We needed a hitter now, so for Fister AND Pauley we got:
Casper Wells, he of the .250 BA in the minors, who walks some, has a good OBP thanks to HBP, Ks a ton, has decent pop in his bat and is 26. As I said earlier, he's a RH and slightly worse version of Mike Carp, but in CF that's great. In LF? Instead of Carp? I think it's a mistake. He's listed as having 60% of his games played in CF for his minor league career, so I figured we'd put him at a corner, where I don't have a lot of faith in him being a plus bat. But he could do good work in center, so let's hope that's the case.
Charlie Furbush, a former borderline soft-tosser who gets a surprising amount of Ks for his mph, not unlike Jered Weaver, I guess. Hard to read the ball out of his hand, and his fastball has finally come back after TJ surgery to the Weaver range of 91-92 with the occasional spike to 93 or 94, I hear. I'd expect to move him out of the pen and back to the rotation at latest by next Spring. But as you say, maybe we have the rotation filled, and if so he CAN be a good bullpenner as well. Flexibility and talent are two good things.
Francisco Martinez, a very toolsy 3B who has yet to make good on any of those tools, but has been thrown skidding up the ladder and might still have a big breakout coming...just as soon as he fixes his eye, his Ks, his inability to hit for average, etc. Letting him slow down for a second and breathe might help, I guess.
The PTBNL makes this really interesting if it's one of Detroit't top 3 picks from 2010 as rumored.
As the Detroit GM says on a post about those rumors:
As part of the deal, the Mariners will also receive a player to be named later, who is expected to be identified on or before Aug. 20. And that player, according to Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski, is “somebody we don’t want to lose.”
...
"He'll be a good player," Dombrowski said of the soon-to-be named player. "He's not just going to be a guy that you would say, 'Oh, that's an organizational player.'"
If it's Chance Ruffin, then with Wells in CF I definitely get it. Ruffin is trying to be Papelbon, and doing a mostly great job of it. I think it's more likely to be Drew Smyly, who is another very good pitcher in high-A with a low-90s sinker, a good curve, and some kind of cutter/change. Ruffin could free up League for a trade, since he's got future closer written all over him, and Smyly could make Taijuan Walker available - or just be used himself in a later deal.
We didn't get gypped in the Fister trade if this plays out right...but Wells HAS to play in CF, which means we're bailing on Guti and don't believe in Halman yet - two understandable things.
Let's see where they put Wells and if Guti winds up on the 60 day so that Casper plays center from here out.
And tell me who the PTBNL is. Then I can get a better handle on what we were planning when we provided the Tigers with a ML battle-hardened pitcher throwing like a solid #3 and under club control for 4 years.
Furbush is good. Wells in CF is good. Either of those two pitchers would be good.
But the trade has some kinks to work out yet if the package is gonna be great.
~G