The Misty Mountain Hops completed two minor-league trades on April 9th — both on the same day, which, as MESN noted when the Bywater Bounders accomplished the same feat in the preseason, is not a common occurrence in Tolkien Baseball's organizational calendars.
In the first transaction, the Hops sent 18-year-old left-hander Zoriy Angolwisye and 18-year-old third baseman Elreamer LeQuella to the Intergalactic Hitchhikers in exchange for 28-year-old right-hander Yasha Goldbender. The arithmetic here is not complicated: Angolwisye posted a 17.82 ERA in 2052, and LeQuella batted .138 with a -1.5 WAR — figures that represent, in the most charitable reading, a pair of organizational arms and a positional player who had not yet confirmed that professional baseball was, for them, a viable occupation. Goldbender, by contrast, went 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA last season, a sample size sufficiently modest that one declines to call it demonstrated excellence, but sufficiently encouraging that one understands the Hops' interest.
The second deal dispatched 21-year-old left-hander May Lang and 17-year-old right-hander Olgha Bloodaxe to the Narnia Badgers for 27-year-old right-hander Mosco Pelham. Lang had been occupying a rotation slot in single-A with an 8.93 ERA and graduated to AA, improving his ERA to 4.76 — a circumstance that confirms expectations regarding that particular roster construction rather than defying them. Pelham's 5.57 ERA in AA last season is unremarkable but represents the kind of incremental upgrade the Hops are apparently assembling, one depth arm at a time.
In the parallel transaction involving Tolkien Baseball's other minor-league dealings of the day, the Ravenhill Darkwings sent right-handers Arag Denildriel and Merimas Brockhouse — the latter having recorded 15 saves and a 3.68 ERA in 2052, the most credentialed piece in any of these exchanges — to the Xanth Centaurs for 33-year-old right-hander Sogrunk the Burner. Ravenhill, presently sitting at 1-5, is perhaps acquiring organizational depth in the manner of a team that has other concerns at the moment.
The Hops' day ended with a brawl at The Ballpark at Helms Deep — Glonar Uirthur of Misty Mountain and Ravenhill's Lolok Zanga exchanging more than words before both dugouts cleared — earning each a four-game suspension. Goldbender and Pelham, one observes, had not yet unpacked.