Trade: River Cities and Saskatoon

Dateline: Marietta, Ohio

In what may be the final deal before the deadline River Cities has made a bold move, breaking off their traditional refusal to deal prospects and picks to acquire standout third sacker Ronald Quijada from Saskatoon, along with minor league shortstop Matthew Rodrigues and Saskatoon's 2nd round pick in the upcoming draft in exhange for River Cities prospects OF Edward Boothe, who'd just broken into the majors, minor league OF Rufus Murray, recently acquired minor league 3B Telmo Dalmau, 1B prospect Kenneth Dolezal, minor league reliever Danny Bronner, and River Cities 3rd round pick.

Seven players and two picks changing hands makes this one of the larger deals in league history.

"Obviously, we're very pleased to get a player like Ronald Quijada for the team" said River Cities owner Nate Wooley. "It's not often an opportunity to acquire a player of his worth. At 25 and with his potential it's a no-brainer to make the deal. Yes, we'll miss Telmo, even though he'd been with us only a few months, but with Palacio at 2B, Hukill at SS, and Quijada at 3B there'd be no place to play him for years to come. Now we have to work on signing Quijada long term. He's still got one more arbitration year but we want to get the deal done quickly, if possible."

"Reached at his apartment near the air field in Dayton Dalmau told this reporter, "Eh, it's not like I was fitting in here. It's been less than three months since I was dealt to this miserable, late-voting place. I hope Saskatoon is friendlier. Plus, there's a chance I could get to play up there this year, depending on how things go!"