Report: Garland to Angels for Orlando Cabrera

[JohnBriggs12]

ESPN 1000 is reporting Jon Garland was dealt to the Angels for Orlando Cabrera. Both are eligible for free agency after this season.

 

That leaves a huge hole in Sox rotation.

[brettac1]

Nice deal for the Angels if it's legit.

[ryne100]

Very good deal for the Angels. They need Cabrera way less with Wood and Kendrick up full time. Garland is a good addition to an already good rotation.

[dadofandrew]

If Garland is healthy, that's a steal for the Angels. If that's all a year of Garland was worth, giving them 3 years of Hall would have meant they had to throw in additional players/prospects.

[Big Reed]

it would have been nice to add Garland to the Brewers' staff. the Angels have some prospects to replace Cabrera. it's interesting that the White Sox just resigned Uribe. Although Uribe can play other bases. Perhaps Crede is next to go.

[sgtcluels]

Ohhh god.. I read that as Gallardo to Angel and almost pee'd my pants.

[SoCalBrewfan]

I don't get this from the White Sox pov, unless there are a couple more shoes yet to drop. They just kept Uribe, for what purpose? And what's their rotation now?

 

At the same time, I am not sure who's the shortstop in Anaheim now...and wonder what they're planning to do with 6 quality starting pitchers. They have youngsters like Aybar and Wood who might fit in the left side of the infield, along with Figgins, but it still seems to me like their talent is misaligned...maybe this is a prelude to a deal for another Cabrera, in which they lose Santana? That said, the Angels are smart to do this and then (presumably) use that SP surplus on the offense.

[ajgodson]

Makes sense for the Angels, as they've got lots of young guys. With the shortage of starting pitching, I'm surprised that's all Garland was worth.

[splitterpfj]

Here it is...

 

Trade completed

[colbyjack]

There's a good chance Uribe slides over to second for the White Sox, a team that puts a huge premium on defense, and they could have the best DP combo up the middle if Uribe does indeed slide over. Cabrera is no slouch at the plate either, and this did seem to be an exchange for big contracts.

 

The White Sox still have Buehrle, Vazquez, Contreras and Danks in the starting rotation, with some other young pitchers that will contend for the #5 spot, so they were dealing from an area of strength, and they also saved $3M next year should they indeed be pursuing Torii Hunter.

 

The Angels continue to be loaded with pitching. I would definitely see what it would take to land Ervin Santana who had a rough year last season and may be considered expendable.

[SoCalBrewfan]

There's got to be a Cabrera or Tejada deal brewing for the Angels...doesn't there? They have Lackey, Weaver, Escobar, Garland, and then can choose between Saunders and Santana for a fifth starter. Yikes. Meanwhile they have a big need offensively and on the left side of the infield. Saunders or Santana could be part of a deal, along with Wood and some additional pieces...if that's the case it's a nice bit of dealing.

 

In response to colby, I thought the Sox were looking at Danny Richar at second? Their rotation is indeed strong at the front end with Buerhle and Vazquez. History suggests that Contreras is a good #4 guy, though I wonder how full his tank is these days, and Danks could be good, but as a whole, the back end seems weak to me. This version of the White Sox is a team in a strange place anyway, crappy and aging in a division with strong teams. Are they trying to contend, or rebuild? Do they even know?

[jwaltz]

Santana and Wood would be a nice starting point to build off of toward a potential Cabrera deal.

[colbyjack]

Good points SoCal. The White Sox are always one team that reguarly confuse me as to what they're trying to do. I'm pretty sure they feel as though they can compete, especially since they're hot after Hunter and are a dark horse for Miguel Cabrera.

 

In addition to the Angels possibly setting themselves up for a big deal, Joe Crede could be next the next to go in Chicago (as noted above).

[TooLiveBrew]

This one seems lopsided to me, especially since it's not as though Los Anaheim couldn't re-sign Garland when his term is up after 2008. Am I wrong to think that it's so unbalanced? I know Cabrera can hit a bit, and fields SS well, but just one above-average/good player for a solid SP?

[Big Reed]

looking at this from a brewers' perspective, if this was all the Chi Sox could get for Garland, what should brewer fans be expecting the brewers to receive for Ben Sheets? Garland has put up some nice numbers for the last 4 years. perhaps starting pitchers no longer comand as much in trade value as they once did.

 

I know a lot of brewer fans who would be extremely upset if Melvin traded Sheets for Cabrera.

[splitterpfj]

Big Reed, I agree, Garland does not have Sheets' skills, but he also doesn't have the injury history. This does make me wonder about the perceived value of pitchers available in trades right now.

[rotoherb]

I seem to be in the minority here because I don't rate Garland as good as what people are posting. His walk rate went way up last year and he posted his lowest K/9IP of his career at a measly 4.23. He got away with it because his home run rate was way lower than his career average. He's not a bad pitcher at all, I just don't see him as being much better than average, with limited potential.

 

Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that Sheets would bring back quite a bit more than Garland. A healthy season from Sheets (obviously a big if) would blow away anything Garland could do.

[Big Reed]

one thing to remember when looking at just stats to define a pitcher's worth. not only should you compare a pitcher's stats with his previous ones, but you should also compare his stats to the ones put up by his other contemporaries in that year. one stat that sticks out - Garland had more complete games this year than Johan Santana did; and both pitchers had 21 quality starts. Suppan led the brewers with 15 quality starts. In the AL, only Sabathia, Carmona, Meche, Lackey, Pettite and Haren had more quality starts than Garland did last year. if you use quality starts as your measuring stick, Garland was in the top 10 of AL pitchers and ahead of any Red Sox starting pitcher.

 

Is Garland as good as Santana? NO! But for a team that lost 90 games this past year, Garland pitched as well as many other very good starting pitchers did.

[BritInWI]

Like many other stats though, quality starts is affected by other factors which have nothing to do with the pitcher on the mound.

 

I'd be interested to know the run support that he got in those quality starts, because (stating the obvious probably) if your team is scoring piles of runs in your starts, it's more likely that you'll be left in when you're not really impressing that much.

[Nader Raider Tim]

The Angels are brilliant. Right now they can pretty much do nothing and be one of the favorites. Or they have themselves primed to be able to go out and get a Carl Crawford, Miguel Cabrera, or Adam Dunn. The Angels have Garland, Santana, Joe Saunders and Nick Adenhardt as proven quality arms or highly thought of major league ready arms. The Angles also have a plethora of young positional players to potentially move.

 

The Angels have almost no weakness, with an abundance of talent.

[Oldcity]

Well right now they still have a big weakness, which is a lack of power offensively. There's really none outside of Vlad. Like you said though, they definitely have pieces in place to address that. I really don't get this trade for the ChiSox.

[TooLiveBrew]

I seem to be in the minority here because I don't rate Garland as good as what people are posting.

No - check out the Trade Forum. While Reed's got a very valid point in 'don't just use flat stats, compare amongst peers', it should also be noted that Garland relies heavily on the groundball (and thus, INF defense) to produce outs. Playing in front of a very solid CWS infield defense has certainly helped his numbers. Suppan's 2007 is a good example (since they compare relatively well) of what Garland w/o a solid/good infield defense would look like.

[RobertR]

I'm not sure that this trade makes either team better, merely different. Cabrera is a very good defensive player, but he's 33 and you really can't expect better than a mid-.700s OPS out of him and he's really not much of an OBP guy, which the White Sox could use. Cabrera is yet another White Sox player in his 30s as well, combined with Konerko, Thome, Piezynski, and Dye. And Podsednik and Crede who might not return. I'll be honest, I don't see the White Sox offense being that much better in 2008 and it was pretty crummy in 2007. Cabrera doesn't seem like he's that much more valuable than Iguchi.

 

Speculation is that the Angels will now make a trade for a big bat, Cabrera or Tejada, using their young players as trade bait. Cabrera is understandable, but, IMO, the Angels would be better off holding on to their young players than paying through the nose for Tejada. Tejada has been declining for 3 straight years, and although he's still well above average, he's no longer a star.

 

Robert

[dadofandrew]

I see this as a huge win for the Angels. Cabrera is a decent player, but Garland is a very good P.

[Ennder]

I don't really see Garland as a very good pitcher. He had half a good year in 2005, he was mediocre in 2006 and he was bad last year but got some luck with ERA. His K/9 is trending down, his GB% is trending down and his BB/9 spiked back up towards his previous levels last year. It would not shock me one bit to see a close to 5.00 ERA out of him this season.