This trade makes me sick. The Pence trade was acceptable. The players had high ceilings at least... but trading Bourne, who has become a PREMIERE center fielder, for some marginal talent. One's that have a ceiling somewhere between back of the rotation/lineup and Triple-A.... ****..
Not all 4 guys, but each guy could have been part of a deal for a guy like Barmes. The two top 10 guys aren't solidly top 10 in their systems. Where do you get the idea that Schafer is an average CF? He has been terrible in the majors, and that is when he is actually healthy. In over 400abs in AAA, Schafer has an OPS of .575. Oberholtzer is the only one of the 4 I actually expect something from.
Well this whole trade revolves around Schafer and if he can follow the career path Bourn did. So we just need to get this kid back on HGH and PEDs and we should be ok.
Teams would have bid. Obviously all 29 other teams wouldn't have been in the market, but Bourn's value would not have gone down if this what was available now. That was a desperation deal, when the team didn't need to be desperate.
His CF defense this year has been valuable enough to give him a 0.7 WAR. That's higher than all but three players (Lee, Barmes, Bourgeois) on the entire Astros' team at the moment.
Where are you getting that WAR? Baseball Reference has -.1, with a -.4 dWAR, and a career dWAR of -1.4.
Interesting... I wonder why the difference, since their 2009 WAR is different as well. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/schafjo02.shtml
And Schaefer has not had a season as a full-time player yet. This season is the closest thing to it, and he has a .623 OPS which trumps Bourn's .588 OPS in his first full season. Still not sure what your point is.
First... to MAX. You keep saying "Well new owner wants payroll down to 60 million- thats it". That still does not excuse the pathetic haul Wade got. Also, very possibly could have dealt Bourne in off season. Next. For what it is worth, I still have family that works for the Astros and the knowledge I hear is that the payroll does have to be cut to 60 million. However, the reason is that the owner wants the flexibility to add salary later on and he intends to spend huge amounts in the international amateur free agent market to rebuild the farm system. Wade is a mediocre GM, but he has to get approval from McLane AND Crain and everyone in baseball knows he has to make deals. The Phillies deal was very solid... the Braves deal was bad.
Schafer's issues seem to stem from a fractured wrist and hand injury immediately after the Braves opening day game in 2009 http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-braves-blog/2010/12/06/remember-jordan-schafer-cf-is-prepping-for-big-return/ There is a lot more, in which they didn't diagnose it late as a fracture, some delays in his rehab due to scar tissue around the nerve causing pain/discomfort and making it hard to regain strength in the muscles.
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You can't judge the trade based on how these guys are ranked in the Braves system. Rank within a system is all relative. If these 4 guys were in a horrible farm system, they could possibly all be ranked in the top 12-15 of prospects. It'd be like us being good and trading JD Martinez, Dallas Keuchel, Telvin Nash and Mark Melancon for an Ian Kinsler or somebody else who is borderline all-star caliber. Everyone would be upset about giving up so much, but that's essentially the same type of value we got with the four guys from the Braves.
He hasn't had a full season in the majors because he sucks. Bourn had a very good season as a part time player and then struggled in his first full season. You're the one that wants to compare Schafer with Bourn to make the trade seem like a good one.
The rangers would have gotten ripped off in the above scenario. A mlb team full of dallas keuchels aren't going to win anything. They're value is as cheap replacement level players that can fill in at the margins of a mlb team and afford it the opportunity to spend $$ on impact players at other positions. They're a dime a dozen and not worth trading a relatively cheap/ controlled all-star center fielder for. The astros only had so many bullets to speed up rebuilding. After screwing up Wandy and Myers last year and, imo, blowing this bourn deal, they've missed a tremendous opportunity to advance the rebuilding time frame.
You don't know that. Projections are so subjective. Take Altuve. The kid SHOULD have been ranked in the top 25 players, but most scouting reports didn't even have him listed as a top player. Now I will admit that the majority of the baseball writers and even the braves themselves believe that their top 4 pitchers were better than what they gave up, but again, it is all guesswork. How many times do hot prospects fizzle? Very often.
Best post in the thread. The astros at BEST are looking at 2014 to be a decent team. Based on the lack of young talent at the major league level, and lack of high-level prospects in the system (poor depth as well), we are probably looking at years before we are competitive. I only partially blame Wade for the current situation (really bad trades and signings... mediocre farm system management).... but he has not helped the situation.
