Let's Trade All Our Bad Players For Good Players

But what if we package together a whole bunch of crappy players? That’s always a popular approach!

Alternatively, I’m sure Gunner has a secret trade he’s worked out that he can’t tell anybody about. Or he would if he hadn’t been whisked off to an undisclosed location.

to meet your word quota for the month?

If any other GM sees Nyjer as the 11th best left fielder, then sell him NOW. No time to think or breathe.

Also, what does the “Dips chart” have to do with anything? Mike Gosling is the most valuable pitcher in baseball?

By this silly method, McLouth is the 14th best CF and we got value for him as well.

Why trade Duke when hes our best pitcher and it would only get worse and your not given Maholm or Ohlendorf any credit when Ross has played pretty good and half the games Paul has played he has gotten no run support if we r gonna trade anyone is should be ian snell if he gets bak to old form.

Nyjer Morgan: 11th best leftfielder

According to the link, Nyjer Morgan is better LF than Manny Ramirez. Do you expect that the Dodgers would trade Manny straight up for NyMo after review of this site?

I don’t believe the authors of this site intend their data to be used to make judgments on who is a better player than whom. Calling NyMo the 11th “best” ML LF based on this data is somewhat misleading I feel. Perhaps you can find a better word than “best?”

“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means”

do we really have a good replacement for nyjer right now any way i mean id rather have him than monroe out there adn if we trade moss thts where young will be

I think nyjer can be a good upcoming player he has shown shines of what he can do

he is an excellent base runner and may not hit for much power but his speed takes care of that also he had a .300 BA during most of the yr but went through a slump which lowered it but he has potential

ok my bad but i still think he worth keeping and see how the season plays out with him unless till next yr

because it currently values him at $7M per year. Yikes.

I think fans tend over value their own prospects. That is true with just about any fan of any team. That being said I don’t think the argument you make for Laroche is a simple as you are making it out to be when determining is trade value. You point out that Adam is one of the 21st best 1B in the league, however, all 21 1B will not be available for a trade. Names like Berkman, Pujols, Youkillis, Texeria, Gonzales, Morneau, etc. do not apply when evaluating the trade market for Laroche. So where would he be on the list after you exclude all of the unavailable players? Also, I think you need to look at only his 2nd half splits when evaluating his trade value. He will be a FA at the end of the season so he is likely a rental. The team that will be receiving him will be receiving 2nd half Adam which increases his value more than it would for a player with historically minimal 1st/2nd half splits. The fact that he is a rental means we will not receive a terrific return but I think we will receive more for him than what you imply given the WPA stat. I would be curious to see where he ranks using only an average of his 2nd half performance.

With the Fangraphs valuations, I am especially skeptical of the defensive measurements. Pujols is all of a sudden a minus defender this year after being the best for years? McCutch is a minus defender? Maybe putting the last few years of data together would actually mean something.

Here are Pujols career defensive stats.

I’m not sure where you got the idea that he was the best for years. According to UZR, he’s been just about passable most years, had a good year in 2007, and now has gone from barely passable to bad.

McCutchen’s defensive stats are screwed up because he’s played in so few games. His UZR will catch up.

You can say “he only ends up as an average first baseman.”

Yeah, when you look at his whole year. Teams that would trade for him wouldn’t be trading for a full year. They’d be trading for the second half. Nobody is going to pick him up for next year and sit through his crappy first half. He’s a rental for a contender.

Now, let’s talk about a few other things.

You assume that Adam LaRoche is below average offensively. That’’s not true. He’s above average, even with his bad first half. His lowest career OPS+ is 100, or exactly average. In his monster year with Atlanta, he had 130. Since coming the Pirates, he’s had OPS+es of 108, 123 last year, and 128 so far this year. He’s a good offensive player who gets better in the second half. Like I said, you have to look at more than WARP.

Finally, let’s look at the list you posted with the players ahead of LaRoche. They may well all be better than him, but how many of the players ahead of LaRoche do you think their teams will trade for anything other than a huge bounty that makes the trade not worth it for the receiving team? I count three, and none of them are that impressive.

The Mariners might sell on Russell Branyan, but who’s going to buy on a 33 year old career platoon player that never impressed anyone until this year? The Jays might sell on Lyle Overbay for prospects, but I haven’t heard any trade talk about him. The Cubs may sell on D-Lee, but again, I haven’t heard any trade talks about him. In addition, he’s in the decline phase of his career and is coming off of any injury this year. He’s not someone teams would hone in on. I bet the Marlins will trade Jorge Cantu, but he’s only one slot above LaRoche and the difference is marginal. Even assuming he gets dealt, there will be other teams that need a first baseman.

Outside of those names, you’re on crack if you think any of those first baseman are getting dealt for anything resembling a worthwhile price. The Yanks aren’t trading Teixiera. The Sox aren’t trading Youkilis. The Reds aren’t trading Votto.The Tigers aren’t trading Miguel Cabrera. It’s just not going to happen.

You can say those players are better than LaRoche, and a good deal of them probably are, but it doesn’t MATTER if teams won’t selll on them. A number of those players are on teams that are contenders themselves. LaRoche is probably not one of the best ML first baseman, but he’s probably one of the best on the market this year, and that’s all that matters. Baseball doesn’t work in a world where a team can go out and get whatever player they want.

Where are you getting your second half stats for LaRoche?

Using Baseball Reference, I come up with 1164 PA for LaRoche in the second half. I’d say that’s a relevant sample, wouldn’t you? In those PA, he’s gone .297/.360/.538, leaving him with a .907 OPS. Yeah, I’d trade for a guy like that.

They’re tussling with Angels for the division with a 1B sporting a .212 BA in Chris Davis?
I realise it’s awfully simplistic however them’s the stats.