[MIJB#19]

Maassluis Merchantmen, masters of trading, episode 2.

The story of the trading tradition in Maassluis. Nobody kept track, except for the Merchantmen themselves on their own trades, but it's likely the Merchantmen have made the most deals of all over the past 86 off-seasons and a bit of regular season trading. The idea was to count down the top 10 best trades, to throw in a handful of bad ones and one specific trade that never happened, which could have had major implications on the history of the Merchantmen. Episode 1's trade for the 2016 #8 overall pick that was used on wide receiver Gabe Springer will certainly ranks in the top 10 all-time, but where? Let's save that question for later and switch from #86 to #89, wide receiver Terry Haskell.

The 2035 season had been a very good one for the Maassluis Merchantmen. After 6 seasons outside the playoffs and seeing the Bordeaux Vineyards pull of an equally long series of European division titles, the Merchantmen finally restored their dominance. Before Bordeaux' unprecedented streak in the division, the division title tally was Maassluis 12, Bordeaux 8, Gothenburg 6, Paris 3. The 11-5 record was far from good enough to even sniff at the byes as the top two seeds in the AOC both put down a 14-2 record. The Merchantmen ended up beating the 12-4 wild card Fort Wayne Fury, but were no match for the nearly unstoppable Tucker Tigers en route to their second straight IHOF Bowl victory, their first back-to-back league championships.

Result of that campaign was a #26 overall first round pick for the Merchantmen. While the draft was slowly starting to roll, the Merchantmen had put their eyes on wide receiver Terry Haskell. Yes, they interviewed him prior to the draft and they were very impressed as the staff back then felt Haskell was a very underrated prospect (and he was, on arrival Merchantmen staff assessed him as a 42-potential player on a 1-100 scale). It would turn out to be a draft of wide receivers (shocker!) with seven of them taken in the first round, all of them with the top 18 picks.

To be able to make a move, the Merchantmen jumped on the Paris Musketeers' willingness to trade the #20 overall pick for two second and one third round pick in that 2036 draft (#56, #57 and #80 overall). Due to their trading in prior off-seasons, the Merchantmen were stocked with even more picks. Dating back from the 2033 off-season, they had acquired third rounders from Tucker, Minnesota, Texas and second rounders from Texas and Outer Banks. At that point, those second rounders were already gone, one of them in the move up to #20, another went to Rochester Razorbacks to be able to acquire veteran wide receiver Russell Holliday.

Anyway, stocked with picks, the Merchantmen rang the Neverland Ranch Hands and packaged the #20 and #26 overall picks, as well as a triplet of third rounders (#80, #90 and #96 overall) for the #6 overall and a 2037 third round pick. Hoping it would be high enough to grab their diamond in the rough.

In a change of events, the Neverland Ranch Hands ended up trading both the 1.20 and 1.26 picks to acquire the 1.3 overall pick from the Asheville Axemen and ended up selecting wide receiver Vincent Reblin. An obvious sigh of relief for the Merchantmen, whom had traded up for a different wide receiver.

Pick 1.20 ended up being traded by Asheville to the Vicksburg Vipers to be able to select cornerback J.C. Abrams. Pick 1.26 ironically moved back to Maassluis in exchange for their 2037 first round pick to be able to pick defensive tackle Jerome Tyson. Picks 3.24 and 3.26 remained in Neverland Ranch Hands hands, they were used to select wide receiver Reggie Thorstenson and defensive tackle Bill Lewitt. The 3.32 was traded by Neverland Ranch to the Orlando Talons to be able to select offensive tackle (to be moved to guard) Melvin Connell.

Maassluis Merchantmen send:
2036 1.20 pick
2036 1.26 pick
2036 3.24 pick
2036 3.26 pick
2036 3.32 pick

Neverland Ranch Hands send:
2036 1.6 pick
2037 3rd Neverland Ranch

#20 overall pick J.C. Abrams turned out to be a solid cornerback for the Vicksburg Vipers, sticking around for 9 seasons, missing 7 regular season games and participating in 10 playoffs games. 13 interceptions, 105 defended passes, 5 forced fumbles, 7 fumble recoveries, 418 tackles and 118 assists was his resume in Vicksburg. His 10th and final season in the IHOF was underwhelming with no interceptions or defended passes, despite playing on 428 passing plays for the Hanalei Dragons.

#26 overall pick defensive tackle Jerome Tyson was a welcome addition to the Merchantmen defense, but after four seasons, salary cap issues made them release him as the start of the 2040 off-season, despite having signed an expensive 4-year deal in the 2039 off-season. He bounced around with 3 seasons for the Moontown Darksiders, 3 seasons with the Hanalei Dragons, 2 with the Toronto Lake Monsters and one final game for the Augusta Greenjackets. In 2039 he was an All-IHOF first team selection, which was a cause for the Merchantmen and Tyson being unable to agree to a contract that would work under their tight cap situation. Tyson ended up retiring with 377 tackles, 166 assists, 35.5 sacks, 93 hurries, 30 blocked passes in 182 games in 13 seasons. He participated in 12 playoffs games, most prominently the 2039 IHOF Bowl XLII in which the Chesapeake Chitterlings beat the Merchantmen 23-10.

Neverland Ranch's third round picks all turned out to be duds. Wide receiver Reggie Thorstenson played only two seasons there, accumulating 82 catches for 1,065 yards and 8 touchdowns. In four more seasons with the Colorado Cutthroats he failed to get above 1,000 yards for a single season either. In 2042 Colorado decided to let Thorstenson walk in free agency and no other team showed any interest, despite coming of his most productive season with 75 catches for 864 yards. Defensive tackle Bill Lewitt was released after 4 underwhelming seasons with 46 tackles, 30 assists and 6.5 sacks in total.

Orlando's guard Melvin Connell remained inactive throughout the 2036 season and got cut in the 2037 off-season. He never got to play a down in the IHOF. That too happens at times, even for third round picks.

That 2037 third round pick from the Neverland Ranch Hands ende dup being the 3.14 pick, which the Merchantmen packaged in a swap of three third round picks for a 2039 second round pick and some 2038 picks from the Outer Banks Ospreys. The Ospreys used that 2037 3.14 pick to select wide receiver Marc Kohler, with 78 catches in 102 regular season games and 7 seasons, an afterthought in their game plan.

Terry Haskell at #6 overall was still considered to be like hitting the jackpot for the Merchantmen. Evidently they knew what they were doing, grabbing this undervalued wide receiver that would end up being their all-time leading receiver (until Theo Bondy most likely catches up somewhere in the 2090s). 1,086 receptions, 15,001 yards, 127 touchdowns in 202 regular season games. 19 more playoffs games for 101 catches, 1,254 yards and 8 touchdowns, including 8 catches for 85 yards in the lost IHOF Bowl XLII. After a Haskell unworthy 58 catches for 671 yards, the 21-13 loss to the San Antonio Tidal Force in the 2048 divisional round was his last game in the IHOF. He retired in the following off-season, to get selected into the IHOF's Solecismic Hall of Fame in 2053. One of seven players from that 2036 draft class, one of the other six being linebacker Wesley Devine, with whom Haskell played together on the same team for all that time. They got inducted into the HOF together.