Seattle Sports Insider

A Cliff Lee Bidding War ... Cubed

Posted by

7/28/11

POINT: My man Geoff Baker opines that Jack Zduriencik absolutely has to deal Erik Bedard. A great read.

COUNTERPOINT 1: If Erik Bedard plans to re-sign with Seattle at a huge discount -- and 2011, this is a huge discount! -- then I disagree.

Bedard is the guy you want in the playoffs, if you're going to actually compete for the 2012 pennant, and they are. If he's a 50c on the dollar Game 7 pitcher, he may be the very pitcher you have to keep, including Doug Fister.

There is no free agent on the market this winter who will give as much bang for the buck as Erikkk will, if he's giving discounts.

COUNTERPOINT 2: Remember how, last summer, Zduriencik created a bidding war on the see-saw Brawl platform of Yankees/Lee and Rangers/Lee?

A more sophisticated bidding war can be waged on the platform of Vargas/Yankees, Bedard/Red Sox, Fister/Somebody Else.

You get the idea? Reds offer Mesoraco for Fister, and Jack replies, "well, I've got Reddick for Bedard on the table. I'm going to do that. But maybe if you toss in Alonso," and so on.

From where SSI sits, Jack doesn't have to trade any one particular Mariner. What I'm hoping he does, is land the greatest young player possible, for whichever Mariner. (And that he trades League, in a second deal, if the market is fun there too.)

Sure, we'd prefer to keep Fister. But a grandmaster wins kingside, queenside, or center, wherever the opponent leaves a Pawn lying around.

Very cool three-headed trade Hydra to keep track of.

BABVA,

Dr D

Comments

Bedard thought process

Wouldn't Bedard, if he in fact wants to sign with Seattle long term, want to be with a team that makes itself better by trading him away for a few months? I don't think anyone wants to play for a team that keeps putting up 80 OPS+.
Doesn't Bedard seem like the type who would understand that, if not even volunteer for it? In other words, I'm not sure that trading him to a contender negates him re-signing here with the home-team discount, and might even enhance it.

Ryan Lavarnway etc.

ghostt points out, correctly, that the Josh Reddick speculation appears to be primarily mere internet buzz, as opposed to internet buzz attached to an identifiable person who might actually know what he/she is talking about.
It appears that this guy probably fits the latter category, with something of a Shannon Drayer role as a Boston radio reporter.
He appears to think that RH C Ryan Lavarnway would be the most likely Sox prospect to be invovled in a Bedard trade.
He also says that the Rockies are seeking pitcher Kyle Weiland and RH 3b Will Middlebrooks for Ubaldo Jimenez, but he (the radio/blogger guy) thinks Middlebrooks is too good a prospect to give up.
He followed up his column with this awesome tweet:
Guess who the best pitcher in baseball was from April 27-June 27. Hint: Not Beckett. Another hint: It was Bedard http://t.co/pBJnh7u

He doesn't mention Reddick as a possible trade chip.
FWIW

yep.

Reddick would be awesome...but I don't see it happening. Lavarnway and another interesting piece...that I could see.
Bedard to the Red Sox for Lavarnway and change
Vargas to the Reds for Alonso straight up.
Go the rest of the year with a rotation of Felix/Fister/Pineda/Beaven/Wilhelmson and Paxton fills it out in 2012.
And please for the love of God...trade League for something else nice if you can.

Sickles on Lavarnway

Here. Dude's a Yalie (Lavarnway, not Sickles) and holds the Ivy League record for HR (narrowly edging out LH 1b George H.W. Bush, I suppose).
Bat is solid, D behind the plate is the issue, but supposedly "making great strides."

eyes slideways

According to MLBTR sources, the Astros want pitching for Pence, of which the Phils have none available to trade away...what the Phillies have...is John Singleton, Dominic Brown and a couple of other decent bats. Would you do something shaped like:
Phillies get:
Hunter Pence
Astros get:
Jason Vargas and a mediocre prospect or a couple of the pitching prospects a step below Walker/Paxton
Mariners get:
John Singleton or Dominic Brown and one other bat from AA?

Lavarnway is another shot at finding the Moore/Clement backstop

Minor Leagues:
Moore - 6'3, 220 lbs, RH, .303/.368/.482/.850, .48 batting eye, 17% K rate
Lavarnway - 6'4, 225 lbs, RH, .291/.380/.528/.908, .54 batting eye, 22% K rate
Lavarnway is the amped up version of Moore. Moore's better behind the plate and throwing out runners, but Lavarnway has more power and at far younger ages (20-23 for Lavarnway vs. 22-28 for Moore).
If you want your catcher to be a RH masher who can take a walk but can't throw out a runner, Lavarnway's your guy.
There are worse things. :) I remember advocating V-Mart in the offseason, so I'm not a glove-first die-hard behind the plate.
I'd consider Lavarnway comparable to Grandal, with the difference being that Yasmani is a switch hitter so the park is not his enemy.
But Ryan's power is pretty easy. He switched to catcher in college and he is NOT somebody who is afraid of hard work. If they offer Lavarnway + Bowden or something, I'd be very interested.
Besides, isn't it about time we took a good catcher from THEM?
~G

I still expect Reddick over Lavarnway

as far as who would be more available, simply because the Sox are gonna be in the market for a catcher anyway so giving up one who's basically juuuust about ready for the bigs doesn't make much sense.
They can find an OF who can put up numbers in their park - a catcher who can is a far different proposition.
We'll see. Just demolish people tonight, Erik, and give us a chance to find out.
~G

Just reporting what the Boston folks are saying

They seem to think they have surplus catchers with Luis Exposito, Tim Federowicz and Lavarnway all in the high minors and Saltalamacchia under club control through '14.
On the other hand, they seem to view Reddick as their RF of the future.
Doesn't necessarily mean much, but that's the sense.

Cust DFA'd

Meaning Beavan stays on the roster.
Meaning that they expect to need Beavan in the rotation.
Meaning they expect someone in the rotation won't be on the roster much longer.

Hey, more power to em

I'm looking for a hitting catcher going forward and the system's pretty barren til you get to newly-signed Marder in High Desert, who just converted to catcher in the last year from MIF...so if they're offering an offensive one, even if in the Ryan Doumit vein, I'll be happy to kick the tires on the idea.
I don't care where my plus C and plus LF come from, just that we get them if possible.
~G

The Boston folks

... tend to be the media types on the periphery, and the fans, as you're well aware I know...
These types report based on 5% vibes from the front office and 95% what they would prefer, or what seems logical to them...
Trade after trade after trade --- > catches these guys totally blindside... if they have the warm and fuzzies towards Reddick, they're going to report that Reddick stays, just as we tend to tell other cities that Fister stays...
***
As always, thanks Spec... yer making SSI an ever more data-rich enviro ... :- )

The cadet's logic is sound, Captain

Hold it. Who's the captain and who's the cadet, though...

Sigh.... That was the wrong

Sigh.... That was the wrong time to implode. Bedard had one start to prove he was healthy and now he can't be worth much.
EDIT:
Teams still on Bedard despite the bad start. Sounds like it will hurt the Ms a bit on the return, but he will likely still get traded:
http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/this-just-in/21125576/teams-still-beda...