I'm not sure what to think of these trades.
When you look over the past year or so.
We've traded
Durazo
Kim
Schilling
Spivey
Overbay
Womack
etc
We've gotten
Hillenbrand
Sexson
Mondesi
Dessens
Mondesi was a rent a player
Hillenbrand has a chance to be decent
Dessens was overrated but could come back and be decent
Sexson? Probably will be a stud
The problem is everyone wanted or COVETED our guys.
Redsox wanted schilling, kim (actually pretty much coveted both)
A's coveted durazo (for years AND we knew it)
How come when we want or covet someone we pay thru the nose.
When someone else wants or covets our guys they get them at cut rate prices.
Now with schilling the reason is money, that one is easy, but we still should have gotten far more.
We gave up twice as much for sexson, as redsox gave up for schilling. Schilling is signed now(had to be or trade wouldn't happen), and is a better player. Granted older, etc. We need a power hitter more than a power pitcher, but still......I don't buy the........ well if you want cash relief you are going to have bad trades. B.S.
If the redsox want to win they are going to pay someone good like pettite that same money or more to pitch. Especially when considering the so called media spotlight bidding war going on between the Yanks and sox. Trading salary away for the redsox makes schilling's deal even cheaper. Schilling even said he probably low balled the market. Schilling was the best out there, I would have asked for someone else major. After all they have him for 3 years, we're only guarenteed of having sexson for one.
Then with sexson we trade away the farm. Now spivey and overbay are quite old. I think overbay will be 27 next month 1/28 and spivey will be 29 next month ALSO on 1/28 no typo. Overbay might be a bust or might bust out. Spivey is a decent/good player, but is injury prone. De la rosa...??????????? Counsell may be old, overpaid, and never return to form, but he was probably the smartest player on the field and won us about 4-5 games a year just by that, so he is worth something. I'm not going go into everybody.Moeller, capuano, etc.
But now we have took a hit in our depth at major league and minor league level. This would have been OK if we got more than what we did. So I must ask why would the Dbacks do this.
Cintron looks like he is a player for us at SS
Kata looks like he has this year to prove to us he will be our 2b of the future. I'm not sure he can, but the possibility is not remote that he can't. Besides we have Hairston, and I think another good 2b that might best hairston (D'back talked about him last year). So for 2b, next year might not be the best but down the road I think we are covered. (And covered cheaply)
Our catcher was thinned out probably for our 1st or 2nd round pick (the potential top 5 pick who slid because he was injured) to make his way up the minor leagues by thinning it out at the top and bringing up guys. May be a little to early to say this one. We do have brad cresse who has been mentioned as one of our prospects for a few years now. Maybe its his shot this spring like overbay's last year.
I really don't know how to look at these trades. We've lost depth, we've gotten rid of some bigger than wanted salaries, we've opened up our farm system, lost some prospects, gained some prospects, lost a power pitcher, gained a 1b who can hit for power and strike out potentially 150 times a year.
If Randy returns to form, webb keeps it up, resign m. batista, dessens gets better, insert 5th starter here
We get a rebounded kata, a renewed danny bautista and hillenbrand. Or go out and sign a 3b or RF.
Pape grande keeps it up, and we actually get something for Mantei besides a lowly prospect because we were "saving money". At that point I almost have to say keep him. I'd rather have mantei and papa grande. I loved how papa grande pitched last year but look at his minor league numbers and you have to pray he really is as good as we've seen over his career. Otherwise Mantei is someone we need. If we bite the bullet on his contract this year we could probably get mantei to sign for 3.5-4.5 next year.
If the above happens in terms of returning to form or keeping it up, and once again one or two of our minor leaguers step up to be primetime ready then we can still compete for the division AND World Series.
Its not impossible. Its just how ready are our young guys now? The d'backs brass have put a ton of stock in farm system. Will it pay off? Can we afford a couple of cheap guys? A couple 1 million dollar wonders would be nice.
I'm not saying Gargiola jr. is a bad gm. I think he is rather good, but I've seen some one sided trades lately. Lets just hope like we have before he knows what he is doing. He has been able to pick up those 1million dollar wonders, and has been able to stock the farm system, so hopefully everything works out ok.
Oh and Jesse Orosco. The guy I remember looking at baseball cards of when I was young like '83 donruss and he'd already pitched for years. Now I'm 25 and he's on our team. Amazing.
I feel for sexson, we either have 40 years or 20 year olds on the roster. Who is he going to hang out with? At 30, Is he going to hang out with the Led Zepplin crew, or the Jay Z crew???
