FIRST A QUICK PROGRAMMING NOTE:  I can already read the tea leaves here, and I don’t mean to bring this up before reviewing THIS particular trade because I like this trade a lot and think it is sensible and such.  BUT I can see the writing on the wall, I can read between the lines, I can pick up what will be eventually put down, EVENTUALLY there will be a trade that comes along that is so mundane and unnecessary that I refuse to review it particularly thoroughly.  At which point in time these reviews will get A LOT shorter and might end up as more monthly trade roundups or such.  So now you can all compete to be the two teams that agree to such an unnecessary trade that I can’t bring myself to give it a word count greater than 50.

But again that isn’t this trade, this trade was so goddamn sensible (ish) that it almost is TOO sensible.  Annoyingly sensible.  Let’s look at it.  VERY PRACTICAL TRADE TO DISCUSS……

THE TRADE:

 

The Pine Lake Punchouts trade OF Jackie Bradley Jr. to Rojo’s Resurgence (evidently we are still mid-resurgence?  Is that supposed to be the takeaway here?) for C J.T. Realmuto.

 

THE PUNCHOUTS RETURN:

The Punchouts entered the day yesterday with zero catchers and zero second basemen to trot out on Opening Day, and they ended the day with JT Realmuto.  Realmuto is the most interesting catcher in fantasy baseball, SO INTERESTING in fact that it puts him in the top 10 fantasy catchers convo.  And here’s how:  Realmuto is like KINDA FAST for some reason?  Like for a catcher he is fast as lightning?  For a regular position player he just might be of solid speed, but I dunno maybe a bit more folks.  In 2015 he stole 8 bases and ripped SEVEN triples in 441 ABs (21 doubles, 10 HRs, a blehh .290 OBP).  Now seems like a good time to mention that in 2015 Evan Gattis for some fucking reason hit 11 fucking triples and I will need to watch every single fucking one of them 11 fucking times to ever figure that out…… gonna blame that dumb hill for whatever ones came at Houston.  ANYWHO in 2016 Realmuto upped the SBs to 12, but downed the triples to zero, but upped the doubles to 31 in 509 ABs (with a yayyyyy .343 OBP).  And the ABs are important to note here, as Realmuto is expected to see time at 1B in 2017 which could give him a few more ABs than your average catcher. The Punchouts deal a good young OF to get this guy but SOURCES SAY that good young OF was up for drop consideration if a deal couldn’t be reached, as the PP (hehe) have a bit of a logjam out there in that OF of theirs (some rosters are still a work in progress blah blah).  The “speed from the C position” aspect is what puts Realmuto in top 10 conversation, even if 12 SBs represent his SB ceiling that’s a nice little chip in from an unlikely position.  Sometimes it only takes one steal people (unless you’re playing the X-Rayz in which case it takes like 20).

 

THE RESURGENCE RETURN:

Jackie Bradley Jr. is a good young Red Sawk who had a fairly excellent season last year (.349 OBP, 30 doubles, 7 triples, 26 HRs, 94 Rs, 87 RBIs, 9 SBs).  REALLY GOOD NUMBERS and you can see why the Resurgence were happy to part with a catcher to acquire him.  He is probably the “best player” of the two here which satisfies RR management’s ridiculous claimed “rule” for trading; I see no risk with JBJ and he will be a great player.  There that’s out of the way.  Where I see possible risk, however, is what it means for the rest of the Resurgence roster (admittedly rosters are a work in progress blah blah).  Getting rid of Realmuto indicates the Resurgence are handing the catching reins over to their 2nd round FYPD pick, Tom Murphy.  Murphy is a minors eligible power bat playing for the Rockies, so he has the chance to be a very solid catcher in this league, however he is currently going to get AT BEST half the starts behind the dish for Colorado (They really like Tony Wolters’ defense so he may be in line for the lion’s share).  Generally our fantasy teams can expect their catchers to sit once, maybe even twice a week and most owners only keep one catcher and just sort of deal with it.  The issue is if the Rox have an off day here and an off day there and Murphy sits another few games on top of that, all of a sudden you are maybe leaving your catcher spot blank like 5 of the 7 days in a matchup.  Maybe Murphy hits his way into a majority of the starts for the Rockies, but for the moment it is something to watch.  The other issue here is that JBJ is stepping into the CF position for the Resurgence and pushing out like two other CFs, on top of another couple bats.  THERE’S LIKE 5 MAJOR LEAGUERS ON THE RESURGENCE BENCH RIGHT NOW, and a couple minor leaguers.  Without digging too far into the roster I can only assume he is currently terribly non-compliant and will have to end up parting with some solid players in the near future (get your Joc Pederson offers in now folks).  So AGAIN, JBJ is very good and I get why any team that doesn’t have a ban on Boston players might try and acquire him.  But the double R dealt from a position of (relative) scarcity to add to a position of (relative) surplus and a community college economics class tells me that probably carries some risk, or something.

SIDE SEAN LIKES MORE:

The PUNCHOUTS.  Again not a bad trade for either side, but in trading away their starting catcher the Resurgers will be relying upon a minors eligible catcher who is headed towards a 50/50 split in playing time AT BEST unless he gets super duper hot at the dish (Wolters is a far superior defender which is why it may be more like a 60-40 with Murphy getting the 40).  JBJ is good and can be sort of a George Springer lite but now the Resurgence literally have like 5 major leaguers on their bench.  LOGJAM ALERT.  Give me the side that unclogged their logjam a bit and ends up with a speedy top 10 catcher to boot.  A SPEEDY CATCHER IS LIKE A GODDAMNED UNICORN.

 

 

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