The Mark Teahen, Josh Fields, Chris Getz, Trade Analysis & Link Roundup

I thought I read that they only sent 1,000,000 with Teahen to Chicago.

Though, that extra million’s ultimate benefit to the Royals is anyone’s guess.

And thus establishes itself as a truly genuine Dayton Moore transaction!

This move joins the list of Dayton trades and acquisitions that either fill a gap where no gap exists, or actually makes the team markedly worse.

Jacobs, Crisp, Ponson, Betancourt, Gathright, Gload, Pena, Bloomquist, Anderson, Freel — all were moves that were at best unnecessary and at worst disastrous. It’s difficult to say which of the two categories this trade will inhabit at year’s end, but its safe to say that this is at best a waste of resources.

Whether you like Teahen or not, it’s safe to say that he still had some trade value, and was the subject of frequent rumors over the course of the 2009 season, most notably being linked to the Yankees and Cubs in potential trade deals, so its not as though Moore didn’t have options.

Clearly, Teahen wasn’t going to be an important cog in the Big Blue Machine, so its not as though trading him was a mistake by Moore. It was, as always, the return on the trade that presents the problem.

After gutting the bullpen last offseason, and spending the year with Pena/Betancourt and Guillen in the lineup, relief pitching, a corner outfielder, and a shortstop present the greatest areas of need for the team. This trade does nothing to address those problems, and may actually end up removing one of our best hitters out of the lineup (Callaspo), while blocking (again) our best hitting prospects at AAA (Shealy and Kila).

Teahen for Getz and Fields may have been fair value, but it likely won’t help the team in any measurable way, and might actually make a team that scored the second fewest runs in the league even more inept offensively.

We can hope that this trade was a precursor to other trades, but if the past is any indication, we’re likely going to end up disappointed.

gomez is basically mitch maier with hype. we probably could have landed him for very little, and if he regained his hitting stroke, he’d be a considerable upgrade over betancourt

Which team ends up getting better RF production in 2010, Royals or Sox?

I think the $/production is already pretty much decided.

Getz may be good, but he isn’t really any better than Callaspo. Fields just plain sucks. 73 WINS HERE WE COME!

and yeah, it feels pretty meh from our side too, even after the money.

Not saying I love it exactly, but I haven’t seen much analysis of Fields’ career arc. Just glancing at his numbers, looks to me like he was a serious roll in ‘06 and ’07 and then something happened in ’08. Injury? And then ’09 was kind of a disaster, but only for 239 AB’s (I’m assuming there was an injury in ’09 as well?).

Points to consider:

(a) He’s not going to play third for the Royals, so who cares what his defensive numbers are at third? A better question is can he play RF? Can he track fly balls, does he have any arm to speak of? Anyone have any info in that regard?

(b) He posted a .379 OBP in his largest AAA sample (462 ABs). He started striking out a ton in his first ML audition (373 ABs), but Teahen’s OBP in his last thousand or so ABs has been south of .320.

© Fields had 10 homers and a .390 OBP in AAA in 205 ABs in ’07 when he got called up (coming off a stellar ’06 season). In other words, in both ’06 and and ’07 he was abusing AAA pitching. He had a bit of a rough go in a Mike Quinn sort of way as a ML rookie, and then something happened in ’08 that obviously bled into ’09 (injury of some kind?).

Not saying he’s a stud or a steal or anything close…just saying: doesn’t he have more upside than Teahen at this point? If Gordon does play third next year, which would have bumped Teahen to RF, don’t you want more power out of your right fielder? Fields has 30 homer upside, and at one point in his career looked like he could take a walk or two. I’d say he qualifies as intriguing, at least.

Teahen may not have been part of the problem with the Royals, but he wasn’t part of the solution either. Not sure the deal brings any particular benefit not gained by simply non-tendering him, but will wait to see what else happens.

Or any other non baseball reason for that matter. That is sure way to ruin…correction, that is the way to remain mired in ruin.