Should link to the original source, not to MLB Trade Rumors linking to the original source. Brian McTaggart's mailbag
Yanks on Keppinger, can't post the direct link but here is an article on the subject. http://houston.sbnation.com/houston-astros/2010/12/17/1882164/report-yankees-interested-in-keppinger
Not a fan of Hall full time at 2nd but its only a 1 yr deal at 3 million. Sounds like Feliz all over again, I learned my lesson on that last year. Intrigued as far as how much we can get back for Keppinger. I imagine a mid level prospect but at least curious as to who?
Not bad at all. I don't mind a 1 year deals for him even though he is 31 years old. Keppinger is going to be traded now for sure.
At least in theory, it should go better than Feliz. Feliz was 35 and coming off a .690 OPS year at a position (3B) that demands offense. Hall is 31 and coming off a .770 OPS year (though granted, not full-time) and playing a position that doesn't require great offense. I'm not a huge Hall fan, but I think his value is roughly equivalent to Kepp's and it's a worthwhile "swap" if we get a decent prospect in return.
The thing about the Hall signing is that if he flops as an everyday 2nd baseman, you can always trade him for a mid-level prospect at the deadline. Teams know he could be a very solid utility player and they would want him part of the bench. That’s the difference between the Feliz signing from last year and this signing. Feliz could only play position so he had little trade value. Hall can play 5 positions and has pop in his bat. Teams like the Red Sox, Dodgers, and Yankees were after him hard but I think he wanted to play every day so thats why he choose the Astros.
The team will be lucky if the #2 hitter has an OBP above .300. Good value for Hall, but maybe not the best fit? Am I missing a potential #2 hitter somewhere? Hall is a lot like Barmes - power, but no avg/OBP. I agree that the upside is better than Keppenger, but the downside is much worse. His last few years in the NL were horrendous. The Astros seem to specifically assign much less value to guys who get on base and are patient hitters than other teams do. But it isn't like they gave anything up for him in terms of future commitment or prospects, so hard to complain too much.
I think Brett Wallace could hit #2. He doesn't walk a lot but he could have a OBP around .350 which is solid. Downside would be that you would have back to back lefty hitters with Bourn and Wallace and most teams don't like that.
Just looking at baseball reference and noticing his OBP was .345 in 2006 when he was 26 years old. it's not like he's 40...he's just 30. his OBP in Boston picked up considerably this last season from the season prior. Is it just age that accounts for that drop from 06?
For a team with a pitiful OBP, to jettison their OBP leader from last year is questionable. Hopefully, the Yankees trade works out and we get a prospect for Kep.
Hasn't Kep been one of our most consistent hitters? I guess I don't understand why we would want to part ways with him...unless we're trying to build a loser?
i think their thought is that they're selling high with Kepp. I think it's reasonable to think they're right.
Bartlett to Padres trade looks to be back on. Besides I think the Astros are set at middle infield with Clint Barmes and Bill Hall as the starters and Angel Sanchez as a utility player. They also probably couldn't afford Bartlett who is due a raise. Keppinger will be dealt and I think Lindstrom will be dealt soon as well.
Morgan Ensberg was just 30 when he fell off the map for the Astros. If Hall hits .270-.290 and has 35 home runs as per 2006 en route to repeating that .345 OBP, clearly the Astros win. I hope you don't expect 2006 numbers, because I think you will be disappointed. I don't think the Astros expect that from him in even their wildest dreams. I have no evidence to back it up, but my guess would be he was juicing at that point in his career. I think his big year was pretty much viewed by the Brewers as a fluke confluence of timing. Even so, that year he had 183 strikeouts. I don't know what to make of his Boston numbers. The splits are strange. All his at bats came in the #7,#8, and #9 hole, and as a righthander, he hit right handed pitchers nearly 100 points higher than lefties. And it wasn't a sample size issue - he had quite a few at bats against both righties and lefties. I really don't watch that much AL, so I simply don't know. I just remember the bad taste in the collective mouth of the city of Milwaukee when he was DFA'd. I would feel much better about Hall if he were here in a utility role, where you can throttle the at bats he gets if he's sucking. It just scares me if they get rid of Keppinger, and make Hall the every day guy with no real competition. If we are going to think about a best case where Barmes and Hall both reclaim lost glory, hit above career averages and hit with power, then it is certainly not unreasonable to think about the possibility that Hall and Barmes both spend the entire year struggling to stay above the Mendoza line and rack up so many K's that their power is a non factor. I think on the basis of career trajectories, the latter is more likely than the former, irrespective of a single year outlier as a part-timer last year in Boston. Hopefully I'm wrong.
