[mikev]

Draft Day Trade for Crusaders

In what was described as a very, very deep draft in 2013, the Crusaders made several attempts to move up and aquire a top pick.

When a potential deal with Sydney fell through (the Crusaders were in talks to aquire the 5th overall pick in exchange for taking on the contract of Ed Clements) because Sydney had forgotten about their previous trade with Taipei.

The end result? California was unable to move up in the round, and stayed at pick #30 overall.

The team had a small list of players that they hoped to be available when their selection came up. The #1 player on that list, slugging third baseman Jonne Turtola, looked like he was going to fall to the Crusaders until he was taken at 29 by Moscow. GM Mike Voelker's heart sank. When your primary selection gets that close, it hurts to fall back to anybody else on the list.

That fallback was William Lampron, a corner outfielder with huge power potential and decent talents all around. Only a teenager, Lampron certainly has the potential, but with a first round pick I kinda would have wanted somebody at a more premium position or somebody more developed.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Moscow GM UsualSuspect sent me a message asking about my pick (turns out the message was sent before my pick was made, but I didn't see it in time). My reply was that he took the guy I wanted at 29, and we came up with a deal that would send Lampron to Moscow and allow Turtola to become the newest member of the Crusaders organization.



You have to consider it a solid draft if you get the #1 guy on your board who would realistically be available at pick 30. ickles:

Now, about Turtola. His talents are 4/3/4/4/3. I love that, even if he's a bit underdeveloped for a 21 year old. Hell, he's Hungarian, it's not exactly a baseball hotbed in Budapest, is it? Anyway, his defense is already passable, and he plays a position that is a bit of a black hole in the league. Premium third baseman are kinda hard to find, which is why the guy was the only player we seriously targeted with our pick.

In Round 2 (pick 66 overall) California went for a "decent" skillset but a premium position with C Kenkichi Sugiyama. Defensively, the 19-year-old Japanese backstop could play in the GUBA right now. His 3/3/3/3/4 talent potentials compare favorably to Brito The Douchewhore, so if this guy ends up with a .700 OPS and solid defense, that's a pretty damn good second rounder since it's basically All Star caliber at catcher in this league.

The rest of the draft will be on auto, I'm not even sure when my next pick is.