Recent Trades

I want more!!!!

yankfan1:

Just informing you that Hardy's career high is 26 HRs in 2007. He hit 24 in '08.

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I like the action so far, but it can go two ways from here:

The best trades have happened, now everything will tail off; or it can only get better.

@yankfan1, .250, 6 homers, 50 RBI's? I'll take it, so long as he plays amazing defense (as he does), is still fast (speed never slumps), and strikes out less than Mike Cameron (who struck out 298 times in his TWO seasons in Milwaukee).

I think this is a fair trade for both teams. The Twins get two years of Hardy, who might rebound from a god-awful season in 2009. We get Carlos Gomez, who is a center fielder under team control through 2014, and has plenty of talent to go around. Not to mention, while the Twins take on just under $5 million in salary, the Brewers are removing about $20 million (Cameron, Hardy, Weathers) from the books, plus maybe another $6.5 million from Looper's option, which can then be spent on good pitching. That cap space can also be used to make a trade for a good pitcher, so that we have room for his salary.

So, all in all, that was a good trade for both sides.

The Brewers were aiming to get pitching. They were in talks with the Red Sox, but Doug Melvin didn't want anything they were offering. They offered Michael Bowden, and that was it. He hasn't had any success in the Bigs yet, and I don't blame Melvin for not making that trade.

So, we got Gomez to take a bunch of money off the books to spend on pitching. I can understand, though, why you haven't really been a fan of Carlos Gomez. He hasn't exactly impressed with the bat in his young career. But, he has a long career ahead of him to improve. I could see him as actually a Mike Cameron type of player, but with a few less homers.

"Wow, that JJ Hardy for Gomez deal was straight up robbery for the Twins. "

Hardy is coming off a back problem, so who knows if he can rebound at all.

Given the back issue. I'm surprised the Twins took a chance on Hardy after the abysmal failure Joe Crede was for them...

WS2009, I think when evaluating deals we have to consider more than the talent involved. We have to consider context and the needs of each team.

For example, in the Pirates/Rays deal, I don't think there is any doubt that the Pirates got the superior talent. But from the Rays' perspective, they could not keep Iwamura, they did not need Iwamura and they could either let him go for nothing or receive something. By getting a reliever, an area of need, they have a chance to come out ahead, not of the Pirates but of the situation.

The same goes for the other deals. It is not who got the better end but whether each team achieved something it needed to do, whether it is financial relief which can be turned into talent in some area of need or a particular type of talent that fits their current needs.

I suppose I do not see the consideration of other factors in the comment you made. Perhaps it lies behind the statement but I don't see how it is implicit in it.

And again, I don't think the statement that the two were given up for basically nothing is relevant. The issue is what the options were and how the teams that "gave them up" met their own needs. In Florida's case, gaining about $3 million of salary relief is not nothing. Nor is the gain of over $4 million nothing to the Rays. Those savings can be invested in something quite useful.

Of course they each could have simply dumped the player and gotten the same relief (well, not the Rays as they saved something over $.5 million by avoiding the buyout). As everyone knew the dilemma, getting young relief arms is also not nothing, or basically nothing if you prefer.

In both cases the other team clearly got the better talent, but not necessarily the better end of the deal. Of course, time may always tell. (If the Cardinals trade Pujols for Giambi, only time would tell whether it was a benefit to St. Louis.) But looking at the Rays now, we see a team that traded a player who had absolutely no use to the team and received a potential contributor. That means they got a good deal until time tells us something else.

I suppose my objection is that I don't think deals should be evaluated as which team got the better end. The comparison should not be one team's gain to the other's. It is irrelevant to the Rays if the Pirates win a pennant because of Iwamura. What matters is whether each team got what it needed or wanted, whether what they thought they needed was correctly evaluated and whether they could have done better. In these cases, I think the answers to questions one and two are definitely yes and to question 3 is too speculative for us to know, but probably yes.

I wanna see much more i mean the yankees just won the world series evreybody should be trying to get better. But i think that carlos Gomez is better than J.J Hardy. The brewers needed a center fielder and they a very fast Lead off man who plays gold glove defence for somebody whos getting old and in slumping....Alot. I think the marlins well make a big free agent that will get evrebody off guard and thats what they need to get over the hill and win the wild card next year. I think Uggla win be a cardnal by the end of the off season and that will also make the cardnals a very good team in 2010. Dont be surprised if the marlins sign a Matt Holiday or a Damon. I see them getting rid of Uggla and moving Couglan to secound and that will opena huge hole in left and the marlins have a lot of money saved up. But i see the yankess making another 2-3 Huge signings and them doing even better next year. The yankees will be the first team to clear the 300 million a year salary and thats when mlb will put a salary cap on baseball. And last but Not least.....LETS GET REPLAY IN BASEBALL!!!!! INVENT A RED BASEBALL SO MANAGERS CAN CHALLENGE AND U GET THREE IN A GAME. ITS NOT TO HARD TO DO...SERIUSLY DUDE.