Hendersonville Hitmen: Jeff "F'n" Cole comes to the Dark Side

H'ville, Tn (AP) - The BSA baseball world is buzzing with the news that the defending World Series Champions Hendersonville Hitmen and Los Cabos Cartel have just completed a major trade that sends Jeff Cole to the Hitmen.

Although the trade took over 2 weeks to complete, it only a matter of minutes after the now infamous "leak" for the league to light up with energy, excitement and most surprisingly anger of the news.

Jeff Cole

"Just another day in the BSA," Hays, Owner and GM of the Hitmen, told the large gathering of media at the press conference in Los Cabos. "The reaction to the the news after the leak showed the passion that makes the BSA great. Every owner in the league was most likely shocked by the news that Cole was traded as I was shocked that he was available, but that's how we do it here in H'ville. We are very proactive and like most if not every owner in here can attest we have at one point or another sent a trade interest email about a player or two." Hays added, "I learned a long time ago as I was building financial empire, if you never ask for a raise you will never know if you will get one. If you never ask if a player is available then most likely you will be shocked that he was just traded."

Jeff Cole heads to H'ville hitting a mere .220 with 7 HR's, 28 RBI's and only 13 SB's in 52 games this season. He finished his last sim with the Cartel by going 0-10 and is currently in a 0-15 slide. On top of that he's 4-40 (.125 avg) in his last 12 games and an unimpressive and very worrisome 18-92 (.196 avg) in May.

"Listen, there is no questioning what Cole did last year. There is no questioning his talent level. There is no questioning what scouts and owners around the league think of him," Hays continued during the press conference. "But in the era of moneyball that we play in today we took (with this trade) one step backwards in hopes of taking two HUGE leaps forward. We would not have traded for Cole if we didn't believe he could turn it around, but his struggles are real and are a real concern for us."

With Bill Davis heading to Los Cabos in the deal Cole will be inserted into the leadoff spot vs RHP and 2nd vs LHP. Hopefully hitting in front of Pittman and "The Cobra" will allow him to see better pitches and despite is hitting struggles Cole still leads all of BSA in BB's so him getting on base in front of "Murder's Row" should generate more runs for the offense.

When asked about how the trade talks went Hays' laughed and smiled, "Lets just say Don has a strict 'leave work at work' policy (Hays smiles big at the inside joke). Don and I have been in trade talks for about 2 weeks but yesterday we finally had time to sit down and talk things out. After Don added struggling SP Pineda we re-worked the numbers and within minutes the deal was done. All-in-all it was one of the lengthiest trade talks I've done, but as for as player negotiations it was one of the easiest."

Los Cabos also included 26-year-old SP Marcos Pineda who scouts high, but has never been able to put it together and was on the verge of being sent down to AAA in Los Cabos with a 3-3 record, 5.84 ERA, 1.46 WHIP and a -0.3 WAR.

The Hitmen send a tri of young budding stars all under 26 and signed to extremely team friendly contract extensions. SP Tommy Connare is making the transition from the pen to the rotation and after shutting out Boston in 7.1 IP with 10 K's it looks like he is figuring it out. It doesn't hurt he scouts out an amazingly high too. MR Kolfe "The Werewolfe" Were looks to immediately become Los Cabos' best bullpen arm with his electric stuff and pin point control. 2B Bill Davis has the tools to win a batting title. Gifted contact, great gap and eye and off the chart work ethic and intelligence. No Jeff Cole abilities, but a top 5 second baseman. CF Alberto Pérez was added at the last moment cause he has a "Popular" popularity. The $800,000 was added to off-set the salaries.

The official trade looks like this: