Flurry of Trades Put New Look On Draft

Back in November, the Albert Pujols trade immediately sent shock waves throughout the league with Pujols and Colorado Springs quickly becoming the face of the off-season. Other trades that saw Washington re-loading with Tim Hudson, Andrew McCutchen going to San Antonio, Carl Crawford getting dealt once again, and Matt Holliday and Dan Uggla going for Shin-Soo Choo all became background noise to the Pujols deal.

Well maybe we were too quick to anoint this the Pujols off-season after-all.

In the past nine days twelve 1st round picks were traded that totally changed the face of this draft and the off-season alike. This doesn't even include the other three 1st round picks that were dealt in January for the likes of Johan Santana, Tim Lincecum, and Cole Hamels.

This has become the new story and quite possibly the more important one.

Passing on the opportunity to grab the most-heralded MLB rookie since Joe Mauer, the Mooseheads were able to bring in young outfielders Adam Jones and Jacoby Ellsbury while only moving down to the 4th spot in the draft AND adding the 11th overall pick.

Not only did this deal give Napa the first overall pick and the rights to Jason Heyward but it gave them the first two picks in the entire draft! Napa had added the second overall by dealing Lincecum away just four days earlier. 

Kansas City kept to their promise that Alex Avila is the catcher of the future and traded their 3rd overall pick to add Clay Buchholz to the top of their rotation. They would have been all but assured of either Buster Posey or Carlos Santana if they kept the pick.

Halifax saw an opportunity to take that 3rd spot to make sure they get the guy they want, swapping 3rd and 4th overall picks with Brighton while lefty reliever Hong-Chih Kuo heads to Brighton's bullpen.

Napa, apparently content with the first two picks of the draft, were more than willing to deal their original first rounder. They were able to turn that pick and infielder Clint Barmes and Cliff Pennington into three veteran infielders, Asdrubal Cabrera, Jimmy Rollins, and Carlos Pena.

Amidst all the action Helena was able to sneak a first round pick in from Nassau in exchange for Matt Garza.

Confused yet? All this came before trade happy owner Jeremy Byrd took over his second installment of the Aberdeen Iron Birds.

Byrd, owner of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th overall picks in last year's draft, took part in three different deals involving four 1st round picks.

His first move involved unloading three picks (including the 20th overall) over to who else but Napa. Napa sent back pitcher Ervin Santana and a first round pick of their own.

Just a day later Napa owner Eamonn Dymer sends the 20th pick back to Aberdeen along with the previously aquired Asdrubal Cabrera for Dexter Fowler, who predictably had joined the Aberdeen roster earlier this off-season when the team was still in Los Angeles.

Byrd really doesn't like that 20th overall pick though and once again it gets dealt for the third time in four days, this time for starting pitcher Joel Pineiro.

And so ends the off-season of the 1st round pick, or we are led to believe. With only hours left on the clock most teams have already submitted their 20-man rosters, un-officially ending their off-season.

A whole new landscape of the draft has been laid out. The TBA Blog will come out with a mock draft in the coming days, after having ripped up their completed but unpublished predicted top 10 picks just two weeks earlier.

How much will these trades affect the draft? Who knows for sure but hopefully all owners are satisfied with their trades and ready to advance to the next step of the off-season, the annual Rookie/Free Agent Draft.

But of course, among the five teams that still haven't yet submitted their rosters yet are Aberdeen and Napa. Perhaps another blockbuster or two are still on the way...