Baseball Thread VI

Ramirez isn't going to be the next Nomar. He may turn out to be very good but I don't think that trade will go sour for the Red Sox. Anabel Sanchez has the talent to be the Schilling type prospect that was included in the Boddicker trade. That's what could turn that trade into Florida's favor. I like the Boddicker analogy - Ramirez may turn out to be Brady Anderson good and Sanchez may turn out to be Schilling-lite (but at the time Boddicker went to Boston he really helped the Sox - so it can be argued either way). The Red Sox also got Lowell as a salary dump and that has turned into a real bonus.

Moddy - Fernando was 7th in ERA his rookie year. He had a great mark (2.48) but Nolan Ryan was king that year with his 1.69 ERA

It should be mentioned that at the time the trade was made - many people here were VERY critical of the Rangers for trading Chris Young. Personally I was astounded that the same GM who traded FOR Vinnie Castilla would be astute enough to trade FOR Chris Young.

 

All true, and people do forget how helpful Boddikcer really was. But if Beckett doesn't get his gopher under control, I'm still not sure how this trade's going to look in the long term. He's on pace right now to give up 50 HR's.

 

The Young-Eaton trade involved six players.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2266394

The irony of this deal was that Eaton was expected to help right away while Young was viewed as a project. Young has been HUGE for the Padres this year while Eaton hasn't made it off the DL.

 

The Chris Young trade still kills me. I had him for a buck in my obsessive compulsive AL-only league and I just do not understand how teams that have been burned so often by big buck pitchers can trade a 27-year-old who stands 6-10, throws 94, is making not much more than the big league minimum (the Rangers signed him to a three-year deal to keep him away from hoops) and has great peripherials?

I understand parting with Gonzalez, who was never going to get past Teixiera, but man, how do you give up Young? Awful, awful trade.

As for Hanley Ramirez, he repeated Double-A last year and was not that impressive. He was at least one year away from helping the Sox at the big league level and even then he'd have to beat out Dustin Pedroia. It's easy to see his stats this year and wonder what if, but he would not have gotten a similiar opportunity this year with Boston, particularly with the #s he put up last year.

 

In other news, Francisco Liriano is a fuckin stud. Another seven shutout innings tonight, he has an ERA of 1.83 and a K/BB ratio of 102:23, which are the type of stats that are supposed to cease to exist once you reach the bigs.

Fuckin a, he might give Papelbon a run for his money in the ROY.

 

The Metropolitans' prized pitching prospect Mike Pelfrey made his big-league debut today.

Five innings pitched, five hits allowed, three runs (two earned), four walks, three strikeouts and 104 pitches thrown in the Mets 17-3 whitewashing of Team Sport Fishing.

 

Um, he's already passed him at this point. I offered to bet you last week that Liriano will win some hardware, but never got a reply. Bet's still on the table if you want to do it, ala our Steelers-Bengals bet.

Oh, and to think I saw Pelfrey pitch in high school and college, where he looked and acted every bit the pro already. Always good to see a Kansas boy do well in the big leagues.

 

Let's not overlook Jered Weaver in the AL ROY discussion. He's about to shutout the A's to go to 6-0 and lower his ERA to about 1.10

 

I don't know if Papelbon was ever a clear No. 1 for ROY. Even when he was real hot early, there was Verlander who was tearing up the league.

Now Lirano and Weaver are both in the mix, along with Verlander and Papelbon.

Liriano is the favorite now, I think. Only because I think a starter deserves it more over a reliever.

 

Plus, Liriano's emergence has completely turned the Twinkies around.

Along with Morneau and Santana.

 

So they gained a lot of ground on the AL Central leaders right?