Eduardo Rodriguez, the pitching prospect the Red Sox acquired from the Orioles for Andrew Miller in July, could end up being a key acquisition, WEEI.com’s Alex Speier writes. “Steal of the trade deadline…I know Miller is doing great in Baltimore, but this kid will make that trade look real bad,” says one evaluator. Rodriguez was dominant for Double-A Portland, posting an 0.96 ERA with 9.4 K/9 and 1.9 BB/9 in 37 1/3 innings there before being promoted to make his debut for Triple-A Pawtucket Friday in the International League Championship Series. Here’s more from around the American League.
- The Twins’ rainout on Friday could cost Phil Hughes $500K, Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press writes. Hughes’ start was delayed until today, and now, in order to pitch the Twins’ last game of the season on September 28, he’ll need to pitch on short rest, since the Twins have a day off on September 18. With 187 2/3 innings so far this season, Hughes could, as a result, miss 210 innings, a total that would earn him a $500K bonus.
- Chris Young’s former Mets manager is happy the outfielder has found success so far with the Yankees, Mike Vorkunov of NJ.com writes. “He came and we were hoping the best and just had a rough go here, but as I told somebody here, he hit big homers here for us too, big ones,” says Terry Collins. “Just didn’t enough. Happy for him and I hope he makes a contribution over there.” The Mets designated Young for assignment and then released him last month after he hit a disappointing .205/.283/.346 in 287 plate appearances there, and he’s now hit three home runs on three straight days (including one in yesterday’s doubleheader) with the Yankees.
Time for Hughes to throw a couple of complete games.
The Yankees are good at getting early value from ho-hum vets. Overbay, Wells, Reynolds, I’m sure there’s more.
Stephen Drew……
He’s terrible. I’m not saying that any of those guys turned out to be good either, just that they made impressive debuts in the Bronx before fizzling out.
Reynolds is having an alright year in Milwaukee.
I was talking strictly about his time with the Yankees.
I think ultimately, most players find their water-level (whatever that may be at that particular stage of their careers) but I did agree with your statement. The Yankees have been pretty good at plugging holes, with Drew just being unexpectedly awful.
I’m actually not at all surprised that Drew is playing this poorly. He’s not a great hitter to begin with and he didn’t get to have Spring Training.
I mean, is it going to be a steal though if the O’s go deep into the playoffs? The table is set, even with all of the Orioles injuries, to capitalize on the failings of the AL East and the AL in general this year. With as good as the Orioles have been playing, they picked up an amazing bullpen piece for a good pitching prospect, but EdRod is probably another 2-3 years from joining the bigs, and the Orioles also have a pretty cheap controlled pitching staff who have pitched out of their minds this season. I’ll take that lights out 7th inning guy for this year, it’s not mortgaging the future. If you want good ML talent, you have to give up good pieces for them.
Depends on whether Andrew Miller plays a big role in the O’s going deep into the playoffs. They paid a big price for Miller. He would need to be a major reason why the O’s win the WS for the trade to be worth it.
If the guy is already at AAA I don’t think he is 2-3 years away from the bigs. Andrew Miller is fantastic one of the best left handed relievers in the game but two months of a RP is never worth a top 100 prospect with the upside E-Rod has. Miller won’t win any games in the playoffs.
True.
But the Os are sorta awash at the moment in high grade pitching prospects, who all have similar ETAs. So, if you take in the whole picture of starting pitchers, you could say the Os were just making a move today in advance of a logjam that would force the issue later anyways? Not saying this was the single main factor. Just suggesting it’s part of the equation. Is trading ERod today for a possibly valuable piece in a run better than trading him later for a parts in the offseason?
I feel the same way about the Red Sox. They have money to spend. Fans would like Lester back and they are talking about Big Game James for FA. They pick up ERod to go along with good young pitching “suspects” in their own system. Instead of spending a ton of money on Lester and Shields look at selectively trading for Hamels, Stanton and other proven vets that would give you what you don’t have. They need a 3 B–WMB has been really up and down, JBJ, a superb defender, hovering around .200 and Craig is under.100. I would like to see them move Nap and WMB along with JBJ, Breslow, Buch,Owens and Nava. Cespy or the recently signed Castillo will be moved. As much as I like Koji he can’t be overworked during the season and play a role in the playoffs. I see them bidding on Miller to bring him back. Hot stove heat up.
You want them to move Henry Owens the number one prospect on the team and top 25 in baseball midseason prospect rankings???
I agree they need a 3B and Headley would be a good add. Also, I think they really need to talk to Bogartes and see if he would play 3B because then they could sign a SS.
It really all does come down to how does one define “winning a trade.” Are we strictly going by total WAR of the player during his time on the team he was traded to? Is there other quantifiable data we need to throw in such as cost of a player over time? Are we throwing in qualitative data such as the playoffs?
So it really comes down to what you believe in. If Miller is a reason why the Orioles win a WS then the value of the trade will certainly change for Orioles fans.
I believe it’s also contextual.
The Os have quite a number of similarly serviced pitchers. Chen, Miguel Gonzalez, Norris, Tillman, Gausman. Now throw in Bundy and other pieces into that mix in the next year. Something’s gotta give at some point. So, trading ERod today might also be partly anticipating a ensuing logjam that forces his trade later anyways. Maybe you might as well get a big piece in a playoff run.
The Os (and Red Sox) both knew what they had in Eduardo Rodriguez, which is why he commanded a superb arm in Miller. ERod’s numbers this year were suppressed by some blips and minor health issues, but he’s a #3 or better caliber rotation prospect. Good deceptive arm angle. Groundballer tendencies with strikeout stuff and command.