Miguel Sanchez is the headliner, he's a 3-pitch young pitching prospect who might make it at the back of a rotation. Godfrey Mahler is a young shortstop who will begin right away at the majors. Not picture is 17 year old Tapio Laine, a 20/40 lottery ticket who adds some upside to the return.

Prague (A-) - Props to Prague for being aggressive. Flags fly forever, and winning the first season would be awesome. Buying low on a talent like Visser could give them the missing piece they need. Right now they find themselves a game out of first in the highly competitive east league. The talent they gave up is not nothing, but it's worth it to go for it.

Rome (D+) - I get that it's just not happening in Rome right now. But there's so much time before the deadline for Visser to turn it around, and you ship him off for this return? Wildly bad.

[Cactusguy21]

Bratislava is also in sell mode, but they are getting better returns than Rome. The trade I want to focus on is the rental trade of Angel Carrillo. Carrillo has had a phenomenal season with the stick, but looks due for some regression, and is a terrible fielder. He will probably be RF/DH for Budapest as they look to chase the East. Manselli is an interesting zero-power prospoect in the low minors. If he can get his defense to be somewhat passable, that's an everyday second baseman. But he probably doesn't hit enough for first.

Grades:

Budapest (B+) - This is a good value trade, but the pitching needs more work than the hitting, which is why a few points are docked. They clearly have a strategy in mind though.

Bratislava (A-) - The rare win-win trade here, as Bratislava gets an interesting prospect for an overachiever. It feels weird to say the Knights are sellers when they are only 6 games out, but unfortunately there's just too many teams ahead of them in the jumbled east league.

[Cactusguy21]

Quick review here. I have no idea what London is doing. I get Malinov is old, and has a high BABIP, and is expensive. But getting an already developed utility infielder as a return is not a return.

Dublin A
London F

[Cactusguy21]

Belgrade is going for it, and got one of the better performing starters in the league. Bakker succeeds by limiting walks and homers, and has done well so far, despite his lack of stuff. The return is pretty light, which suggests maybe a lack of confidence in Bakker.

Belgrade (B+) - This isn't a bad trade, but maybe not the one Rebels fans were hoping for. Bakker strengthens an already league-best rotation, but there are still glaring issues on offense.

Rome (B-) - Was there no one else they could trick into giving up more? Still, Zaragoza is a very interesting prospect, and Wachter has the raw power to succeed.

[Cactusguy21]

Another situation where looks can be deceiving. Lenny Reid has been very strong this season, and has elite movement and pinpoint control. His stuff for whatever reason doesn't miss a lot of bats though. His pitch mix is not great, which is probably why. There's no real offspeed or breaking pitch. His cutter and sinker are great pitches, but there's nothing to play off of them.

In return, they send Dany Henry, who is a lottery ticket prospect who at worst will make a nice utility player, as well as two not pictured players, one is a 45/50 relief prospect and the other is a total lottery ticket at 20/30.

Grades:

Dublin (B-): I'm just real worried Reid won't hold up longer.
Bordeaux (B+): At worst, they got a useful bench player for their rental. But Hentry could be more, given his age. If his bat even improves to league average, with 75 defense in left he's a solid regular.

[Cactusguy21]

There weren't a ton of exciting trades in NABA, but here's the rundown of the heavy buyers and sellers in both leagues.

BUYING:
Tripoli
Budapest
Marseile

SELLING:
Mogadishu
London
Rome
Bratislava
Bordeaux