Pat Burrell DFA'd; Rays making room for Fielder

[PeaveyFury]

had been easily replaceable his entire career

 

He had two full seasons in the majors prior to the trade, where he put up OPS' around .800 in each.

 

He was not worth trading for because he will never contribute to the team winning the WS

 

An .800 OPS out of a catcher puts him near the top in offensive output at the position.

 

I still dont see how adding backup-types will ever make a team as hopeless as the '04 brewers better in the long run.

 

Again, he wasn't traded for to be a backup. The outcome stinks, but the reasoning/justification for trading for him WAS there at the time.

[TheCrew07]

is asking for David Price too much? he'd fit the bill as someone cheap with ML experience.

Thats where I would start if I was Melvin

Umm yes that's too much to ask, there's no way we're getting David Price or Wade Davis at this point in time. Maybe they'd be willing to deal Jeff Niemann again, but that seems unlikely given how well he's blossomed after finally getting his MLB chance, not to mention how well their home grown 4 plus Garza have pitched. Why do we need an established MLB arm for this season anyway? We have more starting pitchers than rotation slots now. I'm not going to argue the performance angle because I really don't see Davis or Bush pitching out of the bull pen, but I'm willing to acknowledge that a very good case could be made for bumping one of those guys. However I still think that Minor League talent makes the most sense. Yea we'll likely miss on one of the guys, but I'd rather hit on a guy with significant talent than do another MLB talent quantity trade like Overbay deal. I'm not saying those deals don't have value, but we need impact pitching, as much as we can get, and that probably means trading for prospects if we're trading an MLB piece.

[topper09er]

He had two full seasons in the majors prior to the trade, where he put up OPS' around .800 in each.

Games played in his career before the trade: 48, 25, 37, 78 with 153 games started over the 4 seasons = 39 GS/season

Career OPS at trade: .715

 

An .800 OPS out of a catcher puts him near the top in offensive output at the position.

 

In 2004 among catchers with 200 PA a .800 OPS would rank 12th in MLB, not too bad.

Same sample a .715 OPS would rank 20th in MLB

http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=c&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=200&type=1&season=2003&month=0

 

Again, he wasn't traded for to be a backup. The outcome stinks, but the reasoning/justification for trading for him WAS there at the time.

Im not saying he was traded for to be the backup, but that based on his career and age he was clearly a backup-type player who was never going to become a good starter who can contribute anything of value. Just look at his numbers before the trade, how could anyone look at that and think he will all off a sudden put together 4 straight .800+ OPS seasons while starting 120 games. Why would you trade an all-star type guy for a bunch of guys who will never be an all-star, its not like we were a few pieces away the pennant?

[TooLiveBrew]

Why would you trade an all-star type guy for a bunch of guys who will never be an all-star, its not like we were a few pieces away the pennant?

 

Not that I think your qualification is really great, but Chris Capuano was an All-Star in 2006

[joepepsi]

The Sexson deal brought a young no. 2 starter in Capuano, who was pretty darn good for 2-1/2 years, and a younger high upside pitcher in de la Rosa. The other guys were placeholders and roster fillers because this team didn't have enough warm bodies.

 

All in all, it was the exact kind of deal that Melvin has been blasted since last winter on this board for not making during his tenure.

[PeaveyFury]

Career OPS at trade: .715

 

Not amazingly, he struggled in his first two partial seasons in the majors, obviously bringing that down.

Im not saying he was traded for to be the backup, but that based on his career and age he was clearly a backup-type player who was never going to become a good starter who can contribute anything of value.

 

Catchers sometimes develop quite late (for example, Damian Miller had all of his Major League success after the age Moeller was when acquired), so the two consecutive seasons with OPS around .800 probably gave hope that he was one of those types. There's not a single person on this board that expected him to go from a .800 OPS player to a .568 OPS the very next season.

 

Why would you trade an all-star type guy for a bunch of guys who will never be an all-star, its not like we were a few pieces away the pennant?

 

I think you answered you own question- the Brewers weren't one or two guys away at that point. They had a bunch of holes to fill, and they attempted to fill a bunch of them with fairly young, fairly inexperienced guys that still had some upside while grabbing a 'blue chipper' like DLR in the process. Obviously, as you've said, we're at the point now where a deal like that probably doesn't make sense, as we should be targeting 2-3 top prospects to plug in.