Monday, July 26, 2010

The Diamondbacks Just Sucked all the Fun out of the Trade Deadline







  1. The craziest thing about this is that they let their interim GM trade their biggest chip, even though the extra years left on Haren's contract meant they could afford to wait for the permanent GM to come in and trade him in the offseason or at next year's deadline. And Dipoto completely, inarguably, hilariously shit the bed. What an embarassment.

  2. Please someone explain: what contender or cusp contender is trading anything for Frasor? Feel free to not explain to me that he's been good in the past as this is not relevant in this type of trade...

  3. I don't think there is much of a market for larger contract players. Just ask Houston who apparently can't give away Roy Oswalt if the other team has to pay his entire salary.

    Smaller contracts might be what makes many of the Jays players so appealing to other teams, plus the fact that they get compensation may make them more valuable than a Dan Haren.

  4. Mattt: I don't think his past success is irrelevant at all, but even if you did ignore that, he's been good for parts of this year. He had a terrible April, a fantastic May, a terrible June, and (up until yesterday) a fantastic July. His FIP is also a full run below his ERA for the year (FIP = 3.37, xFIP = 3.89, ERA = 4.66), while he's still striking out 9.54 batters per 9 innings.

    Basically he hasn't been as bad this year as his numbers suggest, and he probably won't cost a high-level prospect, so he's a pretty good bullpen arm available for cheap. Lots of teams would go for that, I'd think.

  5. I'm sure some teams would go for it, it's what they're giving up that I'm curious about. I guess even a low level prospect would probably be all it would take.

  6. I love that AA's getting a reputation as a thief. It shows he's getting recognition for recognizing and collecting valuable players. Especially players (Lewis, Bautista, Gonzalez, Wise) that are effectively extras on already-staffed teams. AA has been giving offers based on how he thinks his team can make bench or callup players into reliable productive year-round position starters. And a post-season contending team (such as the Yankees) might deal a prospect (such as Jorge Vazquez, 1B) in a long-term MLB filled position (30 year old Teixera). Especially with their added depth at that position (Swisher, Miranda).

    The deal would have to look good to both parties, obviously. And it seems that AA knows how to source out those deals.

  7. HAHAHA the GM prison shower...


  8. i think if you asked anyone who has watched frasor pitch this year, they'd probably guess he had an era near 9. i'm shocked his numbers look as good as they do. i get legitimately, poo-the-bed-terrified when i see him warming up.

  9. Ty, despite Frasor's good FIPs, he's been poor based on the win probability and leverage stats.

    I think the worst part of the D-Backs trade is they took Saunders back as a transparent "look we got a major league starter back" to their fans instead of going for quality. Just a horrendous trade overall.


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