I dont quite understand why anyone is upset that we are sending out money for these trades... I'd much rather send out a portion of the money to cover the contracts and get players in return...than pay out the entire contracts and let these mediocre players remain on the team with nothing in return. The money we are sending to the Pirates was going to have to be paid in full if Wandy wasnt traded. So we're actually saving a little money and getting something in return. Wandy was sucking recently and it was clear to me over the last few weeks that we should temper our expectations on what we can get for him. Im not overly excited about this trade, but Im content. At this point, Im just happy to be getting rid of all these vets and bringing in prospects to shore up the depth of our system.
Not necessarily. There was always the option of just putting Wandy on waivers and seeing if anyone claimed him. Colorado did last year and then we pulled him back. Basically the three options were: 1) Keep Wandy's production and pay him at least $13m more next season 2) Put him on waivers this season but be off the hook for $13m next season 3) Trade him for prospects but throw in a large chunk of cash because of his trade-kicker player option. They're throwing in $12m in cash. They believe the value of the three prospects is worth more than $12m because they could have saved more by just waiving him. I gotta imagine they have the actuarial numbers on the value of X grade of prospect. Because they straight up made cash purchases of prospects in the Lee and Wandy trades under the guise of 'sending cash to cover salary'.
Luke Scott, Ben Zobrist, Mark Trumbo, i could go on. These guys never made baseball americas top 100, yet turned into very good big league players. The assumption that all of these guys are guaranteed failures is stupid. Scouts know what they are doing, but it's not a perfect science. Wandy had very little trade value. May as well get something for him. His Career 4.72 road ERA, and his 5.09 ERA vs the AL led many scouts to assume he would struggle if traded, especially if traded to the AL. Combine that with age and decreasing numbers. Maybe we could have saved money if we let him go on waivers, but i'd rather have an owner that will eat the money to get prospects.
It's a very good trade Grossman is a borderline top 100 guy who will probably play everyday in some outfield position for us next season Owens is an underrated finesse guy who could prove to be a rotation mainstay; like a superior version of Dallas Keuchel Cain is well, he sucks, but he's a lottery ticket who could turn it around and has highest upside of all three if he somehow does If you expected more for Wandy you were kinda delusional. Too bad dumb reporters floated Hanson when it wasn't true and got people's hopes up.
I'm actually fairly excited to see how Grossman hits moving forward. I thought his stock was down not knowing he was coming off a hammate injury which saps power numbers for awhile. His last two months have been fantastic. Traditional scouts are gonna say he's a tweener who can't play corner outfield because he won't hit for enough power, but power is not the only way to provide offensive value. OBP is as well. If you're hitting .280/.380/.420 with well above average defense at corner outfield position, you're going to be producing a ton of value. Condense offensive value down into just on-base percentage and slugging percentage and take a look at Ichiro Suzuki's career batting numbers: .366 OBP, .418 SLG. This is a guy who for most of his career was worth 4 to 7 WAR each season, an all star caliber player. Those kinds of offensive numbers are not at all unreasonable to expect from Grossman. I doubt Grossman can play +15 run defense in right field, but maybe he can play +5 run or even +10 run defense out there. That would make him nearly as valuable as Ichiro.
Grossman was suspended by the team in June for what the team called an "internal issue". He sat out a week and came back. The team only commented that it wasn't a legal issue. The pirates have done this before. General Manager Neal Huntington even called out Neil Walker a couple of years ago. However, this could have led to the org souring a little on Grossman. I think the Pirates like Marte and Polanco more than Grossman as OF prospects anyhow. Most pirate fans on blogs have been ok with the trade, although a lot of people like Grossman.
Bud Norris Wilton Lopez Wesley Wright Jed Lowrie I have to think we'd like to move CJ, but can't envision much of a return. CJ is a decent player, but his terrible defense keeps him from being more than a replacement level player. Team would also probably like to move Snyder, but he has been so terrible it is hard to imagine getting anything for him either.
I see no reason to move Bud this year unless a really great package comes along. And you're right--I don't think anyone's giving us a damn thing for CJ or Snyder
I don't know why we would call up Galarraga instead of Owens. Norris Harrell Keuchel Lyles Galarraga Back in late March, only Norris was expected to be in the rotation.
Snyder? Why would they do that? He's cheap, a solid veteran presence, has decent pop and is covering more games while Castro is out. I don't see any reason to trade him. The team doesn't need to trade every useful player. I think we're at the point where we'd have to be wowed to trade any of those guys. They don't have a ton of value but they stand in the way of a potential perfect game every day.
They picked up Snyder with the intention of trading him, IMO. Has $1.75M in performance incentives (PAs) and a $4M mutual option for next year with a .5M buyout. You don't trade anybody just to trade them, but you'd want to trade him if he had some value. We have to be wowed by Norris/Lowrie/Lopez, not Snyder/CJ.
I don't think Lowrie is traded until at least the offseason, if not later. His value was up, now it's kind of down again due to the injury and the slump just before the injury. I doubt Norris is traded right now either, he can pitch better than he is right now. Lopez and/or Wright could go before the deadline. We'll see.
Not much left to trade. Maybe Norris, Lowrie, and/or Schafer. If you really want to go out there, Altuve and/or Martinez.
Disagree, they needed a veteran backup catcher and he filled the need. The financials are pretty much moot. He'll make slightly over $1m with incentives if he keeps up his pace. Plus his $0.5m buyout. Q made about $1m as a backup C in KC.
