I have much to say about baseball today so I’ll get right to it. I apologize in advance if this is a very lengthy read. As Simmons always says, feel free to print this out and take it to the “s(h)itting room”:
1. And Now, A Word From Our Sponsors. This is perhaps the most blatant bunch of Red Sox propaganda I’ve ever read from ESPN, and certainly from Jayson Stark, a guy I used to count on as a pretty good baseball writer. The headline of this piece says it all in why I think this article is a complete hack job. Teams don’t owe anything to their veteran players with respect to the standings and the playoff picture. A team like the Cubs or Astros shouldn’t have to trade Greg Maddux or Roger Clemens just because those ballcubs are out of the playoff picture. Teams should only make trades that benefit the entire organization and should never feel obligated to reward “good soldiers” or future Hall of Famers by simply sending them off to other clubs with better postseason potential.
All I can conclude from this piece is that ESPN is speaking on behalf of its friends in New England and that Stark is writing about what he would’ve liked to see, not what he thought was necessarily good for the Houston Astros franchise. I’m certain that Stark wouldn’t have made the same impassioned plea for Clemens’ relocation had the destination been someplace other than the so-called Red Sox Nation. It’s pathetic.
2. Trade Breakdowns. This season’s non-waiver trade deadline had lots of action. Here’s a snapshot of what I think the best deals were:
(Note: In an effort to write as quickly as I could, I didn’t include hyperlinks to player stats. If you’re like me and you like knowing the stats of all the traded players, use ESPN.com or MLB.com for the guys already in the big leagues. For minor league player stats, I always use The Baseball Cube.)
-Yankees acquire, in separate deals, RF Bobby Abreu, RHP Cory Lidle, and 1B/OF Craig Wilson for RHP Shawn Chacon, SS CJ Henry (minors), C Jesus Sanchez, RHP Carlos Monasterios (minors), and LHP Matt Smith (minors).
None of these players individually put the Yankees over the top in the division or Wild Card standings. Collectively, however, is another matter. Without trading from the top tier of their minor league talent or dramatically altering their major league roster, the Yankees acquired a corner outfielder, a fifth starter, and a player who can either start or provide much-needed depth on the bench. Obviously games are won or lost on the field but, on paper, the Yankees improved their roster significantly. The biggest question is how Joe Torre will deploy Craig Wilson, who I feel is the most important of the new acquisitions. Wilson absolutely destroys lefty pitching (.923 OPS in 2006, .959 career) which makes him a very useful platoon player. And given the possible scenario of the Yankees facing the Twins in the ALDS, Wilson would provide a nice counterbalance to LHP studs Johan Santana and Francisco Liriano.
As I’ve pointed out in the past, Torre’s biggest weaknesses as a manager are his myopic loyalty to veteran players (especially his veterans) and his illogical and inconsistent use of bullpen and bench assets. If Torre can find a way to get Wilson all the at-bats against LHP while playing him at 1B (with Bernie, another LHP killer in ’06, at DH) then the Yankees should be able to win a playoff spot.
As for Lidle, he’s 41-25 with a 4.04 ERA after the All-Star break in his career, contrasted with a 37-44 record and 4.92 ERA before the break. If he can provide some quality innings in the 5th slot of the rotation, he’ll automatically have more value than Sidney Ponson, Kris Wilson, Shawn Chacon, and Aaron Small had in the same spot so far in 2006.
I won’t go into Abreu because we all know he’s a former All-Star with a patient eye and a good arm in the field. He seems to have lost his power stroke since July 2005 but isn’t being asked to hit 30 homers for New York. As long as he can put up his usual .400 OBP and provide a bit of protection for Alex Rodriguez, the Yanks are fine with that. His presence pushes Bernie from everyday duty and that’s a good thing.
-Dodgers acquire, in separate deals, RHP Greg Maddux and INF Julio Lugo for Cesar Izturis and minor league prospect Joel Guzman.
Here’s the thing with these moves for LA – despite being 4-13 since the All-Star break, despite having some fissures developing in the clubhouse between Brad Penny and Kenny Lofton, despite going from first place to last place in the span of two weeks, the Dodgers are still not out of the race. Maddux isn’t winning any more Cy Young awards but he can be a capable 4th starter for his new team and cost them very little to acquire. And since Lugo’s a better and more versatile player than Izturis, the Dodgers upgraded their offense and their infield by simply swapping one middle infielder for another. The cost was Joel Guzman, a good minor league player who, at 21, was already beginning to work over Triple-A pitching. But the Dodgers didn’t have to part with Andre Ethier, Chad Billingsley, or Matt Kemp, their current crop of young players at the major league level. Guzman has been compared to a young Chipper Jones or ARod but given the tremendous crop of talent the Dodgers have in the farm, they could afford to part with one player to get two back (that’s how little I think of Cesar Izturis).
-Royals acquire, in separate deals, LHP Jorge de la Rosa, LHP Odalis Perez, 1B Ryan Shealy, RHP Scott Dohmann, RHP Blake Johnson (minors), RHP Julio Pimental (minors), LHP Tyler Lumsden (minors), RHP Daniel Cortes (minors), and RHP Jose Diaz (minors) for 2B Tony Graffanino, RHP Elmer Dessens, RHP Mike MacDougal, RHP Jeremy Affeldt, RHP Denny Bautista, and 1B/OF Matt Stairs.
I’ve taken the Royals to task several times for their cheapskate ways and their atrocious management but these deals tell me that new GM Dayton Moore knows what he’s doing. By adding eight new pitchers to the franchise, the Royals will be able to figure out which of these arms can help them on the major league level and which can be used as bait to acquire future talent. Best of all, the Royals found Mike Sweeney’s replacement at 1B, stealing Ryan Shealy from the Colorado Rockies. The Yankees had been interested in acquiring Shealy instead of Wilson because he projects as a pretty decent line drive hitter with an above-average glove at 1B. None of the players the Royals unloaded had much in the way of value, save perhaps Affeldt and MacDougal, who, when healthy, are pretty decent relief pitchers.
I’ll end here for now. Look for more baseball-related material in the next 24-48 hours. Thanks for reading.
1. And Now, A Word From Our Sponsors. This is perhaps the most blatant bunch of Red Sox propaganda I’ve ever read from ESPN, and certainly from Jayson Stark, a guy I used to count on as a pretty good baseball writer. The headline of this piece says it all in why I think this article is a complete hack job. Teams don’t owe anything to their veteran players with respect to the standings and the playoff picture. A team like the Cubs or Astros shouldn’t have to trade Greg Maddux or Roger Clemens just because those ballcubs are out of the playoff picture. Teams should only make trades that benefit the entire organization and should never feel obligated to reward “good soldiers” or future Hall of Famers by simply sending them off to other clubs with better postseason potential.
All I can conclude from this piece is that ESPN is speaking on behalf of its friends in New England and that Stark is writing about what he would’ve liked to see, not what he thought was necessarily good for the Houston Astros franchise. I’m certain that Stark wouldn’t have made the same impassioned plea for Clemens’ relocation had the destination been someplace other than the so-called Red Sox Nation. It’s pathetic.
2. Trade Breakdowns. This season’s non-waiver trade deadline had lots of action. Here’s a snapshot of what I think the best deals were:
(Note: In an effort to write as quickly as I could, I didn’t include hyperlinks to player stats. If you’re like me and you like knowing the stats of all the traded players, use ESPN.com or MLB.com for the guys already in the big leagues. For minor league player stats, I always use The Baseball Cube.)
-Yankees acquire, in separate deals, RF Bobby Abreu, RHP Cory Lidle, and 1B/OF Craig Wilson for RHP Shawn Chacon, SS CJ Henry (minors), C Jesus Sanchez, RHP Carlos Monasterios (minors), and LHP Matt Smith (minors).
None of these players individually put the Yankees over the top in the division or Wild Card standings. Collectively, however, is another matter. Without trading from the top tier of their minor league talent or dramatically altering their major league roster, the Yankees acquired a corner outfielder, a fifth starter, and a player who can either start or provide much-needed depth on the bench. Obviously games are won or lost on the field but, on paper, the Yankees improved their roster significantly. The biggest question is how Joe Torre will deploy Craig Wilson, who I feel is the most important of the new acquisitions. Wilson absolutely destroys lefty pitching (.923 OPS in 2006, .959 career) which makes him a very useful platoon player. And given the possible scenario of the Yankees facing the Twins in the ALDS, Wilson would provide a nice counterbalance to LHP studs Johan Santana and Francisco Liriano.
As I’ve pointed out in the past, Torre’s biggest weaknesses as a manager are his myopic loyalty to veteran players (especially his veterans) and his illogical and inconsistent use of bullpen and bench assets. If Torre can find a way to get Wilson all the at-bats against LHP while playing him at 1B (with Bernie, another LHP killer in ’06, at DH) then the Yankees should be able to win a playoff spot.
As for Lidle, he’s 41-25 with a 4.04 ERA after the All-Star break in his career, contrasted with a 37-44 record and 4.92 ERA before the break. If he can provide some quality innings in the 5th slot of the rotation, he’ll automatically have more value than Sidney Ponson, Kris Wilson, Shawn Chacon, and Aaron Small had in the same spot so far in 2006.
I won’t go into Abreu because we all know he’s a former All-Star with a patient eye and a good arm in the field. He seems to have lost his power stroke since July 2005 but isn’t being asked to hit 30 homers for New York. As long as he can put up his usual .400 OBP and provide a bit of protection for Alex Rodriguez, the Yanks are fine with that. His presence pushes Bernie from everyday duty and that’s a good thing.
-Dodgers acquire, in separate deals, RHP Greg Maddux and INF Julio Lugo for Cesar Izturis and minor league prospect Joel Guzman.
Here’s the thing with these moves for LA – despite being 4-13 since the All-Star break, despite having some fissures developing in the clubhouse between Brad Penny and Kenny Lofton, despite going from first place to last place in the span of two weeks, the Dodgers are still not out of the race. Maddux isn’t winning any more Cy Young awards but he can be a capable 4th starter for his new team and cost them very little to acquire. And since Lugo’s a better and more versatile player than Izturis, the Dodgers upgraded their offense and their infield by simply swapping one middle infielder for another. The cost was Joel Guzman, a good minor league player who, at 21, was already beginning to work over Triple-A pitching. But the Dodgers didn’t have to part with Andre Ethier, Chad Billingsley, or Matt Kemp, their current crop of young players at the major league level. Guzman has been compared to a young Chipper Jones or ARod but given the tremendous crop of talent the Dodgers have in the farm, they could afford to part with one player to get two back (that’s how little I think of Cesar Izturis).
-Royals acquire, in separate deals, LHP Jorge de la Rosa, LHP Odalis Perez, 1B Ryan Shealy, RHP Scott Dohmann, RHP Blake Johnson (minors), RHP Julio Pimental (minors), LHP Tyler Lumsden (minors), RHP Daniel Cortes (minors), and RHP Jose Diaz (minors) for 2B Tony Graffanino, RHP Elmer Dessens, RHP Mike MacDougal, RHP Jeremy Affeldt, RHP Denny Bautista, and 1B/OF Matt Stairs.
I’ve taken the Royals to task several times for their cheapskate ways and their atrocious management but these deals tell me that new GM Dayton Moore knows what he’s doing. By adding eight new pitchers to the franchise, the Royals will be able to figure out which of these arms can help them on the major league level and which can be used as bait to acquire future talent. Best of all, the Royals found Mike Sweeney’s replacement at 1B, stealing Ryan Shealy from the Colorado Rockies. The Yankees had been interested in acquiring Shealy instead of Wilson because he projects as a pretty decent line drive hitter with an above-average glove at 1B. None of the players the Royals unloaded had much in the way of value, save perhaps Affeldt and MacDougal, who, when healthy, are pretty decent relief pitchers.
I’ll end here for now. Look for more baseball-related material in the next 24-48 hours. Thanks for reading.
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