All Purpose Mid-Season Trade Speculation Thread

[duan]

holy jeebus no no no no to Sean Casey!

[Guest Rotblatt]

Dunn's got at least three dimensions--power, ability to get on base, and speed. He's also no worse than average in the OF--I'm not positive about his ability at first, to be honest, but as I recall, his numbers over there seemed okay in limited duty.

Why so opposed to Casey, Duan? Just curious.

As for Freel, he's a fine player and he's having a nice season. I'm not convinced he's for real yet, and my guess is that they'd rather move Aurilia and keep Freel around.

Their OF, on the other hand, is a chock full of talent. Dunn, Kearns, Pena, Griffey, and Cruz to a lesser extent. I'm targeting Dunn because he's vocally unhappy in Cincinatti, is undervalued by his manager, and happens to play first, but I'd be happy to have either Keans or Pena too . . .

[duan]

he just isn't that good, had a *near fluke* season last year. in 2002 & 2003 he's ops of .696 and .758

and he comes with an 8.5 million price tag for 2006!

[Guest Rotblatt]

Ah. Those are good reasons.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I blanched at the invocation of Casey also, but to be fair, he had some time hitting something like that before 2002, also.

[Vic Sage]

I totally agree with Rotblatt about Dunn.

wait, did i say that?

:?:

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Prince Fielder anyhow was called up by the Brew Crew to be an interleague DH.

Gotta like them stones!

If he performs, maybe it'll be hard to send him back down a la Mets/Reyes.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I just had a baseless premonition that Squishii is safe for now, but Tom Glavine just threw is last pitch as a Met.

[nymr83]

Glavine has had good starts and awful starts, Ishii has mostly had bad ones. I'd rather dump Ishii...but if it was up to me i'd dump both.

[nymr83]

edit- whoops, this aint the IGT!

[Guest Edgy DC]

The point isn't really to dump anybody, but to make the trade that best helps the team.

[DocTee]

Today's SF Chronicle, picking up a story from the Sporting News, reports that the Giants offered Ray Durham straight up for Kaz Matsui---but the Mets balked. The contracts are about a wash, sez the paper, which also alludes to Durham's being a better hitter-- tho' worse fielder--, than KazMat.

[metirish]

Durham has some power in his bat, is about four years older than Kaz and has a career FP% of .978, I wouldn't like this deal really, is Durham signed through next season?

[Guest Rotblatt]

]The Mets were among a handful of teams scouting Barry Zito's start against the Phillies yesterday in Oakland. Trading Zito is the only shot Athletics GM Billy Beane has to acquire some of the inexpensive prospects he covets by the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. Zito is a favorite of pitching coach Rick Peterson.

http://www.newsday.com/sports/printedition/ny-spmnotes194311684jun19,0,2415796.story?coll=ny-sports-print

I don't like this. We're probably talking about losing either Petit or Milledge to get Zito, who hasn't exactly been lighting the world on fire. We'll also be adding yet another pitcher to the current blockade keeping Heilman from starting.

Willie, pretty please give Heilman the ball . . . And while you're at it, permanently move Wright up in the order, and release DeJean. Then call up Padilla to fill in for DeJean.

Oh, and if you don't mind asking Omar not to make any "We're still in the mix!" trades, that'd be great too.

Thanks, big guy! You're the best!

[Guest sharpie]

Watch out with those pleas, Rotblatt, they tend to come true and then we lose, lose, lose.

[Theoldmole]

We are still in the mix.

[Sandgnat]

I see no need to trade prospects for major league talent this year. If anything I would be looking to do the opposite. This team is what it is, a .500 baseball team. I just don't see this being the year to go after it. I'd rather see us keep all of our options open for the next few years instead.

[Guest Rotblatt]

]Watch out with those pleas, Rotblatt, they tend to come true and then we lose, lose, lose.

Ouch! I don't think it's Daubach's fault we lost 3 of the last 4, sharpie . . . Although he definitely hasn't helped much yet.

]We are still in the mix.

Sure, I suppose we're only 7 games out and anything could happen, but we're last in our division and just got beat by two of the worst teams in baseball. I also don't see how putting Zito (4.66 ERA, 1.32 WHIP) in the rotation will help us more than putting Heilman (3.56 ERA, 1.15 WHIP) in. I could be wrong, and maybe Heilman can't hack it as a starter, but we won't know until we try. Now would seem like a pretty good time to try, since Ishii's scuffling.

[seawolf17]

If we're making changes anyway, can we sell Glavine to a band of roving gypsies or something?

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

Sell?

Don't hold out for too much - the gypsies might change their minds.

[Guest Rotblatt]

I was really hoping Glavine would put up a string of impressive starts and we'd be able to trade him to a bonafide major league team for, say, a bag of balls.

The gypsies might be our best bet now, although we may have to package him with a ball boy or two . . .

[Sandgnat]

a monstrously huge one?

[smg58]

No, not a monstrously huge one -- the last time we traded an overpaid pitcher for a large batboy was Appier for Mo Vaughn, and that really didn't work out.

The Mets are in a similar position now that they've been in each of the last five Junes except 03: not a good enough position to justify going for broke, but not in a bad enough position to justify a fire sale. I do think they need to make next year the higher priority, but if they can find players that will help this year's team without costing us prospects we'll wish we had back, then make the deal.

The one guy they have to move is Glavine, even if that means releasing him before his option vests; that money would be better spent elsewhere. Yes, get Heilman into the rotation already, and if you can't find room for Seo then move him while he has value. If you can deal Matsui for a pitcher that Peterson could revive by the start of next season, then great, but Kaz will only get us somebody who's overpaid and underachieving. Durham is just not healthy enough anymore, so I think that deal would be a push. Cameron doesn't need to be traded, but if somebody makes a really good offer you would have to consider it.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I think they're in a better position, because they can deal veteran pitchers for minor leaguers without this season's rotation being emptied, because of the redundancy being provided by Heilman and Seo.

So they can look to the future without necessarily compromising whatever present remains.

[Theoldmole]

I agree about Heilman making more sense than Zito. Right now we have more starting pitchers than rotation spots, and there are always teams that will take a proven starter even if he's on a downswing - look at all the clamoring for Zito. I'd look into offering one or two of our starters around. People will always overpay for them.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

Maybe the Dodgers will give us Derek Lowe for Glavine straight up.

I have it on good authority that Glavine's going to be a much better pitcher through 2005 at least, and just look at the stats:
PLAYER TEAM G GS IP H R ER BB SO W L ERA
Derek Lowe LAD15 15 97.2 106 54 40 17 65 5 7 3.69
Tom Glavine NYM15 15 85.1 112 51 48 34 42 4 6 5.06

[Guest Rotblatt]

Hm. D-Lowe is signed through 2008 at around $9M per year. Glavine's got just the one year left at around $11M . . . So we'd save this year and the next, but we'd be down around $18M. Lowe's 32 now and would be 35 when his deal expires.

I like Lowe, and think he had been somewhat victimized by a poor Boston defense last year. Like Tom, he doesn't strike out many batters, but when he's on, he also doesn't walk many. He's certainly having a solid year . . .

I'd do that deal, I think. Looking forward the next few years, Pedro-Benson-DLowe-Heilman-Zambrano isn't bad at all . . . Of course, we'd still have to work Trachs in there somehow. Yeesh, but we have a lot of starting pitchers . . .

[Willets Point]

I think Bret is pointing out the stats to prove that he's right about an argument from last season.

Bret, in what way would you most appreciate our celebrating your rightness?

PS - As good an idea as that trade proposal may have been, I don't think Theo would have gone for it.

[Guest Rotblatt]

Ah, I do seem to recall a discussion about that idea. I think I liked it then, too.

I'm a little dense today. Dodgers probably want to add a starting pitcher, not replace one of their effecitve ones with a less effective one, huh? I wonder if we could pull off a Glavine + relief pitcher (any of them, IMO, including Loopy) for Edwin Jackson . . .

I rather like reclamation projects, especially when the project is only 21 years old . . .

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

I think the deal got dumped by Theo as well. I said so at the time.

Oddly I had a talk this week with the gentleman who maintained that the Mets shouldn't do Glavine-for-Lowe because Glavine was a better pitcher for the remainder of '04 and for all of '05 (neither of which turned out to be true), and he brought up a Yankee-Met proposed deal (I think it was Cammy-for-Cano) that a Yankee fan said was unbalanced in the Mets' favor, and this gentleman maintained that it was unbalanced in the Yankees' favor. My whole argument here isn;t to show that I was right, but to show in a larger sense that Mets' management (supported by Mets fans) haven't made deals because they over-value their own talent. I mean, face it, Cammy isn't a superstar--he's a good player playing over his head right now. If you think he's really a .300 hitter with power and GG defense, then of course you're not considering trading him for some young punk.

Of course, the part that Cammy plays on the next Mets' playoff team escapes me, and the need for a good middle infielder on that team is crystal clear, but that's another deal that isn't getting done.

We're greedy. We have something (a good experienced CFer) that theYankees need desperately right now, but they're not going to overpay by more than 200% of Cammy's value and, for some, that doesn't cut it. LIke I said, greedy.