A few links to check out while the Yankees play their first game without George Steinbrenner at the helm since 1972…
- Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Phillies have had a "top scout" on hand for the A's last four series, though Oakland isn't going to move Mark Ellis and Ben Sheets isn't scheduled to pitch this weekend.
- James Schmehl of MLive.com says that Sheets could be a "rather inexpensive" trade option for the Tigers if they're looking to add a starting pitcher.
- MLB.com's Corey Brock reports that Padres' GM Jed Hoyer told reporters he would like to make a move to improve the team, not just a cosmetic one (all Twitter links). He says the prices must first come down, and that he has the resources to add multiple pieces.
- WEEI.com's Rob Bradford says (via Twitter) that the Braves did not talk to the Red Sox about a potential Yunel Escobar–Marco Scutaro deal. He says that the Blue Jays were the only team Atlanta spoke to about an Escobar trade.
- Nationals' GM Mike Rizzo ranked the team's international free agent signings for MASNSports.com's Ben Goessling.
- Dylan Hernandez of The Los Angeles Times tweets that the Tokyo Giants have a scout attending tonight's Dodgers-Cardinals game. If nothing else, it shows that Japanese teams scour the U.S. for talent just like MLB teams do in Japan.
Not sure why the Sox would consider a Scutaro-Escobar swap since Scutaro has been great for them and they are contending themselves.
I do find it interesting that Jays are the only team they talked to about Escobar. I guess they must have really liked what Jays had to offer and felt like they didn’t need to shop Escobar.
Oh and Escobar is making his debut today and playing pretty well.
Not a huge Scutaro fan, but definitely don’t want a head case like Escobar, no matter how talented and young he is. A-Gonz was my fave Red Sox shortstop since Nohmah. Defensively, he is the bomb. Scuts just doesn’t have the range or give you the same set of confidence when in the field. Scuts does draw more walks though (woohoo). And the patently obvious reason the Braves didn’t approach the BoSox about Scuts is because he’s making $6MM a year. They’d have net increased their payroll rather than decreased it by getting Gonzalez at less than $3MM per year.
Scutaro is still above average defensively, he is not Gonzalez or Escobar but he’s still fairly good.
As for the walks, I would much rather prefer a Scutaro type player (offensively) and Gonzalez type player. Gonzalez just hits HR and doesn’t bring much other than that. It’s great to have power but as a Jays fan, I would much rather see Scutaro type because the walks and the fact he gets on base often creates problems for the pitcher and gets hitter into better counts.
Scutaro does fit in well with the Sox though. I believe he is leading-off right now and does a solid job at it. However, he would be much more effective if he had some speed.
Sheets would be really inexpensive for the Tigers. They would probably just need to send the A’s an A-ball arm and an ambulance to pick up Sheets and drive him to Detroit.
Sheets has been pitching rather good in the past 10 starts or so and if he can continue to pitch well in the next few starts before the trade deadline then teams may give up a decent prospect(s). If they can also agree to absorb rest of his salary then they can get even more back.
We’ve got this really nice first/third base prospect named Jeff Larish that you’ll just love! Scouts say he’s got real power potential and other… attributes.
Like his ridiculous strikeout rate.
I don’t know how I feel about dealing with Billy Beane, but Sheets could be interesting.
Ted Lilly for Bobby Kielty. Aaron Harang for Jose Guillen. Andre Ethier for Milton Bradley. Tim Hudson for Dan Meyer.
Great GM, but he can be beaten.
Yeah, I know. I just don’t like him.
Because he wrote that book, Mr. Morgan?
Well played, aap212.
Me neither, and I’m an A’s fan.
I agree in retrospect those deals don’t look too hot. But giving up Harrang for jose Guillen allowed them to reach the playoffs. Milton Bradley did the same. You have to give up quality to get quality and both those players (Bradley and Guillen) led to playoff appearances.
Fair enough. The Reds and Dodgers still won those trades, and my overarching point was that even Billy Beane has a blooper reel (which, as you pointed out, applies more to the Lilly trade. Ouch).
Well, in context, it still was stupid, but slightly defensible.
During that off season, the A’s were courting Keith Foulke to resign him. Foulke used the A’s basically to make the Red Sox give him a bigger contract. In order to free up money to sign Foulke, the A’s had to trade Lilly (and in tern, believed they were getting a solid starting OF diamond in the rough), but Foulke ended up signing with the Sox instead, causing the A’s to not only miss out on Foulke, but on their 2nd choice Gordon, and a couple others, and have to settle for complete disaster Arthur Rhodes, and trade for Mark Redman who ended up having a similar salary to Lilly.
It is a mistake that the Phillies also made, as well as quite a few teams, and it always perplexes me as to why they do it, especially during the off season. Teams look at their budget, and decide that to make Deal X, they have to trade Player Y to free up the salary for Deal X. But what I never understood is why the team does not just make Deal X, then figure out how to make the salary work, even if it is trading Player Y, AFTER they make Deal X instead of before it. After all, they don’t have to start paying the player salary until the season starts, and it protects the team in case the deal falls through, as well as gives the team leeway and better leverage instead of having to sell low (as happened with Lilly and Lee) by having more time to make a deal. And hey, it might convince them that dumping a crappy player might be a better idea than dumping a good player.
Schmehl must be smoking crack. Sheets is due at least $4MM on a $10MM deal that was and is a ridiculous overpayment. He’s a rehabber and the early numbers show this. I’m sure Oakland is not gonna agree to eat salary just to get him off their roster. No doubt, he’s an inning eater. But so are tons of guys who make between $400K and $2MM per year. That’s why it was simply foolish for Beane to sign Sheets at $10MM.
You’re so out of touch with reality. If he was smoking crack, he probably would have sold his computer for more crack by now.
The Sheets deal may appear to be an overpay, but it is often overlooked that small market teams get a large amount of money in Revenue sharing. A’s had to spend money (they threw big money at Beltre and Scutaro) and they settled for a gamble with the potential ace/flip in sheets. The A’s had free money and used it wisely or not that can be debated.
All of this is true, but I still hate the precedent Beane created by doing so. Now, rehabbers will be pointing to the Sheets deal as the starting point for their first contracts back after major surgery.
The A’s were feeling pressure from the player’s union to spend money since they had only 1 player making over $5 million. The 10 was a gamble and will not pay off but it is better to try then not to gamble at all. The A’s can wait until after July 31st and get rid of his remaining money through waiver since someone will bite but its better than having a Perez or Zambrano with years remaining and nobody wants them.
Thanks for pointing this out, which I had not considered. But I must say I regret that Beane did this with Sheets. He made a market for a rehabber demanding front-line starter pay. The previous market was reasonable (Penny/Smoltz at $5MM). Now, guys returning after major surgery are going to point to the Sheets deal to demand these big dollar contracts when they have not yet proven they are front-line capable. You also have to be wary of creating precedents when you proceed on a deal.
does anyone think sheets may have made a bad decision by signing with an AL team..perhaps during his early struggles..in a league like the NL his peripheral and overall numbers wouldnt look quite as bad and his numbers when he started clicking would look even better…perhaps settling for a couple of mil less from an NL club may have led to more money from him later…
please get sheets out of Oakland but after we get our 2 starters off the DL!
To be honest, as a Padre fan, I’d prefer a few moves that are not to much more than cosmetic. Jeremy Guthrie and Scott Podsednik would fill a few key spots and hopefully would not cost us Simon Castro. Castro is the one prospect we need to keep.
completely agree. but with the offense tonight it looks like only guthrie.
If we played the D’backs every night, we wouldn’t need anyone.
ONLY way Simon Castro is going ANYWHERE is for a premier player!
Corey Hart?
Corey Hart?
NO
Why would the Sox swap Scutaro? He’s not great, but he fits now. The Sox need to worry about trading for pen help and a catcher (anyone else notice that since Tek & VMart went down, Sox catchers have 1 total hit in 13 games?). Hey Theo, either make a deal YESTERDAY or become a seller. This is not the time to be patient and the Sox are on pace to have the worst pen in club history.
Yeah because I’m sure Theo is at home sitting on is butt and doing nothing to help address the holes of this team.
Why didn’t the Braves shop Escobar around how are you supposed to know if you got the best deal if you don’t find out what everyone is willing to offer for him. Isn’t the Tigers, Cards, and some other teams looking for a SS? Why not go to them?
That was my point a couple days ago–a SS needy team is more likely to give you something good. Besides, it’s not like the Braves don’t have the ammo in prospects to get Gonzales in a separate deal.
I agree. That is one of the things that made me so angry about this trade. They evidently zeroed in on the Jays and didn’t even talk to other teams about Escobar. Therefore, they got nothing for him but a washed up shortstop on a hot streak and a couple of C prospects. This is a trade that will end up biting the Braves in the rump and it was all because they didn’t like Escobar’s attitude. This was a stupid thing to do in the middle of a pennant race.
what? why are you believing what this guy is saying? you think this guy called every GM to find out who all Frank contacted? You really think a GM would trade a player while only talking to one team? Im not buying that for a second. Mark Bowman, David Obrien, even this site, and many others close to the organization have been saying for weeks that the Braves have been fielding calls on the availablility of Yunel. Frank didnt take the 1st offer….
apparently Wren knows what he’s doing.
I would beg to differ on the “washed up” representation. Gonzalez is historically among the best defensive shortstops in the MLB, and this year, although below his norm, is no exception. The rightful criticism on him has been that his OBP is always lackluster. That said, he has generated a large number of net runs this season (81 = 48 RBI + 50 R – 17 HR’s), on pace for 151 for the season. That’s very good offensive production, home run streak aside. He also is underpaid for 2010 and 2011. I think the Braves did very well to target Gonzalez as the replacement for Escobar.
You have heard the expression “don’t believe everything you read”, right?
You have heard the expression “don’t believe everything you read”, right?
The Slusser blurb comes off a little misleading. She went on to suggest that the scouts were probably eyeing the Royals this weekend, not the A’s.
Well she does say that while they are probably also watching the Royals, they have been watching the A’s for 4 series.
The Tigers wouldn’t want Ben Sheets because he is a right handed pitcher. The Tigers rotation has 4 righties and 1 lefty in Andy OLiver, who will probably be traded at the deadline.
I don’t think being LH is make-or-break for the Tigers to trade for a guy. I’m sure Leyland would prefer a LH starter, though.
Also, who do you think they’d trade Oliver for? Lilly? Please don’t say Lilly. :/
For what it’s worth Mark Ellis isn’t in the lineup tonight.
*Nevermind he’s DHing