Blair P. Houghton <b.DeleteThis@p.h> wrote:
> Worth dealing for hitting.
I don't think so. When Randy retires (or perish the thought, gets
traded), Brandon's going to be the closest thing to a staff ace in the
organization. He didn't have the most successful season ever, but
pitchers who seemingly come out of nowhere to have strong rookie seasons
seldom have strong sophomore campaigns, but a lot of them bounce back in
season three.
Webb's fundamentals are still generally solid. While his K/9 rate fell
from '03 (never a good thing), it was still strong (7.03), and he still
managed to put up a very good ERA for 2004 (3.59). His BBs got out of
control (119 in 208 IP, almost double the number he had in 2003), but
overall, his other fundamentals are still favorable for a long and
successful career. He's the most extreme GB/K pitcher since Kevin Brown.
And unlike most of the other "Baby Backs" from the class of '03, he was
healthy in 2004.
Ironically, in spite of his control problems in 2004, he actually made
fewer pitches per hitter in '04 than in '03 (3.70 vs 3.7
. If his K/9
rate drops again in '05, it'll probably be too late to trade him, but if
it doesn't (or better yet, rebounds), trading him will be idiotic.
> All worth dealing for pitching.
Okay, make up your mind here. You've got a solid #2 pitcher (who very
well could be your staff ace in two or three years) that you want to trade
for hitting. You've got a mix of young hitters, some of whom might
actually be decent in the bigs for years to come, and you want to trade
them for pitching. You can't have it both ways. Either you can package a
bunch of promising mid-level guys for a pitcher, or you can package a
young, promising pitcher or two for a hitter. But either of those things
only works if you've got an abundance of young midlevel talent and only
need to fill a hole or two in your rotation, bullpen or batting order.
You aren't going to be able to rebuild this team by trading what little
talent it has (outside of Randy Johnson and Luis Gonzalez) for more
pitchers like Tickle-Me-Elmer or more hitters like Richie Sexson.
> The catcher abbatoir thing has to stop sometime soon.
[...]
I'd like to know what the hell was wrong with Chad Moeller. Okay, Rod
Barajas couldn't hit his way out of a butterfly swarm, but Moeller
actually seemed competent behind the plate, and at the plate (I know he
was lousy at throwing out basestealers, but is that really that big of a
deal these days?). Okay, now I see their '04 stats and Barajas actually
had a much better season at the plate than Moeller. Yikes. And Barajas
wasn't exactly making anybody forget Pudge Rodriguez.
Okay, so I guess the D-Backs knew something I didn't about Moeller.
BTW: Has anybody noticed how many ex-D-Backs are on the Red Sox and
Dodgers rosters?
Schilling, Alan Embree, BK and Mike Myers (!) are all on the Red Sox
roster, while Elmer Dessens, Brad Penny, Duaner Sanchez, Brent Mayne and
Steve Finley are on the Dodgers. I dunno if they're all on the postseason
rosters, though. In comparison, the Astros have one former D-Back (Russ
Springer), the Yankees have two (Bret Prinz, Travis Lee) and the St. Louis
Cardinals have three (Jeff Suppan, Tony Womack and Reggie Sanders).
I find it fascinating to see so many ex-D-Backs out there on the teams
that are most favored. The Dodgers have five, the Red Sox have four, the
St. Louis Cards have three and the Yankees have two. Nobody else in the
postseason has more than one.
--Paul
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