[Baseball Prospectus] Roger Clemens urging Astros to get Tejada

Nice to know Timmy boy dosn't get paid just to sit on his hands

 

ensberg is at his lowest value possible. the orioles will not take him as the major selling point in a deal. they are gonna want the top prospects and i dont know if timmy will give em up.

 

If Heavy P can obtain Tejada without giving up either Hirsch or Pence (which I feel is in the ballpark of a .001% chance), I'll stop my one-man army crusade against Purpura. Heck, I might even get a custom-made Astros jersey with "Purpura" on the back, if he could pull that heist off.

 

If the Astros could get Tejada to guarantee he wouldn't demand a trade at the end of the season (I believe that's something he can do, some weird baseball rule) and sign a contract extension (FA at the end of the year, isn't he?), I'd do that deal in a heartbeat. Ensberg is talented but so far has not proven he can stay healthy and consistent, Everett is all glove on a team that needs offense, and Nieve is a good prospect, but not Hirsch or Pence.

Get Tejada, wrap up Huff for another couple of years, and try to pull out another WC berth.

 

^^^^^^^^

"Heavy P". Great stuff.

 

Good Lord.

I'm almost shocked that part of me is iffy on that trade because of how awful Huff has apparently been in the field, and how awful we know Lamb to be.

But this feels almost like it should be one of those "shoot now, ask questions later" types of deals.

However.

What does it say about most of us that we would rather give up Ensberg, who's showed that he can perform and perform well at the major-league level, than Pence, who is hitting awfully nicely at AA but is certainly an inknown commodity as far as contributing in the bigs?

Hypothetical: If Ensberg can return to his '05 form, isn't that production at least as valuable as anything Pence is likely to give you?

So the conflict here, as I see it, is trying to figure out which is more likely: Pence panning out, or Ensberg successfully correcting himself. I couldn't tell you, myself.

 

why would they want ensberg when they have a good 3rd baseman?

 

Very good question. If last year's healthy Ensberg returns, he's better than Tejada too. So you'd be giving up Ensberg + other stuff for a lesser player.

Of course, the big question is whether Ensberg will ever be consistently good. I imagine if the Astros trade him in a deal like this, they have concluded he won't be.

 

Thought: Perhaps by throwing in another prospect in the low minors (or something), we could get them to give us Melvin Mora as well, who's fallen a little bit under the radar since he was batting like .350 a few years ago, I'd do it without thinking twice. Dude is 34, so he's probably not in their long-term plans, and he's got a leadoff-type OBP of .356 and, reportedly, good speed. He used to slug pretty well, too (although he's not doing it so much this year).

So you'd have a lineup of something like:

C: Ausmus
1B: Berkman
2B: Biggio
3B: Mora
SS: Tejada
LF: Wilson/Scott
CF: Burke
RF: Huff

Not too bad.

Edit: Okay, Mora's got a no-trade clause...

 

You forgot the part where Morgan is gonna come back in a couple of days and start dominating NIMF style.

 

Very good point.

I also may have erred in assuming that the Orioles are the sort of organization that has "long-term plans."

 

That would suck to lose morgan. Assuming he comes back to form, we really aren't getting that much better. Tejada isn't that much more impressive than morgan last year

 

It's would you rather have Huff and Tejada or would you rather have Huff, Ensberg and Everett.

 

I am just shocked and appalled. Tejada isn't a long term investment.

 

why? he has like 3 years left on his deal. soriano isn't a long term investment...but tejada could stick around a while.