On this date nine years ago, the A's, Royals, and Devil Rays pulled off a three-team trade that included seven big leaguers. Oakland acquired Johnny Damon, Mark Ellis, and the late Cory Lidle while Kansas City received Angel Berroa, A.J. Hinch, and Roberto Hernandez. Tampa Bay picked up just Ben Grieve. Even though Berroa went on to win the Rookie of the Year Award in 2003, Billy Beane's club walked away as the clear winner of this blockbuster.
Let's take a look at what's being written around the baseball blogosphere as Spring Training inches closer…
- Fenway Nation thinks the Red Sox made a mistake by not re-signing Jason Bay, and wants to see the club atone for it by trading for Adrian Gonzalez.
- Simon On Sports interviewed a blogger from each team about their squad's offseason.
- At Home Plate says the Cardinals overpaid for Matt Holliday not because he isn't worth the money, but because no one else was bidding for his services.
- Athletics Nation graded the front offices of the last decade.
- U.S.S. Mariner calls Franklin Gutierrez's contract extension a major bargain, and notes it's similarities to the deal Mike Cameron signed with Seattle a decade ago.
- DRays Bay wonders if the Rays could use Alfredo Amezaga.
- Phillies Nation takes a look at some of the cheaper free agent pitching options that could entice the two-time defending NL Champs.
- Twins Overlook examines the progression of Delmon Young since arriving in Minnesota.
- River Ave. Blues ranked the $100MM contracts given to position players.
- More Hardball has some New Year's resolutions for various people and teams in the game.
If you have a suggestion for this feature, Mike can be reached here.
How is it possible we could still trade for Gonzalez?
Anyone still insisting that the Red Sox trade for Gonzalez is an idiot. It takes two to make a trade and Jed Hoyer would be dead meat if he sent Adrian to the Red Sox. If that was not the case, Theo would not have picked up Beltre. “Fenway Nation” needs to just accept that and move on.
I came here to say the same thing. 80% of Red Sox fans are idiots.
<–Red Sox Fan.
The blog from Fenway Nation was absolutely horrid to read. Please don’t use that crap on this site again.Buchholz and JOSH Bard? C’mon now!
That was probably the worst thing I’ve ever read. (The blog.) It makes no sense whatsoever. And to top it all off, he mentioned Josh Bard in a trade with Buchholz. What a moron.
The piece begins with “Well, our long national nightmare is over, to coin a phrase.” I’m not sure what “nightmare” the blogger had in mind (the Jason Bay rumors were a nightmare?) but does he really think he come up with that himself? Does he not know what “coin a phrase” means? I hope it was intended as sarcasm, but it wasn’t funny, so its hard to tell. Maybe if he’d written ‘Well, our long national nightmare is over, to take a famous political comment out of context and render it a meaningless cliche.’
To be (somewhat) fair to the author, the piece was written before the new year, so it made more sense before the Beltre deal.
Nice to see the Red Sox lunatics are still around. The exact same ones that would be stabbing Epstein in the back in 2 years for giving Bay that 60M contract, as well for laughing at Minaya the 66M deal that he got. Some of these liberal whiners are a royal pain in the arse.
It’s interesting looking back at what I wanted the M’s to do back in late November. Sure didn’t see Cliff Lee or Milton Bradley coming.
From the “More Hardball” blog’s “New Year’s Resolutions:”
Tim McClelland, Phil Cuzzi, C.B. Bucknor, Chuck Meriweather, Angel Hernandez, and Bob Davidson
1. Retire.
Wow! That’s not just a resolution, it’s the answer to my prayers!
That Fenway Nation post was published in December. I doubt the author would still advocate the Sox trade for Gonzalez. At least not at this time.
I don’t see A-Gone being moved until the trading deadline at the earliest, but if he is, I think the Braves are the likely destination.
“but Buchholz and two elite prospects (Josh Bard?/Casey Kelly?/Ryan Westmorland?) ”
I can care less about that blog but I think he might of meant Josh Reddick.. Not Bard.
It would make more sense if he meant Daniel Bard…I wouldn’t call Reddick an elite prospect at this point.
Elite no. Westy and Kelly are elites, but Reddick was never really even considered elite. However, the guy has definite potential to be an above average corner outfielder.
Josh Reddick/Daniel Bard = Josh Bard??
Well it makes sense that it was a typo.
And I agree about Reddick, I always thought the RS thought of him a little less.
Why would the Rays want Alfredo Amezaga? They have Brignac and S-Rod for infield depth and Jocye, Jennings and Perez in the outfield.
i have a sneaky feeling that the sox are going to stand pat and wait to see what happens with Pujols.
If Pujols plays in the AL…in Boston…he breaks the HR record…mark it…
Depends. The Wall giveth and The Wall taketh away. He might just lead the league in long single and dented sheet metal.
I have no doubt that Theo, like every other GM with a large budget, is quietly waiting with the 2011 offseason circled on their calender. But really, I’m betting no GM for a team that’s perpetually a playoff contender is seriously simply waiting to see what happens with a star player and their current team.
That said, one thing to remember about Fenway: it’s not a home run park. Yes, it’s definitely a hitters park but it’s primarily a doubles park. The Monster turns what are line drive home runs elsewhere into doubles and easy fly ball outs elsewhere into doubles.
Yep, Jim Rice was probably the strongest guy pure power wise (outside of Willy Mo Pena) have ever seen at Fenway and he never even hit 50. You got to elevate the ball to hit it out and Rice hit mostly line drive type blasts that many turned out to be singles.Dwight Evans, Rico Petrocelli, those were the guys that elevated the ball for HR’s at Fenway, you never know if the wall is going to help, or hurt.
No love for Manny? Rice was great… but I’d take Manny over him.
It’s difficult to compare players from different eras. When I see the rebroadcasts of games from 20 years ago, it is amazing how small those guys looked compared to the players of the past 10-15 years. In my opinion, Rice was the best hitter of his era, hands down. How good would he have been if he was jacked up on roids like Manny?
Ah yes. Most here remember Manny SWP. too recent. He was a “tweener”, not nearly as strong as WMP and Rice, but not a flyball hitter like Evans and Petrocelli either.He was the best all around hitter of the bunch.
In 2011, aGonz, Howard, and fielder are ALL free agents, I highly doubt pujols hits FA.
You cited Fenway Nation to further the point that some Boston fans still want Adrian Gonzalez? The article was terribly written and the facts and logic involved were flat-out wrong. I would hope MLBTR is above linking to such sub-par rants from fans who don’t even know the first names of their own team’s top prospects.
Also, I’m not sure I would draw comparisons between Franklin Gutierrez and Mike Cameron just yet. The defensive prodigy gets that part of the game. He needs to become more consistent at the plate and get his bat at least to Mike Cameron’s former level before we say the two are truly comparable. I don’t feel like we should expect Gutierrez to get that much better as a hitter while his defense remains brilliant. But time will tell whether my feelings are accurate or inaccurate.
i would like to see sheets in the Philz rotation when hes healthy he is a stud
Lol Matt Holliday 120 Mil contract…beyond overpaid, Thats Beltran’s money..He’s not even worth that. Why would they raise there contract from 80-90 mil to 120 mil..Makes no sense.