Six years ago today, the Phillies traded Jim Thome to the White Sox for Aaron Rowand, Gio Gonzalez, and Daniel Haigwood, opening up first base for reigning Rookie of the Year Ryan Howard. With Howard due to miss time with a ruptured Achilles next season, Philadelphia brought Thome back to help fill in at first base.
Here are some links to peruse as you chow down on some Thanksgiving leftovers…
- Baseball Nation looked at the unintended consequences of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement.
- Did The Tribe Win Last Night? spoke to Vinnie Pestano of the Indians about the 2012 season.
- BoSox Injection says Joe Nathan signing with the Rangers created an opportunity for the Red Sox.
- The Hottest Stove praises the Nathan signing because it puts Neftali Feliz in the rotation.
- Yankees Fans Unite identified Matt Garza as a potential trade target for the Yankees.
- I-70 Baseball believes Prince Fielder is a better fit for the Cubs than Albert Pujols.
- Rooftop View tries to figure out what the Cubs should do at third base.
- Call to the Pen likes the Clint Barmes signing for the Pirates.
- Giants Nirvana looks back at Freddy Sanchez's extension, eight months later.
- South Side Showdown thinks a Carlos Quentin trade would benefit both Quentin and the White Sox.
- Chicken Friars looked at some free agent pitchers that could interest the Padres.
- Ol' Ball Game listed some free agent and trade targets for the Padres.
- Prospect Insider believes the Mariners should trade Brandon League.
- Swingin A's revisited the Athletics' rebuilding process.
- Rising Apple calls Chris Volstad a potential offseason target for the Mets.
- Cleveland Indians Perspective wrote about the players the Indians protected from the Rule 5 Draft.
- House of the Bluebird likes the idea of Francisco Rodriguez closing for the Blue Jays.
- Jays Journal says Yonder Alonso doesn't make much sense for Toronto right now.
- Sports of Boston wonders if Tim Wakefield has any value on the open market.
- Warehouse Worthy tries to figure out who Matt Wieters is.
- Lasorda's Lair thinks Matt Kemp should have won the NL MVP Award.
- Infield Chatter wrote about the MVP award and the debate it creates.
If you have a suggestion for this feature, Mike can be reached here. Only one email per week, please.
Obviously you can’t look at it this way because it would affect how the Phillies approached acquiring Lee Oswalt and Halladay, but picture if Gonzalez stayed put in Philly. A rotation of Lee Halladay Hamels Oswalt Gonzalez…. I’ll take that every day of the week and twice on Sunday
as much as i liked rowand at one time , should have ditched him and kept gonzalez in retrospect , and probably should have kept d’arnaud and gave up brown ,but that isnt set in stone yet either, but i like your rotation , but oswalt will cost a mint this year for what might be a injury plagued year
Really? Even with 20/20 hindsight your judgement is questionable. Aaron Rowand had a 6 WAR season in 2007 and led the Phils to win the division. Gio is nice for sure, but Gio is a nice to have now, Aaron Rowand was a must have to win in 2007.
2007 was nice but phillies didnt win the world series until 2008 and Gio would be a young controlable arm , so yes questionable but wrong i dont know and i believe if you look at that year rowand had the lowest batting average with runners in scoring position out of anybody who played a whole year
K-Rod does seem like a decent idea for the Jays, I did love his work with the Angels especially how he handled himself in the World Series.
i really want one of Stewart or Headley to be playing 3B for the Cubs in 2012
Cleveland Indians Perspective and Sports Boston have got to be the two most unimaginative blog names I’ve seen links to on this site. I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but…
How much does K-Rod want?
Hasn’t really been talked about but Boras is his agent
Im definitely seeing Fielder in a Cubs uniform next year. Lets see it happen soon so I can go 2 for 2
Hard to imagine Phillie shipped Gavin Floyd and Gio Gonzalez to ChiSox for Freddy Garcia.
What a huge bust of a trade!!
Those two pitchers would be nice in the Phillies rotation bout now!!
Floyd posted a 10 ERA and a 7+ERA in consecutive seasons. Gio struggled in his one year of AA posting an ERA near 5….looking back, yes, it hurts, but at the time, it made sense. I never liked Floyd, but thought Gio was better than his numbers in AA at the time,
Don’t really care how they were before the trade. I’m talking about how they are now.
Floyds first full year with CHiSox he won 17 games.
Gio won 15 & 16 the last 2 yrs.
Garcia went 1-5 5.90 era for Phillie. You call that ‘worth it’????
Theres no need to defend the trade cause I’m not saying it never made sense at the time. I’m looking at it from hindsight.
If you read my post I said these two pitchers would look good in Phillies rotation NOW!!
As I see it…Philly has the best rotation in the NL these days…Garcia has posted way better numbers than Floyd…and Gio is gunna be a one season wonder anyway.
Your not making sense. And not reading what I said. First off Phillie traded for Garcia and got zero out of him. The price was Floyd and Gio.
So right there its a huge loss for phillie giving away two of the top starters around.
Second, Floyd and Gio are in their prime and will likely get better.
How can you say Garcia has been better when he has a 6.7 WAR since the trade and Floyd’s is 13.9????
And third, Gio has had two great seasons since he’s been in the majors and probably many more so you can’t call him a one year wonder.
i dont think the mets can even afford chris volstad……ugh…
Of course a Dodger blog would say Kemp should have won. Braun is most valuable. Period. This is coming from a die-hard Cardinals fan, Braun deserved it.
It’s simply how you interpret “most valuable player.” That’s the bottom line. Kemp had the better season statistically, but the way some people see it, because he wasn’t on a playoff team, he was less “valuable.” Just a matter of opinion.
K-Rod is the perfect fit for the Jays right now. A not too old, not too high priced solid reliever who comes from a so-so year. He wants to be a closer and we are in a position in which we can guarantee him the job. He doesn’t cost a draft pick and AA could get him at a reasonable price due to the heavy closer market. It’s time for AA to take some risk on the FA market and I think signing K-Rod would be a solid move for Toronto.
why do you feel he wont be too high priced?
His numbers are declining, he lost velocity on his pitches. But the major thing is the heavy market. Guys like Papelbon, Madson, Capps, Cordero, Bell are all in front of K-Rod. Teams that are willing to throw big money on a reliever will certainly target Bell or Madson before K-Rod. Plus, he finished his season being a set-up man, which puts some doubt on his ability to put up similar numbers as he did with the Angels. So the actual market for K-Rod are 1) teams who don’t have a closer + 2) teams that can guarantee him a closer spot + 3) teams who don’t want to give a high-priced, long-term deal a la Papelbon. K-Rod will probably sign a 2-year, around 8 millions/season deal with maybe a 3rd year club option. I think it’s something AA would be willing to do, ’cause if it turns out to be a bad deal, it only lasts 2 season ( compared to BJ Ryan ). The perfect deal for Toronto would be a 1-year deal with a club option for ’13 but I doubt K-Rod will accept a 1-year deal. I’d rather take a risk on him than trading a couple of very good prospect ++ for either Street or Bailey.