So much to get to as Thursday winds down:
- CSNBayArea.com's Mychal Urban reflects on the Oakland winter, and writes that Ben Sheets was the most important acquisition of the team's offseason.
- MLB.com's Corey Brock writes that his guess has Adrian Gonzalez staying for 2010 and getting dealt next winter.
- The Padres also hired Randy Johnson as their Minor League Coordinator, but not that Randy Johnson.
- The Astros have offered Willy Taveras a minor league deal, Bernardo Fallas writes in the Houston Chronicle.
i would argue Justin Duschererer was the better acquisation than Sheets because justin is a better pitcher..but you could argue that.
but if we are talking about just “acquisition” then justin by far..3mil doesn’t compare to 10mil+incentives.
The A’s certainly win the battle of the bay. I think Chris Carter needs to be the A’s opening day first baseman.
The Padres arent going to compete this season. He needs to be traded as soon as possible. ASAP!!!
There’s no reason Gonzalez needs to be traded now more than at the deadline. Teams might give up slightly more for two years than 1.5 of Adrian, but there’s also a lot of teams that think they’re good to go with what they have for now. An injury mid-season or someone performing terribly and resulting in a DFA could open up a much greater need if it happens to a contender. If, for example, Casey Kotchman played so terribly that he had to be DFA’ed, and the Mariners were in contention but not running away with the AL West, you can bet Jack Z would give up more then for Gonzalez than he would now.
A pennant race can change everything. It makes sense for the Padres to wait. Let Gonzo sell tickets for now, see if you’re a surprise contender, and if you’re not, ship him off at the deadline for what’s likely to be a similar, if not superior package.
ahhh. gotcha. Makes more sense than I thought. I think he would be a great Mariners player.
Definitely. And the same goes for the Red Sox, who currently have 3 guys (4 if you count Ortiz for some reason) for 2 corner infield positions. If they’re doing well but need a new 1B midseason, they may be calling back with a slightly improved deal.
too bad in the end the Giants will still end up with the better record while the A’s trade Ben Sheets at the deadline for more prospects
Yeah and those prospects may turn out to be better than any position player that the Giants have.
yeah and just when they become stars those prospects get traded for other prospects
Why rush Carter at this point? He just turned 23 and has just a handful of at-bats at the Triple-A level. Let him simmer there for a couple months and minimize the amount of service time he accrues this year. Of course if he hits .420/.550/.800 this spring, Beane’s hand may be forced, but I don’t see how he “needs” to be the 1B on Opening Day.
Duchscherer is a better pitcher? How? Based on a half season of Duchscherer as a starter? Sheets has a better K/9, BB/9, FIP, and xFIP over his career. The only place Duchscherer has outperformed Sheets in HR/9, and he’s spent his career in a vastly larger ballpark than Sheets.
Don’t get me wrong, Duchscherer is a talented arm who can certainly be a very good piece of that rotation if he’s healthy, but he’s not the better pitcher. Is he a better value at $3MM vs. Sheets and his $10MM? Most likely. But in terms of sheer talent, Sheets wins that battle pretty handily.
Stole my “thunder” there. A healthy Sheets is far superior, but that’s the rub (health) obviously.
He makes the team Taveras and Bourn could steal 100+ bases if taveras got any Ab’s due to injury
If Lee was unloaded the city of Houston and the Astros organization would be much happier. I doubt Taveras would get anything except 250 ab’s but he could steal 30+ bases from pinch running…he could be the Astros version of Juan Pierre and they could name Minute Maid Park WillyTaverasWood!!!!!!!!
The only way WT gets on base is by an error or as a pinch runner … he is horrible trying to get there himself.
The Twins need to throw in for Taveras to try and replace Gomez as backup CF, pinch runner and late inning defensive replacement.
Mychael Urban talks about the psychological affect the Sheets signing has for the 87 A’s fans out there; you know, those annoying dudes who incessantly bang drums out in left field during every home game. What about the psychological affect of paying this rehabbing guy $10MM, where no one else was offering him anything near that level of pay? What about busting open the MLB pockets for robbery by old, washed up former starters? Beane did a horrendous disservice to both the A’s and the MLB by drastically overpaying Sheets. A rehabber needs to take a serious paycut and prove he’s worth top money. Beane allowed sheets to skip that step, and it will come back to bite him, as well as other GM’s, on the ass.
What an amazing article. Who would have guessed that a teams highest paid FA acquisition is also the most important acquisition of the off-season?
I wonder if Jason Bay was the most important signing for the Mets or Matt Holliday for the Cards? Genius.