MLP Trade Reaction – Mad Drops and Jackrabbits Complete 4 Player Trade
MLP announced the first post-Newport transaction in advance of the Columbus Shuffle Draft taking place on August 29th. The Jackrabbits traded AJ Koller and Mary Brascia to the Mad Drops for Adam Stone and Vivienne David.
Honestly, it’s really difficult figuring out how some of these trades come to fruition. Who initiated this one? How does this make sense for the Jackrabbits in light of previous moves? The Jackrabbits traded away Jackie Kawamoto before Austin for Maggie Brascia, which allowed the Brascia sisters to play together. Now, they trade away the better Brascia sister and AJ Koller for Vivienne David and a guy in Adam Stone who hasn’t played a tournament since the APP New York in late May. What gives?
This is undoubtedly an upgrade for both teams for one gender and a downgrade on the other. However, on the men’s side of things for the Jackrabbits, taking on Adam Stone is very risky given he hasn’t played in a while and apparently re-injured himself right before Newport. Are they planning on deopping Adam Stone?
We expect the Jackrabbits will drop Wes Gabrielsen so it’ll likely be a Shuffle Draft player and a rusty Adam Stone along with Maggie Brascia and Vivienne David. With Columbus being the last event of the season and teams being re-drafted next year, it’s tough making sense of how this gets the Jackrabbits ahead of wbere they were. It’s not necessarily a giant downgrade but how does this make things any better?
The Mad Drops, on the other hand, look to be getting a big upgrade on the men’s side. Koller and Arnold should be lethal as a pairing if Arnold can figure out the right side. In mixed, both guys can make things happen, including with less than elite partners.
With Stone and David out of the picture, we have to figure the Mad Drops will be looking to drop Corrine Carr to try to upgrade their female side of things. Carr has struggled at MLP in less than ideal situations and Brascia, while solid, is not strong enough to carry a player of Carr’s calibre at this point.
There are a few viable options out there to replace Carr, including Bobbi Oshiro, Lacy Schneemann and Cierra Gayten-Leach. Oshiro is our choice for best of the lot but it would still leave the Mad Drops with two #2 females. The women’s doubles pairing will probably be a struggle no matter what they do but if the women can hold up enough in mixed to get some wins, this team should have enough firepower to make some noise.
Regardless of how it turns out, the downgrade for the Mad Drops losing Vivienne David is worth the risk to upgrade their men’s side so much. We are expecting they will make a change for Corrine Carr and those moves should make them more competitive than they were in Newport. The fact is they were not coming close to winning the way they were previously constructed so there’s no real downside to these moves for them..
In short, this looks like a definite upgrade for the Mad Drops and a probable downgrade for the Jackrabbits overall. However, the transaction grades for both teams will have to wait until after the Shuffle Draft. Stay tuned.
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Could there be new players entering the player pool? There has to be at least a handful of PPA players tempted to jump ship at a chance to make some of that MLP money. Maybe it’s wishful thinking on my part, but it sure would be entertaining if there were some new PPA defectors in the mix.
We have not heard anything about new PPA players but it is possible. We’ll see what happens next year
I believe they are under contract. And you can’t jump ship if you are under contract. Only sailors that are stowaways can jump ship. And I think many of the lower-end players that signed are very much regretting their decisions.
Rob Nunnery got out of his contract, and I’m pretty sure Lauren Stratman did too. Not saying it would be easy, but I do think it is possible. Or maybe it depends if they signed the 3 year vs. the 1 year. 🤷‍♀️ Again, just wishful thinking.
This is correct. It’s curious why there aren’t a couple of others who have not tried to leave actually
Are the owners of the Jackrabbits getting cash money and/or big prizes behind the scenes to make these trades??
These people have too much money to be incentivized by cash but this is very weird
If Carr gets dropped, seems like a good fit for The Bus. She can play right side with Stratman and her mixed results with DJ Young may show that she is a good counterbalance for Burrow’s aggression
Carr would be an ok fit there possibly. There may be better options but Carr is right on that border of whether she should be on a team