Padres Quentin Injures Right Leg - Out 4-6 weeks

San Diego Padres GM Byrnes made a huge, and to the low budget Padres very expensive, mistake in trading for Carlos Quentin.

The prospects he sent to the White Sox notwithstanding, Quentin had averaged only 98 games per season in the field for the White Sox over the past three seasons. Nothing indicated he would be any more healthy his year. In fact, the pattern of being injury prone was in place like a Huge Red Flag and Byrnes simply ignored the warning signs. Byrnes wanted to make up for another huge mistake he made while in Arizona in trading away a then 24 year old Quentin and in doing so compounded his mistake.

Padres Carlos Quentin Injures Right Leg - Out 4-6 Weeks

Now Quentin has injured his right leg and will undergo arthroscopic surgery on Monday. Quentin is expected to miss 4-6 weeks and at the very minimum, the first 2 weeks of the regular season. More likely he will return to the Padres lineup in the last week of April or early May.

To add insult to Quentin's injury, it is to his right leg, the drive leg for a right handed hitter, and will rob him of power all season. Power is the only thing Quentin has to offer to the Padres as he has been the very worst defensive outfielder in major league baseball over the past 3 seasons with a -38.2 UZR.

Those of you who follow me know that I am not a big fan of defensive metrics like UZR unless there is at least 3 years of data to analyze. Looking at just one season of data is totally useless. Well we have three years of Quentin's defensive contributions to base a good determination of his ability in the field on and it says what our eyes have been telling us, he is horrendous with the glove.

Now about what the Padres are paying for Byrnes attempt to redeem his earlier mistake:

• $7.025 million or more than 13% of the overall 2012 Padres payroll
• Two prospects that now rank in the top 20 for the White Sox organization and who will contribute at the major league level in 2012 for the South Siders. (Castro is #4 or #5 depending on the list)

So the bottom line of Byrnes screw up is that Quentin will give the Padres under 100 games of mediocre power and atrocious defense and then Quentin will leave in free agency after the season.

The GM of the team can afford to make mistakes like this when you have a $100+ million payroll, but in San Diego it can be fatal to your hopes of a decent season.

Byrnes hubris in trying to redeem himself for an earlier mistake and Quentin's continuing injury problems may have torpedoed San Diego chances at a .500 season before the season even begins.

I've had my say about Byrnes, Quentin and the San Diego Padres.

Now its your turn. What do you think?

Guillen says no Beckham, I say no Gonzalez

Tuesday March 2, 2010

Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said in an interview with Mark Gonzalez published today in the Chicago Tribune that Gordon Beckham will not be part of any trades, be it for Adrian Gonzalez or anyone else.

"We plan to have Gordon for a long time," Guillen said. "I don't see why people talk about it." "Every trade the White Sox want to make, people think they're going to make with the White Sox," Guillen continued, "Gordon, Floyd and Danks, those names are going to come up. And we have to deal with that every time they talk about the White Sox trying to make a deal. We got to stay on our toes. There's nothing out there."

To that I say;

Kenny Williams, if you want to trade for Adrian Gonzalez you better get a 3rd team involved because without Beckham, you do not have what it takes to land Gonzalez. Not even close.

The Chicago White Sox system is bare of top level talent. After trades last season that stripped the top talent from the system including their 6 of their top 10 rated prospects, the cupboard is bare.

Only RHP Dan Hudson comes close to having a high upside and he is not considered ace material.

What is left other than Tyler Flowers is not only not even B level prospects, but really does not fit any needs in the Padres system.

The only packages for Adrian Gonzalez from the White Sox that make sense for the Padres would have to be topped by Gordon Beckham. And Guillen says that is not going to happen.

If I were a betting man I would say that Adrian Gonzalez is not going to be joining Jake Peavy in Chicago. At least not with the White Sox.

What do you think?

Peavy Accepts Trade to White Sox

Friday July 31, 2009

Moments before the trading deadline today, Jake Peavy finally accepted a trade to the Chicago White Sox.

So what changed between May and now?

• Is it the fact that the White Sox now have a winning record?
• Is it the fact that including Peavy's injury, the Padres were on pace to absolutely smash the MLB record they set for injuries in 2008?
• Was it the good young pitchers the Padres have had traded for and brought up like Mat Latos, Tim Stauffer and Sean Gallagher? Did Peavy feel the Padres could make due without him now?

I don't know what changed in Jake Peavy's head. I didn't like this trade for the Padres in May. Now I am just glad its over.

Regardless of the payroll limitations the team may have, with Peavy gone and Giles coming off the books at the end of 2009, the Padres can now:

1. Keep players like Gonzalez, Bell, Young and Eckstein for 2010.
2. Go after some mid level free agents to compliment the good young players like Headley, Gwynn, Hundley, Blanks, and Cabrera that they have now.
3. Prepare for a bright future.
   

In this trade the Padres got back a #4 - 5 type starter in Clayton Richard and a future closer/possible front line starter in Aaron Poreda and a real good young prospect that is in A ball for Peavy.

Overall the Padres got what Baseball America ranked as the White Sox 2, 3 and 12th best prospects for 2009 and a hard throwing 6'8", 26 year old reliever that has 22 appearances in his rookie season this year.

Would I have liked to have seen more coming back the Padres way in this trade? Of course. But the Padres did not get a bad haul considering the no win situation they were in.

This trade also frees up alot of payroll.

In 2010 the Padres have salary committed to just Young and Gonzalez. Of the players likely to be coming back, only Bell, Kouzmanoff, Correia, Baek and Adams are arbitration eligible players. The rest of the players are either on one year deals or are not eligible for arbitration.

The way I see it that leaves the Padres with a Payroll of about $25 - 26 million.

• $11 million for Chris Young and Adrian Gonzalez.
• About $6.5 million for Bell, Kouzmanoff and the other arbitrration eligibles.
• About $2 - $2.5 million to bring back Eckstein and Gaudin.
• and $7.2 million for 16 guys at or about the major league minimum like:
  Headley, Hundley, Cabrera, Gwynn, Blanks, Venable, Latos, Stuaffer, Burke, Gregerson, Mujica, Perdomo, Gallagher, and now Richard and Poreda.

We will probably still see Kouzmanoff traded in the off season and with the pickup of a mid level free agent outfielder or two, the Padres would be set and still be under $35 million.

Bring on 2010.

Peavy Traded To White Sox!

Thursday May 21, 2009

Jake Peavy Traded to the Chicago White Sox!

Corey Brock of MLB.com is reporting that Jake Peavy of the San Diego Padres has been traded to the Chicago White Sox. The trade is contingent on Peavy waiving his no trade clause.

Its rumored that the Padres would be recieving just 4 pitching prospects. 2007 1st round draft pick Aaron Poreda, Clayton Richard, and two other low level prospects.

The 22 year old Poreda is a power throwing lefty drafted 25th overall in 2007 out of the University of San Francisco. He is currently pitching for the White Sox AA farm team in Birmingham. He has a high 90's fastball that occasionally hits 100, but has had problems developing his breaking stuff.

Richard is a control pitcher with a good sinker. In the past you would have called him a "Padres type" pitcher. Nothing overpowering, just around the plate and makes guys miss with pitch placement and changing speeds. He projects as a #4-#5 type starter.

Now this deal is far from a done deal. According to Buster Olney of ESPN, Peavy's agent Barry Axelrod expressed doubt to Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com that Peavy would accept the deal. Peavy has made clear his desire to stay in the National League.

"If I had to make a bet on it, I would guess that Jake would say he's not ready to take that step today,'' Axelrod said. "But he wouldn't necessarily preclude it at any time in the future.

"We aren't hiding anything from anybody. Jake has a strong preference to stay in the National League. He has a comfort zone there, he's been successful, and he's won a Cy Young Award. I don't know that on May 21, that preference has eroded very much. From our point of view we may say, 'Let's give (the Padres) more time and see if a National League team might step up over the next six weeks.'

''If this were any one of three or four other teams and they called about him, Jake would jump at it. He would be willing. They know who they are. They know that certain places are more enticing to him.''

Tom Krasovic of the Union Tribune is also reporting that Peavy is not likely to accept the trade.

With the names mentioned so far it seems like a mighty light deal for one of the top 10 starters in the game. Especially considering the 5-1 deal the Diamondbacks gave up for Dan Haren and the 5-2 deal the Marinerspaid for a one year for Erik Bedard.

If the Padres do not recieve Gordon Beckham as part of the deal, many will be calling for Moorad's head in the days to come.

Time will tell what happens. Stay tuned.