S61 Owner Trading Tiers

Catherine Trammell - contributing reporter

While we are creating tiers, let's do one for how often an owner is to make a trade. Also including how many trades that owner has made in up to the last 10 season. Kept the tiers in alphabetical order. 

• Tier 1 
• Atlanta (ekoontz41) - 43 trades
• Everybody receives at least 5 offers a year from this year, you knew he'd be on top. 
• Houston (rawdk27) - 37
• No wonder Houston has a space station, always shipping people out!
• Tucson (foolsgold79) - 60
• Only dates back to S54 but the most active trade partners out there. Thought about putting him in his own tier. 
• Tier 2
• Colorado Springs (topoftheworl) - 25
• Winning or Less, always up for a trade
• Scottsdale (minihouston) - 26
• Includes his days in New Orleans from 51-54. Would likely be up there in Tier 1 if he wasn't gone from S55-59
• Tier 3
• Chicago (slashtc) - 18
• The true gunslinger, that keeps you on your toes - never know what he's going to do. 
• Jacksonville (rwings1927) - 17
• Delayed start but has been very active. 
• New Orleans (SenorPloppie) - 28
• Remove his trades with foolsgold (30% of his deals) and he's a lot less active on the trade market. Includes the three S51 & 52 deals he made while in charge of the (now) Mexico City franchise. 
• Tacoma (mcandrews) - 26
• Loves a good trade with Atlanta. 
• Vancouver (daubs2334) - 24
• Canada loves trading for all things American!
• Tier 4
• Augusta (jsapp12) - 13
• As the team comes out of a build, I'd expect some more trades as the team is rounded out for that playoff push. 
• Buffalo (bjc30) - 14
• 8 since S59 when he was selling off parts.
• Fargo - (nickzaji) - 4
• Give it time, only his second season but we think he'll be active. 
• Hartford (jverrier85) - 14
• Can't speak for how many offers are sent, but doesn't make a ton of deals. Middle of the pack sounds about right. 
• Mexico City (dakar) - 11
• Only 3 deals prior to this year. Start of a new trend? For now he'll stay ranked low. Might fall into the only trades at start or end of a build. 
• Montreal (FW_Kekionga) - 15
• Don't count them out on any trade. 
• Tier 5
• Anaheim (goldenbaer88) - 15
• Not afraid to trade / trade for a big name. 
• Columbus (mike22182) - 15
• Bumps this low because majority have been in two seasons, one he was selling and the other became a buyer. 
• Dover (drichter) - 7
• More so in recent years, but you gotta catch him at the right time. 
• Helena (alanharwell) - 13
• Streaky, majority of the last 10 seasons were in S52 and 59.
• Huntington (cwiddoes) - 13
• Trading seemed a right of passage, didn't really start until a few season into the league minus the initial new owner I have no attachment to these players. 
• Oklahoma City (klown61455) - 17
• Feels like 8 of those deals involved Shea Crowe, but kidding aside active but on the low end. Noticed a lot of 3 for 1 deals. 
• Philadelphia (TheManUtley) - 10
• I'd put them on the second tier of talent they trade, but could be wrong. 
• Salem (staeben) - 11
• Had a quite spell on the trade market but as the team becomes a favorite in the NL West, they've started making moves. 
• Washington DC (keltic44) - 8
• Took over in S55, but good for close to a trade a year. 
• Tier 6
• Charleston (opie5) - 3
• Not likely to make many moves. 
• Boston (CollegeBoy33) - 3
• Seems to like 3s, could he be done trading?
• Austin (norsk44) - 2
• Stick with what you got is the story in Austin. 
• Minnesota (cmcrhstians) - 9
• Only 2 deals since S53. 
• Santa Fe - buddy996 - 0 
• Former owner went from S38-51 without any trades. New Owner by his words is only a temp, so not likely to make any deals
• Unrated - too little history
• New York - arfy
• Cincinnati - WallyRez

S61 IFA Spending Tiers

Jessica Fletcher - contributing reporter

The Cobbfather owners love spending on the international market, let's break the teams into tiers for available prospect money. We've tried to keep in mind teams who have higher draft picks and will need to save a little for the Rule 4 draft versus the others who might be only spending on IFA this year. Listed teams in alphabetical order by their tier. 

• Tier 1 
• Buffalo
• Colorado Springs
• New York
• Tier 2
• Fargo
• Tier 3
• Atlanta
• Chicago
• Hartford
• Vancouver
• Tier 4
• Augusta
• Montreal
• Scottsdale
• Washington DC
• Tier 5
• Mexico City (already signed one IFA for $6.1M - this accounts his remaining budget)
• Charleston
• Tier 6
• Austin
• Jacksonville
• Tier 7
• Anaheim
• Boston
• Cincinnati
• Dover
• New Orleans
• Oklahoma City
• Philadelphia
• Santa Fe
• Salem
• Tucson
• Tier 8 
• Columbus
• Helena
• Houston
• Huntington
• Minnesota
• Tacoma

New Owner Interview - Welcome Arfy!

(EDITOR NOTE: The commish is boring and doesn't include any fun images to lead the article. Boo Canada!)

Commissioner: Tell us about Arfy. What is he like? What does he do in his spare time when not obsessing over your rosters?

A: My name is Lauren. Yes, I'm a dude! I'm 51 years old. Act like I'm 30.
I live in South Florida. Grew up in Montana. Also lived in Wisconsin and Washington most of my life. Obsessing is the word. I get something in my head and I can't let it go. I'm thinking about my teams 24/7. I'm a serious gamer as I find myself playing Flying Simulator, or Call of Duty, or Pubg several hours of the week.

C: Obviously, you're a very experienced owner. What intrigued you about joining Cobbfather?

A: I love the active blog. In my younger days we had the Pine Tar world blog quite active. But stuff happened, and I didn't have time to keep up with it. And when my momentum went down, so did everyone else's.

C: What is your proudest moment in HBD?

A: Actually, my proudest isn't just in hbd itself. I'm most proud of the fact that I've won titles in the big 3 WIS games. I have 5 Gridiron Dynasty titles, 26 Hoops Dynasty Titles, and now 2 Hardball Dynasty titles. I know for a fact there aren't many people in that boat. (Commissioner's Note - No one likes a bragger, Arfy. ;) )

C: What is your favorite part about building a franchise? Do you try to make a lot of trades? Would you rather build through the draft or IFA? Or just buy a team like Steinbrenner used to do?

A: Taking over a franchise is the most exciting part to me. I don't even care what condition it is in. I'm confident enough that I feel I can make just about any franchise at least competitive. I pride myself in finding players that nobody wants and then using them to my advantage. I recently had a player in another world that passed waivers 12 times and still had an era under 5.

I'm not big into trades. I use it as a last resort mostly. Although sometimes I like to take advantage of teams having fire sales late in the season and get great players for dirt cheap. I don't understand that thinking honestly. . I don't really have one way that I build my teams. I usually just make the best deal I can. Although I feel I'm pretty good at getting good talent through the draft.

C: Of your current roster, who do you like most? Promise they will never read these articles! What about prospects? Who are you looking forward to the ML team in the next couple of seasons?

A: Honestly I feel that with as many times as the team finished dead last, it should have much better talent and prospects. I would have to say Gordon Eyre is probably my favorite. I'm hoping he can start putting up better numbers than he did last season though.

C: What are your goals for the upcoming season? Are you looking to push for the playoffs? Or do you expect to rebuild for a couple of seasons?

A: My goal for this season is to shoot for near the .500 mark. I just don't want our fans to have to endure being a carpet anymore. I think we can be competitive within 3 or 4 seasons. For now, I'll be happy just hovering around the .500 mark

C: What has been your favorite aspect(s) of Cobbfather so far?

A: Once again the active blog. Something no other world compares to. I look forward to the glory of the New York Empire that I expect the writers to be talking about soon in seasons to come.

C: What advice would you give a new owner in HBD? Besides making sure to ignore most conversations with the Commissioner of Cobbfather?

A: My biggest advice would be to find value in players that others don't. Create a system that others don't use, and stick to it no matter what happens.

S61 - Trade Tree

 Jack Torrance - contributing reporter

The blog writers are always taking suggestions and this came to us from the wheeler and dealer - ekontz41 to do an article on a trade tree, so since he made the suggestion and because he does so much trading; I picked his team to go through. If you have a player that would be fun to follow, let me know. It takes a good bit to follow it all the way through, but here we go...I'm giving pick value and IFA signing money as a reference for what was coming back. 

S26 $2.3M international signing of Jimmie Cedeno. Signed as a 21 yr old out of San Pedro de Marcoris, Dominican Republic about a week into the season. Was traded the next season (S27) for RF Al Albaladejo (S20 #26 pick); who earned a prompt ML promotion. 

(Branch 1) Albaladejo was packaged with Ron Corino (S27 #33 pick) and Lorenzo Bonilla (S27 #44 pick) for $800k + CF Sam Becker (S22 #8 pick) + Jack Choice (S23 #48 pick)

(Branch 2) Jack Choice who was released in S34 with no return beyond years played. (Branch 2) Sam Becker who was traded in S34 along with Walker Houston (S32 FA signing) for RP Dustan Singleton (S32 #14 pick) and SP Domingo Torres (S30 $10M IFA)

(Branch 3) Singleton left for FA in S42 as a Type B FA; which led to the draft of Will Hines who retired after 4 pro years, never make the majors. 

(Branch 3) Torres was traded in S39 along with Jon Everett (S37 #1 pick) and Warren Sager (S36 #68 pick) for SP Koyie Ward (S35 #7 pick)

(Branch 4) Ward was traded traded in S47 for Grayson Lowry (S45 #28 pick) and SP Rando Powell (S45 #3 pick)

(Branch 5A) Powell was traded S52 for Hector Mota (S51 $3.3M IFA) and Vince Saarloos (S50 #5 pick)

(Branch 6A-1) Saarloos was traded with C Miguel Romero (S52 $16.1M IFA) in S60 for C Nicky Constanza (S57 #4 pick) and RP Jose Bazardo (S54 $5M IFA)

(Branch 6A-2) Mota was moved in S53 along with C Del Manaea (S47 #284 pick) for 3B Wil Johnston (S48 #6 pick)

Johnston was flipped in S55 along with SP Zephyr Gross (S45 #4 pick) and RP Ossie Crow (DITR S46 #490 pick) for SP Garabez Castillo (S53 $10.1M IFA)

(Branch 5B) Lowry was traded S48 with Gregor Diaz for $5M, 3B Ernest Paulson (S36 #16 pick), and SP Rougned Pulido (S38 #770 pick - this guy performed like a 1st round pick)

(Branch 6B-1) Paulson was then traded to Columbus for RP Julian Clay (S40 #34 pick) who was packaged with Pulido and SS Yovani Bonilla (S40 #12 pick) for SP Damaso Ethier (S46 $23.5M IFA) in the same season. 

(Branch 7) Ethier was flipped as an expiring contract in S60 for $2M, 2B Javier Quevedo (S48 $18.9 IFA) and C Arthur Howell (S59 #40 pick).

(Branch 8) Howell was flipped this season, S61; with RF Omar Villano (S49 $24M IFA) and C Graham Ratterree (DITR S59 #579 pick) for RP Carl Jackson (S52 #11 pick). 

So in a nutshell, the S26 $2.3M IFA spend has turned into current S61 players: CF Javier Quevedo (34 yr old), C Nicky Constanza (24 yr old), SP Garabez Castillo (26 yr old), and RP Carl Jackson (29 yr old). 

We all know those players will likely be moved, so the tree continues to grow.