KROD to the Tigers for Betancourt and PTBNL (PTBNL is catcher Manny Piña, post 157)

[CheezWizHed]

Catcher Manny Pina getting his swings in down in Venezuela

 

How deep is the batter's box again? It looks like he would be playing T-ball off (or with) the catcher's head.

[JohnBriggs12]

Pina will be pushing Maldonado for the backup catcher job.

[pacopete4]

Pina will be pushing Maldonado for the backup catcher job.

 

I hope you are right only for the fact that someone needs to push that guy. I think part of the reason for his struggles is the fact that he is out of shape. If he didn't have a gun for an arm, he wouldn't have sniffed the majors.

[CheezWizHed]

If he didn't have a gun for an arm, he wouldn't have sniffed the majors.

 

He was a decent hitter (for a catcher) when he first came up, but he has been pretty bad the last few years.

 

Edit: Actually looks like he is on schedule for a good year:

 

2012 .266 .321 .408 .729

2013 .169 .236 .284 .520

2014 .234 .320 .387 .707

2015 .210 .282 .293 .575

[pacopete4]

2012- .729 OPS, 93 OPS+

2013- .520 OPS, 42 OPS+

2014- .707 OPS, 95 OPS+

2015- .575 OPS, 58 OPS+

 

I might've over exaggerated but I was a huge fan of him and he just seems to be a let down. Seems physically gifted but also seems fat and sluggish. Looking at his stats though, the trend is every other year so maybe this will be a good one? Hopefully and then we can flip him too.

[AKCheesehead]

K Rod is out of the closer's role in Detroit. [sarcasm]Maybe they can DFA him for us to pick back up and trade again.[/sarcasm]

 

A couple other notes about the trade:

 

If you go with BBref's WAR, post-trade KROD is cumulative .4, while PTBNL Manny Piña is at 1.1 Even if Betancourt never amounts to anything, Stearns seems to have done alright on this one.

 

Also, there's this: https://sonsof84tigers.com/2017/05/09/the-k-rod-situation-brings-to-light-that-al-avila-must-go/

[MadScientist]

K-Rod was pretty good for Detroit last year. Not as good as the previous 2 years with the Brewers, but still good. He fell off a cliff this year. These things happen with bullpen arms and with older pitchers, so it isn't a surprise. Pina is looking great for the Brewers, but who knows how much is real vs hot start.

 

I'm not arguing against this trade, I think it was a good one, but not an outright fleecing.

[Outlander]

Sometimes you just get lucky, Betancourt doesn't look like he will ever play for the Brewers and Pina was the PTBNL. It could have been a nothing trade for the Brewers but fortunately Pina has outperformed expectations.

[FVBrewerFan]

There is some value in acquiring players who can contribute at the AA/AAA level. By no means am I saying that's a reason to trade for a player, or it's that big of a deal at all. But there is a(very) marginal benefit to have ta guy like Betancourt around. AA/AAA rosters sometimes need filler to round out the roster and help win some games. No proof, but it must be easier for the "real" prospects to develop when their team isn't absolutely horrible as a whole.

[brwrsfan]

There is some value in acquiring players who can contribute at the AA/AAA level. By no means am I saying that's a reason to trade for a player, or it's that big of a deal at all. But there is a(very) marginal benefit to have ta guy like Betancourt around. AA/AAA rosters sometimes need filler to round out the roster and help win some games. No proof, but it must be easier for the "real" prospects to develop when their team isn't absolutely horrible as a whole.

 

I think that's true in any sport, on any level. People like winning. Plain and simple. It's easier to do that extra workout or watch some film or whatever else you can think of to get better when you can actually see the results on the field.

 

Losing is tough. And from my experience, it takes a toll on you mentally to lose all the time. Harder to focus, harder to really care, etc.

[MadScientist]

There is some value in acquiring players who can contribute at the AA/AAA level. By no means am I saying that's a reason to trade for a player, or it's that big of a deal at all. But there is a(very) marginal benefit to have ta guy like Betancourt around. AA/AAA rosters sometimes need filler to round out the roster and help win some games. No proof, but it must be easier for the "real" prospects to develop when their team isn't absolutely horrible as a whole.

 

Those guys get acquired in trades for nominal cash considerations all the time. That is not the kind of return you want from a closer who had gone to the All Star game the previous two years. Even with not paying his salary, and the other warts of K-Rod that would have been a terrible return. A ML catcher who is hitting and plays a solid defense is a good return on any trade.

[brwrsfan]

The difference with K-Rod, even while he was good, was that nobody seemed to actually want him. Nobody was busting down doors to sign him as a FA (so we kept doing it).

 

Should an all-star closer have netted more? Probably. But when nobody wants the guy (signs of aging, the off field stuff, etc.), we probably weren't exactly getting a ton of amazing offers.

[bill hAll Star]

There are only a handful of teams that are as behind the times as the Tigers in the majors. The Tigers wanted a guy with closer experience but they were probably only bidding in trade negotiations against at most 1 or 2 teams. Nobody else valued K-Rod at all. I was fine with the Brewers picking him up for cash only when they signed him but no team in their right mind should have been trying to acquire him at that age for any sort of valuable prospects.

 

Other teams might have taken K-Rod as a salary dump, but most teams that understand how players age and how good of a reliever that K-Rod actually is and therefore realize there are probably 50+ other relievers in baseball that could have performed as well as 2016 K-Rod did with serious downside beyond that.

 

Point being, I doubt there was much of a bidding war for K-Rod's services.

[AKCheesehead]

KROD released by Detroit today. [sarcasm]The plan is working.[/sarcasm]

[adambr2]

Still time enough to beef up his value enough to trade him by the deadline?

[clancyphile]

Probably not, but if he were to rebound - he'd be a 2018 flip candidate.