That it does. And I guess they didn't feel like they had much chance of keeping Cespedes after next year.
I'm sure he's annoyed when every time they lose in the playoffs, its because they get dominated by dominating pitchers like Verlander and Scherzer who are paid a lot of money to be dominating pitchers in the playoffs! At that point, there's no money-ball "strategies"... pitching wins, timely hitting wins, and dominating pitching dominates in small sample sized series.
This seems counter-productive. They already have 3 outstanding starting pitchers. A 4th is not going to pitch all that much in the playoffs (whether it's Lester or benching one of the current guys) and Cespedes is a key piece of that offense. Seems like they are risking losing a lot of 2-1 type games.
Cespedes really isn't a great hitter. His OPS has been worse that Chris Carter's since he came into the league. Not saying he sucks, but he isn't anything special. I know Norris was team controlled, but I'm extremely confident in saying that we got a better package for him than the Red Sox did for Lester.
This is a very odd trade for the A's. They already had an elite 1-4 rotation that could have carried them through the playoffs, what's the added benefit of having an elite 1-5? On top of that, 2 of the 3 elite pitchers are FAs this year...will Billy be paying up for their services? History says no...
Oakland has a lack of depth in their offense, and Cespedes was one of only 3 hitters on their team with 10+ HRs (comparatively, the Astros have 4). He may not be a great hitter, but he's a key cog in the heart of that offense. The problem is not so much trading him so much as trading him for a 4th SP that you really don't need that much in the playoffs. On a side note, Carter's career OPS is not really bad. He has a strikeout and BA problem, but he makes up for it with his power.
Wouldn't be surprised to see Lester resign with the Sox next year, although he is a West Coast kid. No way do the A's pony up the cash for him long term and no way will he want to stay there. Also, you gotta score to win. The A's scoring punch wasn't that great as it was, now it's just worse.
If they do get Lester back next year, look out! They will have effectively retooled in about 4 months.
None of those are proven playoff pitchers. Playoff baseball is literally another sport/league altogether.
How many playoff games have their starters pitched in? Playoff starts/pressure entirely different... and starting pitching has been one of their biggest issues in their playoff failures. They have productive hitters throughout their lineup with or without Cespedes... and yes, they have great pitching, but noone with real proven success (and I'm not considering Kazmir's "resurgence" as something they're going to be overly relied on).
All two of them? They might as well sign Brandon Backe... Lester's 11 starts/2.11 ERA will not be a bad thing for the already best team in baseball that at first was missing an established front-line starter (Samardzija), and now has a front-line starter with playoff experience (Lester). While Beane acknowledges that his "****" doesn't work in the playoffs due to the sample size, here he is trying to exploit what "does" actually work in the playoffs... and trading excess assets to fill playoff needs.
Reasonable trade partners... Tigers are totally in contending/win-now mode with excess assets and the Rays (while rebounded from their horrific start), are towards the end of their "run" and weren't going to be in the hunt to re-sign Price.
Its amazing that Verlander would not even be considered one of their top 3 pitchers right now... my bet is that he still starts for them in the playoffs.
This is one of those fun things to say, but the evidence isn't really there to support it. For example, Jon Lester was awesome in his first several postseasons, despite having no postseason experience at the time. David Price was outstanding in his first postseason and sucked in his last 3. Last year, facing one of the best offenses in baseball, Oakland gave up 3 runs or less in 4 of their 5 playoff games. Pitching wasn't their problem. Their hitters are less proven than their pitchers.
Good moves for the A's and Tigers I don't understand the one-year rental of Lester though, as he's only 30.
