Dodgers Acquire Berroa From Royals

Decent speed and some pop at short. I am guessing they are making this move so they can send Hu to Las Vegas and get him some playing time while working on his bat speed, which has disappeared this year. Berroa and Hu are actually very similar players, in that they are rangy, athletic shortstops with some pop who have seen their ability to hit mysteriously decline. Berroa just happens to be much older and make more money. I wonder if this means they DFA Tiffee after Furcal gets back.

Even better news. The Dodgers get to have Hu hone his bat while Berroa is a no-lose choice, as Rivera is really a low level prospect.

Someone want to explain why it makes sense for KC? Sure Berroa sucks, but they're still paying his salary and didn't get anything noteworthy for him. I'd rather hope he re-finds his stroke since his salary is a sunk cost at this point.

Not having Angel Berroa take up a roster spot seems to be worth about 3 million bucks or so to me.

Royals starved for offense there ss is hitting .175 maybe giving berroa another shot tis year wouldn't have been such a bad idea.

"Theriot goes 3-5 with a rib vs. the Dodgers last night. Now batting .330 and on pace for 197 hits. Also sporting a .412 OBP. Rich Hill scheduled to make a start after coming off the minor league DL."

And what does this have to do with the Dodgers acquiring Berroa?

I can understand why anyone who is not a Royals fan would wonder why they would trade Berroa for a nothing and give up cash.

As a Royals fan who is normally (except in this case) very reasonable, I could not be happier. Berroa represents one of the Royals many "promising" young players who delivered for one season and turned into an absolutely horrible , well below replacement, players.

He was the organization's punching bag for several years and it is simply worth it to get rid of him. I have no doubt that he would be a better MLB player than Juan Rivera, but there would have been a public outcry if Berroa ever cracked the Royals starting lineup again.

The fact is that when your team has been as bad as the Royals have, moral victories such as this are all you really have to cling to. Now we just need to get rid of Tony Pena Jr., who is Berroa with better defense and no power...

Speaking of off topic topics, remember when I told everybody that the Mets would end up looking like the 07 whitesox if they traded for Santana and gave him all that stupid money? Looks like I was right, only my prediction came to fruition about 2 years earlier then I thought. Sorry for the random interuption, Back to the Royals/ Dodgers thread or the Cubs fantasy baseball lineup dejour, depending on your local listings.

I know we've been hearing for a few weeks now that the Dodgers were searching for a veteran utility infielder type. But how does Berroa fit into that?

""Speaking of off topic topics, remember when I told everybody that the Mets would end up looking like the 07 whitesox if they traded for Santana...?"

Who the **** cares! So you go off on your own little topic, and that's just fine, eh? Nice."

That was sort of the point dipshit. Jeez, you arent the brightest tool in the shed, are you?

"Cubs lose again. Is the free fall coming? Theriot, 0'fer. Round 6 to Tim."

I guess no credit to Kuroda and Lowe for spinning those games? Or to the Dodger offense for dominating Carlos Zambrano?

Theriot was mediocre last season, but was excellent the year before. He has hit all types of pitching this year and People need to pull their heads out of their sabermetric asses sometimes and just realize that there are players who are more valuable that PETCOA and Bill James say they are.

"OK, we hear “want to acquire middle infield depth”, and THIS is what they do? Just flat out freakin pitiful… I mean, they are fearful of using the light-hitting Hu (who has upside) so they instead want to use the no-hitting Berroa who seemingly"

Giving up a low level prospect AND getting Berroa paid for makes a lot of sense. Hu needs to play regularly and he has turned the bottom of the Dodger line up into a black hole. Further, they kept him up anyway, while waiting for Furcal to come back. Also, you might get your dream to come true as there is talk LaRoche may be called up ahead of Furcal's return and take Hu's spot.

"…Uhh, replace a black-hole by trading for a black-hole? And wait a month until Furcal is days away from returning to make this move? Yeah, this has logical written all over it…"

I think they stuck with Hu because they wanted to see if he was MLB ready, given that he actually hit pretty well in his September call-up. Honestly, I think a lot of his problems stem from poor coaching, as he has not used his speed and seems to have lost bat speed, because you don't hit for the kind of XBH numbers he did without having it at some point, even if it was in the minors.

"And the biggest issue with this move will come in the player who doesn’t see time to allow Berroa the opportunity to take his hacks. Cause you know they didn’t trade for him to use him for 5-6 days and then release him ~ he will be with the team for atleast a little while showing all the inability he possesses which was oh so painful to watch in the AL-C…"

Berroa has hit the last 2 years in AAA and has seemed to work on his K rate, with success. I do think they should be giving LaRoche (or DeWitt) work at SS, because the 3B/2B conversion is rather easy.

"No speed, no power, low BA, better (but still questionable) plate discipline"

Huh? He hit .300 last year and was at .291 this year when called up. Also, he already has 10 HR this year. As for your "its the PCL argument", that doesn't hold water. Omaha plays in the American North Division, which is not the launching pad that the Pacific North and South Divisions are. I would love, of course, for the Dodgers to have picked up Mike Aviles from that team, but there is no way they would get him for the price they got Berroa.

"Come on, you cant spin this move as a good thing ~ its regression from Hu who atleast has a future in the game…"

Hu needs a deeper level of coaching than can be delivered at the MLB level. Now, they can send Mattingley to Vegas to work with him, as opposed to Easler who has to deal with other MLB hitters and doesn't really have an approach that works with a guy like Hu.

“Huh? He hit .300 last year and was at .291 this year when called up. Also, he already has 10 HR this year. As for your "its the PCL argument", that doesn't hold water. Omaha plays in the American North Division, which is not the launching pad that the Pacific North and South Divisions are”

…He hit 290-ish in the PCL, where the average hitter posts a .280-ish BA… Only 2 players (200+ AB) hit less than .275 for Omaha last year…

“Hu needs a deeper level of coaching than can be delivered at the MLB level. Now, they can send Mattingley to Vegas to work with him, as opposed to Easler who has to deal with other MLB hitters and doesn't really have an approach that works with a guy like Hu.”

…Yes, and we better make sure he gets down today to start his learning, instead of say Thursday or Friday! Thankfully Berroa was brought in so he can get those extra 5 or so days in…

""…He hit 290-ish in the PCL, where the average hitter posts a .280-ish BA…"
He hit .300 last year, and was hitting well above the league average this year (.291 compared to .273).
"Only 2 players (200+ AB) hit less than .275 for Omaha last year…"
And Berroa was 25 points above that."

...Ohh goody, he hits approximately 20 points higher than the average player in the PCL, and was one of 11 guys to hit between .275-.341. Oh, and that .341 Mark was of course posted by the amazing ML threat, Joey Gathright ~ yeah, he of the career .262 ML BA who is hitting a whopping .242 right now for KC…

"Hu's bat has cost the Dodgers games at this point. Berroa still has bat speed and will not take 2 called strikes before trying to do something.”

…Did you see yesterdays game?

Dodgers with Hu at SS is a team with superior fielder with upside at the plate. Dodgers with Berroa at SS is a team with fair fielding with no upside at all at the plate. But hey, it’s a whole 5 games he will be needed so I completely understand making that move for the downgrade it provides…

Well, this makes more sense now. Furcal is out another 3 weeks and they are having Nomar play at Short in his rehab. If Nomar remains healthy, he should be able to contribute both offensively and defensively until Furcal comes back. Nomar and Furcal actually profile very similarly defensively, with strong arms, range and a propensity for stupid errors.