Link Roundup: Freddy Sanchez, Adam LaRoche Injured

by Charlie on Jul 27, 2008 6:45 PM EDT Comment 24 comments

-P- The Post-Gazette reports that Freddy Sanchez and Adam LaRoche were both hurt today. Both have back spasms (weird--did they both take Greyhound to the game or something?). Sanchez's don't appear to be serious, but LaRoche "[struggled] to tie his shoes" after the game."

-P- Daniel McCutchen made his Indianapolis Indians debut today against Syracuse. He allowed four earned runs in six innings, striking out three and walking two. (Incidentally, Jonah Bayliss earned the save for Syracuse.)

-P- Via Primer, another reaction to the trade:

"For Pittsburgh, it's not a great trade talent-wise, but I like what it represents," an AL executive said. "A lot rides on Tabata, who is a tool shed. Although there are concerns about his health, power and perhaps his makeup, he has the potential to be an impact player at a premium position by the time the Pirates should be competing again... [I]t is precisely the type of deal the Pirates should be making: That is, one that exchanges impending free agents for potentially premier talent that is more suited to their time horizon. It is also the type of deal that the Pittsburgh club had not been making in recent years, despite it being in its best interest."

Agreed there, but much of the rest of the article is negative, with one farm director going so far as to call Tabata a "bum." (The article does say some nice things about Ohlendorf and Daniel McCutchen.)

Incidentally, I'm always amused by stuff like this:

An AL personnel head said, "Tabata is the wild card in this trade. He has a big offensive upside, but... my biggest worry of all is that the Yankees know him best of all and traded him. That willingness says something to me."

By that logic, the Pirates can never win a trade. Never mind that in the past decade the Yankees have traded all kinds of relatively unproven players who turned out to be useful, including Mike Lowell, Jake Westbrook, Ted Lilly, Marcus Thames, Nick Johnson, Juan Rivera, Jose Contreras and Dioner Navarro. The Yankees' trade record isn't bad, but it's certainly not spotless. They'll trade talented players in order to get guys who can help them win sooner. They do it all the time.

But yeah, any player who has a bad season in Class AA at age 19 is a bum, and the Pirates took a "bag of [bleep]." I know the Post is basically a tabloid and that its writer probably specifically went looking for quotes like these, but this still annoys me.

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Don't rip on the Post

It’s cheap and absorbent, and just perfect for lining littler boxes.

Steve Z

by steve_z on Jul 27, 2008 7:29 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The trade

I winced a bit at the initial announcement, but I am good with the final version. It is sometimes easy to forget that we traded a guy who just had the half-season of his career, and a (albeit terrific) situational reliever. Yeah, maybe the compensation picks would have been good, but we can’t have it both ways. We want these guys to take risks and bring in some ballplayers. They did just that. We weren’t going to get Jackson, Kennedy or Hughes, so this is about as good as it gets. One might quibble about whether they should or should not have kept Kontos, but the organization is better off today than it was Friday.

by RichieHebner on Jul 27, 2008 7:29 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Crazy??

Trade Bay to Boston for Bowden or Masterson,Lars Anderson, and yes MANNY. If he is willing to accept a trade as he says , keep him 2 months and reap the picks next draft.

by buccoben on Jul 27, 2008 7:45 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Only problem with that...

is that for us to get Manny Boston would have to eat salary. If they eat salart no way are we getting any of those prospects you mentioned. We’ll have hard time prying Anderson, Bowden and Masterson for Bay straight up. Epstein puts an even higher premium on his top propsects than Cashman.

by Slick1 on Jul 27, 2008 8:07 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Also...

In one of the links Charlie posted one AL exec said his team had a better package on the table in terms of quality but the Bucs went for quantity. I’d really like to know what the team and players involved were. I know the Rays were willing to move Niemann. I really don’t know a lot about him but does he have more upside than the Ohlendorf or McCutchen. My initial thinking is that he does but I really haven’t seen any real scouting reports on him.

by Slick1 on Jul 27, 2008 8:12 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Niemann certainly has more upside than any of the pitchers we acquired, but Tabata has far more than any of them.

by Charlie on Jul 27, 2008 8:19 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

And much more injury history.

by buccoben on Jul 27, 2008 11:17 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Actually, Niemann has an extremely long history of shoulder problems.

by Charlie on Jul 27, 2008 11:44 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I wonder

if this is the one Buster Olney said reacted so incredulously to how little the Yankees had to give up…. That story just killed me.

by KPatrick on Jul 27, 2008 9:49 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

An AL personnel head said, “Tabata is the wild card in this trade. He has a big offensive upside, but… my biggest worry of all is that the Yankees know him best of all and traded him. That willingness says something to me.”

I read this differently than you did, Charlie. I read it to basically say that nobody can ever win a trade. EVERYBODY knows their players best of all. We knew Nady and Marte better than the Yankees did; does this knowledge and subsequent willingness to deal them mean something to said AL exec?

It’s basically a moronic statement to the nth degree. Of course they know him better than anyone else. Still, at some point, to get something you have to give something with the exception of Aramis Ramirez.

This is just the statement of an idiot. Did he refer to it as “strategery”?

by hisjazziness on Jul 27, 2008 9:02 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, but I think the subtext is that it’s possible to have a pretty good idea what you’re getting when you trade for a major leaguer. Someone like Tabata, who’s 19 and has an injury history that complicates his performance record, not so much.

by Charlie on Jul 27, 2008 9:31 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I read it same as Charlie.

By that same logic we won the trade because we know Nady better than anyone else. We sold high on him because we knew this was a career year and were able to land a couple of live arms and high ceiling prospect.

by Slick1 on Jul 27, 2008 9:38 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Interesting side note.

In every blog entry I read in rumors regarding Bay the Mets are always said to be one of the top suitors. Outside of Fmart and Niese, what do they have left in their system in terms of high upside prospects?

by Slick1 on Jul 27, 2008 9:40 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Nothin'

Big ol’ void.

Forget the Mets. Ain’t gonna happen, unless we sell for pennies on the dollar.

by Vlad on Jul 28, 2008 8:42 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

On an international side note

From BA:

“The Pirates signed Colombian shortstop Yhonathan Barrios, who has a projectable bat but will likely move to third base. The Pirates also landed outfielder Exidardo Cayones for what scouts say was a $400,000 bonus. Cayones is athletic, has good mobility and a 45 arm on the 20-80 scouting scale.”

All Pirates can be happy about that kinda news.

by Reddrummer9187 on Jul 27, 2008 10:23 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

X-Man Of The Yankees

Watching the Yankees-Red Sox game on ESPN with the X-Man playing LF at Fenway.

X is a helluva nice guy and a decent ballplayer. He was a key player when healthy for the Pirates and played a decent RF.

But playing among the Yankees and Red Sox, he looks like a very average player

I feel very good about the trade as long as Pirate personnel can get the most out of the four players, particularly Tabata.

by thegunner on Jul 27, 2008 11:25 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

thegunner

I, too, was beginning to feel better about the trade until I read what Baseball Prospectus had to say about it. They were less than enthusiastic about any of the “fillers” we received and generally thought we could have gotten more from other teams feeling that other than Tabata, we got nothing in return. It’s not that I regret losing Marte, I just felt the Yankees needed him far worse than anybody else given the fact Ortiz just returned to the lineup and the problems Yankee pitchers have had with Drew. I think they might have panicked if we waited a little longer and given us one of the two true prospects they had in their system.

by Illinois Pirate Fan on Jul 28, 2008 11:12 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs