Let's continue our top trade chips series today with the NL East…
- Braves: The Braves aren't going to move Tommy Hanson and/or Jason Heyward, and they already traded away their top piece of bait this winter when they sent Javier Vazquez to the Yankees. What Atlanta does have is cache of big time pitching prospects in 20-year-old Randall Delgado,19-year-old Julio Teheran, and 19-year-old Arodys Vizcaino that they could dip into if needed.
- Marlins: Florida has been reduced to flipping players before they get expensive through arbitration, nevermind get close to free agency. Dan Uggla is the team's highest paid player and also one of its most productive, but he's perpetually on the block because he's owed $7.8MM this season and will make even more in 2011 through arbitration. The Marlins could trade him, put Chris Coghlan back at second (his natural position), and call up super-prospect Mike Stanton to fill the vacant outfield spot.
- Mets: Even though Carlos Beltran's knee is problematic and Jeff Francoeur is a perennial non-tender candidate, the team's best piece of trade bait is 21-year-old outfielder Fernando Martinez. Lefty reliever Pedro Feliciano could be used as trade fodder, but if ownership decides to part ways with GM Omar Minaya, then they could be in for a full blown firesale. Everyone not named David Wright would be available.
- Nationals: Forget Stephen Strasburg, it's obviously not happening. However, GM Mike Rizzo has a valuable piece in Josh Willingham, who is no stranger to the trade rumor circuit. He is under team control through 2011, and his production isn't far off from Bay's. Relievers Matt Capps and Brian Bruney could be dealt as well.
- Phillies: Philadelphia unloaded most of their top prospects to acquire Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay in the last nine months, so the cupboard is pretty bare. They could shop hard-throwing and oft-injured reliever Scott Mathieson, but the doomsday scenario could find Jayson Werth on the block if the Phils don't think they can re-sign him after the season. Of course that's highly unlikely, he's only the second or third best player on the top team in the league.
“he’s only the second or third best player on the top team in the league.”
Phillies are not the top team in the league.
Nice. Who is it then?
Until someone clearly shows that they are better than the 2-time defending NL Champs, then, yes, they are.
Not to mention that they have the best offense so far and the second best ERA in the NL.
Well no denying they are a good team, but come on look at the competition or lack there of they have played. The Nationals, Astros, and Nationals again. Two of, if not the worst, teams in the National League. They can hit, but that pitching staff and bullpen would really worry me.
How can you logically say that they are not the best team in the NL after they have gone to the World Series two years in a row and essentially have the same team (except for swapping out their ace and their 3B for better alternatives)? I don’t care who they have played this year. It really is ludicrous to say that any other team is better right now.
You can’t.
Of course their the best. But not by a huge margin. And they did have an easy schedule to start the season.
I never alluded to the margin of which they lead the pack by, just that it just doesn’t make sense to say that anyone else is better.
Actually you did allude to it lol
But I get what you meant. And don’t to full of yourself just yet. Cards/rockies aren’t far behind at all
I’m a Giants fan, so I don’t know how my Phillies comments would suggest that i am full of myself.
I didn’t say they weren’t the best, I just said they have played an easy schedule so far. I also didn’t say any team was better than the Phillies, but I will say that a bullpen that is missing Lidge and Romero and a rotation that outside of Halladay and possibly Hamels is very mediocre at best. They are the two time defending NL champs, so technically they are the best. I am just curious as to how things will shape up. Don’t assume I don’t think they are the best team, just because I point out some flaws!
The Phillies are SO good… They are almost like an AL team.
I would really love to hear who is then.
i dont think the mets are going to trade fernado,ike davis,josh thole
one that i dont mind if they trade him its wilmer flores but i prefer to kept him because hes 18 years old and have to minor league years under his belt so he can come up in 2 years easily
atlanta should trade a couple of those prospects for a power hitter and they will be a hard team to beat
“Everyone not named David Wright would be available.”
There are more players than Wright who wouldn’t be traded if they have a fire sale.
Not by choice.
They’re not trading Reyes or Santana since you can’t replace them. I don’t think they want to give up on Pelfrey either. Even trading K-Rod is pointless since it’s not easy to find an upgrade, especially in NY. He didn’t have a great year (his ERA is inflated from 2 bad outings when he gave up 10 runs in 0.2 innings) but with closers, everyone is more or less on the same level except Rivera.
1. Reyes: If they go fire-sale, he’ll be gone. Guarantee you. They will get a haul for an amazing lead-off hitter.
2. Santana: Okay, that’s two. I’ll give you him. He won’t be traded.
3. K-Rod: Terrible contract. He’s untradeable. He has never been a shut-down closer, just a good closer on a team that plays a lot of close games.
1. No. First, who is going to give you the same offensive production he is capable of? Ruben Tejada isn’t ready.
2. Three. I said Pelfrey wouldn’t be traded.
3. He’s still a good closer. IMO, there are 3 tiers of closers in baseball: Mariano Rivera, guys who have no business closing and end up losing their jobs, and everyone else. The “everyone else” have some flaw but you can live with them.
Whatever we disagree on, we can agree 100% on your closer tiers.
If you need a shutdown inning, the best in history is Rivera.
1. When teams trade players, they don’t always have a backup that can match their production. They often don’t. As long as they have somebody who could play short if they wanted to trade Reyes they would do it.
They’re not trading Reyes. He has a cheap option for 2011 and they’re not a small market that they couldn’t afford an extension. Because of his injury last year, they won’t get fair value for him. They’d be trading him for the sake of trading him which is just pointless.
So what’s the point in having a fire sale if your not going to trade anyone worth a damn? The point in a firesale is to re-build…and if their not willing to trade Wright, Reyes, or Johan….well then they will just be lucky to dump the rest of their salaries. Those are the only 3 players that are going to bring a good haul of young talent that can improve the team in the future. If none of those 3 are leaving they might as well stand pat and be ok with being bad for the next 5 years.
We need to kill this myth that a team needs to have a fire sale to get better. Sometimes they do, like the Astros. But, contrary to what everyone wants to believe (since it’s always popular to hate on New York teams), the Mets aren’t in as bad a situation the Astros are.
Wright has a chance to be one of the top 5 3rd baseman of all-time. You don’t trade that type of player. Those trades rarely work out for the team receiving prospects.
Reyes’ value is too low that you won’t get back what you should. The only other reason to trade him would be his contract. However, he has a 2011 option for $11M (which isn’t outrageous) and they can sign him to an extension easily.
That leaves Santana. The first hurdle is getting him to agree to a trade because of his no-trade clause. Next, you’re going to have to find a team. Unless they want to eat a lot of his salary, their only options would be the Red Sox, Yankees, and maybe Angels. Finally, you have to get enough back for him to make trading him worth it.
The only reason the Mets aren’t in as bad a shape as the Astros is because they have more money to spend….With an extra 30mil a year I’m sure the Astros would have a couple more solid players too
That’s not the only reason.
We need to kill this myth that a team needs to have a fire sale to get better. Sometimes they do, like the Astros. But, contrary to what everyone wants to believe (since it’s always popular to hate on New York teams), the Mets aren’t in as bad a situation the Astros are.
Wright has a chance to be one of the top 5 3rd baseman of all-time. You don’t trade that type of player. Those trades rarely work out for the team receiving prospects.
Reyes’ value is too low that you won’t get back what you should. The only other reason to trade him would be his contract. However, he has a 2011 option for $11M (which isn’t outrageous) and they can sign him to an extension easily.
That leaves Santana. The first hurdle is getting him to agree to a trade because of his no-trade clause. Next, you’re going to have to find a team. Unless they want to eat a lot of his salary, their only options would be the Red Sox, Yankees, and maybe Angels. Finally, you have to get enough back for him to make trading him worth it.
So what’s the point in having a fire sale if your not going to trade anyone worth a damn? The point in a firesale is to re-build…and if their not willing to trade Wright, Reyes, or Johan….well then they will just be lucky to dump the rest of their salaries. Those are the only 3 players that are going to bring a good haul of young talent that can improve the team in the future. If none of those 3 are leaving they might as well stand pat and be ok with being bad for the next 5 years.
Werth the 2nd or 3rd best player on the Phils? What about Utley, Howard, Rollins, Halladay, etc.???
As an all-around player, Werth is better than Howard and might be better than Rollins.
Let’s get real here. Howard > Werth
What does Howard do besides hit homeruns and get walked?
Those are pretty damn good attributes to have to go along with consistently average defense. If Werth puts up another year like 2009 with the bat and displays significantly above average defense (both to prove that he is capable of doing it consistently), I’d say that they are pretty close in value. I think, for now, that Howard gets the edge because you know what you are going to get because he has done it for a longer period of time.
strike out…
And strikeout
I guess you thought Barry Bonds, V2.0 (‘roids), sucked, too.
Uh…No way. Howard is ten times better than Jayson Werth. Rollins is also better.
Rollins is 50/50. If he has a normal year, then yeah, he is, but if he has another 2009, no way.
SS is a scarcer/tougher position than OF.
Rollins is a top 5 SS.
Werth is not a top 5 OF.
Think about it.
Utley, Halladay, Howard, and Rollins are unquestionably better/more valuable than Werth is. AT BEST, he’s the Phil’s 5th best player, not 2nd or 3rd.
last year rollins didnt play great so take him out of the list
Roy Halladay good every five days so take him out of the list
Victorino could be in that list to so i say hes the 3 best player,utley the second best best player,howard the beast so werth its the 4 best player
Having an off-year shouldn’t take that much away from how good a player is.
Halladay is far and away a better player than Werth, SP or not.
And yeah, Victorino is arguable. I only listed guys who aren’t really debatable.
look at reyes
Howard is terrible at everything but hitting homeruns. The only two clear-cut better-than-Werth are Halladay and Utley.
1. HRs are a pretty big deal.
2. I think Howard had a better AVG than Werth last year.
3. Let’s Compare their MVPs/Silver Sluggers/next contracts.
Ah, the hype machine at work. It cracks me up people still think this, when virtually every stat says you’re wrong.
Who’s hyped, Werth or Howard? And what stats are you talking about?
Rollins isn’t even in the same stratosphere as Werth these days. Howard hits a ton more homers, but Werth does everything else better.
I love how defense, position, and HRs are irrelevant to some of you. Not sure why I’m even bothering with someone like that.
Werth isn’t better than Utley, Halladay, Rollins, or even Hamels, if he bounces back at all. There are so few remotely good shortstops that Rollins is clear, and while Howard is flawed and overrated, a first basemen with a career OPS+ over 140 is better than a corner outfielder the same age who’s never topped 130 and has a significant injury history.
lol at Mets having a firesale. they have $60M coming off the books after next year and it consists mostly of all their bad contracts (Ollie, Castillo, and i dont consider him a bad contract but K-Rod too if you wanna count him)
K-Rod isn’t a bad contract?
A “problematic knee” would not be a problem to moving Beltran, his no trade clause would be. And I would hate to move him, he’s severely undervalued by Mets fans…
Don’t forget the high price.
Matt Capps to the Cubs…I wish they could have signed him when they had the chance. As a bullpen guy with good control he would give the Cubs a great set up guy and a much needed insurance policy for Marmol.
Matt Capps has 3 K’s to 5 walks. Don’t get too hasty…
That’s 3 or 4 games worth of stats compared to a lifetime 6.7/1.8 K/BB ratio. Sounds to me like you’re the hasty one.
According to that logic, if he had a horrific start to this year, you would still want him then?
Not sure what you mean…if he’s still performing poorly by, say, June or something? If that’s the case then I guess it would depend. If his peripherals were decent, I’d still take a chance — it may even be an opportunity to buy low. If his numbers are bad top to bottom, then they should probably look elsewhere.
The best player on each team:
Mets – Wright
Nationals – Zimmerman
Phillies – Utley
Marlins – Ramirez
Braves – Prado
These are as of 04/11/10.
Prado over McCann?
Well, Prado did better than McCann last season and this season so far, so yep.
He has been the hottest Brave getting on base so why not?Prado,Heyward,McCann 🙂
Wow you like Prado over McCann or Escobar? (not mentioning the kid, too little info obviously).
That surprises me. Prado’s a good player, but McCann is a top-5 C in baseball IMO.
You were making sense until you determined that Martin Prado is a better player than Brian McCann, Yunel Escobar, Chipper Jones, et al. Let’s try to use more than one week’s worth of games to estimate a player’s worth. Don’t get me wrong, Prado is having great start to his season. But do you really think he’s going to put up anything more than a low .800s OPS and average to below-average defense over the course of an entire season?
Braves Red is talking about baseball games played through April 11th not overall hitting .
Obviously not, or else his list would’ve looked a little more like this:
Mets – Frenchy
Nationals – Willingham
Phillies – Utley
Marlins – Cantu
Braves – Prado
Any “Best Player” conversation obviously involves past success and assumed future performance. Can you read Braves Red’s mind?
Beltran its so much better than wright but hes not healthy so i give you that one.
And prado!!!! what the H3ll are you thinking.Mccan its a beast
ok, let’s say that the Nats did the unthinkable and waited the year from signing, and offered to trade Strasburg to the highest bidder. Would he get a Texeira like package? Do you think someone like texas gives up Perez and Smoak in a deal?
Depends. If Davis develops, they might consider it, but otherwise, they say no immediately.
Mccann is the best catcher in the NL and second in the majors behind Mauer. I like Prado, but Mccann is the heart of the Braves. Prado will hit .300 this year and Mccann will hit at least .290 but he will have many more HRs
come on yadier molina has to be at least the best defensive catcher without doubts of the mlb
Overall, Mccann is better
Molina’s defensive stats (caught stealing %, etc…) are far superior to McCann’s. However, this is the result where 3 out of every 5 days, a pitcher doesn’t hold the runner on first close enough; Hudson and Lowe do more so than our younger pitchers. Our middle infielders also tend to drop the ball or make a horrific tag. McCann is the overall best NL catcher. Even the HOF Smoltz wanted to use him as a game caller during his early years because he knew that aspect plus his bat would keep us in the games. If he hit in Citizens Bank Park, he would put up better offensive numbers, where pop flys would be home runs like Howard, lol. Just wait and see, another good defensive catcher will have an above average offensive year and McCann will sit on Charlie Manuel’s All-Star bench until the 8th (reference Soto, Molina, Martin).
The Braves aren’t going to move Jason Heyward? Only the biggest “DUH” ever.
“Everyone not named David Wright would be available.”
Umm, these guys are not getting traded.
1. Full No Trade Clause – Santana, Beltran, Bay
2. Limited No Trade Clause – K-Rod,
3. Home Grown Super Talent – Reyes
4. Team’s Top Prospects – Davis, Martinez, Mejia
When’s the last time you have ever heard of a team with one of the highest payrolls and so many star players, conducting a “fire sale”. Sorry, it’ll never happen but thanks for taking so much time and thought for this great insight.
lol, home grown super talent. that’s ufcking hilarious, thank you for that laugh.
Trades? Trades? How can Mets even think of a trade when Beltran can’t even run yet? what is going on???? when is he gonna start earning his $$$$$$$$ Its been 3 months already
Grady Sizemore to the braves for prospects?