Q. Can the mainframe explain this one simply?
A. You wish, compadre. All I know is, if Albert Einstein scoffed at quantum mechanics, I can sure as shootin' scoff at Colby Rasmus.
Just a quick take, no numbers, plenty of blearies in the eyes, 'fore I get to bed and so you have something for your coffee. As y'know, we live to serve.
So be gentle, LOL. How good Zach Stewart is, how good even Colby Rasmus is, there's 89 kinds of debate available. 'ave at them.
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Q. What would the Mariners have given up, to get Rasmus?
A. The M's woulda had to cough up (1) Erik Bedard, Brandon League, David Pauley and Ryan Langerhans.
The Mariners would have gotten back Rasmus, plus two Jeff Grays / Chris Rays merely to keep their bullpen from being a total embarrassment and the last guy is an org-filler, 26-year-old minor league pitcher. This last guy kind of adds to plausible deniability -- with filler, it's tougher for beat writers to draw enough of a bead on the situation to laugh at it -- and P.J. Walters serves as the styro peanuts in the packing box.
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The Blue Jays had to deal a third really good short man and a top-5 org spect who is ML-ready to get Erik Bedard...
... so alternatively, the M's coulda coughed up: (2) Brandon League, David Pauley, Josh Lueke, Ryan Langerhans and Mike Carp/Guillemo Pimentel.
Carp/Pimentel are value comps only; it would sting the M's to give up one of those guys about as much as it stung the Jays to give up Stewart, in my view. If you love Zach Stewart, sub Nick Franklin in that equation.
The M's don't have any pitcher in their org who compares well to Stewart ... Beavan is ML-ready but has no K's or upside, whereas a guy like Paxton or Walker is wayyy too good.)
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Q. These comps are objectively speaking?
A. Yes and no. All ML trades that actually occur are subjective!
The M's could have traded Bedard-League-Pauley, only assuming that the Cards happened to like the M's players. The question here isn't hometown overestimation - not at all. It's just that some teams are going to like Brandon League, and some aren't.
Same goes for Rasmus, Zach Stewart .... one team thinks Stewart has TOR written all over him, while another one is skeptical. That's baseball, you know?
But objectively speaking, that's the Seattle version of the Jays' credit card swipe. More o' less.
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Q. Is Edwin Jackson comparable to Erik Bedard?
A. Pretty much. Jackson's FIP is down near 3, and he's a pending FA.
... everybody knows that Bedard's better, but also that Jackson's more reliable. From the standpoint of contenders like the Cards, it says here that some teams would prefer Jackson and some would prefer Bedard.
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Q. Are League, Pauley, and Lueke comparable to the three short men the Jays let go of?
A. Pretty gutsy move to trade away a bullpen. I think one time, two teams traded owners. Fritz Petersen and Jim Bouton supposedly traded wives. I'll trade Jeff Sullivan senses of humor, if I can get a scary random-sidebar ad to be named later.
You've got to pair off League and Pauley to match two of the Jays' RP's. On the one hand, League's industry value is that of a Closer(TM) so you've got to figure that he's the most valuable reliever of all these guys we're discussing.
On the other hand, all the Jays' guys can deal the pain, and Pauley's worth less than any of them, so.... pair 'em up and we can at least continue to chat.
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