There were lots of rumors and not much news coming out of the Winter Meetings on Day 1. The biggest news was Roy Halladay signing a 1 day contract with the Toronto so he can retire as a Blue Jay. Hard to believe it was just 3 seasons ago that Doc pitched a postseason perfecto in preparation for being ambushed by Cody Ross and the Giants. I guess everybody knew that Doc had a ton of mileage on that arm. It finally caught up with him all at once. The consensus is that Doc will be a HOF'er. He's finishing his career with a 203-105 record and a 3.84 ERA. He wasn't much of a strikeout pitcher with a career K/9 of 6.93, but had tremendous control with a BB/9 of 1.94. His first big season was 2002 which was about the time the hitting surge in MLB peaked(Sillyball Era). He missed time in several seasons with injuries but has a long run of durability from 2006-2011 in which he pitched at least 220 innings each of those seasons. He had three 20 win seasons which has become fairly rare in MLB and one 19 win season. He has the postseason perfecto on his resume, but did not pitch in the World Series. Do you think Roy Halladay is a Hall of Famer?
In other news, the Marlins signed Garrett Jones to a 2 years contract worth $7.75 M. That transaction probably spelled the end of Logan Morrison's Marlins career as they are openly trying to trade him at the Winter Meetings. After reviewing Morrison's stats for the last several years, I'm not sure why anyone would want him. Marlins may end up having to release him! I like the Jones deal for the Marlins. I actually would not have been unhappy if the Giants had signed him even though his OF defense is pretty bad.
Lot's of rumors, mostly surrounding Mark Trumbo and Brett Gardner. D'Backs seem to be the most likely destination for Trumbo as they seem to have surplus pitching with MLB experience to deal from, which is what the Angels desperately need. The Giants were rumored to be in the mix for Gardner, but again, the Giants may not have what the Yankees are looking for.
Late in the day, Brian Sabean threw even more cold water on the trade rumors saying, "we're trying to explore everyday left field options, which at this point are not coming to fruition or they're not out there." He added, "I don't feel any pressure at all. We've done a lot to this point to feel good about. We've done our heavy lifting."
Sabes also said that Kyle Crick will be invited to big league camp in spring training, not as an option to make the team, but to get an extended look and taste of big league competition. Wow! I don't know if I can remember Sabes being this openly high on any Giants prospect! Sabes also threw out this quote about Edwin Escobar, "We're very pleased with Escobar's progress. Not everybody has to pitch at every level to get to the big leagues." He added, "we found out a lot about our system at the trade deadline. Crick isn't the only big prospect we have in our estimation."
BTW, the Sabean quotes come from Alex Pavlovic's article on Extra Giants linked to the left. Make sure and go read the whole article.
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All quiet on the western front...
ReplyDelete...but Arizona is about to make some noise.
I was curious what you and the other local denizens think of Jeff Baker as a bench option that can theoretically play both IF/OF.
http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=2073&position=2B
Some of the names and money being talked about in different scenarios are crazy. Might be a good time to sell on Panda afterall as it seems like overpaying is the word of the week at the meetings.
ReplyDeleteWonder if this trade would make Cody available now?
ReplyDeleteYou mean Trumbo to the Dbacks? I'd be a bit leery of Ross's hip injury and 16 mill owed before giving anything to the Dbacks.
DeleteAt first blush, I think Halladay is a HoFer. The sense that he had a period of dominance (Cy to Cy) as best or one of the best pitchers in the MLB for about 10 years. I'd want to compare him to other pitchers of the era/period a bit more before casting my final vote though.
ReplyDeleteMy first reaction to the Trumbo trade was that Sabes should have tried harder. Now after looking at the pieces involved I'm not sure that Sabes would have been able to put together a more attractive deal without giving up Crick and probably one or two more of our prized young arms. I really liked Trumbo and thought he would have been a good fit for us but probably not at that price. Maybe Sabes is trying to lower expectations but it doesn't sound like anything is on the horizon....
ReplyDeleteI hope we work on other trade possibilities as well.
DeleteI mean, at the minor league level, if we have more than enough prospects in one area, we move a piece or another for prospects in other areas where we are short.
You never know where the next Escobar is going to come from.
BLSL, I understand the desire for fans to want prospect-for-prospect trades, but the reality is that they rarely happen. The potential gain is not enough to risk the immediate backlash from the smart fans, or the long-term backlash from the casual fan who says "We used to have Matt Nokes? Why did we trade him?"
DeleteCasual fans will all know that we lost Wheeler in a trade. How many will realize that we got Escobar in a trade?
I agree it's rare, but why?
DeleteIs it due to not wanting to risk fan backlash or are there other factors that make such trades rare?
I just think that prospect evaluation is still more of an art than a science and GM's mistrust each other's intentions with good reason. Why is the other team willing to part with their prospect? Why do they want my prospect? Is there something we are not seeing here? You just aren't going to see a lot of prospect-for-prospect challenge trades because nobody wants to be on the wrong end of the outcome and prospecting is still too uncertain for anybody to be too confident they are going to win it.
DeleteUsually, there are always a few (a little bit more than rare, that is) reckless, or maybe just 'more confident,' GMs though.
DeleteHow about a guy like Micheal Young for LF? He has never played there but is athletic enough I am sure. Guy can still hit a little too and wouldn't break the bank and give us an option if we trade Panda at some point. IMO he's a better option than some true LF'ers out there.
ReplyDeleteOooh! I don't know about the athletic part. Young turned into a statue in the IF a few years ago. Hard to imagine him covering much ground in the OF let alone learning to get reads on flyballs with good jump/routes, etc.
DeleteAm I the only one who wants to see what Perez can do? I think he can be just as good as any other options we are looking at.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. Sounds like Sabes is thinking the same thing. See my new post above.
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