Trading Season
It's trading season. Personally, this is my second favorite time of the baseball year, slotting in just behind the playoffs but ahead of the draft. We have about 11 days until the trade deadline, but already the trades have been pouring into the commissioner's office for approval. This morning the Jays and Astros worked a deal that lead to 10 players switching teams. Shortly thereafter, the Rockies worked out a trade that sent ex-Oriole Jeremy Guthrie to Kansas City for ex-Giant Jonathan Sanchez. This afternoon the Orioles, not to be left out of the fun, acquired Omar Qunitanilla for cash considerations from the Mets.The most obnoxious part of the trade deadline involves experts and novices proposing trades left and right. I will now try my hand at proposing an obnoxious trade.
The Deal
Baltimore sends JJ Hardy, Darren O'Day and a prospect or two to the Giants for Brandon Belt and a prospect or two.
Justification
Orioles' fans may not be a big fan of this deal, but for the O's this trade makes a lot of sense. We haven't had a big time first baseman since Rafael Palmeiro, and Belt could step right in and play a very solid 1B for us. Trading Hardy is a hard pill to swallow as he's a fan favorite, but running a baseball team is about winning. Belt clearly fills a hole and adds another solid core player to this building Orioles squad. While Hardy provides immense value to the team now, he'll likely be supplanted by Manny Machado on the next 90-win O's team.
The Giants are in a similar situation where this deal won't make many fans happy as they would love to see Belt get more playing time. However, the Giants have a chance to make a serious run this season and Hardy & O'Day help fill big holes on the team. While Hardy hasn't played well lately, he's a superb defensive SS and is slowly coming out of his slump the past few days. The Giants could use the offensive bump he'd give them. Belt is beloved by the fans, but the organization has shown that they won't give Belt regular at-bats for a reason far beyond me.
The "& prospects" listed on both sides is just a nod to the common swapping of lower level prospects to balance a deal. A perfect example of this was in the Pineda/Montero trade where both sides sent a lo-A player along with the headliner.
Do you think this trade makes sense for the O's? How about the Giants?
The fact this article was even written is an insult to the English language and common sense in general.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your interesting, albeit grammatically incorrect comment. We appreciate your feedback.
DeleteThere is absolutely no way this trade will ever happen. At no point in this article was there anything that could be classified as a thought. We are all dumber for reading this and may god have mercy on your soil.
ReplyDeleteSoul*
DeleteWhat do you mean Belt "has not received regular at bats"? He has received 90% of the PT at first base since mid May. He has recently had his PT reduced because his average has dipped to the 230's and he hasn't hit a home run in about 6-7 weeks. Maybe those are a couple of the "reasons beyond you".
ReplyDeleteThe point being that Belt is a premium prospect, who, like most prospects needs to work through his stumbles. Bochy & Sabean however, have shown a preference for veterans and proven track records. Heck, some Giants fans are calling for Huff to start at 1B when he returns from the DL. If you don't want to give Belt time to work through his problems (a la the Phillies w/ Dom Brown) then maybe he deserves a chance somewhere else.
DeleteI appreciate the thought put into this trade and I can't speak from the Orioles perspective, but I'm not sure it makes a whole lot of sense from the Giants side. First off the Giants already have a good defensive SS in Brandon Crawford. Oh sure you can see his error total and say "what are you talking about?" But he got off to a horrible start, making 12 errors in the first month or two of the season. Since then he has been stellar defensively. I believe his errorless streak is at 31 games and he has very good range and a strong arm. And, I'm sure how much of a bump offensively Hardy provides either. His power will be greatly affected at AT&T park and last I checked he's hitting about .225 with 41 RBI. Crawford's hitting .240 with 29 RBI and he hits 8th. O'Day is good but not worth giving up Belt, let alone another prospect or 2...Plus the Giants already have one of baseball's best 8th inning guys in Sergio Romo. Appreciate the thought I just don't see how it works for the Giants.
ReplyDeleteAppreciate the feedback. Here's my thought process: Hardy was hitting right around .200 for a while but has been heating up lately. He was hitting the ball hard, just right at people. He brings substantial pop to the lineup, and is one of the top 5 defensive SS in baseball IMO. Also, O'Day isn't there to replace Romo, but to give Bochy another reliable righty out of the 'pen come playoff time. Besides, it's my understanding that Romo has elbow issues so O'Day would be an insurance policy.
DeleteAlso, the + prospects section for both sides is there to balance the deal. Perhaps the O's send a couple of A-ball guys with high upside to the Giants for a AAA reliever type or something like that. Not saying we'd get like Belt & Brown or anything like that.
hardy,matusz and mahoney for belt,romo and zito
ReplyDeleteSorry but that trade doesn't seem to make sense for the Giants....
DeleteRomo is one of the best setup guys in the game. Matusz era is over 5...Mahoney is hitting .256 in the minors with 4 or 5 Homers...
Zito > Matusz
Belt> Mahoney
Hardy=Crawford (Giants current SS)
And you want Romo? Not going to work. Look, the Giants don't need a SS and if they get one it needs to be a whole lot better than Hardy. Zito's contract is up after next year so the salary relief is not huge. Zero chance of this.
I hope this is a joke Phillip. Why would the giants trade arguably the best set up man in baseball during another world series run? Not only that, you clearly don't know how much Barry Zito makes. Good luck paying his salary!!!
DeleteThis is comical. The orioles want to trade us their trash for our future? You guys need to sit back and wait for football season.
ReplyDeleteHow exactly is JJ Hardy trash? Also, Hardy & O'Day fill holes that the Giants have making their playoff run more substantial. Would love to hear the basis for this statement.
DeleteWe have not yet seen the best of Belt. NOT EVEN CLOSE. Us Giants fans have very high expectations of him. Point being, to give hime away for basically another Brandon Crawford & a reliever that we abused in the world series a couple years ago makes absolutely no sense
ReplyDeleteI understand where you're coming from. That's why I wrote "this deal won't make many fans happy as they would love to see Belt get more playing time. However, the Giants have a chance to make a serious run this season".
DeleteThe argument you make can be applied to every trade deadline deal ever where one team gets prospects for Major Leaguers. E.g. We haven't seen the best of Zach Wheeler, but the Giants need another bat for the playoff run so they've traded him for Carlos Beltran.
"I will now try my hand at proposing an obnoxious trade."
ReplyDeleteDid these retards even read the article?
I assume most people click on the link, scroll down to the proposal, then go to comments to yell at me.
DeleteComes with the territory haha.
The low A player is the Montero deal was a main part of deal. Campos could end up being the best player in that trade. So those players you throw in could be the reason a trade like this goes through or not. I would prefer is you but names to those players before judging the deal
ReplyDeleteThat's very true, but my point is that in the Montero trade both sides sent low A players to the other team. With those players it comes down to what a specific team likes and if they see something that they think can make the prospect flourish in their system.
DeleteI honestly don't know enough about the Giants' system to know who the O's should target, nor do I know what kind of players their Front Office would likely target in a deal like this. That's why I left them out because those players are used to balance the deal (more than likely it'd be higher value prospects going to SF, with lower ceiling guys coming to Baltimore with Belt).