Grading the Trading
Who are the winners and who are the losers?
The Winners.
New York Yankees – the Yanks have alot of youth and have a strong system and adding Pudge, Xavier Nady and a good young releiver from Pittsburgh makes them better than with Russ Ohlendorf and Kyle Farnsworth. The Yanks weakness is still in their pitching, which they knew was an issue coming into the season and they did not really remedy that. But the dudes they traded were mostly worthless to the Yanks this year. They have filled in for their unforeseen holes created by injuries and hope their known weakness in pitching will be good enough to make it through the last 2 months.
Los Angeles Dodgers – Getting Manny Ramirez may be enough to give this club a winning season which is probably going to get them in the playoffs. And one a team is in the playoffs who knows? The dudes they gave up were mostly cast offs and looking at Dodger blogs they were not giving LaRoche the look he deserved.
Pittsburgh Pirates – Getting four players for one is always good. While they are all young and either minor leaguers or marginal major leaguers they will get a chance to prove themselves, learn, develop and play in the Steel City whereas they probably would have been under tremendous scrutiny in Boston or LA. Jason Bay will be missed in Pittsburgh as a stable star but the Bucs have tried to rebuild for the umpteenth time around him and they are still a losing team. The Jason Bay experiment failed, he is no Clemente, Stargell or Bonds. Time to move on and it should be good.
Atlanta Braves – The Braves were expected to be better but they aren’t so they traded a valuable player to get a much younger and less expensive but equally valuable player in Kochman. Perfect trade. Kochman doesn’t have the offensive studs surrounding him in Atlanta like he did in Anaheim but he should like the pitching he seems.
The Losers
Los Angeles Angels – Kochman and Teixeria have put up about equal stats. However, Texiera has been playing in a weak division and should have much better stats as he should have been feasting on Philly and Nats pitching. He does play in a pitchers park but Anaheim Stadium is a pitchers park too. He has only been out of the AL or a year and it shouldn’t be a big adjustment. Teixiera is also 5 years older than Kochman and is a FA at the end of the year. The Angels were set to make the playoffs this year and I could understand this trade better if they were behind by a game or two or if they were in a closer race. As has been said on this site many times, the playoffs are a toss up. The Angels also are fiddling with a team with chemistry that may not have been seen since the 1993 Phillies.
Chicago White Sox – Getting Jr. Junior isn’t that young. He has lost his fielding, I can’t see him being any better or worse than than Konerko, Swisher or Thome and he is the same type of player as them. Maybe the ChiSox could have got a player to fill in their holes instead of making a trade that clutters the bench and may embitter the vets who will see a loss of playing time.
Boston Red Sox – In a three way deal, the Sox gave up the best player and 2 prospects including a releiver off their 25 man roster. I think they gave up too much to get Bay. But on the other hand, this wasn’t meant to get Bay but get rid of Manny. So maybe not as bad as you may think. The Sox also have lots of games left against strong pitching clubs like the Rays and Jays and they will eat up J-Bay.
August 5, 2008
You got any stats on the money? i.e. if you can shed the expense of Manny how much better does that make your team in buying players of better value down the road? If it pulls the BoSox out of luxury tax territoy then the savings are amplified by %40. Manny earns $18.93M for the season, JBay earns $6M. The savings is near enough to cover Ortiz’s $13M invoice..was that part of the calculation when they made the deal? I like to think it was, but maybe fat-cat glory hungry club owners just want to see stuff happening without looking at the bottom line. Still, If I were John Henry, I’d be happy my GM saved me $13M, to me that’s a good trade.
August 5, 2008
I would rather have the $13million if I were John Henry too. But…this iwould have been Manny’s last season and Boston is on the hook for 60-70% of Manny’s salary. The club had an option on him for the next two years at $20mil/a. There was no way they were going to sign him because he is like how he is. I think I read that the club option has been scrapped if Manny was traded so he becomes a FA in November. So, they had to trade him now or never. They would have got good compensation pick for Manny.
I doubt Boston is on a budget and I don’t really think salary had alot to do with the trade. Jason Bay has another year on his current contract and expect him to attract much more than $6mil for 2010. So for next year it opens up money, but that money would have been there anyways. For $20 million you could have got Jason Bay + another everyday player or established releiver. So if Boston intends on maintaining their payroll for next year, it took a 5% dip in trading Manny, they will have an extra $8mil. Boston will probably give their players raises ie) re-up Bay.