How Much are Titles Worth? Breaking Down the German Rivas Trade.

On June 5th, 2015 one of the biggest trades in BSA history took place.  German "Golden" Rivas, the face of the Orlando franchise, was sent to the Toronto Titans for a staggering 14 players.  Playing in a contract year with the Calrissian who were on pace to lose 100+ games, Jason Goldberg and James Patterson struck a monumental deal which would change both franchises.  3 years short of the 10 year anniversary of this trade, how did both teams fare?  Who got the better end?  Let's break it down.

To TORONTO:

OF German Rivas.  The then 29 year old Rivas would sign a 6 year deal worth $88.5M and would spend the entire length of the contract with the Titans, giving him 6.5 seasons in a Toronto uniform.  Over that time period, Rivas would put up 30.7 WAR, a triple slash line of .299/.393/.530 to go with 192 HR, 201 2B, 652 RBI and 141 SB.  He would make the CL All Star team 4 times in those 6 years following the trade and was an instrumental part of a lineup that would go onto win back-to-back BSA Championships in 2018 and 2019.

Totals: 30.7 WAR, 4 AS games, 2 titles.

To ORLANDO:

SP Reagen Wear.  One of two crown jewels of the deal.  The 33rd ranked prospect before the 2015 season.  Wear has been everything that he was projected to be and then some.  The 30 year old SP has a career record of 126-95 with a 3,46 ERA, 1.15 WHIP and a career WAR of 49.7.  His 2021 season in which he won the NL Cy Young was one of the best seasons in BSA history for a starting pitcher where he posed a BSA record 1.22 ERA, 0.79 WHIP and 10.7 WAR.  Wear is under contract with Orlando for next 4 seasons as well.

126-95 record, 49.7 WAR, 1 Cy Young, 6 AS games

1B/DH Santiago Marquez.  The 2nd of crown jewel prospects found in the trade.  Marquez was ranked the 85th prospect before the season in 2015.  Known simply as Q in Orlando, Marquez was 18 when the trade happened and though probably rushed, he played 85 games with Orlando that season.  The now 28 year old is under contract with the Calrissian for the next 4 seasons as well.  In his career thus far, Q has put up 35.1 WAR, 321 HR, 301 2B, 1032 RBI as well as winning the 2024 NL MVP award.  He is a fan favorite and is probably heading towards 3000 hits and 500 HR.

35.1 WAR, 6 AS games, 1 MVP

CF Bryce Hopkins.  The 28 year old Hopkins came over in the trade to be a replacement for Rivas in CF.  He won the 2014 gold glove the year before and while he only would spend the remainder of 2015 in Orlando and the next 3 years, he would have 3 of his top 5 overall seasons there.  Hopkins played in 576 games over 3.5 seasons putting up 21.1 WAR with a triple slash line of .280/.343/.438 with 134 doubles, 28 triples and 58 HR.  He would make one all star team before leaving the team via free agency in 2019.

21.1 WAR, 1 AS game.

MR Max Jones.  A 29 year old reliever at the time of trade, Jones would be a staple in the Orlando bullpen from 2015-2018 before bouncing around the minors for a few years and retiring in 2021.  Jones pitched in 209 games over a 4 year span with a 3.27 ERA, striking out 216 batters in 242 innings and produced a 2.3 WAR/

2.3 WAR.

MR Randolph Plante.  A 28 year old reliever who put up a 2.81 ERA in Toronto in 16 innings in 2014.  He would throw in 94 games over the next 2 years for Orlando, including a league high 91 appearances in 2016.  In 2 seasons he put a 4.72 ERA, striking out 94 batters in 108.2 IP, which was good for a 1.7 WAR,

1.7 WAR 

MR Jorge Ibarra.  A 28 year old reliever at the time of trade, Ibarra had a spectacular 2014 in the Toronto pen, which ended with a 0.43 ERA, 0.79 WHIP and completely aided by a .155 BABIP.  He would pitch for the Calrissian for 2.5 seasons before leaving for Irvine in free agency and ultimately retiring in 2023.  He would pitch in 76 games, including 34 starts for Orlando.  He would end his time in Orlando pitching 214 innings of 4.91 ERA ball, good for 1.4 WAR.

1.4 WAR

MR Michael Taylor.  A 32 year old reliever who was a big part of the Titans bullpen in 2014.  He would pitch in the Orlando pen for remainder of 2015 and parts of the next 4 years before becoming a free agent and eventually retiring in 2019.  His time in Orlando saw him pitch in 198 games, 210 innings with a 3.34 ERA and contributing 1.3 WAR

1.3 WAR.

OF Salvador Gonzales.  A 19 year old and ranked 67th best prospect before the 2015 season who showed a lot of promise in AA after coming over in the trade.  He would be called up in 2016 at the age of 20 and would struggled in 68 games.  Over the next 2 seasons he would generally play in AAA and would look major league ready mid-way through the 2018 season where he would put up his best season in 130 games.  He would eventually be claimed off of waivers by Reno in 2020.  He played in 372 games for the Calrissian, putting up a line of .264/.313/.408 with 28 HR and 167 RBI.  Good for a WAR of 0.3.

0.3 WAR

MR Tetsunori Okamoto.  A 35 year old throw in who would start 3 games in Orlando before being released just over a month after the trade.  He went 1-2 in his 3 starts with an ERA of 9.82 and WHIP of 2.25, where he walked 6.8 batters per 9 and had a .368 BABIP.  His time in Orlando would be the last he would see of the bigs and he retired in 2017.

0 WAR

SS Michael Cooke.  At the time of trade, Cooke was your glove first utility infielder.  He would play the next season with Orlando, playing excellent 2B and SS and struggling at the plate.  He would become a free agent and sign with Seattle in 2017 before eventually retiring in 2019.  in 106 games with the Calrissian, Cooke would put up a triple slash line of .226/.274/.276 with a ZR of +8.3 at 2 posititions.

-0.1 WAR

MR Kenneth Duncan.  A 33 year old journeyman reliever at the time, would get 2 starts in Orlando during the 2015 season, neither of which went well.  He gave up 12 runs in 11.2 innings pitched and was released shortly after.  He would sign back with Toronto after the season and appear in 30 games with the Titans over the next 2 years.

-0.2 WAR.

MR Bill Boland.  At the time the 30 year old reliever was bouncing between AAA and the big league club. He would pitch 2 seasons for Orlando appearing in 55 games. His overall stat line was a 5.23 ERA and a -0.2 WAR. After becoming a free agent following the 2016 season he would fail to pitch in the majors again, finally retiring in 2022.

-0.2 WAR.

MR Juan Reyes.  A 26 year old reliever who had never seen the majors before coming to Orlando in 2015. He would struggle in 2 seasons before being claimed off the waiver wire by Irvine in 2017.  He would go on to have some decent seasons in Los Cabos and is one of the only players still active in the trade, as he was recently signed to a minor league contract by the Cartel.  He appeared in 103 games for Orlando, putting up a 5.56 ERA as control has never been his forte.  

-0.4 WAR

2B Vicente Morales.  A toss in who would never see a game in an Orlando uniform and also would never find his way back to the big leagues who eventually retired in 2022.

Total for Orlando:  112 WAR, 13 AS games, 1 Cy Young, 1 MVP

Once broken down, the 14 players to Orlando turned out to be 3 good prospects, 1 ML player and generally a group of middling veterans who wouldn't produce much.  Wear is still an ace, Marquez is a monster and both are locked up for the next 4 years.  Rivas helped Toronto to two banners and Toronto went to the playoffs in 6 of the 7 seasons he was there.

So what's your opinion?  Who's side do you want?

Mistakes and Poor Offense Plague Jersey; Fall Behind in Series 2-1

On a day that featured 4 errors, 11 pitchers and 11 innings of baseball the Titans of Toronto ended up on top to take a 3-2 win and a 2-1 advantage in this best of 7 Divisional Series.  Though Titans starter Gonzales only pitched 4.2 innings, the Titans bullpen combined throwing 6 arms, giving up only 1 run on 3 hits in 6.1 innings, limiting the powerful Jersey offense to just 2 runs on 5 hits.

Jose Lara, making only his 2nd start since coming off his rehab assignment was sharp pitching 6.2 innings giving up 6 hits, 2 walks and 2 strikeouts.  The last batter he faced reached on an error when 1B John Warner bobbled a throw, a play that should have ended the inning.  Instead reliever Angel Lara would come in and promptly give up a double to German Rivas followed by a single from Luis Gonzalez which would score two runs and give Toronto a late 2-1 lead.

Jersey would come back in top of the 8th and tie the game on back to back doubles by Alberto Perez and Matthieu Vancini, but Bryant would end up stranding Vancini on 3rd with a lazy fly ball to center field two batters later.  Toronto would strand a runner on 2nd in the bottom half and John Warner nor Warren Goyer could knock in Fransisco Ibarra from 2nd base in the Top of the 9th.

Jersey would get a real chance to pull ahead in the 11th when Ignacio Rios would hit Jersey shortstop Lawrence Schroeder with a pitch on a 2-2 count and walk Mike Bryant to put two runners on with none out.  Toronto would get the force out at 2nd on Ibarra' fielder choice putting runners at the corners for David Dodd.  The mistake came when Ibarra lazily was caught leaning off of 1st base on a pick off throw which wasn't even close.  Dodd would eventually strike out which would be Jersey's last chance to take the lead in the game.  

Toronto would start the 11th with a bloop since from Zaragoza followed by a walk from Overbeek to give the Titans life.  Reliever Gerald Johnson would get Ayala to hit a slow chopper where 3B Perez's only play was 1st base giving the Titans 2 runners in scoring position with only 1 out.  Catcher Gonzalez would be intentionally walked to set up the double play for 9th hitter Lucero.  Johnson wouldn't even give him a chance to win the game with a hit by walking him on 4 pitches and forcing in Zaragoza from 3rd for the winning run to end a frustrating and error filled game for the D-Bags and putting them in a 2-1 series hole.

This is not a position the D-Bags wanted to get into, especially with 2 more games in Toronto.  Game 4 both teams will bring back their Game 1 starters on short rest as Jose Ramos looks to even the series with another dominate performance.  Meanwhile Lebel tries to avoid losing to the D-Bags for the 5th time this season while putting team on the brink of their 3rd trip to the League Championship Series for the 3rd time in 4 season.

GO D-BAGS

Milestone for Bryant; Smashes HR #250

I'm sure the league has to be sick of hearing the name Mike Bryant by now.  The superstar now in his 6th full season and 7th total season continues to put up eye popping stats year in and year out.  Earlier this season he was selected to his 6th straight All-Star game and after a "slow" month of April Byrant has hit at least 6 HR and 20 RBI in every month, hit above .330 with an OBP of over 400 in every month except for May and is currently having his most productive month with a week still left over.  

On August 12th, 2019, the first game of a 10 day roadtrip, Bryant didn't take much time hitting a towering fly down the RF line into the 2nd deck of Red Box Field in Madison off of 24 year old reliever turned starter Robinson Gonzales for his 250th career bomb.  Bryant became only the 14th batter to reach this milestone behind classic sluggers such as Crowe, Sagar, Yoko, Delaney, Rivas, Fujita, Alston, Torres, Chouda, Newell and most recently Copriviza.  Not a bad group of players to be associated with.

At the current pace he is on with ~5 or so weeks to go in the season, Bryant would reach 37+ HR for the 6th straight year, 208+ hits for the 6th straight year as well as 119+ RBI also for the 6th straight year.  While he seems to have lost a tiny step on defense and on the basepaths there is really no denying his bat is still going strong.  Bryant will turn 32 a few weeks before the 2020 season and all of Jersey Shore is hoping he ages gracefully continuing to be the heart and soul of the powerful offense.  With his current pace, Bryant should hit the magical 1500 hit mark at some point next season and if he continues on his career HR pace, the 300 HR mark could be hit near the end of next season.

With the emergence of Dave Dodd as a bonafide superstar, he and Bryant make for the one of the most dangerous duos in the current BSA.  They lead all duos with a combined 66 HR, 207 RBI, 193 runs scored and 594 total bases.  Throw in catcher Warren Goyer and the trio makes up for 3 of the top 4 HR hitters in the CL this season.  Will this be enough to push Jersey into the post season?  We can only hope so.  With 5 weeks left in the regular season, Greenville is making a charge and sits 5 games behind Jersey.  The D-Bags only hold a slight lead on the current Wild Card team, the Pocatello Bocabellas as well.  It should be a fun 5 weeks in the CL!

GO D-BAGS

Tracking Mikey Bryant's Assault on the Record Book; Year 2

Last year we started a topic where Mike Bryant stood on the All-time batting lists at the beginning of last season.  With a new season about to be underway, it's time to update this and see how far he climbed the Leaderboards during the 2018 season.

With another big year, he added and passed many players in several categories.  Though with a down April and a huge year from breakout star Jorge Martinez, he wasn't able to secure coveted 3rd straight MVP and remains 1 of only 3 players to ever win 2 MVP awards along with Jeff Cole and John Crowe.

Before last season Bryant sat behind only Todd Church on the All-Time batting average list, but a sub-par year from Church pushed Bryant back to the top where he holds a career average mark of .330, over 5 points higher than the 2nd place Paco Rosas of Greenville who is at .3249.  Bryant remains 2nd in career OPS still sitting behind only Jeff Cole.  Bryant still remains on top of the career Slugging % list, but dropped from a 31 points lead over Toronto's German Rivas to a 27 point margin.

As for the compiling categories Coffin is positioning himself inside the Top 50 of almost every major category out there.  With his 5th straight 200+ hit season he catapulted almost 40 slots to 57th place and with 2 more 200 hit seasons, 1500 career hits is within reach during the 2020 season.  Cuurently only 20 BSA players have reached the 1500 hit mark.  With a lot of active players ahead of him, even a big season might only push him up on the list 15-20 spots.

As for HR, his 42 last season pushed him into the Top 20, at No. 20, and only 3 behind teammate John Warner and former St. Louis Brown Carlos Valle.  With 29+ HR this season Bryant could join an elite group of players who have hit 250 or more BSA HR.  That list is currently at 11 players and shouldn't be added to much this year with only a few threats between Bryant and those 11.  

As for RBI, Bryant's 119 was the lowest total since his rookie season, but still good enough to jump 21 places on the all time list and put him in 32nd place.  39 doubles pit Bryant into the Top 100 in 82nd place with 223 career two-baggers, and scoring over 110 runs for the 5th straight year moved Bryant up 31 spots to 55th on the All-Time list.  

With Bryant's birthday coming this week, he will turn 31 for the 2019 season.  While he is old by no means, the BSA historically has been a young mans game.  Many players have hit the magical age of 30 and have fallen off, will this be the case with Bryant?  He can only hope not and continue to track his progress among the elite names and all time greats of the BSA.  

Current All-Time Rank. (Last season's rank in parentheses.)

BA 1st (2nd): .3300

OPS 2nd (2nd): .9771

SLG: 1st (1st): .5937

VORP 13th (20th): 417.58

Hits: 57th (96th): 1181

Doubles: 82nd (NR): 223

Total Bases: 41st (73rd): 2125

HR: 20th (35th): 221

RBI: 32nd (53rd): 753

Runs: 55th (86th): 655

WAR: 18th (24th): 41.87

Mike Bryant's Assault and Climb on BSA's Record Books

Just days before the 2018 season started, Mike Bryant turned 30 years old, with only 4.5 years under his belt he is behind most players who played their rookie year before the age of 25.  That hasn't stopped him from being one of the most consistent players in that time span.  Bryant had another huge year in 2017 bringing home his 2nd MVP award and making him only the 3rd player in league history to have 2.  The others are John Crowe and Jeff Cole, not too bad of company to be in.

Bryant has nearly set every record in the Jersey Shore record book for hitters and will only build upon that in the coming years.  As we are a week into the 2018 season, Bryant sits only behind Todd Church on the All Time BSA leader boards for batting average, 2nd to only Jeff Cole in OPS, while sitting firmly atop the Slugging percentage ranks by 31 points over German Rivas.

As for 2nd basemen he already holds the all time lead for HR with 182 and only sits 5 RBI behind Dylan Sinclair for the all-time RBI lead at 2B.  It just goes to show how much of a rarity it is for a powerful 2nd baseman to remain there and produce.

With 3 HR in Jersey's first 5 games, Bryant has a career total of 182 HR which currently puts him tied for 35th on the all-time list.  If he can hit his career average for HR and hit 35 this season, he would be pushed up the list to around the 20th mark, while becoming the 22nd, 23rd or 24th player ever to hit 200 HR in BSA history.

For his career he has knocked in 641 runs, which ranks him 53rd on the all time list.  If he hits career averages and knocks in 140 runs this year, he should end in the neighborhood of 775 or so RBI, which catapult him into the 25-30th range with a large handful of still active players ahead of him on the list.

As for hits Bryant sits lower on the list and just entered the Top 100, sitting at 96th with 974.  He will become around the 90th player in BSA history to have 1000 career hits.  He hasn't missed 200 hits in a full season yet in his career and with another 200 hit season, he should end this year around 1170.

As for runs, he is in the same boat as hits.  He recently entered the Top 100 and sits in 86th place with 547.  His career average for runs is 125, and if he puts up close to that it could catapult him into the top 50.

While I know getting a late start in his career will hamper his career numbers and hold him back from any huge milestones, I will use this as a starting piece to track his progress through this year and beyond.

As of 4/6/2018 ranks:

BA 2nd: .3306

OPS 2nd: .9807

SLG: 1st: .5954

VORP 20th: 348.54

Hits: 96th: 974

HR: 35th: 182

RBI: 53rd: 641

WAR: 24th: 35.51