Ben Zobrist / Yunel Escobar Traded to Oakland for Jaso and Prospects

[superfly]

Oakland at it again...guess we can officially cross Zo off our list, not that we had a shot anyway (or were interested).

 

Athletics Acquire Ben Zobrist, Yunel Escobar

By Charlie Wilmoth [January 10, 2015 at 1:42pm CST]

The Rays have announced that they’ve traded Ben Zobrist and shortstop Yunel Escobar to the Athletics for catcher/DH John Jaso, shortstop prospect Daniel Robertson, and outfield prospect Boog Powell. The Rays also announced that they would receive cash considerations, which Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets is $1.5MM.

 

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/

[pete]

I cruised through a popular A's forum and they are generally very happy. Some seem pretty crazy to me like this one:

 

... this might be the single deepest lineup and single deepest rotation in all of baseball.

 

That's with a rotation that the #2 is likely Scott Kazmir and includes Jessie Chavez. Projected starters include Ike Davis, Sam Fuld and Coco Crisp - he's about my age. There are some ok players like Reddick and Vogt. Lawrie and Escobar are big talents but Melvin will earn his salary. Of course there will be lots of platoons, so projecting is a challenge.

 

I was thinking of posting about this in the off season positivity thread.

[superfly]

I cruised through a popular A's forum and they are generally very happy. Some seem pretty crazy to me like this one:

 

... this might be the single deepest lineup and single deepest rotation in all of baseball.

 

That's with a rotation that the #2 is likely Scott Kazmir and includes Jessie Chavez. Projected starters include Ike Davis, Sam Fuld and Coco Crisp - he's about my age. There are some ok players like Reddick and Vogt. Lawrie and Escobar are big talents but Melvin will earn his salary. Of course there will be lots of platoons, so projecting is a challenge.

 

I was thinking of posting about this in the off season positivity thread.

 

Jaso was a pretty important platoon bat for them. Didn't they trade Norris as well? Their entire catcher platoon is gone if they did.

[jerichoholicninja]

They did trade Norris too, which is strange that both were traded because together they were one of the best hitting catchers in baseball last year. Do they even have a catcher now?

[superfly]

They did trade Norris too, which is strange that both were traded because together they were one of the best hitting catchers in baseball last year. Do they even have a catcher now?

 

vs RHP - Stephen Vogt

vs LHP - Geovany Soto

[pacopete4]

Maybe we can trade them Lucroy for a bunch of top prospects?

[Kelbysdaddy]

Maybe we can trade them Lucroy for a bunch of top prospects?

I hope that is supposed to be in blue. Oakland really doesn't have the prospects at this point. Maybe Maldonado would be an option. Matt Olson, renato nunez, and Raul alcantara wouldn't get lucroy.

[bill hAll Star]

Agree that the Soto/Vogt platoon will be very good. The definition of a platoon player includes the idea that they are flawed at heart. As soon as the perceived value of a player like Norris goes up (though he's not horrible vs. RHP) you deal him away for better value and create another platoon of flawed players

 

To the "deepest team in the league" I would almost agree in some ways. Switch hitters with positional flexibility help their cause greatly. On any given day, they have 7 active hitters that are "plus" for their position against the handedness of pitcher on the mound. They then have excellent options off the bench should the other team choose to switch pitchers.

 

They don't have any stud pitchers, but they do have about 8 of MLB quality. As usual, they are built for the regular season. If they didn't blow the WC game, last year maybe was their year. The middling/poor pitchers that LAA/BAL threw out there against KC would have been ripe for the A's flawed hitters.

[pete]

Vogt and Soto are both on the back side of 30. Last year Vogt had plantar surgery and Soto had knee surgery. The A's got Soto for the proverbial cash considerations. When was his last good season - 2010?

 

I think Josh Phegley lost his job as a backup on the White Sox to a rule V pickup.

 

Eight MLB quality pitchers? Starters? Lohse is probably the 5 on the Brewers and there is a large contingent of fans who think Melvin is daft for not tearing down the team. The "8" is like the Bettlestar Gallactica of rotations. How many of them are middling/poor?

[pacopete4]

Lohse is probably the 5 on the Brewers

 

 

This is where you lost me. He's pitched better, stat wise, that any of our pitchers we have on our team and you want to call him our 5? Not adding up.

[bill hAll Star]

Vogt and Soto are both on the back side of 30. Last year Vogt had plantar surgery and Soto had knee surgery. The A's got Soto for the proverbial cash considerations. When was his last good season - 2010?

 

I think Josh Phegley lost his job as a backup on the White Sox to a rule V pickup.

 

Eight MLB quality pitchers? Starters? Lohse is probably the 5 on the Brewers and there is a large contingent of fans who think Melvin is daft for not tearing down the team. The "8" is like the Bettlestar Gallactica of rotations. How many of them are middling/poor?

 

I do agree with the Vogt assessment. I failed to mention that in my post and I did want to that he is . Part of their imperfect situation is the amount of moving parts it has. Last year, come playoff time, 2 or 3 of their platoons were shredded with injury.

 

Norris, for his career, is a .619 OPSer vs. RHP. Norris did improve that mark last year to a nice .699 OPS, but Phegley and Soto both are .750-.800 guys against LHP. That doesn't match Norris' .850 in that split, but it's not bad. The key to all of this is the lefty side being Vogt. I also wonder if they have a LH batter in AAA they are counting on? Bryan Anderson (who I see they just outrighted).

 

As for their pitching staff, I'd say they have 8 guys that could be a #2 through #4 on most pitching staffs. They have good organizational depth. Nolin, Gravemann, Bassitt, etc. not to mention Parker and Griffin returning (do they still have both?) are all in AA/AAA and are guys that can probably put up a mid/high 3s ERA in that park if called upon.

[pete]

I'm not sure how relevant it is to the overall point. It may in fact reinforce it. Its as much how I view them going forward, but for what its worth, Fiers smoked everybody stats wise other than WAR due to innings pitched which Peralta edged him.

[trwi7]

Lohse is probably the 5 on the Brewers

 

 

This is where you lost me. He's pitched better, stat wise, that any of our pitchers we have on our team and you want to call him our 5? Not adding up.

 

We used 7 starters last year. He was 5th out of 7 in FIP and 6th out of 7 in xFIP (ahead of only Estrada).

[SoupTown]

Pete, great wordscultping!; you need to bring that sign to Miller Park: the Bettlestar Gallactica of rotations

 

But I think you spelled Gallactica wrong. It should have an 'e' somewhere.

[jerichoholicninja]

Right now I would take the Brewer's 1-6 over Oakland's.

 

Brewers - Gallardo, Garza, Lohse, Peralta, Fiers, Nelson

Athletics - Gray, Kazmir, Chavez, Pomeranz, Hahn, Bassitt

 

Gray is better than anyone Milwaukee has right now and Oakland has AJ Grffin and Jarrod Parker coming back from TJ at some point this season but I feel a whole lot more comfortable with the depth and talent the Brewers have in the rotation for 2015 than the A's do.