Hitmen Trade Brittain
July 20th 1983 - In a move that has shocked the EBL, the Brussels Hitmen have traded away
Theo Brittain less than a year after he was a big part of them winning the European League Series.
The Irish Left Fielder was Brussels' 1st pick (at #11 overall) in the EBL Inaugural Draft and had been consistently their best hitter. He has a career average of .312 with 81 HRs and 295 RBI in the nearly three seasons of EBL play, putting him in the top 5 career-wise of the HR and RBI categories. He was also very good in their 1982 playoff run, with 20 hits, 6 of which were homers, in their 19 playoff games.
With a record such as his, you might expect the Hitmen's return in the trade to be bountiful - it was anything but. They received in return from the Barcelona Iguanas relief pitcher
Marco Baan, whose career ERA of 3.60 and WHIP of 1.23 in 240 innings are good but not spectacular, and that was all they got.
Many rumours have been swirling as to why the Hitmen made the deal, ranging from them being scared of how much
Brittain would cost them in arbitration in years to come, to them simply overvaluing
Baan because he is Belgian and hence doesn't count against their foreigner limit. The most prevalent rumour being that
Brittain's face simply didn't fit and they were glad to be rid of him.
Slightly less astonishing, but equally newsworthy, is another trade that recently took place. Lisbon have traded 1981's WL Hitter of the Year
Zosimo Patrianakos to the Budapest Smoke in return for starting pitcher
Admes Tzannetakis.
Patrianakos couldn't repeat his 1981 efforts last year, and had seen his playing time severely reduced this season, with only 104 at-bats before the trade.
Tzannetakis is a servicable EBL starter but has an overall losing record and a career ERA of 4.76.