Craig Brown reviews how DM has spent the currency of baseball

The reviews are largely positive. But clearly no blockbuster trades here.

7 months ago NYRoyal Comment 7 comments 0 recs |

Comments

I am amazed that Brown called the MacDougal trade a push

The Sox got 25 innings of excellent relief pitching followed by 60 innings of abysmal relief pitching in addition to flushing nearly $6.5 million down the john.

We got a pitcher who has turned into arguably one of the top-50 prospects in all of baseball.

And I realize Cortes is still a question mark, and he shouldn’t come anywhere near a big league mound until at least August of 2009, but if we get even a season’s worth of decent starting pitching from Cortes, we will have easily come out ahead on that trade, despite Lumsden turning into a major disappointment.

by DarthYoshi on Nov 21, 2008 12:10 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I think it is just because the Royals side of the trade has yet to do anything in the majors

And he was basically comparing based on major league Win Shares. He did say the trade would go heavily to the Royals if Cortes panned out in the majors, which is never guaranteed.

This is just my opinion. I could easily be wrong.

by NYRoyal on Nov 21, 2008 12:20 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

At this point in time, I think the best it can be called is a push

Remember, last offseason most fans wanted to call Gathright for Howell a huge Royals win. If Cortes comes into his own in the majors, or is dealt away for a big return, then it would definitely swing to the Royals.

However, if Cortes never pans out then it remains a push/slightly White Sox. The Royals may have only given up 25 excellent innings of McDougal, but they also gave up the opportunity cost of trading him for other players.

With all that said though, I really expect the trade to be a large win in the long run.

by Top Ramen on Nov 21, 2008 1:09 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs

THT needs

grit shares

OMG Banny. FWIW I am only crdtng u w/3 runs allwd bc of DDJ OMFG

by devil_fingers on Nov 21, 2008 5:44 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I tend to agree with what Rany...

said in his latest post:

In the summer of 2006, the Royals had one of the game’s worst bullpens. Within two years, Moore fashioned a very good bullpen, and neither spent a ton of money nor traded away any talent to do so – de la Rosa is the only player the Royals gave up to assemble their 2008 pen. And at the same time, Moore used his existing relief talent to acquire his best pitching prospect (Cortes), two mid-range starting pitchers (Bannister and Davies), a pair of usable 1B/OF types (Gload and Shealy), a first-round draft pick (Montgomery), and some minor league depth (Lumsden, Johnson, Pimental, Orlando.)

That is, in a word, astonishing. Especially since not one trade involving a reliever has come back to haunt Moore – the closest might be the Shealy deal, as Affeldt had a good year for the 2007 Rockies, but he was a free agent at the end of the season.

You can argue that he should have been more willing to make bigger, bolder moves with the relievers as just pieces of the deals, or that he should have focused on different players (corner OF instead of pure CF in the latest trade). But I think he’s had a great track record thus far, especially when you consider what he had to work with when he started.

by Sweep_the_Leg on Nov 21, 2008 1:36 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

This is the plan.

“Moore is using his relief corps as a revolving door of arms, a springboard to talent to plug other holes on his club. And because he’s proven adept at stocking his bullpen with some decent arms, his trades haven’t hurt or put undue stress on his team.”

Don't forget to send your broken maples to the US Forest Service.

by 306008 on Nov 21, 2008 1:46 PM EST reply actions 0 recs