This Week In CFCL History

Here’s a look at this week in CFCL history, covering the dates April 28 to May 4.

May 3, 1985	MUDVILLE SLUGGERS trade Bob Welch to COPPERFIELDS for Craig Lefferts. A case of the Copperfields taking advantage of an owner who clearly wasn’t paying attention. Bob Welch had just been put on the DL, and somehow I convinced the Sluggers’ owner to flip him for solid but unspectacular set-up man who had gotten 10 saves the year before. My objective wasn’t the injured Welch, but Andy Hawkins, who was sitting unclaimed in the Free Agent Pool despite starting the season 5-0 with a 2.73 ERA. I reserved Welch and called up Hawkins who went on to win six more games before posting his first loss.   1985 Stats, post-trade: Hawkins – 3.22 ERA – 1.35 RAT - 15 W - 0 SV Lefferts – 3.48 ERA – 1.27 RAT – 6 W – 2 SV  Welch was eventually dealt to the Friars a month later for Larry McWilliams
April 30, 1986	BALD EAGLES trade Terry Kennedy and Eddie Milner to DEM REBELS for Steve Lake and Carmelo Martinez. A huge win for the Rebels, as they wipe the floor with the usually shrewd Eagles.  The big attraction of Steve Lake for the Eagles in this deal was that he was injured. Once the trade was completed, the Eagles reserved him and called up Mike Fitzgerald, who had just taken over the starting catcher job for the Expos. Fitzgerald didn’t really pan out stats-wise for the Eagles, who were also disappointed by Carmelo Martinez’s production after his big 1985 season.  1986 Stats, post-trade: Kennedy – .271 BA – 10 HR – 47 RBI – 0 SB Milner – .261 BA – 15 HR – 46 RBI – 16 SB  Fitzgerald – .284 BA – 4 HR – 33 RBI – 3 SB Martinez – .226 BA – 8 HR – 23 RBI – 1 SB  Despite the brilliance of this trade on the Rebels’ part, it’s also a reminder of how generally clueless and naïve we still were in our third season. At the time this trade was made, Terry Kennedy was still sporting the .41 salary the Mudville Sluggers had purchased him for in the 1984 draft. Kennedy was a decent hitter for a catcher – one of the best at the time – but there is no way he was worth even half of the .41 the Sluggers paid for him. Then they resigned him at that salary in 1985, and the Eagles actually traded for him with that hefty price tag prior to the 1986 season (trading away, oddly enough, Mike Fitzgerald). Of course, with no in-season salary cap at the time, the salary wasn’t an issue for the Rebels as they let him play out is contract for the ’86 season.
April 28, 1987	A 3-way deal between Davies’ Crocketts, Aces to Win, and the Bald Eagles:  CROCKETS give: Rafael Ramirez, Denny Walling, Junior Ortiz, Tracy Jones, Mike LaCoss, Mike Fitzgerald, Mario Soto, and Ralph Bryant CROCKETS get: Robby Thompson, Albert Hall, Nick Esasky, Bob Brenly, and Dave Dravecky  ACES TO WIN give: Robby Thompson, Albert Hall, Nick Esasky ACES TO WIN get: Rafael Ramirez, Denny Walling, Paul Assenmacher, and Carmelo Martinez  BALD EAGLES give: Bob Brenly, Dave Dravecky, Paul Assenmacher, and Carmelo Martinez BALD EAGLES get: Junior Ortiz, Tracy Jones, Mike LaCoss, Mike Fitzgerald, Mario Soto, Dickie Noles and Ralph Bryant I wonder how long it took to cook this one up in the stock room at Minnesota Fabrics where these three owners were all employed. This is the kind of mishmash you see in the off-season, but this one was put together during the season when positional requirements need to be accounted for – a 15-player swap between three teams.  This one’s too wild to analyze, but note that it has the Eagles re-acquiring Mike Fitzgerald, nearly a year to the day after they had called him from the Free Agent Pool. The ever-dealing Eagles had traded him to the Crocketts in October of 1986.
April 1995	DEM REBELS trade Tony Eusebio, Ricky Jordan, and their 11th and 14th Rotation Draft picks in 1995 to LAMBCHOPS for Jeff Kent and their 2nd and 4th Rotation Draft picks in 1995. We don’t have an exact date for this one, but it was a pre-season deal in the lock-out-delayed season of 1995. Regardless of the date, it was a steal for the Rebels.  1995 Stats: Eusebio – .299 BA – 6 HR – 58 RBI – 0 SB Kent – .278 BA – 20 HR – 65 RBI – 3 SB  The Rebels also got 5 HR and 41 RBI from John Mabry, who they acquired with the Lambchops’ 2nd round pick.  What about Jordan, you ask? It turns out he had actually been released by the Phillies in late 1994. I can only guess that the news of his release had gotten lost in all the focus on the labor issues.
April 1995	DEM REBELS trade Greg McMichael to DOORMATTS for Ken Caminiti. Another uncertain date from the April before the shortened 1995 season, and another steal for the Rebels. McMichael was coming off a 21 Save season, but managed only 2 in 1995. Caminiti meanwhile, put of a line of .302-26-94-12.
May 3, 1988	COPPERFIELDS trade Lance McCullers and Bob Walk to SIX PACKS for Jim Acker, Danny Cox, and Larry Walker. A nice package for the Six Packs. McCullers put up 10 Saves and Walk won 12 games with a 2.71 ERA. The Copperfields immediately waived Acker to activate John Tudor from the Reserve List and reserved Cox to activate Mike Dunn.   Larry Walker, still in the minors at the time, could have been a difference maker, but the Copperfields dealt him before he ever made it to the majors.
May 4, 1993	This week in 1993, the CFCL Newsletter was officially renamed to “The Monroe Doctrine” in tribute to former CFCL owner, Bob Monroe. Here’s that inaugural edition: The Monroe Doctrine, May 4, 1993