Writings on baseball by Matt Barnard and Dan Stein.

 
There wasn't an update yesterday (though the days are a bit misleading, as we tend to post in the wee hours of the morning), which I'll take the blame for. I fully intend to get more than one post up today to cover the continuing Winter Meetings in Nashville, as I expect we'll be hearing some news from there. That said, I'll get to what we do know so far.

Todd Walker to the Red Sox for Tony Blanco, Josh Thigpen
I don't get it. It's pretty clear that Tony Blanco, as big a prospect as he was (he's now been downgraded a bit) doesn't fit in with the new Red Sox organizational philosophy (6 walks, 70 strikeouts, .250 OBP in A ball). And it's pretty clear that he's now well behind Kevin Youkilis in terms of who the organization envisions at third base in the near future. But it seems to me that could you still probably get more for Tony Blanco. Of course I don't work in a major league front office and I'm not a scout, maybe there's something about him that I'm totally unaware of. But in a system as weak as the Red Sox have, I find it hard to believe that they can afford to give up two of their top 9 prospects (according to the excellent theprospectreport.com) to fill a position that's already got someone waiting to step into it. As I've got a lot of faith based on what I've heard so far in Mr. Epstein, I have to assume he's got something else up his sleeve. But why you'd spend some of your minimal young talent to bring in 30 year old Todd Walker when you've got the never-been-more-ready, 25 year old Freddy Sanchez in the organization already is a bit confusing to me.

From the Reds' standpoint, it makes even less sense. While there's reason to (at the very least) give Epstein the benefit of the doubt at the beginning of his tenure as Red Sox GM, there's no apparent plan at work for the Reds other than cutting payroll. Todd Walker was a very solid, reasonably priced second baseman for them last year and there's little reason to think he wouldn't be again. Unlike the Red Sox, there's no one in the Cincinnati organization ready to step in and take that job. Now while it's possible they'll look to free agency to find a cheap solution, the rumored fix is transplanting third baseman Brandon Larson. While this might work out if he can handle the position defensively, it still doesn't explain why the trade was made. This is an organization that already has Russell Branyan and Aaron Boone at third, as well as an established first baseman (Sean Casey) and young, excellent corner outfielders (Adam Dunn and Austin Kearns). Obtaining a prospect of Tony Blanco's caliber (particularly at a position where you are stacked at the major league level) and a pitching prospect (albeit a decent one) for an established player on the level of Todd Walker just doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

A confusing deal on both sides, I fully expect to see more action from both teams this week.
posted by VZW Watcher at 3:19 AM -