This Week In CFCL History

Here’s a look at this week in CFCL history, covering the dates June 2 to June 8.

June 2, 1992	DEM REBELS trade Dick Schofield and Stan Belinda to SIX PACKS for Steve Finley and Bret Barberie. The Rebels’ guilt about the havoc they played with the Six Packs’ roster via The Bret Barberie Incident in the ’92 draft finally bubbles to the surface and they take Barberie off the Packs’ hands.  Actually, Schofield and Barberie essentially cancelled each other out and their stats for the rest of the year were nearly identical (slight edge to Schofield in RBI, slight edge to Barberie in BA).  The Rebels got 32 SB from Finley, while the Six Packs got 4 W and 12 Sv from Belinda, so that end of the deal worked out for both teams … kind of. Finley’s steals helped move the Rebels from 8th to 7th in SB, while Belinda’s saves weren’t enough to pull the Packs out of last place in the category.  Watch for a full blow-by-blow video breakdown of The Bret Barberie Incident in a future post…
June 2, 1998	LAMBCHOPS trade Todd Helton, Bret Boone, Rueben Rivera, and Pat Cline to RUFFINS for Ricky Bottalico, Eli Marrero, JT Snow, and their 3rd round Rotation Draft pick in 1999. The Lambchops were in 2nd place at the time of this deal, 14 points ahead of the 7th place Ruffins. I’m not sure what the Chops were looking for here … they were in 8th place in Saves, 28 saves behind the leader, so maybe they were looking for a boost in that category from Bottalico and wanted to upgrade their catching corps with Marrero. Still, swapping Helton for Snow, and including Boone to boot was a high price to pay.  Helton outhit Snow .330 to .282, slugged 5 more homers, and drove in 14 more runs the rest of the way. Boone played well for the Ruffins for a month, and then they packaged him in a deal with the Six Packs to acquire even more offense.  Bottalico saved only 3 games for the Lambchops and Marrero gave them only 3 HR and 18 RBI (though this was admittedly an upgrade over Jesse Levis and Gregg Zaun.  A bust all the way around for the Lambchops, they ended up falling a place in the standings by seasons end, to finish in third.  The Ruffins, on the other hand, caught fire and won their first CFCL Championship in 1998, in an incredibly close race with the Copperfields.  The Ruffins won by just a point and a half, finishing ahead of the Copperfields by a single HR and 40 RBI.  To top it off, Helton carried a salary of .05, making him a no-brainer keeper for the Ruffins in 1999.
June 3, 1986	Z-28s trade Franklin Stubbs, Bob Horner, and Tim Conroy to BALD EAGLES for Sid Bream, Tim Teufel, and Steve Carlton. The ink hadn’t dried on this deal before it was almost completely undone. See the next trade…
June 3, 1986	Z-28s trade Sid Bream and Tim Teufel to BALD EAGLEs for Bob Horner and Franklin Stubbs. This trade was made immediately after the one above, and you’ll notice a lot of familiar names. In effect, it reverses 2/3 of the trade the Z-28s and Eagles had just completed. The one-third that remained in place was the Eagles dumping Steve Carlton on the Z-28s.   As we discovered in yesterday’s post about The Steve Carlton Incident, the Eagles had gotten stuck with Carlton when trying to prevent the Rebels from acquiring anyone for a penny. Bob suffered with Carlton on his roster for a couple months before finally convincing the Z-28s to take him off his hands.  Why not just deal Carlton for Conroy straight-up? The Eagles had Sid Bream as an injury replacement for Pedro Guerrero, and rather than eventually having to choose between Guerrero and Bream when Pedro came back the Eagles took advantage of a rules loophole to “break” the link between them via trade.  In addition to ditching Carlton, the Eagles also picked up an injured pitcher in Conroy, who they immediately reserved and replaced with free agent Gene Garber. Garber went on to save 20 games for the Eagles after they picked him up.
June 3, 1986	COPPERFIELDS trade John Russell to BALD EAGLES for Tim Teufel. Tim Teufel becomes the first – perhaps only - player in CFCL history to be traded three times in a single day. First, he was ping-ponged between the Bald Eagles and Z-28s in The Great Carlton Purge, and upon his return to the Eagles was immediately shipped to the Copperfields.  Russell was an upgrade over Teufel for the Eagles … post-trade stats:  Russell: .242 BA – 10 HR – 48 RBI – 0 SB Teufel: .255 BA – 2 HR – 11 RBI – 1 SB  What was the Copperfields’ interest in the weak hitting infielder Teufel? Acquiring him allowed them to shift even-weaker-hitting infielder Steve Jeltz to the Utility spot, then promptly waive him to open up a roster spot for a minor leaguer named Barry Bonds, who provided 16 HR and 36 SB after his call-up.
June 4, 1991	LAMBCHOPS trade Andre Dawson and John Burkett to SWORDFISH for Billy Hatcher and Jay Howell. The Lambchops deal from a strength (Dawson’s HR) in the effort to improve a weakness (Howell’s Sv). The Lambchops didn’t miss Dawson’s power – nor Burkett’s Wins for that matter – as they finished first in HR, RBI, and W. Howell helped them climb a couple places in Saves, but they finished third overall in a race that had the top three teams separated by just 2 points.  The Swordfish must have missed Hatcher – they reacquired him from the Lambchops about a month later.
June 5, 1990	DEM REBELS trade Mike Bielecki, Bob Walk, Dale Murphy, and Gary Redus to LAMBCHOPS for Scott Garrelts, Marty Clary, Juan Samuel, and Pedro Guerrero. An interesting deal, in that only 2.5 points separated the Rebels and Lambchops in the standings at the time, so this was something of a challenge deal.  The Chops had big leads in the HR and SB categories, so could spare Samuel and Guerrero, while the Rebels had a nice cushion in Wins and could afford to send some the Lambchops’ way. At least, that was the theory, but it didn’t exactly work out that way. Post-trade stats:  Dem Rebels get: Guerrero: .275 BA – 7 HR – 43 RBI – 0 SB Samuel: .247 BA – 9 HR – 37 RBI – 15 SB Garrelts: 3.02 ERA – 1.22 RATIO – 11 W – 0 Sv Clary: 5.94 ERA – 1.60 RATIO – 0 W – 0 Sv  Lambchops get: Murphy: .240 BA – 16 HR – 58 RBI – 5 SB Redus: .264 BA – 5 HR – 15 RBI – 8 SB Bielecki: 5.42 – 1.55 RATIO – 5 W – 1 Sv Walk: 4.48 ERA – 1.33 RATIO – 3 W – 1 Sv The Rebels end up with more wins, and the Chops end up with more HR. and SB. In the end, the teams ended up tied for 5th place overall, with the Lambchops winning the tie breaker.
June 5, 2001	DEM REBELS trade Sammy Sosa to PICTS for Juan Pierre, Luke Prokopec, Reid Taylor, and their 2nd and 7th round Rotation Draft picks in 2002. Sosa was priced at .44 and was in the final year of his contract, so the rebuilding Rebels sent him to the contending Picts for a package of talent for the future.  Things didn’t work out for the Picts, and they ended up changing focus to the future as well and sent Sosa to the Six Packs in a trade deadline deal.  Neither Prokopec nor Tayloer panned out for the Rebels, but they signed Pierre to a 2-year guaranteed contract before the 2002 season and got 47 SB from him in 2002 and 65 in 2003.  In addition, the Rebels used the two draft picks from the Picts to select a couple minor leaguers who ended up having successful careers: Marlon Byrd and Kelly Johnson.
June 5, 2004	RUFFINS trade Sean Burroughs, Jerome Williams, and their 6th round Rotation Draft pick in 2005 to HOT SLUDGE SUNDAE for Scott Rolen and Dwayne Wise. The floundering Sundae found themselves in last place, a whopping 92 points out of first, so were willing to part with Scott Rolen for the future potential of Burroughs and Williams.  Rolen gave the Ruffins a .406 OBP with 178 TB, 76 RS and 67 RBI after the trade, and kept them in the race the whole year, but in the end they fell 5 points short of the 2001 Champions, the Stones.  The Sundae signed Burroughs to a 2-year guaranteed contract before the 2005 season, but he was so unproductive, they dumped him to the Copperfields in a 2005 trade deadline deal.  They kept Williams for 2005 as well, and he was steady but unspectacular: 3.91 ERA – 1.35 RATIO – 1.43 K:BB 11 QS – 0 HoSv.
June 6, 2006	LAMBCHOPS trade Andruw Jones and Braden Looper to PICTS for David Eckstein, Jose Valentin, John Patterson, and Chad Qualls. The Picts obtain some offense and relief help from the rebuilding Lambchops. Here’s what Jones and Looper gave the Picts after the deal:  Jones: .369 OBP – 186 TB – 71 RS – 78 RBI – 1 SB Looper: 3.47 ERA – 1.36 RATIO – 2.00 K:BB – 7 HoSv  Despite the production, the Picts dropped a place in the standings by the end of the season.  The Lambchops kept Patterson and Qualls going into 2007, though Patterson was injured for most of the year, and Qualls was dealt to the Copperfields at the 2007 trade deadline.
June 6, 2010	RUFFINS trade Carlos Beltran, Chris Carter, and their 12th round Rotation Draft pick in 2011 to REVENGE for Brad Lidge and their 7th round Rotation Draft pick in 2011.  The Ruffins get the better of this pitching-for-offense swap:    Beltran: .341 OBP – 94 TB – 21 RS – 27 RBI – 3 SB Lidge: 3.12 ERA – 1.29 RATIO – 2.00 KBB – 0 QS – 25 HoSv
June 7, 1994	COPPERFIELDS trade John Hudeck, Hector Carrasco (RL) and Glenallen Hill to SIX PACKS for Phil Plantier, Bernard Gilkey, and their 5th round Rotation Draft Pick in 1995. The Copperfields were hoping for a boost to their offense with this deal, but Plantier and Gilkey fizzled, hitting .221 with just 12 HR the rest of the season. Meanwhile, Hill hit .301 with 8 HR and 16 SB for the Six Packs after the deal.  The Coppers should have stood pat.
June 8, 2008	REVENGE trade Jose Castillo, Gabe Kapler, Sean Gallagher, and Andy LaRoche to MOORE BETTER for Todd Helton and Andre Eithier. The Revenge and Moore Better were at opposite ends of the spectrum when they completed this deal, with the Revenge at the top of the standings while Moore Better was at the bottom. Despite their overall dominance, though, the Revenge were dead last in OPB at the time of the deal.  Helton struggled with injuries after the deal, however Either delivered a .384 OBP, 182 TB, 62 RS, 55 RBI, and 4 SB.