The latest rumors from ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick…
- The Athletics have discussed Jimmy Rollins and Chase Headley as possible upgrades for the left side of their infield, Crasnick reports (Twitter links). However, Rollins' salary would be difficult to fit into Oakland's budget and the Padres' asking price for Headley remains high. The A's seem lukewarm on Yunel Escobar, Crasnick writes. They aren't sure how he'd fit in their clubhouse dynamic.
- Jonathan Broxton is the most likely Royal to be traded, ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick reports (all Twitter links). The Royals want young starting pitching for Broxton, and they’re looking for pitchers who are close to MLB-ready — not Class A types.
- Meanwhile, Jeff Francoeur’s trade value is negligible because he’s not producing at the plate.
.280 OBP isn’t tradeable? Too bad GMDM isn’t buying, he’d be all over Frenchy and maybe even give him 2 years!
C’mon GMDM, trade him for a bag of peanuts and be done with it. #freeWil
i.e. Escobar was a supposed clubhouse cancer in Atlanta
I think the A’s really screwed up passing on Hanley. He would’ve been the best fit for this ball club.
The A’s didn’t really pass on him. They tried to get him. It’s that the Dodgers were the only team willing to pick up his entire salary, something the A’s would never be able to pull off.
The Marlins offered them a “sweet deal” and were willing to pay half of his salary, but the A’s passed on it.
The Marlins got a Top 100 prospect from the Dodgers, who took on all of Hanley’s salary.
If Miami was going to pay half of Hanley’s salary in a deal with the A’s, you have to assume that guys like A.J. Cole (#57), Sonny Gray (#65) or Michael Choice (#80) were involved.
And you can’t blame the A’s for holding on to their best prospects instead of taking on $20MM and a player who’s been mediocre, injured and grumpy over the past two seasons.
Look exactly at the numbers Ramirez has put up before dicing on him and everyone also please as compared to what many have and that includes the orioles:
14 HR
18 2b
49 R
48 RBI
.246/.322/.422./.749 line
Everyone will be expecting the lines from 2 years ago when they deal with him now that he is away. many teams have a 3b who cannot dream of what he is producing even now, like the LAD and even the orioles, much less what he is capable of. 30m gamble? You bet it was worth it.
I never said he wasn’t worth the gamble. I said he wasn’t worth the gamble for the A’s.
There are plenty of teams out there who could easily afford to pick up somewhere between $20 and $38MM in extra salary. Especially for a guy like Hanley. But the A’s probably aren’t one of those teams.
And considering the fact that the main reason the A’s have won anything over the past 10 or 12 years is that they’re absolutely incredible at developing young pitchers, it’s not surprising that they weren’t willing to give up young pitchers to take on a $20MM gamble.
Probably right for Oakland not wanting to pay the cost there. They did take the gamble with Cespedes and even with Crisp, so Beane is not averse to shooting one in the wild on occasion sometimes.
Might be because I watched Ramirez, through good times and bad that think he needs a different situation and away from Loria, with a harsher environment and a stern manager to get it back together. Oakland was one of those places had in mind, but like you said.. The cash was an issue..
SF might have worked, it would have required that statue Sandoval moving to 1b that he does not seem to want to do for some reason and they CAN afford it.
they didnt pass, they ‘waited too long’… marlins were ready to eat 50% and the dodgers came along while the a’s were thinking about it and said we’ll pay it all
And probably asked for some significant players in return. Let’s say its a two top 100 prospects, since the Dodgers ate 100% of the salary and gave up one top 100 prospect. Let’s say Dan Straily and Michael Choice for Hanley with 1/2 salary paid by Miami. Bad idea, right?
and remember: a run saved is a run scored. if he’s bad enough at SS/3B to give back all the offensive value he creates with his bat in the field, then he’s an expensive marginal upgrade. (I’m not concluding or asserting that, but Dave Cameron of Fangraphs alluded to it and there was an article on MLBTR a few days ago that mentioned some GMs seeing Hanley’s true position as the outfield).
the Dodgers can move him to the OF if need be even after Kemp/Ethier get back; the A’s have all 3 OF spots filled and OF Hanley really isn’t a huge improvement over Cespedes, Reddick, or the Smith/Gomes platoon.
But Frenchy’s arm! It’s a cannon! And he’s great in the clubhouse!!!111 Please, take him. Free Wil Myers.
Curious to get Rex and Snoochies input on potential A’s moves.. They have looked pretty decent of late. Hard not to pull for them and have to wonder what under the radar pickups Beane has on his list ATM.. He has some surplus to deal from in a few areas, as well as glaring holes.
IMO, Rollins isn’t something they need, but just anyone to step in and help.
Im not Rex or Snoochies, but I think the Rockies and the A’s may swing a trade. Scutaro, Chris Nelson, Pacheco might all work for Oakland and the A’s have plenty of young pieces to trade. The A’s tried to sign Scutaro in the off season, so they have interest in him.
It wasn’t a slap at any other A’s fan when mentioned Rex and Snoochies 🙂
Those are the 2 generally chat with here when talk A’s moves and have tried to watch several Oakland games of late, like the one with Toronto early yesterday. Don’t catch them all of course, but try to see at least 2-3 per week.
That deal that sent both of Sanchez and Infante to Detroit had me wondering why beane didn’t possibly try to work something out and get Infante as a SS. Too late now of course and maybe in fact he was working on it. Infante has played the position before and see no reason he couldn’t go back to it, or Oakland do some middle IF switching.
The Ramirez deal also.. Hanley might have been a fit with how dirt cheap he went.
At this point, and even during the Hanley talks, I prefer Escobar mostly because his defense is better than Pennington’s and he’s still an upgrade offensively, no matter if he’s having a down year. Rollins…he’s interesting, since he’s still a good player and fielder, but age isn’t exactly on his side which concerns me a bit. Headley would cost way too much in terms of prospects, he’s a good player and all but after restocking the farm system I’d rather they keep it fairly stocked. One guy I really want the A’s to aim for is Matt Carpenter, he seems like the perfect Billy Beane player and I dunno what the Cardinals need but maybe someone like M. Taylor and and a AAA upside-reliever? Only problem is I’m starting to develop a stupid liking for Inge on our team, and he seems to enjoy playing in oakland.
They have an excess of pitching between the starting five they have right now that they could use in a trade. two guys who’re coming off the DL between Anderson and McCarthy (Braden…i’m not optimistic about him returning this year), and three guys in AAA between Straily, who I personally hope is off limits for the most part, Peacock, and Billings.
One thing this year seems to be that teams are asking for prospects already in the major leagues or knocking on the door (Turner, Eovaldi, Owens, etc) . I dunno if that’s different than most years but it’s jumping out to me. So that’s why I propose trading Griffin for Escobar, but not Rollins, he’d be a salary dump plus some lower level talent, since we have two righties with higher ceilings knocking on the door right now and it could be a one for one swap that way.
At this point I’m ranting and I really dunno what the A’s would do, I just hope it’s something for a SS which they desperately need an upgrade at
griffin would look good in toronto with those glasses as well… not sure why but i just see all pitchers wearing glasses pitching in toronto, eh?
Oriole fans think Kevin Gregg and his glasses/goggles would look sweet back in Toronto as well. Then they think Gregg would look good anywhere, except in Baltimore ;-(
hrmmm
1- I’m a huge proponent of the A’s trading for Escobar, and I prefer him to Hanley (mainly because he’s actually a SS and there’s plenty of reason to believe Hanley isn’t). . He’s not going to come cheaply, but he’s controlled for multiple years (club options) at a position where the A’s have squat (not factoring in 2012 draftees who are 3+ years away best case scenario). I’m not sure why the Jays should trade him, but his current bat and defense is better than Pennington’s, and if he improves, he’s a well above average player at a position where that’s a huge improvement for the A’s. And the Jays kindasorta need near-MLB-ready starting pitching, so there’s a match there.
2- I would love Jimmy Rollins on the A’s (of course, depends on the deal). he’s got average offense (for a SS), in addition to above average/elite defense. the money coming to him scares me, but i’m confident that he’ll be at least an average SS throughout the 3 year deal, which is a huge improvement for the A’s and better than almost anything they can get on the free agent market.
3- re: Headley. I’m a fan, but the Padres should (rightfully) ask for the moon. Also, for 2013 and forward, the A’s have Sizemore and Green at the 3B position, so 3B isn’t as barren (although expecting either to be more than league average 3B is a tall order). In other words, I’m unsure.
tl;dr: not getting hanley is not a bad thing, the price was probably absurd, and fix SS please.
GMDM would gladly trade Frenchy if he could get Yuni for him. But since he has both, his life is complete.
What i see about Frenchy at first after a trade he gets hot then the next year he gets back to Jason Bay type hitting. he needs to get traded every two monthes to have a great season. lol
Where is Broxton expected to go?
I’ve seen a lot of Mets rumors/comments floating about.
Wonder if the A’s would be interested in Daniel Murphy. 3B is his natural position and he’s under team control until 2016.
It’s funny, they were interested in Hanley Ramirez who pretty much played his way out of Miami and from all accounts had a terrible attitude. Yet, they’re weary of Yunel Escobar? The claims in Atlanta were overblown by the local media and he’s had little to no problems in Toronto. Yunel Escobar may of had relationship problems with Bobby Cox, but he’s not a “clubhouse cancer” like a Manny Ramirez.
Now, he does fight his share of injuries and that should be a red flag IMO to potential trade partners. His glove is still very good, but he’s very streaky at the plate. He would be an upgrade for Oakland.
Personally, I’d blame his less than stellar offensive numbers on his career low BABIP. He’s striking out at the same pace as his career numbers, but his walks are down a bit.
He’d be a cheap, slick fielding SS for the A’s and is capable of producing excellent OBP numbers when healthy.
I think it’ll cost them too much in prospects. Billy is cheap, I could see them going after scutaro, or someone similar that won’t cost them as much. Lew wolfe wants the team to lose so he can prove he needs a new stadium, so he’s probably telling billy not to take on much salary. They say in the public they can take on salary, and wolfe is rich rich rich, but he wasnt willing to take on hanley.
What if the Phils do this
Phillies:
Jimmy Rollins and Cash
to Athletics for:
Eric Sogard and Ryan Cook
hm, that’s interesting. Personally I’d rather them hang onto Cook and Doolittle as a ridiculously talented 8th and 9th inning combo. Maybe someone like Tyson Ross who’d probably be better suited with a move to the bullpen and a high upside guy like Figueroa/Fautino of the Saints who just hasn’t quite put it together in the bigs yet, and a utility infielder like you said.
No way in hell do the A’s give up Cook.
Wil Myers is hitting .185 since returning from the Triple-A All-Star game and has struck out in 21 of his 54 at-bats. I think it’s safe to say this would be the worst time of the year to bring him up if Frenchy does get shipped. I can’t say I’m anxious to see a suspect defender in that huge outfield in KC who strikes out 1 out of every 5 at-bats. At least Frenchy gives you great defense. I say keep Myers in Omaha until September. Let him get his feet wet this fall then tell him it’s his to lose come Spring Training. No sense in rushing a hopeful franchise player up if he can’t help a team contend for a playoff spot…which…let’s face it.