[IBL] PAD Status/Trade Flyer

[Nelson Lu]

Hi, folks:

I would like to say that I am “back” - sort of.  The marriage transition has been a wonderful one, but much more difficult than I had anticipated, I think.  I am feeling quite a bit out of the loop in terms of the current MLB season, and therefore feel a bit hesitant to say that I’m actually back.  I do think I have the responsibility to try to run PAD at least from the “GM” side of things for the rest of the season, but am really still feeling very out of it, not quite feeling how to evaluate players right, and the such.  This is not a ploy to try to get sympathy, but a request for patience.  Thank you all for your patience.  Right now, I am not ready to play games, I don’t think, and I’m hopeful that there will still be folks who can play games for the rest of the year.

In particular, I would like to extend great thanks to Alex Campbell, Dan McCubbin, and Sean Sweda, for running the team collectively in my (at least mental if not physical) absence.  Without your help, I think I would be forced to drop out of the league entirely, but now at least I think I have a shot at holding onto the team which I’ve enjoyed handling ever since the league’s inception.

These things having been said, I do think (as has been urged by others) it is necessary for me to announce what pieces of PAD, in a state of 35 games behind first place PHI, would be happy to deal.  The general rule of “no player is untradable” still applies, but in these days, may be a bit impractical due to my reduced available level.  Still, I have these thoughts and would be more than willing to consider trades.

WHAT PAD NEEDS/WANTS?
Lots of stuff, but in particular, I think we badly need a left fielder for next year given that we have absolutely nobody there.  A 50%-75% third baseman would also be fairly urgently needed.  A decent to good starting pitcher.  Left-handed relief, and vs. LH right fielder.  Absent these actual pieces, draft picks would obviously be usable commodities.

WHAT PAD *WANTS* TO TRADE?
These are players that I think are definitely useful to last-minute shopping contenders and whose future value to PAD are questionable at best (with the exception of Harrison/Walker, listed below, which is a positional crunch situation).  These are the ones that I think I would (in my fogginess) would be most willing/able to deal.  These include:

HOU Conger:	Had an excellent season (at least vs. RH) offensively in HOU, but couldn’t cut it in TB so far and ended up in the minors.  Despite BOS Vazquez’s unexpected loss of his job, I think we are still fairly loaded on the catching front, so Conger is definitely someone that I’d consider dealing.

PIT Harrison OR PIT Walker:	Walker has the offense.  Harrison presumably has the defense.  Both have very good usable cards down the stretch, with Walker having solid defense and Harrison good defense (at 3B).  They both only played 2B this MLB season, so I am not confident that I can keep them both for next year even though they both had injury time in MLB and therefore potentially could pick up enough injury time to be kept.  I’d want to deal one, but I have to say that I’m also not ready to dump either one for little value.

TB Sizemore:	Appears to have retired, and actually still usable bench piece for a contender, I think, down the stretch.

TEX Hamilton:	Refuses to retire, but despite his stubbornness appears to be close to be done - but an actually very nice power card vs. RH.  I think he would make a very good playoff card for any contending team.

ATL Jackson:	Nice reverse RH relief card (and not terrible vs. RH either despite the reverse split).  Had a rough season in MIA/SD.

PHI Araujo:	Nice reverse LH relief card.  Had a very rough season in PHI, but still relatively young.  But unlike ARI Chafin (whom many of you have asked about and who is dealable, but whom I’m more hesitant to deal) he doesn’t have the minor league track record for me to think that this was necessarily an aberration.  So I’m more willing to deal him.

PHI McGowan:	Nice MLB season in MIA, horrible card.  While I think we can manage to keep him, if someone else would rather take him and get to keep him by giving him 90 BFs, we’d be happy to get some value off him and not worry about it.

That’s pretty much it for now.  I appreciate the folks who have been writing to congratulate me, and also folks who are keeping waiting (patiently) on my responses on players they are interested in.  I am trying my best to get back into the thick of things, but it may still be a bit difficult.  I would appreciate continued patience.