After Team Miller refused the Champaign Enema bandits' offer of Shane Victorino and Chris Perez in exchange for Clayton Kershaw, the Bandits were so aggrieved and stunned that they took to the RazzBall boards to ask how crazy it was for that deal to be declined.

When the Bandits owner was told bluntly that he was the nutty fella, he went to Baseball Reference dot com to make sure that Victorino was the 100/25/100/.300/30 guy he thought he stole at the draft in the 8th round (89 overall).

Alas... What he found wasn't that.

Today the Champaign Enema Bandits changed their name to "Better Lucky Than Good".

Here are the standings from PTRCL:

You should have mentioned Victorino is a 3-time gold glove winner!

heh.

Well, Better Lucky Than Good (me) got the trade he was looking for a few days ago.

I had been having trouble finding pitchers to start, so I was falling behind in K's and W's. Through 6/12, I had only used 54 starts. Put another way, through more than 1/3 of the season, I was on pace to come up short of the maximum number of allowed starts (180) by about 25 starts. And all but one of my league competitors had used at least 72 starts.

Meanwhile, with 6 closers notching over 90 saves, and the nearest competitor at 46, it was clear that I needed to deal a closer or two and pick up a serviceable SP.

That happened last week. I traded Walden and Valverde for Verlander.

For the rest of the season (or for as long as they remain healthy), I'll have Weaver, Verlander, Ogando and Bumgarner anchoring my staff, with one spot open for a streamer. And with Storen, Perez, Axford and Cordero remaining on staff, I should remain at or near the top of my league in saves.

Can we end the season at the All-Star break before my players start getting hurt? So far, the fantasy fairy has sprinkled a lot of dust on my team, but ya gotta wonder when the luck is gonna run its course.

That was a great trade for you. And I didn't really think that other one was that crazy. I mean, I probably wouldn't give up Kershaw, but Victorino hits home runs and steals bases, and Perez is a good closer; doesn't seem that ridiculous for a starting pitcher.

Dad gum, I'm the owner of Team Miller and I felt I needed to come on here and tell my side of the story - and to just join the forums for the discussion.

Anyway, in a vacuum, Victorino and Perez for Kershaw is an almost-fair deal. But in my case, why would I want to help out the guy in first place who I'm desperately chasing (I'm in third)? Also, my outfield is Braun and Bruce (both better than Victorino); Brantley, who is putting up Victorino-like numbers; Pagan, who already has 9 steals; and Nelson Cruz. I've just been streaming hot guys into my utility spots and wherever else so I didn't need Victorino at all.

I have Nunez, Venters, Madson and Melancon for saves, and I am currently in fourth place in saves, but only four behind the 2nd place team. Yeah, getting Perez would make it easier to reach 2nd place but I wasn't going to catch the first place team just by getting Perez, and I felt that with the 4 guys I have I can reach 2nd.

Kershaw is my ace and gives me the best chance of improving in W, ERA and WHIP (I"m already first in Ks).

Thanks for joining in!

I certainly can understand that there are always other factors involved. Even if it is a more than fair offer, you have to consider what you will be losing. I was just saying that it wasn't a terrible offer.

Obviously, you thought it through and made the best decision for you. I would probably never trade a top pitcher like Kershaw because I never have that good a pitching staff that I could afford it.

The deal BLTG made was a good one, though. He got a quality pitcher for a couple closers he could afford to part with.

Good luck chasing him down. It looks like a tough challenge.

Yep, I'm not happy now that he has Verlander cuz that'll make my job even tougher. Dude's got a ridiculous team already and now it's even better. But I've been steadily moving up from like 7th place 1.5 months ago and I've got several categories I'm very, very close to getting more points in. It'll be fun.