ed this...
So I will put it here as well. It was way to long for the shouts anyways :)
M-Pops says:
Late to the party -- Delebar is an All-Star?! Didn't the M's just DFA Thames? Which of the Morrow trade and Delebar trade is worse?
Thirteen says:
Morrow by far. Delabar isn't a starter.
I disagree. I think the Delebar trade is the more egregious one. First off lets look at the Morrow trade... You have to remember the context. Morrow was a failed starter, failed reliever, who was back in the minors (he may have made it back to the majors by the trade, I don't recall) trying to be a starter again. The relationship between Morrow and the M's was ruined and most of his prospect shine was as well. They needed to trade him to give everyone a fresh start and to move on. And really their return on him wasn't so bad. They got Brandon league who was was a fine closer and reliever for us for almost 2 years, he accumulated 52 saves for us and never had an ERA out of the 2s or 3s. Then we passed him on to the Dodgers and got Leon Landry, who some people are quite excited about (although this has not be a great year for him) and Logan Bawcom, whom might be just as good of a bullpenner eventually as League was to start with... We also got Johermyn Chavez in the origional Morrow trade, but let's not speak of him ;)
As for Morrow's actual performance, I think it is telling that we are paying LESS (Morrow is making 8 mil this year) for Joe Saunders who is performing BETTER than Morrow. Other than the one blip last year (Morrow has and ERA under 3) his actual performance hasn't been anything to write home about. He has worked out as a fine BOR, not much else. This is what has ALWAYS been the problem with Morrow. People see the hot fastball and the typical baseball player look and think, "Dang this guy is going to star!"and it has never come to bear in his actual performance! Even in college Dallas Buck with his measly 90 mph FB, but bulldog mentality was more feared than Morrow. 96 mph is nice, but it is straight as an arrow and right down the middle, even the college guys got their hits off it.
Now lets look at Delebar he was pre arb, nothing was forcing us to trade him. He was only in his first year in the bigs and performing OK, not great. Plus he had a fantastic story and background, one that we could use in fluff pieces and ads (something that is quite important to this org), however we traded him for Thames, who I actually quite liked, but got zero chance here and is gone now... Thames was traded for Ty Kelly who may still turn into something, but I doubt it.
SO what which was worse? Trading the headcase BOR starter who always feels disappointing because his results never tracked with his arm for 1.5 years of a star closer and some interesting minor leaguers, or Trading a great story who turned himself into a All-star bullpenner for basically... nothing :( I say trading Delebar is worse, way worse.