As had been rumored for a while, the Braves made the Salty (and 3 prospects) for Tex (and a LH relief pitcher) trade today. Here are my thoughts on it:
- It's a good trade for both teams: Braves get a proven player at a position where they've really been hurting, with a decent LHP rental. Rangers get a future star at catcher plus 3 above-average prospects.
- It was a steep price for the Braves to pay, or at least, it appears so right now. This trade really reminds me a lot of the McGriff for 3 prospects trade in 1993. Those prospects turned out to be garbage. Though he's had a couple of bad moves before, generally speaking, Schuerholz has a way of getting the better end of deals. He has a really good eye for talent as well as a good sense of when to buy or sell. Rangers GM Jon Daniels, on the other hand, has neither of those abilities. Not to mention that Salty and one of the prospects (SS Elvis Andrus) play positions where they'd be blocked for several years, so the Braves are dealing from a strength to address a weakness, which is always good. Based on track record, I'd actually give the advantage to the Braves on this deal, for that reason and also because...
- Braves have another bat now for when Andruw leaves in 2008, and, despite what some are saying, they have a very good chance at signing Tex long-term. He played college ball at Georgia Tech. His wife is from there. He'll certainly be open to calling Atlanta home (again) for a while. The Braves will have freed up cash with the departure/dismissal of Andruw and Mike Hampton (finally) post-2008. It's not an automatic that he'd sign with the Yankees. That's what everyone thought McGriff would do too, and he didn't.
- Obviously, it goes without saying that the Braves have a much better chance at making the playoffs this year and next. A World Series run is certainly possible, both this year and next.
- As for the argument that they'd have been better off getting a quality SP, I agree, but only if a top-notch (#1 or #2 starter) was out there, and he wasn't. Saltalamacchia is that good of a prospect, and really obviously the key piece of any deal that would've been made. Him alone for, say, Jon Garland, would've been giving up too much. So I think they made the deal that was there, and the one that had to be made.
- Now please Julio Franco, retire already...
Monday, July 30, 2007
What the Mark Teixeira trade means for you
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4 comments:
if i remember correctly, the rockies paying for the bulk of hampton's contract, so it's not like it's that big of a burden of say, someone like darren dreifort. i am still bitter.
All I have to say is that I agree with the Julio Franco comment. He old...
Sadly (for me), the Hampton deal put the Braves on the hook for 3 years: 06-08. He's making $14.5M this year and he'll make $15M next year, all for being a giant turd. There's a buyout of $6M (for the rest of this ridiculous contract) in '09 which the Rockies will pay.
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