Be Encouraged

by R.J. Anderson on Nov 13, 2008 8:36 PM EST

Yes, the Swisher deal is absolute non-sense, but thus far the trade market is pretty weak for sellers. Outside of the Matt Holliday deal you can say each of the sellers has lost their deals (minus Florida in the Kevin Gregg deal) and even then it depends on how much you believe in Carlos Gonzalez likelihood to reach his potential. The market for corner outfielders is particularly looking poor, observe:

Willingham ~2ish WAR
Contract: Arbitration (first year)
Return: Okay defender, two prospects too far away to judge.

Swisher ~3ish WAR
Contract: Not awful (~7 mil/yr)
Return: Potential starter at third (Betemit), two pitchers neither of great status.

Holliday ~4-5ish WAR
Contract: Last year, but two draft picks
Return: Meh starting pitcher, decent reliever, good defensive OFer with some potential.
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To steal one of Peter Bendix's favorite lines (from FiveThirtyEight's comments) this is GREAT NEWS!!! For WASHINGTON!!! Who has more outfielders than they should. In fact a number of teams have abundances of outfielders, and if the early market is any indication, they won't be settling for too much in return. Oakland has 12 (!) on their 40-man. Just take a look at a few they might move who could help us:
Chris Denorfia - gets on base, no power, okay defender in the corners.
Rajai Davis - outstanding defender, gets on base, no power.
Matt Murton - good defender in the corners, hits lefties really well.

None of those players, minus Murton, is much for the offensive side, but defensively they're slightly better than Gross. Although I suppose Fernando Perez fills that role as well, and I'm quite interested to see what a full season of Nando in the field would look like, I'm guessing between five and ten runs. Then again, there's always Justin Ruggiano. His strikeouts aren't ideal, but they're not that far off from Milton Bradley's percentage (Note: I'm not saying he's near the hitter Bradley is, simply saying he's no Jack Cust or Jonny Gomes.) He's a decent defender in the corners, cheap, and despite some hacking tendencies made solid contact to the tune of more than 20% line drives.

We'll see how it goes, but I'm feeling pretty good heading into the start of free agency.

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I don't know about Denorfia or Murton but Perez is better than Davis.

by rays1234 on Nov 13, 2008 8:55 PM EST reply actions

Denorfia would be a nice player if he could stay healthy.

This.

by Blicks on Nov 14, 2008 1:11 AM EST up reply actions

Dukes or Kearns plz.

…. or Hermida, somehow

by daveh33 on Nov 13, 2008 9:30 PM EST reply actions

Glad to see you mention Ruggiano

If we can’t make an upgrade through a trade or signing then I would be interested to see what he could do if given a chance from day 1 of Spring Training. If nothing else, he and Perez could make an interesting platoon.

by acelion on Nov 13, 2008 10:28 PM EST reply actions

this

I could be wrong though

by staplemaniac on Nov 13, 2008 11:09 PM EST up reply actions

All I can remember is Ruggiano striking out. A lot.

by plasticman on Nov 13, 2008 11:30 PM EST up reply actions

He did strike out more than his fair share of times

But he also had some very good at bats where he really made the pitcher work. To me he seemed a little bit like a deer in the headlights. He was overly tentative a few times in the outfield. But then again he also made a couple of great catches at the wall. I chalk some of it up to rookie jitters.

He may never end up being a starter at the big league level, but I find it hard to believe that he can’t be a lot better both at the plate and in the field based on his performance at AAA the last two seasons.

by acelion on Nov 14, 2008 7:24 AM EST up reply actions

Personally, I was not impressed.

But maybe you are right. Time will tell. I think people gave him a lot of credit for that game winning catch he made, but there were a number of times in the outfield he seemed to f up.

One was when Maddon pulled BJ in Texas. A couple plays later, Ruggs could not make it to a ball that BJ would have had easily. Next, there was the Angels game—the ball bounced right in front of him.

by plasticman on Nov 14, 2008 2:14 PM EST up reply actions