January 2009

From Prospect Insider:

I received a tip today from a friend of the site about a potential payroll-moving trade by Jack Zduriencik, and in following up on it, there might be something to it - or at least there may have been at some point.

What I dug up/have been told is that the M's are working on a trade that would rid themselves of either Jarrod Washburn, Miguel Batista, or even Carlos Silva to an AL Central team.

But Brandon Morrow and either Wladimir Balentien or Jeff Clement - or both - might have to be part of the trade, at least as far as I can gather.

Returning would be a young corner outfielder with solid defensive skills and one strong offensive season under his belt, and minor league prospects - at least one pitcher.

Normally, you wouldn't criticize based on a rumor.  But does ANYbody feel that this trade would be uncharacterically illogical for the home nine? Read more

Sweeney was, from about 1998 to 2005, the Royals' version of Edgar Martinez.   He'd hit .320 with lots of walks, a .400-ish OBP, forty doubles and 25 homers.  He's also an awesome human being by all accounts. 

He was the quintessential Barking Spider for many years -- a small-market, underrated roto commodity who gave Mikey Jay as much production as the hyped guys drafted far ahead of him.

................

Sweeney's last good year was when he was 31 -- and he's 35 now.  Could there be anything left for him?

The problem has really been his back. 

For three years in a row, Sweeney has hit for zero power, and that ain't good for a big 1B who's there to drive in runs.  He's hit 17 homers total, in a good fraction of three years, and you're talking about an extreme fly ball hitter here.  He's a flyball guy who had first warning track power, and who now has mid-outfield power.

Mike's RC/27 used to be 8.0 - 9.0 .... then it went down to a Swisher-ish 6.0 or so ... now it has been down to 4.0, 4.2.  His Power Index (PX) has gone from 120-130 to .... um .... Read more

Q:  Seems to me that the disconnect between you and the rest of the blog-o-sphere is NOT the valuation of Cedeno, but instead the valuation of Heilman.

A1.  Agreed.  And the trade's fine if Aaron Heilman is a bit part, thrown in on the "Franklin Gutierrez" trade.

This is definitely the way that the Mariners themselves spin it:  that they traded J.J. Putz for Franklin Gutierrez, plus a hodgepodge of interesting parts that suit Capt Jack's philosophy.  If you ask the Mariners, they'll certainly tell you that Heilman was simply not that important to them -- ergo, there's no sense caring one way or the other what they got for Heilman.

..............

A2.  Once again, I approve of the idea of bringing in "my kind of players" in an effort to perform a heart transplant in the clubhouse.  Though players like Endy Chavez, Chris Shelton, Ronny Cedeno, by themselves are fringe players ... Read more

The 12-year-old girl in pink, Hou Yifan, is a Grandmaster-level chessplayer.  She goes toe-to-toe, against scarier, tougher players, with the heart of Rocky Balboa.  She has courage, and fighting spirit, that many MLB players (much less us 'net rats) could never dream of.

So does Sanja Dedijer (below).

 

A lot of our baseball chats, including mine, go:  "If only we'd signed Teixeira.  Or Matsuzaka.  Or been born in Bangladesh where we could focus on finding a banana peel for breakfast, and not on this compost pile of a team."

Pull a chess analogy for a change:  Even this 92-lb. Read more