I might have made the worst trade in fantasy baseball history.
The trade: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. straight up for Junior Caminero.
This trade was offered to me in a league where I can keep a player on my team indefinitely. Each team can pick 10 keepers each year. If you roster a player like Caminero, a superstar since his first game as the third baseman for the Tampa Bay Rays, you could theoretically have him on your team for his whole career.
That was me. I could have had Caminero forever, he of the 41 home runs in his third season. But when I was offered Guerrero Jr. for Caminero, I took the deal.
Guerrero Jr. has nine home runs this season. He has been pretty bad. Even if someone disagreed with my decision in the trade, they probably didn't think it would be this lopsided.
This is when I tell you there was more than just baseball to my decision.
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Cheering for your guys
Before I get to the softer side of this story, I do want to drive this point home: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. looked like the best hitter on the planet less than a year ago.
As the Toronto Blue Jays reached the 2025 World Series and then lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in agonizing fashion, Guerrero Jr. was truly incredible. He was never off balance. He hit everything hard. I think he was as great a hitter in those playoffs as I have ever seen.
I thought I was trading for that hitter. That part hasn't worked out. But I also knew I was trading for my son's favorite player.
I loved baseball as a kid, but I really didn't want to force the issue with my son. Of course it's fun now that he is a fan, but I let him make the call.
When he first took interest a few years ago, part of baseball's appeal for him was that I liked it and liked watching it. But another part of the appeal was that he found a favorite team and two favorite players. He liked the Toronto Blue Jays, and his favorite players were Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette.
Bichette is now on the New York Mets, but for many years he and Vlad were the cornerstones of the Blue Jays franchise. They were both exciting players with electric swings. They both had long hair for a while. They were just cool.
Interests change and expand over the years, especially for a young fan. He likes a lot of teams now and might give a different answer about his favorite team depending on which day you ask. But it always comes back to those guys. They were his guys then. They are his guys now.
So it was that, when I had the chance to trade for Vladimir Guerrero Jr., I took it for sentimental reasons in addition to baseball reasons.
As you can surely see by now, the baseball reasons have long since failed me on this one. Nobody would take Vlad over Caminero as things stand today. But the sentimentality behind the trade is holding strong, something I was reminded of just the other day.
We opened a box of 2022 baseball cards earlier this week. It mostly contained random cards, such as these things go, with exciting names sprinkled in here and there. But it contained one card that made the whole endeavor worth it: a card with Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., together on the Blue Jays.
He is so excited about that card. It's displayed on his bookshelf. And now we can remember how fun it was to watch baseball together and cheer for those guys when the sport first got his attention.
That's what we're doing here with sports in the first place, after all, and even more so with the sillier endeavor of fantasy sports. We're finding something to do together. We're finding points of connection.
That's what I'll keep reminding myself as I see the never-ending highlights of Junior Caminero bombing home runs like this one.
Rebel Heart and a great moment
As is often the case with AEW or any television program that I follow, I am running a couple weeks behind on the happenings of AEW Dynamite and AEW Collision. But I did make a point of watching parts of the Rebel Heart episode.
For those who aren't aware, Rebel was a mainstay for a number of AEW's early years. She and Britt Baker, an original member of the roster and a well-known AEW star, did a lot of great work together as a heel pairing and as a comedy duo.
I will always remember how much I looked forward to Dynamite during the COVID days. Those empty arena and sparsely attended shows brought me a lot of comfort. Rebel and Britt Baker were a big part of those shows.
Rebel was recently diagnosed with ALS. During the "Rebel Heart" episode earlier this month that was dedicated to her and her efforts to raise awareness while she lives with the disease, Rebel gave us an awesome moment.
Odds and ends
⚾ As the baseball season nears its end and teams prepare for the playoffs, the Los Angeles Dodgers are wondering about the health of Shohei Ohtani and his availability. His manager, Dave Roberts, said Ohtani is feeling "normal...ish." Aren't we all? (The Athletic $)
📺 I am mostly behind on the latest shows (more on that in a second), but I did watch the entirety of Hacks. I am so glad for Jean Smart's running the table as the best actress for the run of the series. I am less glad that it didn't win more awards, because I thought the final season was amazing. But I also can't really speak to the other shows because, you know, I haven't seen them (AP News).
🤖 I don't know what to make of these AI news cycles other than to worry and get emotional about people making art and "farting around," as Kurt Vonnegut famously described our purpose in life. I do know that I appreciate headings like this one: "The Big AI Slowdown Is Stupid Marketing Nonsense And Our Idiotic Politicians Are Falling For It" (Garbage Day).
😆 Currently watching New Girl (again) and Frasier (again). I can only handle funny shows these days, gang. That's a big part of why I am always behind on the latest great shows. I do want to watch The Pitt and Pluribus at some point. In the meantime, there are some bangers from the first season of New Girl for those of use who need the laughs right now.
A "Hello Dolly" clip about AI
In last week's newsletter, I shared the path our family took to listening to "I am the very model of a modern Major-General" in the car. We were listening to it again this week, and then the music app suggested a similar song.
That suggestion: "Put on Your Sunday Clothes."
With WALL-E being a favorite movie in our house, we immediately remembered the following bit fondly upon hearing that song: WALL-E the robot mimicking the human dancing and emotions that he sees in a salvaged tape of "Hello Dolly."
There are too many movies, shows, and books to name at this point that have been warning us about relying on technology and losing human connection. I notice them these days, and it almost always stops me in my tracks.
So, what started as a joyful memory of a pretend robot tipping his cap ended as a reminder that WALL-E tells the story of humanity giving over their decision-making to a computer and killing the planet.
I don't really need to expand on that point. Hopefully the backstory of WALL-E was billionaire executives who couldn't get their stories straight as they desperately tried to turn a profit selling something that nobody asked for.
I suppose it's worth remembering that WALL-E has a happy ending, albeit one that comes after the total destruction of the planet. In the meantime, I'll go back to focusing on the emotions and the dancing.
And if anyone ever wonders what Vladimir Guerrero Jr. could possibly have to do with the movie WALL-E, you can send them this newsletter.
