Could we trade for Blanton and Street?

[DHonks]

What about Fielder and something for Blanton and Street. The A's have Foulke. The move would also free up the potential financial flexibility to sign Sheets for 2-4 more years. It'd open up first base for one someone like Branyan, LaPorta, Gamel, etc. That would allow Brantley to be the CF of the future, while also fitting in the prospects. I'm sure that Beane is a fan of Fielder now, since he's succeeded in the big league. I know in the draft he laughed at him.

 

(more specific subject -TC)

[patrickgpe]

I am open to trading him in the future, but not right now. LaPorta would be a logical replacement, but he should prove something in Nashville before he comes up here. We control his rights for 3 more seasons, therefore it wouldn't make sense now to trade. In addition his value has to be lower than it was at the end of last year, so that would be another reason to hold onto him.

[DHonks]

I thought of this trade idea because I'm getting a bit tired of Fielder's horrific defense. Additionally, he has a ton of trade value, yet is replaceable.

[trwi7]

Wow, I would want top prospects for Fielder. Not an innings eater and a closer.

[JohnBriggs12]

Wow, I would want top prospects for Fielder. Not an innings eater and a closer.

Top prospects? No, I'd want proven major leaguers as part of any deal involving Fielder and I think you are short changing Blanton and Street. Street is a proven quality closer who's not yet 25. Not a whole lot of those guys around. Blanton may eat innings (is that bad?) but at 27, he's got a career 4.06 ERA in the AL. I'd say he's a quality major league starter and for a team short of them like the Brewers, he's a big upgrade.

 

Maybe you could expand the deal a little to add something else, but those two names aren't bad starting points.

[shelmark]

I'm amazed at the number of posts suggesting that we could trade Prince. I don't think the club has any intention of trading him now, or in the forseeable future. When is he actually a FREE agent? 2012? I would have no problem trading him, but only to the AL and for a combination of pitchers and pitchers...and if possible, more pitchers.

[jjfanec]

I'm amazed at the number of posts suggesting that we could trade Prince. I don't think the club has any intention of trading him now, or in the forseeable future. When is he actually a FREE agent? 2012? I would have no problem trading him, but only to the AL and for a combination of pitchers and pitchers...and if possible, more pitchers.

He is arbitration eligible next year and Ryan Howard got 10 million in his first year. The Brewers are going to half to pay a lot in arbitration over three years to Prince. They do "control" him but it will cost them. If they trade him they can get a young front-end starter and at least one more player. They could also afford to sign pitcher or extend other players with the money they would save. To me it is the smartest decision they could make. However I would not trade him for Blanton and Street. I think they can get a young stud pitcher.

 

[DHonks]

To me, the idea of trading Prince was not about giving up on him. It was rather to adjust the lineup to better fill needs by late 2009. Right now we're a bit power heavy. That's nice when slugging them out of the park, but we need more OBP balance. As of now, our team OBP's look awful for most players.

 

CF Brantley

SS Hart

LF Braun

3b Gamel

1b LaPorta

2b Weeks

SS Hardy

C ???

 

1: Sheets

2: Gallardo

3: Blanton

4: Parra

5: ???? Suppan, Bush, Hammond, Miller, Capuano, etc

 

closer: Street

setup: Pena, Mota/Torres, etc

[trwi7]

DHonks wrote:

---

but we need more OBP balance.

So your idea of getting more OBP balance is to trade the guy who had the highest OBP on the team last year and is one of the few players on this team who has a good walk rate? That makes no sense.

[DHonks]

trwi7,

 

no, my idea is to improve the pitching and defense dramatically. I was looking at the overall shift of OBP from Cameron-Brantley, Hall-Gamel, Fielder-LaPorta. While losing Fielder should be a big hit, the other two should be fairly large improvements based on minor league performance. So I was looking at improving pitching and defense, unblocking the logjam, and helping solve the pitching problem. I like Fielder, but I was viewing him as an asset, not as a prized posession.

[trwi7]

no, my idea is to improve the pitching and defense dramatically

Your idea is to improve the defense yet you have Gamel in the lineup? That makes no sense to me. I also don't think Blanton would improve the pitching by a lot. He allows over a hit per inning, his career road ERA is 4.60 with a 1.41 WHIP and he doesn't have much upside already being 27. Street is nice, but he's a reliever who has had injury issues.

While losing Fielder should be a big hit, the other two should be fairly large improvements based on minor league performance.

You can't base their minor league performance and just project it to the majors. For all you know Brantley could hit like Felix Pie has so far in his career and Gamel could bat like Alex Gordon did last year.

Again, a 24 year old slugger who was the youngest player ever to hit 50 homeruns is worth more than a 27 year old #3 starter and a closer with an injury history.

[nate82]

no, my idea is to improve the pitching and defense dramatically. I was looking at the overall shift of OBP from Cameron-Brantley, Hall-Gamel, Fielder-LaPorta. .

If you are going to improve the defense you are going to have to move Gamel to either 1B or a corner OF spot. Hall is above and beyond Gamel defensively at 3B. It would be like having Braun at 3B but probably a lot worse than what Braun did at 3B.

[piccione88]

I can live with bad defense at first base when the guy in question is going to post a 950 OPS season just about every year. It does not make sense to arguably your best hitter whom you control for 3 more seasons. The only way I would consider moving Prince, is if we were getting an equally impressive young pitcher like a Lincecum, or a Bucholz, teams just dont trade players like that.

[saget]

I don't think Beane would trade for a player he didn't want to draft.

[hauser42]

Prince isn't going anywhere at this points.

 

Blanton would be a target as he will eat up innings and put the team in a lot more games for wins.

 

Gamel at 3B made me laugh, he needs to make a lunar jump to be playing 3B next year for the Brewers. I think he ends up at 1B and LaPorte ends up in RF to start their careers in Brew town.

[Weirdos19]

I think Houston Street is a good idea. But, we may be able to trade Hall if we give up a decent prospect.

 

Jeffress and Hall for Street? A possibility. Hall is tied up for a few years at a decent price if he can turn it around. A young arm like Jeffress is the type of player Beane likes. We gave up on Eveland and he's firing for Oakland now.

 

A few packages that could land Street:

 

A. Jeffress and Hall

B. Gwynn and Brad Nelson

C. Gwynn and a reliever ( I think Dillard would be too much)

D. Iribarren and Nelson

 

I would not deal Gamel or LaPorta, but I think any other prospect could be in the discussion.

[TheCrew07]

Gamel is on pace to trim his error total by at least 1/3, and at this point he's no worse than Braun was over there. He's made very good progress with Money in AA thus far, there's plenty of information on this topic in the minor league forum. He could definately use more seasoning, but the idea of Gamel playing 3B shouldn't make anyone laugh, 3B maximizes his value. I'm not saying he's a lock for 3B, all I'm saying is that he's made vast improvements to his defense in a relatively short time frame, the young man deserves some credit.