Lane was claimed on waivers this year. That shows that somebody wanted him. Also, Ensberg is still relatively cheap. They may not be salivating over the two, but they certainly are not of ZERO value.
he didnt throw that no-hitter before the trade. Also...that was a completely different circumstance, where the marlins were having an advertised fire sale, expecting to get prospects that did not make anything in return. Now, they have an established rotation of young arms making the same amt. of money. Willis is the sore thumb that sticks out, because he is set to get a payraise through arbitration. It would be harder to land Sanchez than it would be to land Willis.
honestly,that's right. he has far more value to them than willis does right now...because they can afford him!
i said in relation to the marlins. but getting lane for absolutely nothing off the waiver wire is not the same as assigning him value in trade discussions. he has none in that circumstance. ensberg is arbitration-eligible and plays 3b; two things the marlins don't want or need. ensberg may have value elsewhere (and my guess is that the astros intend to find out), but a $3-4M 3B is not going to land you dontrelle willis.
He's not going to make or break a trade, but to say he has "no value" as a *piece* of a trade package is an exaggeration. Marlins, for example, could very much be interested in a cheap, RH, 4th OF with some power & a good glove that they could platoon/spot-start in RF with Hermida.
Its all about keeping the salary down in Florida...period! They aren't going to pay Dontrelle with the stable of young cheap (not to mention very good) pitchers that they have so odds are, he can be had for a guy like Albers Sampson, Willie or even Luke. I'd hate to see Luke go but if we end up signing Carlos Lee and re-signing Huff....our OF is going to be those 2 and Willie.
I agree. Luke's value very well could be at an all time high. He had an amazing run this year, but we musn't overvalue him. If he can bring us the D-Train, then you just do it.
a mediocre (and that's being kind) 30-year old 4th OF who isn't good enough to start on a semi-regualr basis adds zero value to a trade package.
Why are you acting like Hanley Ramirez is some ridiculous prospect. He wasn't. He was overvalued for years because he was Boston's only real position prospect.
I wouldn't be opposed to trading Scott or Taveras in a deal for Willis, but not both. Scott's value should be extremely high right now ... if you can get a potential Cy Young winner for him you have to do it. It would also help save the farm a bit. Then hopefully we get a big FA like Lee, re-sign Huff and our outfield is set.
Which verb tense are you going with here? Look up Ramirez's numbers this season, then look up Carl Crawford's & Jose Reyes's. Virtually identical.
How about Willis for Jason Hirsh, Chris Sampson (or Taylor Buchholz or Fernando Nieve), Willy Taveras (or Luke Scott), and one of the following: Jason Lane, Charlton Jimerson, J.R. House, or other position player in development Didn't include Brad Lidge or Morgan Ensberg due to near future salary demands.
that is certainly insightful analysis. but teams like florida don't stay relatively good dealing for players 3 years past primes they never had. in their two big deals last winter (beckett and delgado), the fish acquired 7 players. their ages? 25, 23, 22, 21, 21, 21, 21. not a single washed-up, never-was 30-year old among the bunch. sure, lane could be a throw-in... but how is that *adding* value to the package? it doesn't. especially from the marlins' perspective.
He was still ranked #10 in Baseball America's 2005 top 100 prospects rankings.... and his performance this past year looks like that ranking was justified. He was a stud in the minors... and is now a stud in the majors... I think the Marlins would like another stud in return for a commodity like Willis. Sure, I'd LOVE the Astros to get him for Willy, Albers, and Lane... I just am not going to get my hopes up that other teams won't offer better. Just for fun, here's the entire top 10 going into 2005... pretty freakin awesome that a lot of these guys could be on their way to all-star careers: 1. Joe Mauer 2. Felix Hernandez 3. Delmon Yong 4. Ian Stewart 5. Joel Guzman 6. Casey Kotchman 7. Scott Kazmir 8. Rickie Weeks 9. Andy Marte 10. Hanley Ramirez And if you look at the top 25, there are others who have seen major league time: Milledge, Matt Cain, Franceour, Prince Fielder, Jeremy Hermida, Jeff Francis, Nick Swisher, Carlos Quentin, Jose Capellan. I know judging prospects is an inexact science... but if baseball america was able to forecast success for most of the above named players before most of them saw much big league action in early March 2005... I'm going to buy into their judgement.
I will be suprised by that... despite you telling me not to. All of the evidence we've looked at with both recent salary-induced deals by all MLB teams, let alone the recent salary-induced deals made by the Marlins themselves points to the fact that this will not happen. If you can provide a little more reason why it could, I'll start getting really excited.
Another guy I think we should target is Josh Bard, the Padres catcher. He is a switch hitter who hit .333 with 9 homers and 40 RBI's in 249 AB's. He also went to Texas Tech, so he may like it here. Maybe a package centered around Ensberg can get it done.
The Red Sox were really a bunch of idiots on this one... getting rid of a good young catcher simply because he couldn't catch Wakefield's knuckle ball. Bard will still be playing long after Wakefield's knuckleballing (high ERA) career is over (then again... he could pitch till he's 50). To top it off, they gave San Diego Clay Meridith as well. Both of those guys are big reasons why the Pads just won their division... all because the Red Sox and Wakefield could not live without Doug Mirabeli. Combine that with Beckett's poor season, and Hanley's breakout year, and the Red Sox have to wonder what could have been had they taken the Astros' approach (which gets a ton of flack by fans here who want to see the big moves... but they rarely get burned by hanging on to their own, and they discover some diamonds in the process).
