Mariners trade Yuniesky Betancourt to Royals for pitchers Daniel Cortes and Derrick Saito

[trwi7]

Great trade for the Mariners. To acquire two prospects as good as this for one of the worst players in baseball is amazing. I have no idea what Dayton Moore is doing. Between this trade and the continued rumored interest in Jeff Francoeur dating back to last year and the signing of Jose Guillen, it's like he's trying to assemble the worst offense possible.

[TooLiveBrew]

Nicely done, Jack Z. I was just going to post that if these pitchers have any value, the M's have done well.

[trwi7]

Nicely done, Jack Z. I was just going to post that if these pitchers have any value, the M's have done well.

Even if these pitchers didn't have value (and they both do, especially Cortes), it still would've been a great trade just to give SS to anybody else and clear most of Betancourt's salary.

[endaround]

This is just an awful trade for the Royals. It's Sal Bando like

[lcbj68c]

Could Jack Z be aligning himself to acquire one of our SS (Hardy or Escobar)?? The Mariners now have nothing in the middle infielder healthy or capable of doing anything worth anything. Just a thought.

[JoeHova]

The Mariners now have nothing in the middle infielder healthy or capable of doing anything worth anything.

 

How did losing Yuni change that? http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

[nate82]

Hall to the Royals for DeJesus?

[Baldkin]

What are the Royals thinking?

 

Lets take on salary, and pick up a no hit no field SS, and trade away young talent for it.

 

Go Bando Go.

[dragoon84]

Jack Z makes a killing. Way to go. I wonder what the Royals GM is thinking, if he is even thinking.

[lukevan]

Jacobs + Yuniesk = championship!

 

Ouch-town! Population - You, bro!

[Never Outhustled]

I wish Jack Z was our GM. Cortes was the Royals top pitching prospect. Saito is a lefty who was just drafted last year. He's only 5'9", but throws mid-90s. He's only a relief prospect, but a very nice one.

The Brewers should get the Mariners involved as a 3rd team in the Halladay trade. The M's are a contender, and could use some offense. As much as Hart has disappointed us, he;s still light years better than the M's strating LF, Endy Chavez. The M's have some prospects that might interest Toronto, including a bunch of Canadians.

The M's could really Scutaro from the Jay's.

[igor67]

It's amazing to see two separate trades on the same day that were complete ripoffs. We don't we go for the trifecta and offer Jeffress, Dykstra, Hall, and Katin for Halladay http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[Daubs]

The Mariners now have nothing in the middle infielder healthy or capable of doing anything worth anything.

 

How did losing Yuni change that? http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

Addition by subtraction?

[JoeHova]

The Brewers should get the Mariners involved as a 3rd team in the Halladay trade. The M's are a contender, and could use some offense. As much as Hart has disappointed us, he;s still light years better than the M's strating LF, Endy Chavez.

 

Endy Chavez is out for the year. Ryan Langerhans has been starting in left lately. Corey is better with the bat, Langerhans is better with the glove. I don't know how much of an upgrade that would be for Seattle (as depressing as that is to say).

[shelmark]

As much as I like Jack Z., I think we might be able to make a pretty good deal with him as he may overvalue guys from the Brewers system. He may have a hard time separating their actual ability against the fact that he drafted them. Looking at the M's lineup it is amazing they are in the hunt. I still think they will sell soon.

[igor67]

In retrospect I almost feel a lost opportunity. Dumping Hall for half the prospects would have been a great deal, it would have never occurred to me that someone else might be interested enough to actually take the contract though without giving a bad one back.

[JoeHova]

As much as I like Jack Z., I think we might be able to make a pretty good deal with him as he may overvalue guys from the Brewers system. He may have a hard time separating their actual ability against the fact that he drafted them.

I don't think this is a safe assumption. Just because Doug Melvin has that penchant doesn't mean that Zduriencik does. He did sign Brad Nelson and Callix Crabbe, but teams need to fill out their AAA rosters somehow.

 

Looking at the M's lineup it is amazing they are in the hunt. I still think they will sell soon.

I don't know if they'll sell. Losing Betancourt will help them a lot, even more so if they can replace him with an actual shortstop. If they can do that and also get a 3rd baseman or 2nd baseman, they seem in good shape to have a winning season. I know a lot of people here look with derision on winning seasons, but their attendance is way down. They're averaging just over 27,000 per game this season after averaging over 40,000 with regularity a few years ago. The Mariners may trade a couple guys but I don't think they'll do a total sell-off.

[twobrewers]

Cortes was the Royals top pitching prospect.

Cortes, though, has had his share of off-the-field problems. A week ago, he was charged with public intoxication and disorderly conduct after being caught urinating on a fence in Springdale, Ark. In 2005, just after he was drafted by the Chicago White Sox, he was involved in melee outside a bowling alley in Los Angeles and was stabbed numerous times.

"He stubbed his toe a couple times," Zduriencik said. "I had a discussion with him today and told him that's not acceptable. But everything we know about him … is he's a good kid."

 

Reading between the lines, I have to imagine the Royals are just cutting ties with Cortes because they don't like his make-up. (Like Lasting Millage) Otherwise, the Royals are idiots.

[JoeHova]

The Royals cutting ties with a guy because he peed on a fence would also be evidence that they are idiots.

[craigharmann]

How about David DeJesus, Luke Hochevar and Joakim Soria for Corey Hart and Bill Hall?

[brewdude15]

Soria is practically (other than Greinke) their franchise player.

[craigharmann]

Soria is practically (other than Greinke) their franchise player.

Right, so if they're making insanely stupid trades, let's try to get one as well!

[trwi7]

I have to imagine the Royals are just cutting ties with Cortes because they don't like his make-up.

They literally would've done better just releasing him than doing this trade.

[JoeHova]

Mariners picked up Jack Hannahan from the A's for AA pitcher Justin Souza. Apparently he'll be Adrian Beltre's replacement for the time-being. He can't really hit but he can field and he'll take a walk. Kind of a Counsell type, but without the ability play SS.

[crewcrazy]

Joe Posnanski's blog entry on this trade is pretty hilarious.

 

I'll be perfectly honest: In the pleasant ignorance of my car, I didn't think it was a tragic trade. In large part, this was because I only had this blurry vision of Betancourt … I had not seen his numbers and I just kind of assumed that Betancourt was still 24 or something, that he had put up decent numbers, he had a little speed, he was sloppy but electric on defense. That was the vision that I had in my mind. That was the impression baseball people had given me. I simply didn't know any better.

 

Well, as it turns out - ha ha, funny story here - um, actually, NO. Betancourt is not 24 - he's 27. He is not in the "shows promise" stage of his career - this is already his fourth season as a full-time player. And when I got to the hotel and actually looked up some numbers, well … I started with his defensive numbers.

 

Ultimate Zone Rating

2008: -12.6

2009: -8.3

 

Um, that's not good, right? I mean, there's a MINUS sign in front of those numbers. This would seem to indicate that Betancourt - at least by these numbers - is a LEGENDARILY BAD defensive shortstop. No, really, we're talking legendary, like in three hundred years kids will be sitting around a campfire and singing songs about how bad a shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt was.

...

 

Walk totals

2006: 17

2007: 15

2008: 17

2009: 10

 

No, that's not true. That's not true - the Royals did not really trade for a shortstop who has a CAREER HIGH of 17 walks in a season. Well, OK, I think we can stop with these numbers now, I think we are all getting a pretty clear picture …

 

Stolen bases and caught stealing

2006: 11 and 8

2007: 5 and 4

2008: 4 and 4

2009: 3 and 1

 

All right. Stop. Really, stop right now. I get it. Yuniesky Betancourt is not exactly a …

 

Walks vs. Grounded Into Double Plays from 2007-2009: 42 walks, 42 GIDPs.

 

Slugging percentages: 2007: .418; 2008: .392; 2009: .330.

 

Shortstop he best compares to at age 27: Neifi Perez.

 

OK, now my head hurts. The truth is, I had absolutely no idea just how bad a player Yuniesky Betancourt really was … and the biggest reason for this is that certain baseball people simply will not give up on him. There seems to be this very real belief that one day - one day soon - a light will turn on for him, and he will suddenly harness all of his talent, and he will hit with some authority, and he will make all the great plays defensively … and lost in this dreaming is that almost certain reality that Betancourt is slow, his bat's slow, he has no power, he has lost any range he might have had, he's sloppy, he blunders, he's getting worse, he's getting baseball old and the harsh truth is probably that there is no baseball talent to harness. Sigh.