Ervin Santana has been good but not great. He was 17-10 last season, with a 3.92 ERA, 1.320 WHIP and he chewed up 222.2 innings. At 28 years old, he isn’t likely to improve very much, but he could hold those numbers for some years. The Yankees lost Andy Pettite this week, who had a career 3.88 ERA, so Santana could be a logical replacement. But why would the Angels deal a valuable piece of their young rotation?
Tag: Dan Haren
MLB Predictions: Prince Fielder, Tim Lincecum and Others Who Must Rise In 2011
As the 2011 Major League Baseball season is just over two months away, it’s appropriate to start thinking about the key pieces for every team this season.
While we saw the Giants win the World Series with a pitching-heavy formula, their championship counterparts, the Texas Rangers, road Josh Hamilton’s bat the majority of the way there.
Every team has high expectations coming into the season, and here is a list of players who will have to produce in order for their teams to meet them.
Be prepared for some surprises, as several big-name players have changed teams.
New York Yankees: Could Not Trading for Starting Pitcher Cost Them a Repeat?
On the night that the New York Yankees unveiled a seven-foot tall monument of their late owner George Steinbrenner, the American League leaders won their 91st game of the season by beating the Tampa Bay Rays.
With 12 games to play, New York leads Tampa Bay by 1.5 games in the A.L. East and leads the Minnesota Twins by one game for the best record in the league.
New York leads the league in runs scored, is third in homers, second in walks, first in OBP, and second in OPS.
On the mound, the Yankees rank in the upper-half of the A.L. in ERA, walks, and strikeouts.
So, what’s the problem?
Well, there is no problem exactly.
New York is a juggernaut, much like the team that beat the Philadelphia Phillies last year to win the World Series.
Prior to the season, the club made two moves that got The Bronx talking. One worked out OK, the other not so much.
New York traded for Curtis Granderson in hopes that he would help it upgrade defensively in centerfield as well as bring some additional pop to the top of the order.
Granderson has done that.
His 21 homers have been nice even if his OBP is lacking for a player with his skill set.
The other deal—bringing in Javier Vazquez—hasn’t paid off for New York. After having a tremendous 2009 with the Atlanta Braves, the Yankees thought they were getting an All-Star caliber pitcher, a guy they could lock into the middle of their rotation.
Vazquez hasn’t been that, but rather a weak link in a solid rotation.
Vazquez’s walks are way up and his strikeouts are way down compared to a season ago. Sure, some of that has to be credited to moving from the National League to the A.L. East, but the point is that Vazquez isn’t who New York thought it would get.
And that’s the issue we are getting at with these Yankees. No, Vazquez isn’t the problem, he’s just part of the problem.
How Deep Is the Starting Rotation?
If there’s one thing that may stifle New York’s chances of repeating as World Series champions, it’s lack of depth in the starting rotation.
The rotation is the one where area that general manager Brian Cashman didn’t address at the trade deadline this summer.
Cashman wanted to upgrade his bench, and he wanted to get some bullpen help.
Adding Lance Berkman and Austin Kearns to the bench worked fine, although both of them have been relatively non-factors. Kearns has struck out in more than a third of his at-bats while Berkman has yet to hit a homer since coming to New York via Houston.
When the Yankees made their title run last year, a large part of it was due to Phil Hughes and his transformation of the bullpen.
Hughes became the set-up guy to Mariano Rivera, and he excelled in that role. Hughes pitched so well that he even hinted he would be open to becoming the closer when Rivera decided to walk away from the game.
No need for that.
Rivera has pitched as well as ever, and the Yankees put Hughes in the starting rotation full-time this season, a role that he has grown accustomed to and has had some early success in.
That left a void in the bullpen.
With Joba Chamberlain struggling and the Yankees not entirely comfortable with handing all of the responsibility to David Robertson, Cashman went and got Kerry Wood.
The epitome of a high-risk, high-reward move, Wood brought his power stuff to New York and has been phenomenal because he has been able to stay healthy. Wood has a 0.39 ERA with 26 strikeouts in 23 innings, his fastball and slider as toxic as ever.
But, boy, the bullpen may need to be that good if New York’s rotation can’t roll out four consistent guys come October.
Look, it’s not as if the Yankees rotation can’t dominate any team on any night. It can. The upside there is tremendous. But the questions, you may say, are plentiful.
CC Sabathia… Then What?
You have CC Sabathia. He’s a horse that manager Joe Girardi can count on for two or three times per series in the playoffs and a guy that you could stack up against any other pitcher in baseball and feel good about. So, the Bombers at least have that much.
But that’s where the certainty ends.
Andy Pettitte had a phenomenal first half but then missed extended time after the All-Star break due to a leg injury and is just working his way back now. How will his leg(s) and arm hold up when the furnace gets cranked up in the postseason? Is his body and arm in the proper condition to handle that stress?
We don’t know.
A.J. Burnett will get the ball, but that’s because of his upside, which is magnificent, and the fact that the Yankees need to justify the mega-dollars they handed him two winters ago along with Sabathia.
But which Burnett New York gets is anybody’s guess.
And then there’s Hughes.
Hughes has good stuff and looks like he has settled into being a starter, but there’s something entirely different about starting in the playoffs when your team is facing elimination, a level of nerves Hughes has never encountered.
That’s where Cashman may have whiffed at the deadline by not securing a Cliff Lee or a Dan Haren.
The Yankees went after Lee hard, but they reportedly didn’t want to empty the farm system for a guy they could go after five months later in free agency.
Yankees catching prospect Jesus Montero was the deal breaker, and then the Texas Rangers stepped up and offered the Seattle Mariners a package built around Justin Smoak.
With that, Lee went to Texas.
And what about Haren?
He would have been great, too, but it again came down to prospects versus dollars for New York.
Cashman didn’t want to split with many premier prospects if he had to pay Haren’s contract entirely, which would have been in excess of $30 million.
Cashman reportedly was willing to part with Joba Chamberlain, but only if the dollars made sense.
It didn’t happen, and now Chamberlain is back to throwing bullets out of the bullpen.
Some shine came off Lee when he got hammered around during August, and some people questioned his health and whether or not he was “breaking down.”
I don’t buy it. I’d still love to lead my rotation with Cliff Lee in the postseason.
The Yankees have the talent to win a title again this year.
Who knows, maybe their starting rotation will be the cog that gets it done?
Or maybe New York will just hit its way to victory?
But unless Pettitte pitches like he did in the first half and Burnett pitches up to his ability, Cashman may have plenty of time to wonder this winter why he didn’t pull the trigger on another starting pitcher.
Follow Teddy Mitrosilis on Twitter. You can reach him at tm4000@yahoo.com.
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Colorado Rockies, Troy Tulowitzki Pound Diamondbacks for Eighth Straight Win
It doesn’t matter who is on the mound when an offense puts up 13 runs.
That is what the Rockies did to the Diamondbacks in a 13-4 win that featured two more Troy Tulowitzki home runs.
The victim this time was Arizona starter Joe Saunders. The lefty was acquired from the Angels for Dan Haren in late July, and, as many Rockies fans may remember, completely dominated the same Rockies team that he faced tonight back in June.
With the Giants 1-0 win over the Padres at Petco Park, the Rockies move to within 2.5 games of the division lead.
The Rockies have suddenly erupted onto the scene.
Just a week ago they were all but counted out of the race. They had lost to the Phillies in a wild 12-11 one-game makeup at Coors Field and had lost three in a row. That was the last time they lost.
The person responsible for the road to redemption would most likely be Carlos Gonzalez. He has carried the team offensively for the season. However, as he has fallen into a mini-slump, Troy Tulowitzki has picked up the slack.
On Friday night, he homered twice in a game for the second time this week. His home runs came a day after hitting the tying home run against the Reds, as the Rockies rallied all the way back from 5-0.
The shortstop now has eight home runs in his last nine games.
At 2.5 games out of the division race, it is scary to imagine where this team may actually be if the All-Star had not been hit by a pitch in Minnesota in June, causing him to miss six weeks of the season.
Tulowitzki is coming into his own right before fans’ eyes.
It took him a little while to find his power stroke after the injury, but clearly it is back. Neither one of his Friday night blasts were Coors Field home runs. Those balls would find the seats in any ballpark throughout the league.
After witnessing miraculous come-from-behind runs from this Rockies club in two of the past three seasons, it is almost becoming expected that this team is going to put it in fifth gear and find a way to make the playoffs in 2010.
If any team in the league can fall as far as 11 games out of the division in August, as the Rockies did, and then find themselves with a legitimate shot at winning that division, it is the Rockies.
The fact is, everyone who has watched them play all year knows that they have had the potential to be the team that they are right now. They have finally hit their stride.
All season long there has been a sense that they simply are not playing like the team that everyone knows that they can be. Suddenly, the Rockies have arrived.
With the Giants and Padres beating up on each other in San Diego over the weekend, continuing to play good baseball is of utmost importance for the Rockies. If they continue to win, they will keep their foot on the throats of the two teams in front of them, causing them to feel the pressure.
The real Rockies have finally shown up. They may be late to the party, but they are making sure that they don’t leave without their presence felt. Whether they showed up too late or not is still to be determined, but the Rockies don’t look like a team that is about to quit.
For more on the Rockies visit RockiesReview.com
This article is also featured on INDenverTimes.com
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L.A. Angels Bullpen Fails Dan Haren, Seattle Mariners Even Series, 3-1
In a much publicized battle of the aces, Los Angeles Angels starting pitcher Dan Haren matched Seattle Mariners ace Felix Hernandez pitch for pitch. Neither backed down.
After the two aces hit the showers, Seattle capitalized, scoring three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to defeat the Angels, 3-1.
For seven innings, Haren and Hernandez gave the crowd at Safeco Field an old-fashioned pitcher’s duel, tossing goose eggs until both tired after seven innings. Haren scattered seven hits and struck out eight, throwing 110 pitches, while Hernandez threw a gem of his own, giving up just three hits and striking out eight, throwing 103 pitches.
In the top of the eighth, the Angels scratched across a run. After Peter Bourjos struck out swinging, Alberto Callaspo doubled to left. Howie Kendrick then laced a double to left field, the ball bouncing into the stands for a ground-rule double, plating Callaspo with the game’s first run.
Bobby Abreu was then intentionally walked, putting runners on first and second. Torii Hunter ended the threat, grounding into a double play to end the inning.
Seattle answered in the bottom of the frame, and then some. Kevin Jepsen (2-4) replaced Haren on the mound. After Franklin Guitierrez struck out swinging, Russell Branyan walked. Matt Tuiasosopo pinch ran for Branyan, and was moved to third on a Jose Lopez single to center.
Casey Kotchman then walked, loading the bases for Michael Saunders. Saunders delivered with a single to center, scoring Tuiasosopo and evening the game at 1-1. Adam Moore followed with a broken bat single just over the reach of Howie Kendrick, scoring Lopez, and Josh Wilson followed suit, singling to center to score Kotchman.
Mariners closer David Aardsma came on to put down the Angels in the top of the ninth, earning his 26th save of the season.
Brandon League (9-6) got the win, despite giving up the first and only run to the Angels.
The Angels will look to take the rubber match of the three-game series on Wednesday night, sending Trevor Bell (1-4, 5.07 ERA) to the hill versus the Mariners’ Jason Vargas (9-7, 3.53 ERA).
You can contact Doug on Twitter, @desertdesperado.
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Angels-Mariners Preview, Tuesday, August 31
Now that the Los Angeles Angels have snapped a three-game losing streak at the hands of the Seattle Mariners last night, they’ll look to capture their first series win since mid-August tonight at Safeco Field.
Tonight’s pitching matchup: Angels, Dan Haren (2-4, 4.02 ERA) vs. Mariners Felix Hernandez (10-10, 2.47 ERA)
What to expect: Haren will be looking for his second straight victory as a member of the Angels. During last Wednesday’s victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, Haren gave up one run on three hits, striking out eight in six innings. This will be Haren’s first start against Seattle since 2007 while a member of the Oakland Athletics.
Hernandez, second in the American League with 192 strikeouts, has been a victim of poor run support throughout the season. King Felix has won three of his last four starts, but is 0-2 with 5.12 ERA in three starts vs. Los Angeles thus far this season.
Hitting matchups: Angels LF Bobby Abreu has had great success versus Hernandez in his career, hitting .367 with one homer. RF Torii Hunter has also had moderate success, hitting .314 off Hernandez in his career.
For the Mariners, very few hitters have seen much of Haren. RF Ichiro Suzuki is only hitting .268 versus Haren in his career, a full .063 below his career batting average. 2B/3B Chone Figgins has had little success against the Angels overall since leaving the team after eight seasons, hitting just .163 versus his former team.
Angels Notes: Angels’ catcher Mike Napoli was pulled back from waivers by the Angels yesterday afternoon. The Angels were unable to finalize a deal with the Boston Red Sox, who had claimed Napoli off the waiver wire, by the time Monday’s deadline for an agreement had passed. Napoli will now remain a Halo until the end of the season.
New Angels closer Fernando Rodney, elevated to the role after the trade of Brian Fuentes to the Minnesota Twins, picked up his first save since the promotion last night. It was far from a clean outing, as he walked the leadoff hitter, Casey Kotchman, and later allowed him to score on a wild pitch.
Angels DH/LF Hideki Matsui continued his torrid pace in the month of August, ripping a two-run homer off Mariners starter David Pauley in the sixth inning of last night’s victory. Matsui is now hitting .313 for the month of August, after a dismal July in which he hit just. .228.
Although minor league callups for September 1 have not been announced yet by the Angels, one would expect that Triple-A 1B Mark Trubmo would certainly get the call. The twenty-four year old Trumbo has been on a tear for the Salt Lake Bees since the All-Star break, hitting .362 with 13 HR’s and 43 RBI’s. Trumbo has shown much more plate discipline as well, with a respectable 27/45 walk-to-strikeout ratio, a dramatic improvement over his 28/73 pre All-Star numbers.
You can follow Doug on Twitter, @desertdesperado.
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Hurlers for the Hall 3: AL and NL West
The pitchers of the AL and NL West may not be the best to use as a finale in my Future Hall of Fame series. Unlike all of the groups I’ve done, there have been no sure-fire candidates, like a Chipper Jones or a Mariano Rivera. This is largely due to the youth of the group in question. I struggled to find any pitchers in their 30s who had any sort of a chance at all (the last cut resulting in the loss of Barry Zito-yes, I really was that desperate for players). But then, maybe it’s fitting that I finish with the youngest, most potential filled group.
And, because I know you’re all dying to know, the only chance Barry Zito has of coming close to the Hall is if he becomes Jamie Moyer, Mark II: the soft-throwing lefty with good command and movement who somehow hangs around racking up wins into his mid-40s.
And so, onto the real analysis.
Brandon Webb To the Bullpen?
Just a day after I had written off Brandon Webb’s season, he pops up in the news. I was correct in my supposition that he will not start again this year, but he may yet actually pitch (but call me skeptical).
Here is what Webb had to say about it:
“I think starting is now out of the question. Starting is unrealistic.”
“My arm feels good, but in order to face some batters, I need to get some more velocity. That’s the only thing that is standing in my way right now. I feel like if I get my velocity, if I throw a couple of ‘pens and a couple of simulated games, it’ll be right around Sept. 1 and no Minor Leagues are going to be playing, they’ll be done. I’ll have to throw out of the ‘pen here.”
Webb in the bullpen. Too bad it’s too late for the team. They could have used an arm like that a long time ago.
Of course, had he been able to pitch earlier in the year, the team would probably not be in the situation it is in now. That’s the difference an ace makes.
Webb – Haren = success on team
Webb + Haren = team success
Haren – Webb = disaster on team
Now don’t mistake this with saying that Haren is not a very good or even a great pitcher, but he has not been the ace that Webb was, and an ace makes a difference on the team.
We will soon find out if he can get back to that form. One thing I know is that if he can pitch in the bullpen, he will by default be the best option to close.
Follow me on Twitter: @happytrappedfan
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Fantasy Baseball’s Top 50 Pitchers Post All-Star Break
Carl Pavano, Jeff Niemann, Colby Lewis. According to ESPN’s Player Rater (PR), these three have been top 25 starting pitchers to date… and none of them were drafted in ESPN standard ten-team leagues. In fact, of the top 60 pitchers on the PR, 22 of them went undrafted. Think pitching is deep?
Moreover, the guys at the top are truly elite. Of pitchers with at least 100 innings pitched, an astounding 17 of them have an ERA under 3.00. So, you may not be hurting for pitching, but there are still plenty of guys out there who remain undervalued for you to target either through trade or on the waiver wire. All ownership percentages are from ESPN. (stats as of Sunday, July 25, 2010)
TIER 1
1. Adam Wainwright (100% owned)
2. Josh Johnson (100% owned)
Each has a WHIP right around 1.00, and Johnson has a marginal five strikeout lead over Wainwright. The only differences between them are Johnson leads in ERA 1.61 to 2.02, and Wainwright has four more wins. Johnson is more likely to see his ERA regress towards 2.00 than he is to win more games than Wainwright the rest of the way. So, while wins are not the best way to evaluate pitchers, they still count in fantasy, and their value cannot be ignored.
3. Roy Halladay (100% owned)
4. Cliff Lee (100% owned)
5. Tim Lincecum (100% owned)
6. Jon Lester (100% owned)
7. Jered Weaver (100% owned)
Weaver is striking out almost ten batters per nine innings while walking just over two batters per nine, and all of his peripheral numbers indicate that what he has been is what he is going to be. If you have a stud starter with a lot of name value (say, Justin Verlander or Johan Santana), do not hesitate to swap them straight up for Weaver.
TIER 2
10. Zach Greinke (100% owned)
In his last 7 starts, Greinke is 4-1 with a 2.89 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, and 7.98 K/9.
The “buy-low window” is probably closed by now as Greinke looks poised for a monster second-half.
11. Justin Verlander (100% owned)
12. Ubaldo Jimenez (100% owned)
13. Yovani Gallardo (100% owned)
14. David Price (100% owned)
15. Chris Carpenter (100% owned)
16. Clayton Kershaw (100% owned)
17. Dan Haren (100% owned)
Haren has always been a notorious first-half stud and second-half bust, but this year he had a disappointing first half. This led many to wonder how much worse it would get once he hit the inevitable second-half decline. However, if he broke the trend in the first-half, why can he not do the same in the second-half? He is third in the league with 141 K’s.
TIER 3
18. Matt Cain (100% owned)
19. Johan Santana (100% owned)
20. Roy Oswalt (100% owned)
21. Colby Lewis (98.5% owned)
22. Tommy Hanson (100% owned)
With a record of 8-6, a 4.12 ERA and 1.36 WHIP, Hanson has not exactly given fantasy owners the return they were expecting on a top 80-ish draft pick. However, Hanson has pitched better than those numbers indicate. He is striking out almost a batter more per inning than he did last year at a clip of 9.03 K/9 , his walks are down, and his BABIP is .348 (the higher the number is over .300, the more unlucky the pitcher has been). If your league redrafted today, Hanson still might be worth a top 80 pick.
23. John Danks (100% owned)
24. Tim Hudson (100% owned)
25. Jeff Niemann (100% owned)
26. Stephen Strasburg (100% owned)
27. Mat Latos (100% owned)
Both Strasburg and Latos are going to have their innings limited as we get deeper into the season, but if they were pitching through September, they would both be top 15 pitchers. Just keep running them out there every time they pitch, and then, use their roster slot to stream pitchers once they hit the shelf. By doing so, you can still get top 20 value out of that slot in your rotation.
28. Jaime Garcia (99.9% owned)
Garcia was one of the most difficult guys to rank. You keep expecting the rookie pitcher with the unusually low HR/9 rate (0.41) and good but not great K/BB rate (2.09) to regress, but so far it just hasn’t happened. He is currently third in the majors with a 2.21 ERA and could absolutely continue to be a top 25-30 starting pitcher.
TIER 4
29. Francisco Liriano (100% owned)
30. Clay Buchholz (100% owned)
31. Matt Garza (100% owned)
32. Max Scherzer (84.1% owned)
33. Ricky Nolasco (97.9% owned)
In 2009, Nolasco had a 5.76 ERA and 8.93 K/9 before the All-Star break. He rebounded nicely with a 4.39 ERA and 10.02 K/9 after the break. This year, he had a 4.55 ERA and 7.64 K/9 before the break, but in his two starts since the break, Nolasco has posted a 4.05 ERA and 10.99 K/9. See where this is going?
34. Jonathan Sanchez (99.4% owned)
35. Wandy Rodriguez (55.4% owned)
36. Cole Hamels (100% owned)
37. Ryan Dempster (100% owned)
38. Carl Pavano (93.1% owned)
Pavano in 2010: 12-6, 3.26 ERA, 1.01 WHIP (!), and 81 K’s to just 19 BB’s. Really?!?! As mentioned above, the undrafted Pavano is providing substantial value to his owners. In a 16-team league with 30 man rosters, I got Pavano with pick No. 433. Now that is value! The only reason he is not ranked higher is because, well, he is still Carl Pavano.
TIER 5
39. Gavin Floyd (90.4% owned)
40. Jason Hammel (26.2% owned)
41. Javier Vazquez (94.7% owned)
42. C.J. Wilson (72.3% owned)
43. Ervin Santana (88.9% owned)
44. Scott Baker (65.5% owned)
Baker’s increased strikeout rate, decreased walk rate, high BABIP, and inflated FIP all indicate that he has pitched better than it looks on paper. FIP, or Fielding Independent Pitching, shows how well a pitcher pitched regardless of how the defense played behind him. The nice thing about FIP is that it is based on the same scale as ERA. So, while his ERA is right at 5.00, Baker’s FIP is just over 4.00, and his xFIP (Expected FIP predicts future ERA by adjusting home run rates) is actually below 4.00.
45. Phil Hughes (100% owned)
46. Brett Myers (21.3% owned)
47. Chad Billingsley (95% owned)
48. Edinson Volquez (73.2% owned)
49. Kris Medlen (9.8% owned)
50. Tommy Hunter (67.4% owned)
Both Medlen and Hunter are nice young pitchers with which to fill out the back end of your rotation. While Hunter’s ownership percentage is substantially higher, Medlen is the guy you would rather own. He has an impressive 3.57 ERA and 1.19 WHIP in 92.1 innings, and nothing in his peripherals suggests that he has just been lucky. Meanwhile, Hunter is 7-0 with a 2.09 ERA and 1.11 WHIP in nine starts, but he is striking out less than five batters per nine innings and is receiving 7.3 runs per game of support from his offense.
Just missed the cut: Trevor Cahill (84.8% owned), Jason Vargas (20.8% owned), Shawn Marcum (66.3% owned), Barry Zito (88.2% owned), Ricky Romero (91.4% owned)
Agree or Disagree with the rankings?
Leave a comment and let us know, or reply to us on Twitter@TheFantasyFix
Article written by Brett Talley exclusively for TheFantasyFix.com. Brett is a blackbelt and taught Steven Seagal everything he knows.
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MLB Trade: Dan Haren To Angels for Joe Saunders and Junk
Well, Dan Haren was finally traded, but not to the New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, or St. Louis Cardinals—three teams that really want another top hurler.
Haren was traded to the Los Angeles Angels for left-handed, back-end starter Joe Saunders and three pitching prospects. None of these returning pitchers were top-10 prospects in the Angels organization.
Kudos to Angels GM Tony Reagins for swooping in late and pulling off this coup.
Several factors indicate that acting Arizona GM Jerry DiPoto jumped the gun and reached on this deal.
First, while Saunders is regarded as a nice pitcher, and will replace Haren on the Diamondbacks rotation, he is not nearly in the same class as Haren. Despite both having similar ERAs, Haren is much more a strikeout pitcher while Saunders pitches to contact.
Not that pitching to contact is bad, but when you add in Haren’s reluctance to walk anyone, his zenith could explode much higher than Saunders’ ever will.
Second, the Diamondbacks were interested in also having teams paying Haren’s entire salary. This money includes about $3 million more this season, $12.75 million in 2011 and 2012, plus a $15.5 million 2013 option (or $3.5 million buyout).
Yes, that is more than what Saunders is owed, as Big Joe is still under team control for two more arbitration seasons. Saunders’ two arbitration seasons could net him about $12 million over that span.
The Diamondbacks are saving money, but the money is not as big of a difference as you would think they could have gotten.
Third, the minor league pitchers received aren’t impact-type guys. Patrick Corbin is a 20-year-old who has generated a High-A Cal League 5-3 record with 3.88 ERA and a K/9 rate of 9.5. This is after a Low-A 8-0 record with a 3.86 ERA with a 6.5 K/9 rate.
This is the best minor league guy in the deal, which means the deal is not great for Arizona. Rafael Rodriguez is 25 and an okay guy, but is also a bullpen arm. Unless he miraculously turns into Mariano Rivera, or even Ocatvio Dotel, his career is not going to be noteworthy.
Except for this bad trade.
A player to be named is likely to be Tyler Skaggs, the Angels supplemental first-round pick last year. He is throwing well so far this season, his first full year, but is at least four seasons away.
What the Diamondbacks did not do is center their deal with the Angels over their top guy, heavy-hitting outfielder Mike Trout, also a 2010 Futures Game participant. Trout is a great combination of power and speed, who also makes great consistent contact.
That’s a far cry from what current third baseman Mark Reynolds offers the Diamondbacks.
Hint for teams wishing to trade a top player for young talent: Always seek out the other teams’ Futures Game players. Every organization is represented by two players, and they are usually some of the best players in that team’s system!
While the deal clearly favors the Angels, it will not help the Halos this year. It’s more of a trade for 2011 and 2012.
The Texas Rangers are too far ahead in the standings, have the better ace in Cliff Lee, a very solid bullpen, and a much more potent lineup.
I do not believe they will stumble over the next two months, and they might be the team to beat in the American League.
So, the Diamondbacks received a lesser Major League talent, did not save as much money on the deal as you would expect, and did not receive the Angels’ best prospects.
Not a good first attempt in acting GM Jerry DiPoto’s first foray into the wheeling and dealing of high-stakes baseball deals.
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