Prologue | Chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12

Chapter Seven: The Aftermath

Shortly after the acquisition of Webb is announced, Glander receives an e-mail from Kansas GM Chris Luhning. Luhning offers to trade Russ Ortiz and Scott Hairston for Webb. It is a welcome moment of levity in what had been a tension-filled week.

By adding Webb, the Salem Cowtippers’s pitching rotation has instantly become the cream of the BDBL crop. No other team can match the one-two-three punch of Wood, Webb and Zito. With Tomo Ohka penciled in as the #4 starter, the Cowtippers now have enough innings to get them through a chapter or two. A #4 starter will eventually need to be acquired if Salem hopes to advance in the playoffs, but that task can wait until later in the season.

With the starting rotation set, the Salem staff turns their attention to the starting lineup. Upon hearing of Salem’s acquisition of Webb, Marlboro GM Kaminski once again dangles Posada like a carrot on a stick. Though Posada would certainly solve Salem’s offensive deficiencies, Glander is simply too exhausted to deal with Kaminski’s waffling any further.

“Give me a call when you’ve finally made up your mind,” Glander croaks, before hanging up on Kaminski.

Glander and Reuschel spend another afternoon staring at the Big Board in the Salem war room. One by one, each name on the list of possible trade acquisitions is thoroughly examined. Each player is rated according to how much impact he would have on the Salem lineup, and how much it would cost to acquire him. The same process is repeated for the players on the free agent market. It is determined that Salem will need a lot more money to fill the holes in their lineup through free agency.

With each new trade brings a new set of issues. The main issue on the table now is the enormous amount of wasted salary on the Salem roster. The Cowtippers are now looking at $12 million in salary between Beltre (who will not likely see one game on the active roster) and the four players Salem plans to release with a penalty. That $12 million represents nearly 20 percent of Salem’s total payroll. Glander’s next big task, then, is to strip away some of that wasted salary and give his team some breathing room on Draft Day.

First, Glander has his staff send out a mass e-mail to several GM’s that are heading into the draft without a third baseman. No one in his right mind would pay $6.5 million for Adrian Beltre, but perhaps someone would be willing to pay $4 million, $3 million or even $2 million. Anything would be better than having to eat the entire $6.5 million. After each and every one of those leads turns up empty, Glander once again turns to the BDBL forum to post a “for sale” sign. Once again, his attempt is met with ridicule.

The listing does, however, generate a lead from the most unlikely of sources: Los Altos Undertakers GM Jeff Paulson. Since Paulson has a few options at third base, he wasn’t considered for the initial e-mail blast. Yet he expresses an interest in Beltre, and is willing to trade for him in exchange for $2.1 in penalty money and an underpriced player from Salem’s roster. Glander offers lefty specialist Brian Shouse and the deal is done in a matter of hours.

In less than 48 hours, Glander has already achieved his primary goal, adding $4.4 million to Salem’s Draft Day budget. But he isn’t finished yet.

Another call made to the Great Lakes Sphinx allows the Cowtippers to rid themselves of the contracts of Carlos Guillen and Brett Tomko. Guillen, like Beltre, is a good ballplayer, but he simply doesn’t fit into Salem’s plans. In exchange, the Cowtippers acquire outfielder Luis Gonzalez. After subtracting the $3.3 million Salem has just saved from Gonzalez’s $7.5 million salary, the Cowtippers now have a right field platoon hitter for $4.2 million. Since Salem had been planning to spend upwards of $7 million for Trot Nixon – a platoon outfielder with similar numbers - they have just effectively saved themselves $2.8 million.

Gonzalez, however, comes at an additional cost. In order to get the deal done, Salem is forced to sacrifice Eric Byrnes, a minimum-wage center fielder who posted great numbers against lefties. Once again, with each and every trade comes another void to fill.

“It’s like diggin’ a big hole on the beach,” says Reuschel. “You keep diggin’ and diggin’, but every time you take some sand out of the hole, it gets filled in with more sand, cavin’ in from the sides.”

“Coming into this winter, our offense looked tremendous against left-handed pitching and awful against right-handers,” explains Glander. “It was one of our main goals this winter to shift that balance, and we’ve done so with the acquisition of Gonzo. Our Draft Day strategy changes with each and every trade we make. But with each and every trade, we put ourselves in a better position to succeed in 2004, and that is our ultimate goal.”

Looking to fill the void left by the departure of Byrnes, Glander begins combing the league for a center fielder that can hit left-handed pitching. The pickings, he soon discovers, are slim.

Once again, Glander finds himself turning to the Marlboro Hammerheads, as they are in the process of shopping Marquis Grissom. Grissom is one of just two center fielders in all of baseball that owns an OPS over 1000 against left-handers. The other, Milton Bradley, is a member of the Great Lakes Sphinx. Bradley’s numbers against lefties, in fact, are so outrageous (.402 batting average, .500 on-base percentage, .634 slugging) that he is almost Bonds-like from one side of the plate. A message is sent to Great Lakes as well, inquiring about the availability of Bradley.

There are only seven center fielders with a 900+ OPS against lefties, and of those seven, two (Magglio Ordonez and Carlos Beltran) are free agents that will certainly command more than Salem is willing to spend in the auction, three (Jose Guillen, Vernon Wells and Craig Monroe) would be too costly to acquire via trade, and one (Jay Payton) will likely suffer greatly from the Coors Factor. That leaves Bobby Kielty of Villanova and Jose Cruz of Nashville. Glander quickly fires off an e-mail to both teams, inquiring what the two players would cost in return.

Villanova has no interest in moving Kielty, but Nashville is willing to trade Cruz for Tomo Ohka and Esteban German. Cruz’s $5 million salary is about as much as Salem wants to spend for a platoon center fielder, and Ohka would be fairly easy to replace in the draft, so Glander accepts the offer. Nashville GM Steve Osborne, however, puts the deal on hold. A few days later, he declines the offer, opting instead to put Cruz on the open market to see what he can get for him.

Glander offers the same package of Ohka and German to the Hammerheads in exchange for Grissom, but Kaminski has no interest in that package. He has, however, expressed an interest in Ray Durham several times in the past, so Glander offers Durham for Grissom, straight-up. Trading Durham for Grissom would give Salem a center fielder for $1 million less than they had budgeted, and would free up $2 million to spend toward a replacement for Durham in the auction.

Kaminski counters by adding Danny Graves (a $1.5 million penalty) to even up the salary. Once again, the Salem accountants go to work, assessing the potential benefit of such a trade. In the end, Glander offers to accept the deal if Marlboro agrees to take on Timo Perez and his $600,000 penalty - in essence creating a difference of $1.1 million. Kaminski accepts.

“At this point in the game,” says Glander, reclining in his leather-backed massage chair, “it’s all about cost certainty and weighing what’s out there on the free agent market with what’s available via trade. There are three free agent second basemen on the market (Placido Polanco, Michael Young and Luis Castillo) that we feel can each be had for $6 million or less. The only center fielder on the market that can hit lefties and will cost $6 million or less is Randy Winn, and we really aren’t all that high on giving Randy that kind of money - especially if we have to commit to two years. With this trade, we replace one hole in our lineup with another, but the hole we have now will be much easier to fill than the one we had before.”

On the night of Thanksgiving, Glander and Reuschel share a table in the Salem war room, feasting on leftover turkey sandwiches with extra gravy. They sit, facing the Big Board, silently contemplating what they have accomplished in just a few short weeks and wondering if their trading days are over until the first days of the new season begin.

The phone rings, piercing the silent stillness of the office. Glander and Reuschel both look at each other quizzically. Who could be calling at this hour on Thanksgiving Day, they wonder.

“Happy Thanksgiving!,” chirps Glander. “You’re talking to the best-looking GM in the BDBL. Who might this be?”

It is Scott Romonosky of the Great Lakes Sphinx. Milton Bradley is available, reports Romonosky, and the asking price is Brad Lidge and Keith Ginter.

“Okay,” says Glander, “um…let me get back to you.”

Glander puts down the phone, turns to Reuschel and says, “Put down that drumstick, Big Daddy. It’s time to get back to work!”

Next up:
Chapter Eight: Rounding Into Place