Lammas Traded!

In a shocker of news, the New Orleans Looters have announced the 1B Nathan Lammas has been traded to the St. Louis Browns. Lammas had been a life long member of the New Orleans/Somerton organization being their 10th round draft pick in the inaugural draft. However, he never quite lived up the expectations of him. He was a capable lefty bat, but his lack of versatility only playing 1B led to a lack of abilities to put him into the lineup. He's a lifetime .266/.343/.465 hitter in the BSA. However, his production had stairstepped down each of the last 2 seasons. In 2011 he had a 140 OPS+ and last year a 123 OPS+, but this year hovered at 102. Meanwhile, over that stretch his salary kept ballooning. In 2012 he got $8M in arbitration and for 2013 he was also signed for $8M with an additional year signed for $10M in 2014.

The salary is really the main reason for his trade as evidenced by the Looters including $5.5M to St. Louis in the deal. However, from the Looters perspective this opens up some salary room for next year. As well, it opened up a spot that could be filled by Ramon Hernandez upon return from the 60 day DL.

Coming back to the Looters is starting pitcher Kevin Lane. Pitching has been the achilles heel of the Looters this year trailing the entire league in almost every pitching stat. Lane has had a bit of a rough season in the starting rotation for St. Louis, but is still young. Lane is still only 25 years old. Lane had a big year in 2011 coming out of the bullpen for Whitewater with a 1.31 ERA in his rookie appearances. He also nearly struck out a batter per inning. In 2012 in his first full year in the BSA in the starting rotation he held his own. In 24 starts, Lane had a 4.49 ERA, but only a 1-13 record for St. Louis. He also held a 103 ERA+ in 138.1 innings with a 1.42 WHIP. He's had a rough go this year in his sophomore year in teh rotation though. He's at a 6.69 ERA in 7 starts and a 0-5 record. He's also at a 1.74 WHIP. Not stellar stuff, but still a small sample size and the Looters scouts really like him. Lane will replace Ivo Estima in the rotation for the time being as Estima still has an option remaining while the Looters assess what they have.