Stark: What If The Nats Could Deal Strasburg?

There is no reason to not be able to trade draft picks. This would make baseball and the draft so much more interesting and make it easier for low budget teams to be successful.

"He can't be traded until a year after he's drafted. So think next year's trade deadline."

That's not correct... he can't be traded until a year after *he signs* - if he doesn't sign until mid-August this year, he'd have to be a PTBNL for a deadline trade next year. He's likely to be in Washington by that point. Assuming he's not on the DL, that would limit the Nationals' 2010 trade possibilities for Strasburg to teams in the AL.

"He reasons that Jones would have been the first overall pick in the draft this year if he'd somehow been eligible."

As good as Jones has been that's just a silly statement. Strasburg still would've went first.

"As for trading Strasburg, consider this. Scouts have compared his stuff to Burnett. Now consider Burnett with 1) 6 years of cheap control, 2) younger than Burnett is now, 3) no MLB experience, 4) Projected to be better than Burnett... Now, what is Strasburg worth?"

Am I the only one who doesn't think Burnett is that great of a pitcher?

"He reasons that Jones would have been the first overall pick in the draft this year if he'd somehow been eligible."

This statement is just stupid all around. At this point AJ is an established major league contributor. Pretty much any established, productive big leaguer would be the top pick in the draft if they were available.

As for trading Strasburg, consider this. Scouts have compared his stuff to Burnett. Now consider Burnett with 1) 6 years of cheap control, 2) younger than Burnett is now, 3) no MLB experience, 4) Projected to be better than Burnett... Now, what is Strasburg worth?

Posted by: start_wearing_purple | June 11, 2009 at 02:54 PM

Are talking about the aj burnett who has a 5 era and 1.5 whip?

the jay's defense is amazing. rolen is probably the best defensive third baseman, lyle overbay is one of the best, if not the best, defensive third baseman, john mcdonald/marco scutaro are awesome at shortstop, alex rios is one of the best outfielders and has a great arm, and wells is a 3-time gold glover. burnett was backed by amazing defense, and still couldn't get his ERA under 4 at all during the 2008 season. his ERA of like 5 right now doesn't surprise me, especially since his strikeouts are down.

Anyone that thinks Strasburg would be taken ahead of Adam Jones needs to have their head examined. Strasburg still hasn't thrown a single pitch as a professional, he played against mediocre competition at best in college, and he's a young pitcher which makes him extremely risky. I can't imagine the O's would even entertain the thought of trading Jones for Strasburg.

This entire post centers around the value Strasburg would bring in a trade. If a team would take Jones over Strasburg it means they value Jones more than Strasburg and would therefore be unlikely to trade a player of that sort for a player like Strasburg. So yeah, given the topic of the post, I don't see how you can argue that who would go higher in a fictional draft is irrelevant to the discussion.

"So yeah, given the topic of the post, I don't see how you can argue that who would go higher in a fictional draft is irrelevant to the discussion."

But is clearly obvious. Any young player that is already producing in the big leagues would go higher in the draft then anybody who hasn't yet produced in the big leagues. It is as obvious as one plus one equals two. So I don't see the point. Yeah, if Adam Jones of 09 was in the draft (even though he is already a major league player), no shyt he would go first. What if David Wright, Evan Longoria, Dustin Pedroia and Grady Sizemore also were entered into the 2009 amateur draft. I'm pretty sure they would go before Strasburg also. So there is no point. The list of young major league baseball players that have already established themselves as star players would all go in front of any amateur in any draft.

"To take it to the extreme - would Pujols or Strasburg have gone first? If you're talking about '09 Pujols vs. '09 Strasburg, duh. If you're talking about '99 Pujols vs. '09 Strasburg without foresight, you gotta go with Strasburg."

Exactly. This isn't rocket science here.

BTW I love how you get on other people for "stating the obvious" and then agree with a guy who said '99 Pujols would go after '09 Strasburg...you know, because it isn't obvious that a consensus #1 pick would go before a guy who lasted to the 13th round in his draft