We can't stop. And we won't stop.
Trading that is.
You know it's an active trading offseason when the Sex Panthers get involved, and would you look at that, she traded for Miley, Wade Miley.
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| The trade we should all be upset about is Kevin Gausman to the Vandelay Industries. I expect Gausman to have a huge year and my first-round target is now off the board. I have to go back to square one. |
But when you have Joe Nathan and Kenley Jansen, who on division favorites should combine for at least 80 saves, you might want to keep two closers, especially when the veteran starting pitching is questionable at best.
That's why acquiring the 2012 Rookie of the Year runner-up, was important for the Panthers. He may not come with as much hoopla as he would have at the start of last season, but he does, nonetheless, provide a quality arm to add to the rotation. I particularly like the Diamondbacks heading into 2014, so to me, having a starter from their rotation is a plus.
For Vandelay, the deal works out nicely because he moves someone that was on his trade block and jumps up four spots in the draft, and to quote him, "How many times does a guy I want to draft go right before I'm ready to pick him?"
It's true. Happens all the time, to all of us. It's why I made the Domonic Brown deal, and it's why I moved up a few spots with the Kris Medlen (and others) deal with Steroid.ERA. When there's a Jerk one pick ahead of me, I need to take all the chances I can to get in front of him.
Steroid.ERA moved up in the draft today, too, after several trades that featured him moving back.
What, you thought you could go a Jargon column without a mention of Steroid.ERA making a trade? Well, you thought wrong.
Shortly after the Sex Panthers-Vandelay trade was processed, another two deals went down on Monday.
ERA was able to find a suitor for C.J. Wilson, sending him to Vandelay for a swap of picks. ERA moves up to the fifth pick in the eighth round and gives Vandelay his second pick in the ninth round.
It's an interesting move for Vandelay because that now pushes out Yovani Gallardo and/or Jonathon Niese out as keepers, if they ever were in consideration. Who knows? One of them would have been slotted third behind Adam Wainright and Chris Sale. So now Wilson slots in as the wild card keeper.
Toss in Matt Harvey, Jose Fernandez and Gerrit Cole, and Vandelay has a decent staff moving forward.
Oh, and add in Kevin Gausman, who actually counts as a relief pitcher due to his 15 relief appearances that came after he made five straight starts. That means Vandelay may choose to slot him in at RP — a strategy I will use with Drew Smyly — to gain an extra starting pitcher heading into 2014.
Vandelay shipped off Jason Heyward from his crowded outfield to acquire the O's right-hander from his brother, Chief Otto Parts. The two also swapped picks, as Vandelay got the 10th pick in the ninth round for the fifth pick in the 10th round.
Apparently, Vandelay must have an idea that there's going to be some awesome talent in the ninth round where he now has three picks.
Perhaps another starting pitcher will be taken? He'll have at least seven going into the season — and yes, one of them is a shut down Harvey — but even still, he has to be happy. Especially with the reigning Rookie of the Year who on many experts list is the No. 2 pitcher in all of baseball right now behind Parker's beloved Clayton Kershaw. Cole is not too far behind and I expect Gausman to take some big strides in 2014.
In fact, I was quite upset to see his name come across the trade wire. I was targeting him in the first round, you know, that round Parker said there was no talent.
Another player I was looking at was Heyward, and he's now off the board, too.
It was a tough day for first-round hopefuls, but there's still plenty out there, despite what Parker says.
I can't wait for the keeper deadline because I think there's going to be a lot of interesting names out there from several breakout candidates to perhaps a few comeback candidates. Then, of course, there will be the sleepers and the minor leaguers. All in all, Parker can say all he wants, but I guarantee, the teams that make the playoffs this year will look back at the draft a pick or two that made the difference for them — and I'm not talking about that No. 1 overall pick of Masahiro Tanaka.
He may make the difference for Parker, but there will be other players out of the remaining 203 draft picks who will make a major contribution to their team.
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