Shopping Is Fun When You're On The Island

June was a month of activity for GM Aaron Blank and the Baffin Island Beavers organization. The offseason saw players brought in to improve this teams dynamic.  Sadly, those players flopped.

The flurry of trades started on May 31, when Madison and Baffin Island agreed on a deal to send Waba Duck favourite SP Bobby Dunlap to the Bombers for RF Gabriel Santana. Dunlap was thought by many to see the tundra in Baffin for a long period of time, but just never adjusted to it.

Asked about the reasoning behind the deal Aaron Blank stated this,"When the Madison organization approached us about a 5th SP, we though this would be an opportunity for Bobby to find his own, sadly he just couldn't here on the island. So maybe he'll find it in Wisconson."

Santana still young at 18, and still has yet to take the field as a member of AA affiliate Balzac Rams due to his injury.

The second deal was rather a huge splash.  Jason Jackson, who was brought in to solidify the IF, just couldn't find his footing on the tundra in Baffin Island, he commited too many errors at 18 and couldn't find his stroke either, hitting a miserable .220.  Jackson along with minor leaguers 1B Rob Moore, SP Brett Dwyer, MR Kyoshi Asano and MR Emilio Cordero were sent packing to *the* O-R-L for fellow Canadian Rodger Hinton and mop-up man Brandon Barrett.

That deal totally solidified the rotation for the Beavers. If all goes well and everyone can stay healthy, expect to rotation to be deadly-looking like this:

Jimmy Sanders
J-Rod
Nam-cheol Chong
Harvey Phillips/K-Tak
Rodger Hinton

Or if everyone stays hot, the team may need to go to a 6-man rotation. Mind you none of these names are as recognizable as the names in LA or Hendersonville, you should get used to them. They'll be around for a while.

With Jackson moved from the Island and Marcos Mesa still struggling to find his magic from the last two years. There was a hole left on the corner position. So GM Aaron Blank turned to a familiar team for The Douching Beaver, Joe Henderson.  The Beaver and D-Bags agreed to terms on a deal that would send 3B Pedro Hernandez to the Bags for minor-league IF Xin Zhang and OF Jerry Kennedy. Hernandez has tremendous speed, which the Beavers like, and also gets to play alongside his former Trout Slayer teammate Joe Henderson.

In two other deals, still pending Commish approval the Beavers will solve the recent problems at the back-end of the bullpen. Before Marcos Dominguez tore his labrum he blew a few too many games. So the team addressed that by acquiring two very viable options.

The first is CL Rodrigo Ramon, who will be brought over along with OF Bob Hicks in exchange for SP Nick "I don't know how to pitch in the BSA ML" Reed and 2B Pepe Gonzales.  Ramon, who pitched very well in the TOR/OKL minor league system, never got the chance at ML yet, due to too many very good arms.  May get the chance at a premium position on the Island.  Only time will tell.

The second in CL Eric Turner, who was acquired earlier today from Maui for SP Arturo Munoz.  Turner has been solid for the Maui organization, had the best year in AA last year seeing his ERA at a good low 0.97 with 17 saves.  The Beaver organization looks forward to having Turner develop more with the Waba Ducks before he takes the big stage in Iqaluit.

On a lighter note, Nam-cheol Chong was activated from the DL and sent on rehab assignment to AAA Waba to work on his recovery, stay tuned for updates.