Rockford finished in last place this season, but they have significantly improved their team with this trade. Rockford gets 2008 All-NPF shortstop Chelsea Spencer from the Philadelphia Force, in return for catcher Savannah Brown. Admitting that they got the better player, Rockford also sent their 4th round draft pick, in exchange for Philly's 5th round pick. But Rockford still got the better end of this deal.

Spencer will be a great improvement at SS for the Thunder. In the 4 game series against the Glory at Westfield, Rockford had a shortstop-by-committee, using Jamie Davison, Audrey Rendon, and Beth Boden at the position. None of these 3 had good seasons at the plate, with Rendon's .245 average leading the way. She also had more at-bats than the other two combined, so she was the primary player. Her 12 errors in less-than-full-time-playing were still more than Spencer's 11.

On the other hand, the Force are replacing one rookie with another. Kristin Miller also struggled at the plate for the Force in 2008. Although the batting average improvement with Brown is not that great (.206 vs .187), Brown had a much better OB% (.351 vs .256) and slugging (.444 vs .240).

But Philadelphia will be taking a step back defensively, based on the games this season against the Glory. In our 8 games against the Force, we stole just 4 bases in 9 attempts against Miller. Against Rockford, Brown caught just 3 of the 8 games, but we stole 3 out of 4 tries against her.

It will also be interesting to see who Philly uses at SS, and Rockford uses at C. Perhaps both teams will be filling those spots in the upcoming draft, which seemingly has more rounds this year (at least 5).

Here is the Philly news item.

Here is the Rockford news item.