If there was a little more patience among Choo, Crox and myself, perhaps we could have pulled off the JLB’s first three-way deal.
In a way, that’s what happened, but it's not official.
In November, Choo sent Matt Chapman to Crox.
On New Year’s Eve, Choo acquired a pair of closers — Blake Treinen from Crox for Wil Myers and Aroldis Chapman from Slammers for a first-round pick.
Five days later, the Slammers and Crox came together for a blockbuster that sent Matt Chapman to the Slammers along with George Springer and Amed Rosario for the long-desired Jose Ramirez.
“Glad to see Crox finally fulfilled his dream of getting Jose Ramirez,” said the Sex Panthers, who dealt him to me last summer.
“Never give up on your dreams,” was what the Crox responded with.
The latter deal changes a lot of things for both teams.
For the Crox Sox, he has that fantasy superstar to fill in with an already strong lineup. Ramirez easily ranks top 3 in positions players, and according to Fantrax scoring, he was No. 1 among position players a year ago.
You ask, "Why deal him if you’re me?" Well, I’m hoping to strike gold on a third baseman who really took off last year and a shortstop who finished strong for the Mets. Springer battled injuries during the season and truly wasn’t healthy until the end of the season.
Altogether, the latter part of 2018 was sensational for all three of those players coming back, so turning an All-Star into potentially three was a deal I couldn’t turn away.
MORE DEALS COMING?
There are certainly teams looking, and there are definitely some holes to fill around the JLB. That’s why, I think it’s time to set up the Winter Meetings, as promised a few weeks back.
I would like to make this a yearly thing, so let’s officially start it this winter. We attempted an abbreviated version of this last year and it was a fun night on Facebook. It was quiet deal-wise, but still fun. The dry run last year in December led me to want to do something in January when we're away from the craziness of the holiday season.
Now with Slack all set up and ready to go — just waiting on the NJ Bombers — I will create Winter Meetings channel starting Sunday evening at 10 p.m.
That channel will remain open through Wednesday evening.
The idea is, use the Winter Meetings channel to throw out “on the block” players, etc. Talk trades. Talk trades you'd like to see other owners make. Have fun.
We can use individual messages between 10 p.m. and midnight each night to discuss the potential deals that are worked out in the suites at the real Winter Meetings. Slack is nice because the glowing green circles will let everyone know who is around, and who isn’t. If you don’t want to be bothered one of the nights during the Winter Meetings, simply just use the Do Not Disturb function. I do urge all members to at least pop in for a few moments during the week to check in.
Obviously, deals and discussions can happen outside that 10 p.m. to midnight window, that is just the time period I'm setting up to be considered our Winter Meetings.
Let's have a fun four days talking baseball — and hopefully, another Eagles win. Am I right, Parker?
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