Deal contingent on contract extension; parties granted 72-hour window
BOSTON, MA Jun 22 2011
The New York Seacooks and Boston Bluebirds agreed in principle on a four-player trade that would send three-time USBL pitcher of the year Henry Dutrochet to Long Island, if the free-agent-to-be and the Seacooks can agree on a contract extension by a 9am Saturday deadline.
Dutrochet, 29, was the first overall pick in the 2003 USBL Amateur Draft. He reached the USBL after one season with the Bluebirds A-League affiliate in Bethesda. He was a key component of the Bluebirds’ championship runs in 2006, 2008, and 2010, and won the USBL Pitcher of the Year award in 2006, 2008, and 2009. He also leads all active starting pitchers with a career mark of 9.87 strikeouts per nine innings. This season, he has started 16 games for the disappointing Bluebirds, posting a 6-6 record and 3.04 ERA in 107.2 innings, striking out 113 batters and walking 45.
Dutrochet, who is earning $7 million this season as per a contract he signed with the team in December 2007, is set to be a free agent this offseason. Likely to be heavily coveted, he is reportedly seeking upwards of $100 million guaranteed. He would be the first pitcher to USBL history to cross the nine digit mark. The current record belongs to Doug Licoe, who signed a $88 million extension in 2000 with the New York Sharks, but the deal was never paid out in full as the Sharks folded baseball operations after the 2003 season.
The Seacooks have 72 hours to ink the pitcher to an extension. Reports say the sides remain apart, with the Seacooks offering about $75 guaranteed million over five seasons with a vesting option for a sixth based on innings pitched. Even that offer would shatter the Seacook franchise record for a pitcher, currently belonging to Emil Cook, who signed a $36 million, six-year contract extension with the team after the 2009 season.
With a 51-40 record, the Seacooks sit atop the USBL Northeastern Division, up 1.5 games on the Sharks and 4 on the Long Island Amazin’. The Bluebirds are in fourth place, at 43-49, 8.5 games behind and on pace for their worst season since 1997, when they played in Washington, DC. A major reason for the shift was the free agent defection of third baseman Marco Dile to the Seacooks this past offseason. Dile signed a 9-year, $130 million contract with the Seacooks which includes a 1.5% ownership stake in the Seacook USSL operation. Dile, 28, is on pace to break the USBL records for batting average and on-base percentage, as he is currently batting .419/.588/.847, smacking 25 homers in 97 games played.
The move is not without cost. The three prospects headed back to Boston would be catcher/first baseman Jerry Urban, infielder Kerry Magellan, and pitcher Juan Moses. All three were rated in SKSL’s Top 50 prospects manual heading into the season.
The key piece is Moses a 21 year old flamethrower. He has continued to improve his stock, first with eight dominating starts in the A-Leagues and since with 14 strikeouts in 11.2 innings pitched in relief since being recalled on June 4th. He is regarded as the top right-handed pitching prospect in the game, with scouts raving about his high-90s fastball and devastating split-finger. Some scouts have concern about his ability to command a true off-speed pitch, with both his changeup and curveball lagging behind the other two offerings.
Magellan, a 25 year old 2008 supplemental draft pick out of Idaho, draws rave reviews from scouts for plate discipline and superb defense at both shortstop and third base. Ranked the 48th best prospect in the league coming into 2011, he has posted a .402 OBP in the A-Leagues but struggled in 14 games with the big club in April, recording just 4 hits and 3 walks in 42 plate appearances before being returned to A-North Carolina as shortstop Benny Dicci returned to heath.
Urban is known for his bat, but concern over whether he can remain at catcher as a professional leads to questions about his value. If relegated to first base his value drops precipitously.
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