Writings on baseball by Matt Barnard and Dan Stein.

 
Couple of things to discuss tonight. First and foremost, I'd like to thank those of you who have been coming here via the link at the dump's main site. I certainly hope you've been enjoying the content we've been providing. My intention is to ultimately do a bit more than just offer opinions on the news of the day, but also write pieces on other baseball-related topics (there will be some discuss of Hall of Fame candidates soon, for example). Anyway, if you're coming to this site from outside, I encourage you to go check out the work over on the dump's main site (there's a link to the left) and let us know what you think of it. On to baseball matters...

The biggest news of the day (or yesterday) Dan covered pretty well, that being the trade of Ryan Drese and Einar Diaz to the Rangers for Aaron Myette and Travis Hafner. It has been pretty clear to just about everyone in the sabermetic community that Hafner is and has been major league ready for a little while now, and this is a terrific deal for the Indians. Myette - Drese is at the very worst a wash, and Einar Diaz was going to be useless (he was pretty useless anyway) with the Indians having Vic Martinez ready to step in and catch everyday. This is not going to be a contending team in 2003, and they're much better off throwing young players into starting jobs and letting them develop than retaining old, unproductive garbage like Diaz. Travis Hafner, projected very modestly, should be an above-average major league first baseman based on his numbers at AAA. He's not Jim Thome, but he's a hell of a lot cheaper, and he's a much better first baseman that Indians fans had any right to expect for the coming season. John Hart's pattern of trading young offensive players for mediocrity (in this case, worse) continues. How long til we see guys like Blalock, Mench and Teixeira leave Arlington? Time will tell.

So the question now on everyone's minds is: where does this leave Pudge? The Rangers have elected not to offer him arbitration, so the thinking is that his career in Texas is over (it is). So where does he go from here? The team I've heard most commonly mentioned is the Cubs, but having just acquired Damian Miller and Paul Bako (though he's not that important here), I find it pretty difficult to believe. While Rodriguez is unquestionably better than Miller, they're both legitimate starting catchers and would be redundant on the same roster. So who else needs a catcher and can afford him, even for a one year, make good contract? I'm going to throw a few teams out there. Why not the Tigers? Having just moved in the fences at Comerica, they could certainly use a guy who could capitalize on that and draw some crowds. Are they willing to pony up the necessary cash? Would Pudge be willing to go to a horrible team (again)? I don't know. The Tigers, being an American League team with minimal talent, also have the DH to use him at to reduce the wear on him. And of course, they've got Brandon Inge to back him up, potentially. Why not the Giants? They've presumably got some money if Jeff Kent leaves town, and they'll need another bat behind Bonds. Benito Santiago can't be viewed as a long term answer, and the combination of he and Pudge catching (with the two of them playing some first as well with JT Snow) would be a huge improvement to the lineup. And what about the Orioles, who were mentioned quite a bit at the beginning of the offseason? Clearly not contenders, but a lineup in which Pudge could star and really boost his value again, possibly even by July 31. This'll be a really interesting story to watch going forward.

If I were Bill Stoneman, I'd consider giving Mr. Rodriguez a call. But that's just me.
posted by VZW Watcher at 2:15 AM -