Friday, June 30, 2006
A Lefty Masher
Since the dawn of time... or at least since 2003, the Mariners have stunk against lefthanded pitchers. So Bill Bavasi has gone out and traded an excellent prospect, Asdrubal Cabrera, to the Cleveland Indians for one of the top lefty mashers of the 21st century, Eduardo Perez.
Currently, Perez' (330/355/693!) 1048 OPS is the 30th best against lefties for players with more than 50 plate appearances. The top Mariner is Ichiro (375/439/477) at 916 followed by... Willie Bloomquist (333/397/386) at 783. Perez provides power against lefties that was completely nonexistant in our current lineup.
Yes, Asdrubal Cabrera is a good prospect, but he is well behind where Jose Lopez was at the same age, and was likely to stay well behind Jose Lopez and Yuni Betancourt for the foreseeable future. Is it nice to have depth? Sure, but we have other middle infielders in the system, and Cabrera wasn't going to provide depth this yea Could we have gotten more for Cabrera? I have no idea. But in a player for player trade, I doubt it. Cabrera could have been used as part of a package to chase a Barry Zito, a Tim Hudson, or even a Dontrelle Willis. But we have other pieces that could fill that role.
And, of course, there is the psychological aspect of this trade. There is no Stand Pat here. The Mariners looked at 2006, identified a weakness, and attacked it. Early. Tell me a better hitter we could have gotten for Asdrubal Cabrera. The team now knows that the GM is in the fight with them. The rest of the league now knows that the M's are buyers and are willing to give up good prospects for talent. The teams who strike early in the trade market often get the best deals.
The Mariners of 2006 got better today. The momentum is building. The A's hear footsteps. Soon they will be eating our dust.
Currently, Perez' (330/355/693!) 1048 OPS is the 30th best against lefties for players with more than 50 plate appearances. The top Mariner is Ichiro (375/439/477) at 916 followed by... Willie Bloomquist (333/397/386) at 783. Perez provides power against lefties that was completely nonexistant in our current lineup.
Yes, Asdrubal Cabrera is a good prospect, but he is well behind where Jose Lopez was at the same age, and was likely to stay well behind Jose Lopez and Yuni Betancourt for the foreseeable future. Is it nice to have depth? Sure, but we have other middle infielders in the system, and Cabrera wasn't going to provide depth this yea Could we have gotten more for Cabrera? I have no idea. But in a player for player trade, I doubt it. Cabrera could have been used as part of a package to chase a Barry Zito, a Tim Hudson, or even a Dontrelle Willis. But we have other pieces that could fill that role.
And, of course, there is the psychological aspect of this trade. There is no Stand Pat here. The Mariners looked at 2006, identified a weakness, and attacked it. Early. Tell me a better hitter we could have gotten for Asdrubal Cabrera. The team now knows that the GM is in the fight with them. The rest of the league now knows that the M's are buyers and are willing to give up good prospects for talent. The teams who strike early in the trade market often get the best deals.
The Mariners of 2006 got better today. The momentum is building. The A's hear footsteps. Soon they will be eating our dust.
