It comes as no surprise that the collusive traders discussed in my prior article had a trade pipeline. This collusive trade was just the beginning.

One item that became apparent in the aftermath of the collusive trade addressed previously was the continuation of a two year trade pipeline between two good friends. The problems this year were a continuation of last year. Last year they weren’t as blatant about their dealings. This year, when the outcry began about the collusive trade, the commissioner looked at every trade they made last year and this year and saw that an unquestionable pipeline existed.

Why would Team A agree to a pipeline? Who knows, I am not going to speculate, though actual splitting of prize money wouldn’t be a surprise, sadly.

In the next two weeks, these colluders made four more trades, so there were a total of five in two weeks. Aside from the previously discussed first trade, here are the rest. Contract statuses are:

s1–can be kept next year only by increasing salary by 10. These guys are prime guys for dumpers to trade.
s2–can be kept for one more year at current salary. Or, after this season, they can be signed to a long term contract at an increase of $5 per year.
s3–a guy just auctioned this year. Next year he becomes an s2, and if not signed long term, becomes an s1 and then returns to the free agent pool unless he is signed to the $10 increase.
0P-a free agent picked up this year. Can be kept at a salary of 10 next year.
0L9–a rookie. When they lose rookie status they become 7s2.

So here are the trades:

Team A(the alleged dumper)–
1. Trades to Team B: Frank Thomas 10 s1, Scott Linebrink 4 s1, Jason Michaels 1 s1, Kenny Rogers 8 s1, and Brandon Lyon 0 L9
for Wily Mo Pena 8 s3, Bronson Arroyo 12 L6, Kevin Slowey 2 s3, James Loney 10 s3, and Miguel Cairo 0 P.

This appears to be a relatively fair trade in a vacuum.

2.Team A trades:
Rich Aurilia 1 s1, Jay Payton 4 s1, Ramon Hernandez 10 S1, Chad Cordero 13 L1, Todd Jones 18 S1, Kevin Millar 8 s3, R. Spilborghs 0 L9.
Team B trades:
Gerald Laird 6 L2, Ryan Shealy 7 s2, Dustin Moseley 0 L9, Jose Cruz, Jr. 1 s3, Jacque Jones 15 s2, Jeff Baker 1 s3

This trade is an absolute joke. Two closers, a top ten catcher, a burgeoning young outfielder who is keepable for a few backups and mediocre outfielders. But not as bad as the next one.

3. Team A trades: Wandy Rodriguez (0P), Dustin McGowan (0P), and Yuniel Escobar (0P)Team B trades: Jose Bautista (2s3), Scott Downs (0P), and Doug Brocail (0P).

There is simply no justification for this one.

4. Team A trades: Rob Mackowiak (SD) 0 L9
Team B trades: David Wells (SD) 4 s3

In sum, Team A (and let’s call them The Cleveland Spiders) traded:

Thomas, Linebrink, Michaels, Rogers, Lyon, Lowe, D. Lee, Tavares, Lackey, V. Martinez, Jose Lopez, Rich Aurilia, Payton, Ramon Hernandez, Chad Cordero, Todd Jones, Millar, Spilborghs, Wandy Rodriguez, McGowan, Y. Escobar and Rob Mackowiak. That is an astounding 22 players in two weeks.

This includes two top closers, two good young pitchers, a few cheap NL keepers who are way undervalued like Spilborghs and Escobar, an everyday catcher, and some others. These are not the moves of a rebuilder unless he is just a total fool. Any of these guys could have been traded piecemeal and a lot more value obtained. He gave a team mired in a close race all he needed to gain about 50 points.

What did he get? Lets call Team B The St. Louis Perfectos :

Utley, Freel, Baek, Cano, Gload, Garza, W. Pena, Arroyo, Slowey, Loney, Cairo, Laird, Shealy, Moseley, Cruz, Jacque jones, Baker, David Wells, Jose Bautista, Scott Downs, Doug Brocail (!)

Here we have absolute zeroes in Cairo, Brocail, Downs and Bautista. A few backup fantasy types in Shealy and Laird, two over the hill outfielders in Jones and Cruz and the now released David Wells. Freel, Gload and Baek are not good keepers. The rest are all decent to excellent(Utley).

One could argue that adding Utley, Pena, Slowey, Garza, Loney, Shealy and Moseley is a net positive for a rebuilding team. That’s fine in a vacuum. But do you need to trade 22 players to get them?? Given the totality of the circumstances it is difficult to see anything here other than a boogeyman.

Of course, being in the front lines, perhaps I am biased, so any readers who want to comment should feel free to email me or comment on the blog.

It should be obvious that these are not fair deals. It should be obvious that the trading of this many players in two or three weeks is not healthy for a league, and by itself is evidence of cheating. What is worse, this onslaught resulted in other teams doing the same thing, as I will get into in future posts. Trade three stands out in my mind as particularly egregious and bald faced cheating with no possible explanation to justify it, though it just barely nudges out trade two in this respect.

What is worse is that an owner competing with The Perfectos offered the Spiders Lastings Milledge for McGowan and Wandy and he would only do the trade for one of the pitchers. Fair enough. But to then do the above trade means that the Spiders’ owner thought Milledge wasn’t good enough for both, but Bautista was good enough for the two AND Escobar, since Downs and Brocail are zeroes!

The entire set of transactions here represents the most egregious example of collusion that i have ever seen in fantasy baseball.

The real life Spiders/Perfectos debacle led to contraction of the National League and a vigorous challenge by the upstart American League. Some things never change, as these ludicrous dealings may lead to contraction as well.

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