Eight player deal goes down in IAL, future HOFer finds a new home

Nick Tegeler: Master negotiator

Things are a little bittersweet in the Thunderchickens’ dugout today.  Last night, I made a huge deal in the Illowa APBA League.  Overall, I’m feeling okay with it.  It had to be done.  However, it meant trading a franchise player and a player who epitomized the Twin City Thunderchickens throughout the 2000s.  It’s tough to let him go.

Here’s are the details of the trade I made with Nick Tegeler and his Iowa Oinkers which sends long time Twin City firstbaseman Albert Pujols packing.

Five weeks of negotiation

The key here is that I desperately needed a thirdbaseman with Ryan Zimmerman hurt a lot this year.  Sandoval was the best available one via trade or draft and one of the few that would cover me.  Nick knew that and smartly offered me a deal over five weeks ago.  His initial offer was a five for five player deal and only four total players (Pujols, Sandoval, Hosmer, Viciedo and my 1st) were included in the final deal.

In the meantime, we deliberated and swapped out players during the negotiations (“how about this guy”, “OK, how about him, then?”).  I really liked trading with Nick who I think enjoys the process of league trading.  His emails to me were well thought out and persuasive.  He’s a tough dealer but he’s very clear on what he wants and I like that.

While we traded emails for weeks, we ended up sealing the deal over the phone (see #9 in my article 10 tips for trading in an APBA league).  Nick called me and we chatted for probably a half hour and deliberated between two possible deals before deciding on the final one.

What this means for Twin City

While this helps our third base situation, it is also helps our youth movement.  Hosmer has a good eleven years on Pujols as well as our other firstbaseman, Adam LaRoche.  J.D. Martinez will be the young outfielder we should have gotten in last year’s draft.  And while, Pablo Sandoval isn’t what I would call the picture of youth and health, he is only 27 and is bound to have a few more good years in him.

This deal does deplete our pool of three of our remaining six picks but it fills our need for a thirdbaseman.  We get one outfielder with a good outlook in Martinez and a stick off the bench in Viciedo.  Hosmer is among the elite among young firstbasemen and we hope to have him around for a while.

A tribute to Albert Pujols

The IAL 2002 draft was one of the strongest in recent memory.  Alfonso Soriano, Adam Dunn, Ichiro Suzuki and Jimmy Rollins were all there for the taking.  But with the first pick, I knew who I was taking…  Albert Pujols.  There was talk then that LaRussa thought he could make the Hall of Fame.

Once he was on the Thunderchickens, when he came to plate on TV, I would ask my my daughter (then just three years old) who that person was.  She knew what to say, “That’s Albert Pujols, the best hitter in baseball”.

Pujols had big shoes to fill.  He was taking over for Mark McGwire who played first base for the Thunderchickens from 1988 to 2000.  Albert obviously didn’t disappoint.  He hit 40 homers in eight of his first nine years.  He drove in 100 plus runs in his first nine years and scored 100 in seven seasons.

Through 13 seasons including this unfinished season, he has 496 homeruns (currently 9th all-time), 1443 rbis (11th), and 1262 runs scored.  His .576 career slugging percentage ranks second behind McGwire.  If he finished his IAL career right now, he would probably be a shoo-in for our league’s Hall.

Finally, one of my favorite stat comparisons of Albert’s:  career walks: 957   career strikeouts: 836

Final note: Pujols has nine more games to play in the 2014 season.  Albert, you don’t owe the Twin City franchise anything but it sure would be nice if you went out with 500 homers.

Nick, good luck with Albert.  He’s been a treasure for us!