Nady/Marte Inspired Bidding War

by scully0505 on Jul 31, 2008 2:51 AM EDT Comment 4 comments

Is it just me or does it seem like the Nady/Marte trade was in part meant to instigate a bidding war for Bay? Don't get me wrong. I don't think anyone was too hot on Nady, and NH didn't flip 'em for just anybody (I personally like the trade, especially Tabata)... However, we probably could have been able to get a bit more for these guys if we would have waited until closer to the deadline. It seems like we chose to pull the trigger quickly, sending them to an AL East team (Yankees) in order to get the others (Rays and Sox) to compete for Bay. The prospect of a much stronger Yankee opponent is forcing the others to dig deeper into their talent reserves to keep pace. The Sox/Marlins and Rays trades look like just that. Maybe the tightness of the AL East race factored into Huntington's decision to make the trade so quickly, even if it wasn't his primary motive...or maybe this is just another crazy conspiracy theory. Anyway, whether it was intended or not, Huntington's trade might yield much more than we originally thought.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of the managing editor (Charlie) or SB Nation. FanPosts are written by Bucs Dugout readers.

0 recs | Comment 4 comments |

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

I don't think that Nady/Marte has anything to do with this

The Boston/Florida/Pittsburgh thing is only because Manny has been running his mouth so much lately.

Tampa Bay’s focus doesn’t appear as firmly squared on this season as many of us had been thinking. They don’t appear to be offering us much of anything, not even Hellickson, who projects as a 3rd starter. I don’t really blame TB for this. They have a ton of young talent that will only improve, they have a bunch more good prospects who will be coming up within the next year or two. If I were them I would try to steal Bay from PBC for crap, and if PBC didn’t bite, then I would wait another year. They will only be better next year.

BTW, what is Bay’s contract situation? Is he signed for 2010?

by houksyndrome on Jul 31, 2008 3:42 AM EDT reply actions

Bay is signed through next season, which will pay him $7.5M, a freakin bargain.

by matskralc on Jul 31, 2008 8:23 AM EDT up reply actions

I think you're giving NH too much credit...

I just can’t believe this was part of his thought process because if he was truly that shrewd he would have known that the Yankees needed a left-handed reliever at that moment in time because Ortiz had just returned from the DL and therefore, could have gotten more from the Yankees. As you can see, it can’t work both ways. If he did create the trade to put pressure on Boston then he sold himself short to the Yankees.

by Illinois Pirate Fan on Aug 3, 2008 10:10 PM EDT reply actions

stats time

you’ve been selling this marte vs. papi thing for about two weeks now so i’ll show you the stats.

papi vs. marte (career)

.250/.364/.625 3/2 k/bb in 8 at bats

small sample size, i know, but marte is a relief pitcher so his numbers, like all relievers, are judged anyhow. that’s an ops of .989 which is higher than papi’s career ops against lefties or righties.

he does have a pretty big lefty/righty split this year (.656 vs .896) after putting up another ~200 point ops split last year, however before you misinterpret the meaning and go screaming about it, that did not in fact just prove your point. it proved you’re wrong.

the point is that in the last two years papi has been awful against all lefties. that fact means there’s no real pressure for the yankees to acquire the best lefty reliever on the market – let alone one that papi has good career numbers against – to matchup against a guy that hits like louis rivas against all left-handed pitchers. by your reasoning, marte’s value to the yankees was adversely affected by the presence of big papi.

finally, please note that i said by your reasoning. if you ask me, it’s a ridiculous philosophy in the first place for the yankees to acquire marte to match up against one specific player, whether it’s big papi or juan freaking castro – who they will likely face just as many times. i’m not trying to be mean, i just very strongly disagree and enjoy arguing about these things.

by johnnycuff on Aug 4, 2008 12:35 AM EDT up reply actions