High and Tight.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Looks like Beane Just Got His July Trading Chip

I must admit I'm surprised it cost them this much considering Holliday's home/road splits, but it appears Oakland will aquire Matt Holliday in exchange for outfielder Carlos Gonzalez, starting pitcher Greg Smith and closer Huston Street.

My guess is that Beane plans to flip Holliday at the deadline when the price for his services should go up, and traded Street because Beane never likes to overpay for closers.

He could net a haul in July if Holliday has a good first half.

Labels: a's, billy beane, trades

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 2:08 PM 2 comments

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Over and Dunn

My annual quest for the Yankees to get Adam Dunn appears to be over in 2008 as well. Yes, I know Dunn strikes out a lot. Yes, I know he's not the best defender in the outfield. He's capable at first base though, and would make an ideal DH/1B/occasional OF guy, and strikeouts don't bother me that much when a guy has a career OBP of .380 and SLG of .520.

Cincinatti writers and to some extent the main stream national media tend to throw him under the bus because his batting average can be unimpressive (.247 career). Any regular reader here knows what I think about two of the three "triple crown" stats (yes, I'm OK with home runs).

Anyway, Dunn was traded to the Diamondbacks for a Happy Meal and some used batting gloves yesterday. Unless the 'back claimed Dunn on waivers (which they would have the opportunity to do since they're a National League team) before the Yankees could, I think Cashman missed the boat here. Matsui may or may not come back, but how much better does this look:

CF Damon
SS Jeter
RF Abreu
3B Rodriguez
1B Giambi
LF Nady
DH Dunn
C Rodriguez
2B Cano

Than this, from last night?:
Christian LF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Rodriguez 3B
Nady DH
Cano 2B
Sexson 1B
Rodriguez C
Cabrera CF

Oh yeah, and his line for 2008 w/ RISP and 2 outs? A highly impressive .222/.462/.750 1.212.

Labels: lineups, the big donkey, trades

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 2:16 PM 0 comments

Friday, August 01, 2008

More Manny Musings

The more I think about it, what really amazes me is the Dodgers. They have two young OF who project really well currently in the majors, who are cheap and under control for many years and still have options left, and the Sox didn't get either Ethier or Kemp, one of whom is all but guaranteed to be banished to Torre's "sorry you're not a veteran" spot on the bench or sent down to the minors. The Dodgers now have 5 OF who could start: those two, Manny, Pierre, and Jones.

Do you really think the Dodgers would have balked had the Sox asked for Ethier in the deal? Jones is signed through next year, Pierre through what seems like 2015, and my guess is they'll make a run at re-signing Manny next season (but my guess is he winds up on the Mets) and Kemp is considered the better young player.

Why wouldn't the Sox at least have gotten "Papi insurance"? Now, when Ortiz gets hurt, he's replaced in the lineup by Coco Crisp. A smarter move would be to get Ethier, send him to Pawtucket if need be to get him playing time, and if Ortiz can't play get Bay the butcher out of left field and into the DH spot where he belongs.

It's just a thought, but I really can't fathom why the Sox couldn't have gotten a bit more for one of the best right handed hitters of all time.

Labels: dodgers, manny being manny, redsox, trades, trading deadline

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 9:47 AM 1 comments

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Theo is a Genius!

At least, that's how the Boston press and the brainwashed masses of Mass. will spin this trade.

Let's see... Manny Ramirez, career OPS+ of 154 (with a 140 now in what the Boston press is calling a "down year/decline phase") plus $7M plus two decent prospects in Branson Moss and Craig Hansen for..... Jason Bay??

Bay's a good hitter (career 130 OPS+) but his career high OPS+ is lower than Manny's average.

I can't believe I'm saying this either, but Bay's defense will make Sox fans reminisce about the days of Manny the Butcher in left. Bay is terrible defensively.

Now, Bay is under contract for another season at a reasonable $7.5M, but this almost seems like a desperation move. Did the Sox really need to include two prospects with Ramirez to get this done?

The best part for LA is that Manny has agreed to decline arbitration, guaranteeing the Dodgers two first round picks whether or not he re-signs with the club.

This makes the Dodgers better of course, but why they're dealing for yet another overpriced outfielder without jettisoning one of their own (of course, the Jones and Pierre contracts would force LA to eat most of the contracts) is beyond me.

Great deal for LA, even if their outfield is overcrowded, great deal for the Pirates who seem to have finally moved beyond the Dave Littlefield mantra of asking way too much for his veterans and thus not dealing them at the deadline and re-stocking, and a terrible move for the Red Sox in 2008.

At least Joe Torre gets to go back to his old favorite habit of benching young talent in exchange for "proven veterans" again.

If anyone needs an example of why Cashman doesn't get enough credit for his great moves, take a look up north and look at the alternative "genius."

I'll end this post with perhaps the most observant thing Ramirez has ever said:
"The Red Sox did the same with guys like Nomar Garciaparra and Pedro Martinez, and now they do the same with me. Their goal is to paint me as the bad guy. I love Boston fans, but the Red Sox don't deserve me. I'm not talking about money. Mental peace has no price, and I don't have peace here."
Yes, Manny's gotten a pass for years from the media in Beantown for things that would get Alex Rodriguez hung by his nuts in Central Park, but this does seem like another case of the Boston media in conjunction with Red Sox management (who share ownership with a certain Boston paper) running a guy down in the press to make the team look good.

Labels: dodgers, manny being manny, pirates, redsox, trades, trading deadline

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 3:10 PM 3 comments

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Wrapping Up the Deadline Deals

Lots of smoke, very little fire. As opposed to every analyst on ESPN who is going completely apeshit for Boston's aquisition of Gagne, I'm glad the Yankees didn't mortgage the future for a guy who will throw at best 18-20 innings for the rest of the year. Now I know Boston is probably more interested in using Gagne in the post season, but they already had a good bullpen, and all Gagne does is take away opportunities from Delcarmen and Okajima. I don't think Boston improved all that much. Gagne would have been much more valuable to the Yankees, Brewers, or Mets, which makes this deal all the more strange.

Trading for Wilson Betemit is a good move. It's not splashy, and Torre probably won't play him very much, but at least now there's a better option than Miguel Cairo. Cairo needs to go. I know Torre will object, but with Betemit and Phillips, you have two guys who can play every IF position. Duncan can play first if needed, as can Giambi when he's back. The Torre loyalty needs to no longer extend to the bench, and Cairo needs to be DFA when Giambi is back. He can't hit and isn't needed defensively anymore.

Speaking of Torre blind loyalty, does anyone else get the feeling that maybe Cashman made the deal in order to take away Torre's favorite toy? Besides the fact that the abused arm of Proctor is likely to have a breakdown, Torre was using Proctor in ridiculous and unneccesary situations all season (and last as well) at the expense of other relievers who were not getting any work and then would be thrown into the fire once every two weeks and relegated to rot in the 'pen again when they (surprise!) didn't perform well after the layoff.

Having Proctor gone allows Chamberlain to get some more opportunities, so he doesn't turn into another Edwar Ramirez or Chris Britton or Sean Henn. I remember Torre saying they were "looking for an opportunity" to use Ramirez, and the following game he used proctor with a 5 or 6 run lead. If you won't trust a kid there, you never will. Same with his statement about using Duncan as the DH as long as he keeps mashing and then benching him for nearly an entire road trip.

I'm hoping Cashman recognized this and made the move in order to protect Torre (and the Yankees) from himself.

This should be evidence enough that Torre is unfit to manage this team, or any team without "veterans with pre-defined roles." Bring on Girardi or Mattingly in 2008. Something in my gut tells me that's been the plan all along, and a possible reason why Girardi turned down the Orioles.

Labels: brian cashman, bullpen, chris britton, don mattingly, edwar ramirez, eric gagne, joba chamberlain, joe girardi, joe torre, redsox, scott proctor, sean henn, trades, trading deadline, wilson betemit

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 10:14 PM 0 comments

Deadline Day

There's only hours left until the (non-waiver) trade deadline, and my guess is the Yankees will pull off at least one deal, if not more. Obviously the target for improvement would be in the bullpen, and the most attractive prize out there is Eric Gagne. The question then becomes would the Rangers lower their ridiculous demands, or would they continue to ask for the moon in hopes of signing Gagne to an extension (remember, Gagne is represented by the anti-extension agent, Scott Boras).

Farnsworth certainly seems to have worn out his welcome. It's a shame. The guy has all of the talent in the world but never really has learned to pitch. A big problem that the Yankees have right now is that they have too many similar relievers, guys with good fastballs without a lot of movement who relay mainly on that pitch alone (Farnsworth, Proctor, Bruney). One of them is going to go, and interest in Farnsworth seems low. Cashman has had an interest in Wilson Betemit for a couple of years now, and while the guy certainly has potential, he's yet to really put together any sort of impressive campaign in the major leagues. Moving Proctor however would give the Yankees a better backup option than Miguel Cairo in exchange (although my guess is Torre would elect to keep both players for some reason) and free up a roster spot for Joba Chamberlain.

The Rockies supposedly have interest in Farnsworth. Perfect. A guy who throws a 100 mph flat fastball in Coors (humidor balls or no humidor balls). Can't wait to see the 600' HR Pujols hits off of him.

In a perfect world, when Chris Britton returns from injury and finally gets a long overdue promotion, the bullpen could shape up like this:
Rivera
Gagne
Vizcaino
Chamberlain
Britton
Bruney
Villone

Of course that would mean promoting the effective guys, going with a 7 man 'pen, and saying goodbye to Mike Myers. Villone stays because of all of them, he's the only one really capable of a long relief role (I don't think Joba should be used that way unless he's on a regular work schedule, ie. 3 innings every 3 or 4 days. Historically, Torre lets his long man sit in the bullpen for ages without use.) A more realistic option would have Britton toiling away in AAA, and Myers still on the big club (Joe's gotta have those crafty vets, you know).

Ian Kennedy stays in AAA as a starter. I suppose he's now the new "next in line" should an injury happen.

Besides Betemit, there are other infield options. Houston's Mike Lamb is available, and Cashman should certainly look into picking him up. He was a Yankee during spring training a couple of years ago, but lost the roster spot to Travis Lee. He's hitting .299/.378/.480 with an OPS+ of 123 and can play RF, LF, 3B, 1B, and 2B. For everyone who's fallen in love with Andy Phillips lately... well, he's a lot better than Andy Phillips, and has the versatility to move around the field when needed. In my oh so humble opinion, he is exactly the type of player the Yankees need on the bench at this point in time.

I'll be back throughout the day with updates as rumors become deals and deals become official.

Update, 8:15 AM PST: The Red Sox send Joel Piniero to St. Louis for some sticky ribs and a bucket of used baseballs. Pretty much a non-factor deal. I do love though how in every trade rumor I read involving Boston, they are said to be offering "a package involving Wily Mo Pena." Well, no shit. You don't want Pena, but neither does anyone else.

Update, 9:57 AM PST: It seems as if Proctor for Betemit is a done deal. I really don't know how big a fan I am of this deal because I still think Mike Lamb was a better option and now because of the glut of infielders that Joe Torre loves, there's very little chance of bringing him over. On its own though, I like the move. This seems kind of odd though:

The Yankees view Betemit as another first-base/DH/bench option for this year, and a potential third-base replacement for Alex Rodriguez next year.
Bench? Sure. First base? Ok, in the mix. DH? Why in the world would the Yankees need another DH when you have Jhonny the Homicidal Maniac and Godzilla in the field, and the zombie formerly known as Jason Giambi on the mend? There's no reason to DH the guy. The OPS+ of 116 is good, but I'm sure you'll hear a lot more about the .231 BA from the mainstream idiot media.

At least when Proctor's arm inevitably falls off, it will be up to Russell Martin (and not Jorge Posada) to catch the bloody stub.

Update, 10:36 AM PST: The San Diego Union-Tribune has a story in today's paper that the Padres may be interested in Kei Igawa, for whom they bid $10M this past offseason. It wouldn't be the first time the Yankees and Padres swapped a Japanese import. The Padres are still in contention for the Western Division title though, so probably wouldn't be willing to give up much in the way of major league ready talent. Add in the fact that they just traded away one of their relievers, and the likelihood of this deal going down just doesn't seem very high.

Update, 11:25 AM PST: The reports all say it's Gagne to Boston for David Murphy and Kason Gabbard. What makes no sense here is that by all reports I've read, Texas turned down offers of Clippard/Marquez and Clippard/Karstens and demanded Hughes and/or Chamberlain from the Yankees, and yet they accept this deal from Boston for what seems to be far inferior talent? I'm no conspiracy theorist. I'm not the type that thinks MLB conspires against the Yankees. However, Scott Boras is Gagne's agent. The one team in the mix of teams (Boston, Milwaukee and the New York clubs) that was on Gagne's limited no trade list was the Red Sox. In order to waive that clause, Boston will probably have to guarantee him the "closing" incentives in Gagne's contract, which add up to well over $3M for this year. Does it sound that ridiculous that Jon Daniels has a handshake agreement with Boras to get his client the extra $3M from the Red Sox in exchange for bringing Gagne back next year, or setting up another player's contract or extension? With Boras, this seems almost status quo, so this deal in retrospect isn't surprising at all.

Update, 12:28 AM PST: ESPN live chat line of the day:

Bob: In your opinion, who's the most knowledgable baseball guy for ESPN?

Jonah Keri: (3:22 PM ET ) Too many to count. Gammons, Stark, Neyer, Law, Caple, Neel, the always sharp Curtis Granderson...great bunch.

Alex (Toronto): Does Chris Berman not count as a baseball analyst? Or is he too busy with leather?

Jonah Keri: (3:23 PM ET ) hehe

Labels: brian cashman, ian kennedy, joba chamberlain, joel piniero, kei igawa, kyle farnsworth, mike lamb, scott proctor, trade rumors, trades, trading deadline, wilson betemit