Callaspo/O'Sullivan/Smith Trade Link Roundup & Analysis

being out in BP getting ready to face NW Arkansas when someone went out to tell him he had been traded. Pretty wild.

I’m with you, Will. Getting anything of any value for Bert at this point is a solid investment. I might have tried to move a couple other guys that are blocking more current players before moving Bert, but his days as a starting player here really were numbered. If anything, it makes me think that Dayton is starting to see that opening up spots now for guys in the next couple years isn’t a horrible idea. I may have higher confidence when the next poll rolls around.

I just wish they would’ve traded him last winter instead of now, but oh well. I approve anyway.

But unfortunately some have referred to O’Sullivan and/or Smith as “top Angels prospects.” They really aren’t. They were not in the Angels offseason top 10 prospect list of BA, BP, Sickels, The Hardball Times, Fangraphs, Diamond Futures, CBS Sports, Top Prospect Alert or Baseball Intellect. Now only a handful of those are, in my opinion, genuinely good prospect analyst sites, but I threw the others in for effect. It just illustrates that basically no one thought either of these pitchers were top Angels prospects before this season and I don’t think either has done anythin in 2010 to change that.

However, the pluses are that they are both decent prospects, they are both still young and both are fairly young for the levels they’ve been pitching at (and for the most part succeeding). So neither blows you away with their talent or track record, but both have been pretty good. And they are young enough to still be some kind of lottery ticket. Probably a $1 scratcher, but that’s still something.

Callaspo is the prototypical Royals player that gets overrated by the team. He really has only one skill – hitting for average. He has some decent gap power at times, but he’s a terrible fielder and baserunner. That’s not to say he’s a bad player – he can be a valuable player, but I wouldn’t pay millions of dollars for him. He also was expendable, as he was no longer able to fake it at 2B, and we have Betimet to plug in at third until the Great Moustakas Era begins.

In return we get not one, but two pitchers with decent upside. Neither project as studs (although Smith having a breakthrough wouldn’t be surprising), but both could be nice #3 type starters. Both throw strikes, which is a philosophy we desperately need to adopt in accumulating talent. And O’Sullivan is MLB ready, which is nice since we are about to start a guy named Bryan Bullington.

I think this is one of Dayton’s better trades, and I’d like to see him do this more often.

That’s the biggest potential upside I see here. Anything we can do to clear out some salary room is fantastic.

This is the sort of trade we should be making. I agree with Will that it’s surprising we got this much for Callaspo.

Now we’ll see if GMDM is ok leaving Betemit or some other random guy to play 3rd until Moustakas comes up next September. I fear GMDM can’t help himself and will end up signing Troy Glaus to a 3-year deal this offseason.

I’m probably wrong, but I have this feeling that we saw the best Callaspo is going to be last year. Not that he doesn’t still have value, but considering his inevitable displacement from the only position he can play functionally, getting a couple of lottery tickets might be as much as we can hope for.

Part of me wishes we could send O’Sullivan to AAA for a bit, but he very well may be better than Bannister or Davies right now (and he most likely is better than Lerew, sad to say), so he probably goes into the rotation and provides some small improvement. Let the Fresh Prince stay at one level and develop for the rest of the year, and I believe he gets back on track.

I even like plugging Betemit in at 3B for the rest of the year. Might as well see if he can be a pleasant surprise as a stopgap, and nobody has any notion he’ll push off the arrival of Moustakas.

I can’t get all that bothered by the trade, in short, and it might even turn out to be a benefit in the long run. At least we know that Moore remembers how to make midseason trades.

It really surprised everybody. But this is baseball. This is why it’s such a great game because things like that happen. We wish him nothing but the best and the guys that we get from the Angels. We hope the best for everybody.

http://kansascity.sbnation.com/2010/7/22/1583106/albert-callaspo-trade-royals-angels-sean-osullivan

That said, if "poor" means something like -5 runs per 150 games, that still makes Callaspo a decently valuable, roughly league average player. A 2.0 WAR player like that would be a blistering 6.9 wins above Brandon Wood’s terrifically abysmal -1.5 WAR in 185 PAs this season, so this should be a significant pickup for Los Angeles.

The pitcher leaving Los Angeles, O’Sullivan (21) and Smith (20), are both young starters with slight promise, but they aren’t system toppers by any means. There is a good chance that each of them turns out to be organizational depth, which certainly isn’t worthless, but given the chance to improve the big league club at a position of extreme need, it’s not a steep price to pay.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/the-alberto-callaspo-trade-angels-perspective/

.290 high contact BA, underrated fielder, good 2b power high potential due to good batting eye. What is there to dislike? Completely miscast as 3b that put pressure on a 2b to be a 3b, and likely affected performance.

Good trade? I’d say ok, underwhelming. An imaginative GM would package Callapso and do better.

Eyes-based armchair analysis. Clearly, Bert was hurt. I can see no other explanation for his poor showing as a RHB this year. This has been his strength as a batter for his entire career. Just lately, he has been stinging the ball from the right side, and I think his performance will return to normal in LA.

He also was a patient batter when we acquired him, and his ‘09 totals reflect this. This is his first season as a full-time 3B, a traditional power position. I suspect our brain trust has asked him to hit for more power, or he might feel some kind of pressure to do so just from traditional expectations. Batting 5th or (usually) 6th also implies more pop in the bat than Bert has displayed. Because of this, I think it’s reasonable to say he’s pressing. I think Scioscia will tell him to do what he does best, bat him at the top of the order (probably 2nd) and his plate discipline will reappear. His history up to this season is a .350+ OBP, and I think he’ll do that for a few more years.

So, as usual, the Royals were snakebitten. Bert’s value has been depressed by injury and misuse. I’m no expert, but I think he’s worth more than we got for him. Probably not a lot more, but when he becomes 2009 Bert again in LA it’ll sure look that way, at least until the players we got for him start to produce in MLB. If they do.

He was on the verge of getting older and worse, thus becoming someone Dayton would’ve really liked. If we didn’t move him now, he might’ve been on the team for the next 5 years, consistently getting worse. Hell, if he could get that skin to lighten up he might’ve even acquired some grit (shudder). Best to part ways.

As for the return, sure, why not? What the hell else were we gonna get? I’ll take two decent young arms for a low OBP, slow, questionable defender any day. If either of these pitchers is on our roster in 2 years I’m calling this a win. And I HATE Dayton Moore.