Category: Hot Stove

Will Jacobs help the Royals?

The Marlins and the Royals kicked off the Hot Stove League when the Fish traded firstbaseman Mike Jacobs to KC for reliever Leo Nunez.

It didn’t take long for baseball pundits to weigh in on the deal.  Many poo-poo-ed the deal saying that KC could have gotten more.  The knock on Jacobs of course, is that he’s a one-dimensional player.  You couldn’t give Jacobs a free pass if you gift wrapped it and put his name on it.  While that’s probably true, his one dimension is pretty decent.  Jacobs hit 32 dingers in 2008, a career high.  Considering that the Royals hit all of 120 for the whole year and their starting firstbaseman hit 3, it might benefit the team.

Another thing to consider… Jacobs hit 13 points better in the second half of 2008.

There’s no doubt that the Marlins needed to get rid of Mike Jacobs who is arb-eligible in 2009.  They have prospect Gaby Sanchez waiting in wings to over at first base.  With Nunez, they have a young set-up man with good numbers who by the way, isn’t eligible for arbitration till after 2009.

Did the Royals get enough for Nunez?  It’s too early to tell.  But I’d wager Jacobs (who will be only 28 next year) won’t be bust.

It’s a Dunn deal; Owings to the Reds

The Reds sent outfielder Adam Dunn to the Dbacks in exchange for starting pitcher Micah Owings.

I can’t remember that time the media has focused more on a pitcher’s hitting stats rather than his pitching.  Perhaps it’s because Owings comes with a 6-9 record and a 5.93 ERA.

Owings has a .288 average for the year and a career .313 average with 5 homers with 18 rbis. 

As it looks, Owings won’t be doing much pitching (or hitting) for the Reds down the homestretch anyway.

Update:  Maybe the Reds shoulda waited a couple days.  Dbacks skip used Micah Owings as a pinch hitter against the Reds in the 10th inning Saturday and Owings responded with a rbi double.

Harden, Gaudin to the Cubs

“I like our team.  I like it even more now with this addition.”

Cubs manager Lou Piniella

The Cubs wasted no time in turning the focus in the NL Central away from the Brewers and the C.C. Sabathia deal by making their own blockbuster deal.  On Tuesday, they acquired Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin from the A’s for Matt Murton, Sean Gallagher, Eric Patterson, and AAA prospect Josh Donaldson.

What are your thoughts on the deal?

As for me, I’m pleased. I have the normal reservations about Harden’s endurance and health issues but aside from that, I think this helps the club tremendously.  The fact that we got Gaudin is icing on the cake, in my opinion.  We need some help in the bullpen and Gaudin is no stranger to the starting rotation.

I was listening to Episode 419 of Cubscast today and they had on Jordan Stepp from the Athleticscast podcast.  It’s Jordan’s feeling that A’s fans are quite unhappy with the deal.  To be fair, the kind of trade where a big ticket player is traded for several players with potential would be hard to be excited about.  It’s possible in two years (two months?) Billy Beane would be hailed as a hero.  For now however, he’s the one who selling away their best players.

One more note on Harden, it should be worth mentioning that he has a 17-10 record on the road.  Perhaps that didn’t escape the Cubs attention either.

Will I miss any of the players given up?  I think Matt Murton has reached his ceiling.  Cute red hair can take you only so far.  I honestly don’t know a lot about Josh Donaldson but he put together a good year while in Boise last year.

The two key players in the deal were Gallagher and Patterson and I’m sure Billy Beane knows it.  Gallagher is a solid pitcher with a good K/BB ratio.  Patterson has some good upside and it really depends how far he wants to take himself and how long he’ll take to get there (see brother Corey).

The key for the Cubs is Harden’s health.  If he stays healthy, this is will pay big dividends for the Northsiders.

Historical precedent for the C.C. Sabathia deal

(editor’s note:  this article is submitted by Tom Wilson, an old APBA buddy from years ago.  Let us know if you like it.  He may be writing more for The Baseball Zealot in the future. -tbz)

In the summer of 1987 The Detroit Tigers were in a pennant race. Like most modern era teams, pitching was the backbone of the club, and the priority in the player aquisition market. On August 12th, 1987, the Tigers traded a little known pitching prospect to the Atlanta Braves for proven veteran starter Doyle Alexander.

    The Tigers were not disappointed with their trade. Doyle Alexander went 9-0 in 11 starts with a 1.53 E.R.A for the team.  While Detroit lost 4 games to 1 to Minnesota in The American League Championship Series, in the old 2 division league format, their season was not considered a failure.

    The Atlanta Braves were not disappointed in the trade either. In 1987 they were not close to a division championship. In giving up Alexander they were looking for youth and toward the future. In 21 year old John Smoltz, they received both.  Through 20 seasons, 13 division championships, 4 pennants, and 1 world series championship, John Smoltz has been the leader of the Braves.

 

    On Sunday, July 6th, 2008, the Milwaukee Brewers pulled the trigger on a similar “win now” trade.

    The Brewers, currently four and a half games behind the Chicago Cubs, aquired last years American League Cy Young award winner C.C. Sabathia from the Cleveland Indians. The trade marked the first time in a decade that a reigning pitching mvp was traded (Roger Clemens 1998).

    In return for Sabathia, The Indians received young pitchers Rob Bryson and Zach Jackson. Eventually, the Indians hope these two young arms will help the club contend if not at least climb out of the basement of the American League Central.

    In addition to the pitchers, the Indians also received OF\1B Matt Laporta. At least in my mind this is the aquisition that brings up the possibility of the 1987 Tigers-Braves trade comparison.

    Laporta is the SEC all time home run leader, the single season home run leader, he hit .323 for the Florida Gators. While his speed and defense would be catagorized as average,his quick bat has made up for his defenses and has had his college and minor coaches declare him “professional ready”

    Laporta, Milwaukees 2007 1st rd (7th overall pick) was hitting .288 with 20 home runs with AA Huntsville at the time of the trade.

     Only time will tell if this trade can be compared with the 1987 deal. But upon first look both teams have seemed to address needs and thought this through.

Boras picks up another one

scottboras Manny Ramirez fired his agent and has hired Scott Boras.  Or maybe it’s more appropriate to say that Boras has picked up Ramirez as a client. 

Ramirez, never one shy to speak his mind, said he’d like to stay in Boston but the idea of free agency wouldn’t be so bad either:

“I want to stay here, but it’s up to them if they want to bring me [back]. But if they don’t want to bring me back, that’s fine. I know I’ll be a free agent after ’08 so that’s another thing I’m looking forward to.”

In a free agent year, you can bet Manny’s fantasy value will go up. 

With a growing list of teams who simply won’t deal with Scott Boras, Manny might be find his options somewhat limited next spring should he go that route.  Then again, any team who deal with Boras probably can’t afford Manny anyway.

With Howard’s $10 mil, players batting .167

Fortunately for him, this was no practical joke.  Ryan Howard won his arbitration case against the Phillies.  The Phils offered Howard $7 million but in arbitration, he was awarded $10 million. 

The arbitrators were comparing Howard’s case to Miguel Cabrera’s from last year.  Cabrera hit the $7.4 million mark when he was with the Marlins.  Apparently, they felt they couldn’t go lower than that figure. 

Howard’s victory was the first arbitration win by a player in six tries so far this off-season. 

So now, Howard’s price got a lot steeper.  Is he worth it?  If there is one young slugger out there I would want to get for my MLB team, it would be Howard.  Yet, I’m sure the Phillies are also interested in locking some players up for the future not paying big bucks for a one-year contract only to go through this again. 

Twins land Livan

Ok, Livan Hernandez does not equal Johan Santana but he does fill a void. 

Twins GM Bill Smith probably endured more than his share of criticism for the Santana deal which netted four prospects for the Twins.  Perhaps even unfair criticism.

The signing of free-agent Hernandez does make some sense.  It was a one-year dealie for $5-6 million.  Let’s not forget that the Twins still have Mauer, have re-signed Morneau, and have Francisco Liriano coming back from his Tommy John surgery.  The addition of Hernandez who is a fantastic innings-eater (only three pitchers have made 30 starts in the past 10 years, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, and Hernandez), may be enough to make the Twins interesting in 2008. 

There’s only one problem.  The Detroit Tigers who right now look to be the far and away the favorite in the AL Central. 

Bedard dealt for some fresh meat

The Seattle Mariners closed the deal for Erik Bedard solidifying their rotation.  In return, they sent the Baltimore Orioles five young prospects. 

A few of those prospects didn’t look too bad either.  Adam Jones you probably already know about.  Jones has been touted as “can’t miss” which is sometimes of kiss of death but with Jones, he might play through the hype.  He’s had two very solid seasons in AAA Tacoma before being brought up last year. 

tillmanChris Tillman (left) is young (he’s still a teenager), tall (6 foot 5 inches) and boy, the word is he can pitch.  He was Seattle’s Minor League Pitcher of the Year last year.  He threw 139 strikeouts in 133 2/3 innings. 

In George Sherrill’s case, “young” may be a misnomer.  He’s 30 years old.  For that matter, so might “prospect” though he did pitch his way to a 2.36 ERA last year. 

Holy cow, Kam Mickolio is 6’9″!  His minor league numbers are a drastic improvement over his college stats.  That’s good, I think.

Finally, there is Tony Butler.  No, not the British broadcaster.  Tony, the starting pitcher, has been in minors for only a couple years seeing as he’s only 19 but again, he has some fire.  He has 150 Ks in 141 plus innings. 

As with the Twins and the Santana deal, we won’t know if this helps the Mariners for another year or two down the road.  At least with this deal, they have one player that can play at the major league level and perhaps excel.