The Trades: A Quick Analysis

For starters, its just good to have a GM recognize where we are in the success cycle (down) and willing to trade well liked productive veterans to to get cheaper and younger. Bavasi also clearly has an idea of what he thinks are the organization's weaknesses and is willing to try and address them. We are thin on pitching and catchers and he made these trades with those weaknesses in mind. In this way we are way better of than fans of the Devil Rays or the Reds or the Giants, just to name a few. And for that I am grateful.

On the other hand, I'm not sure that deadline day is the time to address your weaknesses. By insisiting on getting pitching and catchers Bavasi may have severely limited his options. I don't know what other offers he had of course, I'm wildly speculating. But we do know that Allard Baird had better talent offered to him in the Beltran deal last year than Teahen, Buck and Wood, but he limited himself by insisting that he get a major league ready third baseman and catcher. I'm not saying you have to take the "best player available" route but you do have the whole offseason to deal the guys you pick up at the deadline. You don't have to restrict yourself to catchers and pitchers. I guess I would be making fun of Bavasi had he picked up another SS prospect though, so there you go.

To look specifically at the deals:
Ron Villone for Yorman Bazardo and Mike Flannery. This is the sweetest of the bunch for me. Moving Villone and his ridiculous salary and taterrific tendencies for two live arms is a great trade. This one is worth it simply for the possibility of hearing Niehaus pronounce Bazardo's name. It might rival Salome Barojas some day. Bazardo doesn't have a ton of strikeouts for someone with his stuff, but he has excellent control. He has also only given up 12 homers in 4 years. I think Sele gave up that many in July! Don't know much about Flannery except that he's striking out a man an inning this year in AA and AAA.

Miguel Olivo for Natanel Mateo and Miguel Ojeda. We got something for Olivo?!? Sweet! Mateo has a lot of upside and Baseball Prospectus thinks he's a big league ready reliever right now. Ojeda is roster filler, a guy that could play if all your other catchers got hurt. Not that that would ever happen.

Randy Winn for Yorvit Torrealba and Jesse Foppert. This is the deal that I am not so wild about. Yorvit is good defensively and has a little pop in his bat, but not much else to recommend him. I suppose he might be able to hold his own until Clement is ready, but I don't see much more out of him than that. Foppert, obviously, is the key to the deal. He's a gamble of course. He's almost two years removed from Tommy John surgery and he still hasn't recovered his velocity. And coming to the Mariners virtually guarantees him a setback in the near future. I sorta think we coulda got more for Winn than this, but I might be overstating the market a little bit.

A few words about the deals that didn't happen. I wish we could have found a taker for Everyday Eddie. I just worry about a guy "pitching through" a torn rotator cuff and he think he had the most value of anyone they were looking to deal. I'm also disappointed that Moyer mixed the trade to Houston. Not mad at him mind you, he absolutely has the right to refuse a trade and I respect him for doing so. Its just that Fernando Nieve, the prospect that was rumored to be in the deal is a serious stud from all I've heard. So I'm a little disappointed.

Later this week I'll try and revisit Jason's lineup post from earlier this season and we'll see how things look for 2006 and beyond.