Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Time for Hoyer to make a move

Tuesday June 29, 2010

Its time for Jed Hoyer to make his first in season trade and I think its going to be a doozy.

There were scouts for 5 teams were in the stands for Correia's last two starts. Now they may have been there to see other players also, but I would think they were also there to see Correia.

Correia has been on a 6 game slide since his brother died and the talk I am hearing is that a change of scenery, SD is his home, may be good for him. His velocity is down on his FB and up on his change up and slider. Exactly the opposite of what you want to see.

So at this point I would guess most of you are asking "who would Correia go to and what could the Padres get in return?"

To that I say, not so fast & hold your horses. I am just getting warmed up.

We are not talking about a 1-1 or 1-2 trade.

The scuttlebutt is a 4-5 player trade with the Padres sending Correia and a minor league pitcher that will make some people stand up and say "WHOA, why him?" for a good young ML bat that the Padres can control and another top prospect that is a few years further away from the ML..

Catcher Wilson Ramos wields a bat that is being mentioned often. The Padres have little depth at catcher and Ramos would be pushing for playing time this season. But the Padres really need a bat that can also patrol the outfield.

Alot of the trade rumors centers around Kevin Correia who has not been able to maintain his early season form since the untimely death of his brother. The logic is a change of scenery would do him good. In my opinion he just needs to keep his left foot planted on his follow through. He tends to spin his foot towards first and when he does, he cannot repeat his mechanics.

There have even been rumors of the discussion of a trade of Correia and Closer Heath Bell for Ramos, OF Delmon Young, RP Alex Burnett and AA RHP Carlos Gutierrez of the Twins.


Not sure I like that one. With Gallagher and Mujica out of options and playing poorly, I would much rather see either of them (or both together) moved than Bell. Package one of them up with Correia and see if there are any takers. Then trade a couple of decent, but not top prospects for Lee.

Its time for Hoyer to start getting serious about making a trade and from all I am hearing when he does its going to be a doozy.

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Padres looking for top line pitching

Monday June 28, 2010

The San Diego Padres have the best pitching staff in baseball. They have been winning on a combination of pitching and defense. Everyone that is anyone says the Padres should go get a bat to ensure they are still in the playoff hunt come September.

So what are the Padres going to do as trade deadline approaches?
From the rumors floating around it appears that the Padres are looking for top line pitchers. Most teams want players in trade that they can control for at least one more season. So what are the Padres brass saying? They want pitchers that will be FA after the season because they believe the FA pitchers will want to resign in San Diego.

Why are they looking at Pitchers?
Jed Hoyer and the Padres brain trust are looking down the road as well as at the remainder of this year. They want to keep their good young pitching core healthy for the long run and bring on board a pitcher to take Young &/or Correia's place in the rotation next season.

All of theeir good young pitchers are on a tight IP count. The FO staff has been pretty clear that they are not going to overwork Mat Latos, Clayton Richard, Wade LeBlanc.

Chris Young is not expected to be back next season, at least not at anything close to the team option of $8.5 million, and even if he does come back the team cannot count on him for much after these injuries and his age (32) in 2011.

So a pitcher that will be a FA at the end of 2010 is of little value to a losing team, but would help the Padres win now and be a nice signing for 2011 if the Padres can pull the trigger.

Who are they looking at?

Cliff Lee.
Yes Cliff Lee. He is only earning $9 million this season which means the Padres would only be on the hook for about $3.6-4.5 million for the final 2+ months of the season. The Padres believe that they can sign a great pitcher for less than he might sign for elsewhere because he would be pitching in Petco and this would give them 3 months to negotiate a deal before Lee ( or the others listed here) becomes a free agent after the World Series.

Jeremy Guthrie
Guthrie is the lone consistent pitcher on the Orioles staff and has maintained an ERA under 4 in a decided hitters park. Guthrie is only making $3 million this season so the Padres can certainly afford to take on the balance of that contract.

Ted Lilly
The Cubs are strapped with $142 million payroll with several big dollar contracts, like Soriano and Zambrano, that they are not going to be able to shed. Unfortunately for them and fortunately for teams looking for pitching, they are going to have to dump payroll somewhere and Lilly is a FA at the end of the season and could still bring back a decent prospect. The $4.8-6.0 million balance of Lilly's $12 million contract for 2010 is an affordable addition for the Padres.

In the end I believe the Padres are still going to go out and trade for a decent power bat in the outfield.

But their main focus coming into the deadline seems to be pitching.

- Vic Power