So, if the O's won't move Bedard within the division that only leaves Santana for the two evil empires to fight over. And the Yanks need him millions of times more than the Sox do.
Is there any chance...any chance...any...say: Rios, Marcum and Purcey or Cecil for Santana? Rios would go nice with D. Young and Cuddyer in their outfield. We could afford Santana if Santa left a few extra bob in JP's stocking.
Not that Jose Valverde is not good, but that is another terrible deal by Ed Wade (the other being the Tejada deal). Valverde's second half implosion in 2006 scares me, and since he is due for a huge pay raise soon (rumours has it he asked for around a 4/46 contract). Qualls at least is a passable closer and have a couple years left before arbitration. In my mind, Valverde is no better than Brad Lidge, both can be very good, but can also implode at any time.
I thought Dan Haren is going to get back more than that package from Arizona, especially since I heard Billy Beane asked for Hughes, Chamberlain, and Kennedy in exchange for Haren. None of the prospects Oakland got back are major league ready, and no one is really considered a 'can't miss' prospect. However, Billy Beane has done a great job conductinig fire sales in the past, I am not going to question his judgment. If he pulls off a deal, it is probably good.
Now that one of the 3 Aces are off the market (Bedard, and Santana being the other two), I wonder who is going next?
What a ridiculous statement - neither of us can know for sure unless he spends a season or so at SS. I do for sure though that it's far easier to find a good 2B than it is to find a good SS.
I never doubted that. It won't stop me from believing that Hill would help this team at SS more though. Oh, and Mark Ellis may have been a better 2B last year. Hard to say for sure, but some metrics say so.
You don't see a lot of young top pitchers like Haren traded unless its for some finishing pieces on a contending team
I definitely agree. I am guessing the rationale is that Haren's trade value is at his peak right now, but is that really all they can get for him?
I was comparing Haren and Halladay earlier, and despite it being Haren's career year and Halladay's off-year, they had really similar seasons. Haren's WHIP has been around 1.2 the past 3 seasons, while that's great, it hardly screams Ace. Maybe Billy Beane does not see Haren as an Ace, but merely as a #2 starter, and cash in after Haren had his career year. If you compare FIP, his ERA jumps from 3rd in the AL to T-9 with Dustin McGowan, and behind Roy Halladay. According to FIP, even Joe Blanton was better than Haren last season. I am guessing Billy Beane see something similar. However, if Beane waited a little bit longer, I still feel like he would've gotten a better package for Haren.
Oakland picked up the Diamondbacks #1; #3; #7 and #8 prospects plus two lefty pitchers. Gonzalez is close to major league ready but the other three prospects are further away in AA or A ball. It looks to me that the A's are looking to 2009 or 2010 with a recognition that the A's might not be as strong in 2008.
Crosby is still there, sometimes, he is either there or on rehab.
The DB's and Dodgers are ready to take on the Dodgers in what should be an interesting 2008 season in the NL West.
We all knew that Haren was on the trading block so nobody should be surprised. Considering the look of the 2008 Angels and the competitiveness of the wild card, it's not a bad move. The A's will rebound just in time for a move into their new ballpark.
I agree that it was a smart move by Beane. I don't know too much about the players he got in return, but there is no point in treading water at .500 when you know the chances for post-season are slim. Trading for young talented prospects in hopes of competing down the road when the window for other teams may be closing is really the only hope Beane has.
It's a philosophy the Jays may have to consider if they fail again in 2008.
On that note of trading for young talented prospects, it could be interesting at the trade deadline this year if the Jays are out of it, we could see Glaus or Burnett or both moved. I hope the Jays are either realistically in the race by the deadline or far enough out to actually makes some trades for future returns, rather than standing pat and coming in third again.
They allowed Delgado to walk instead of trading him in-season a few years ago
Delgado had a no trade agreement. Rumours were that the Jays had a deal to trade him (Dodgers?) but Delgado refused to waive the no trade choosing not to go to a contender at the deadline. The Jays were pretty annoyed at this. I think JP may have confirmed this at the time.
The Delgado situation was unfortunate. Ricciardi couldn't trade him because of his no-trade clause and couldn't offer him arbitration in the off-season since Delgado would probably accept and the Jays' budget at the time couldn't absorb the cost. The Jays ended up losing one of their best players for nothing, not even draft picks.
As for trades at the deadline, unless the Jays are a complete disaster, I don't see them trading Glaus unless it's specifically for a replacement 3B. There are no legitimate 3B prospects in the Jays' system over the age of 18, and the best free agent third baseman next year is Blalock. If Glaus is healthy I wouldn't be surprised to see Ricciardi try to extend his contract or at least buy out his 2009 player option. Burnett's another story though.
Ricciardi couldn't trade him because of his no-trade clause and couldn't offer him arbitration in the off-season since Delgado would probably accept and the Jays' budget at the time couldn't absorb the cost.
The NTC and his unwillingness to waive it is correct, but there was no chance that Delgado was willing to accept arbitration. He was looking for a longterm deal and wasn't about to sign off on a 1yr contract. For that reason, I thought it was a stupid decision not to offer him arbitration.
I thought it was a stupid decision not to offer him arbitration.
In hindsuight. There were expectations at the time that there was going to be a big market correction for guys like Delgado. In DaBox at the time I was one of the few who thought the Jays should offer a $30M over 3 year deal and still fit it in an increased $52M budget. Most posters here wouldn't have offered even that much. With arbitration he would have recieved more than $10M maybe even $15M and there was no way the Jays could risk that. The Mets tried to play the Latin card to get Delgado to sign for less but in a complete surprise he signed a $52M over 4 year deal with the Marlins which was heavily back loaded and so much for the market correction. In DaBox there wasn't a hell of a lot of controversy about not offering arbitration.
Yes, but when dealing players for prospects the team who deals them assumes they are getting back the premium fee (for time the player spends on the other team for their playoff run) as well as the fee for those 1/2 high draft picks.
Also, when trading players for prospects the team generally gets more established prospects, who are closer to the bigs and have a much stronger predictablity in terms of their talent than draft guys. If JP had traded guys like Escobar, Cat, Speier and Lidle for prospects instead of letting them walk, we might be talking about a different and better team for next year.
If JP had traded guys like Escobar, Cat, Speier and Lidle for prospects instead of letting them walk, we might be talking about a different and better team for next year.
Better for next year, but likely worse over the long run. Cat and Speier were not going to return the high end prospects that we yielded from their departure in the draft, in my opinion. Managing free agents to maximize draft picks is an important part of building the future of the team and it's the reason the Red Sox system is so strong. They had eleven first round picks in four years from 2002 - 2005.
If I recall correctly, Cat yielded Kevin Ahrens and Justin Jackson and Speier yielded Brett Cecil and Eric Eiland.
think Beane pulled the trigger too early. Haren for 4 MM in 2008 and 5.5 MM in 2009 is just too good a deal. That's exactly the kind of pitcher a cost conscious team should be hanging on to.
I would agree generally with what you said here Jacko, except in the case where you feel your team will not be contending and the prospects that you can get in return are worth moreto the future success of your team. In this case Haren would no longer be cheap and cost controlled when the Athletics next best window of opportunity might be, and trading him now for prospects who will be ready in 2-3 years means that you have the potential of a core coming together at the same time, instead of continually building.
The thing that bothers me it that Boston and NY always find ways to improve their teams at the deadline and that Toronto usually doesn't.
Maybe recently, but in the early 90s there were some great stretch-drive deals. Ricky Henderson? so it didn't work out but that's a huge move. I mean there was a reason that Gillick was called "Stand Pat", but he did makes some good trades eventually.
Longtime CBC broadcaster Don Chevrier passed away in Florida with a blood disorder.
I know longtime Canadian baseball fans will have fond memories.
Longtime CBC broadcaster Don Chevrier passed away in Florida with a blood disorder.
I know longtime Canadian baseball fans will have fond memories.
That is very sad. I used to enjoy his work a lot.
