With some sadness and regret, I have to announce my 11th deal of this offseason as the near-total purge of the 2006 ARBA champions continues. This time it's the young and exciting Jimmy Rollins, who played every single inning at SS for us the past 2 seasons. His destination is High Desert, in exchange for younger but less exciting SS Yuniesky Betancourt along with nifty CF prospect Jacoby Ellsbury. My apologies to those whose Rollins offers I quickly dismissed, but I really didn't plan on dealing him. Kudos to Keith for his patience and determination as it took me a VERY long time to finally come around and accept this offer. Even now, I'm still not entirely comfortable with seeing Rollins leave town and fear that the return may not be sufficient. In the end, my intense man-crush on Jacoby Ellsbury was simply too powerful to resist. Hopefully he will prove worthy of such unnatural devotion...
I'll have to remember that NO doesn't really mean no from now on when trying to trade with Eric. After quickly being dismissed when asking about the possibility of a Rollins trade, I let it go and moved on. Now after wholesaling my draft and spending all my money trying to keep up with the Jones (er Keith), I see the guy that was not available has now been traded to the Jones (er Keith). Oh well, that will just make it that much sweeter when I send those sand fleas from High Desert scrambling back under the rocks they crawled out from under. See you in Vegas, Keith. Can't wait to HELP you at the tables.
Oh, and Eric. From now when you tell me someone is not tradeable, expect an unrelenting flood of emails that will continue to make offers for that special someone. After all, NO doesn't really mean no. It just means be patient.
Yeah, you have some justification to be frustrated about this one, particularly since Rollins is going to your division rival. For the record, an unrelenting flood of emails is likely to be counterproductive and certainly wasn't Keith's approach. It was more of a sit back and let me think about it for 6-8 weeks until I just couldn't bear to live without Ellsbury. I would have rejected it if he had forced a decision much earlier. So I guess the key to prying loose someone who I initially consider untouchable is to come up with a strong enough temptation that I'm forced to think about it and may eventually change my mind. Not like anyone cares, but Ellsbury has been haunting me ever since I came very close to taking him in the 2005 waiver draft and didn't, only to see the guy's stock skyrocket to being a #1 pick in MLB and ARBA the following year. Even though Betancourt is obviously a big step down from Rollins, I still feel more comfortable with him (and Ellsbury) than I would with a package built around someone like Crosby, who frankly scares me right now. Hey, at least you got one of your targets from us. I had to spread it around!
I confirm the trade. Hdt has now traded Bos #1, Sfo #1, Arz#1 and Cha #2 prospects.
As for you "Mr. COOLER", I'm sure Aus will find some way to finish just behind Hdt in 2nd place once again Ellsbury-Riggins were first discussed during the Hunter trade and then put on hold after Hunter was exiled to Aus. Eric then reflected upon the wisdom of trading with the forces of evil and heard Riggins pleas to not be relegated to a future of 2nd place finishes and agreed to trade him to a winning franchise
Who the HELL are you calling "Riggins", man. For that blatant lack of respect, I'm going to demand an A contract this season. Let that be a lesson to you to learn your new players' names before the press conference. Geez...how do you win anything with that kind of bush league attitude? Maybe I should have gone to Austin after all...the college girls there sure are nice...
In a press release yesterday to announce the acquistion of Jimmy Rollins via trade, a Hdt college intern mistyped Jimmy Rollins name. When contacted by Peter Gammons about the issue, Rollins said it was no big deal as long as the Hdt checks had his name spelled correctly. Rollins added that "they can call me anything they want and as long as they don't call me an Austin Assassin".
In other baseball news: Torii Hunter was set to check in to the Betty Ford clinic. It is reported that he is fighting an addiction to anti-depressants. When asked if this was related to letting the ball get by him in a playoff game for an inside the park hime run, Hunter replied that " No I can handle that, I am so depressed about spending the next year on another 2nd place team in Aus that I can't stop crying like a little girl." He will have company as Bobby Abreau and Curt Schilling have also checked in for undisclosed reasons but many suspect they are also fighting depression related to being traded to Aus.
Ellsbury-Riggins were first discussed during the Hunter trade and then put on hold after Hunter was exiled to Aus. Eric then reflected upon the wisdom of trading with the forces of evil and heard Riggins pleas to not be relegated to a future of 2nd place finishes and agreed to trade him to a winning franchise
