From one Cub-killer to the next....
Well the A's have filled thier catching hole, pending physicals on all parties, with former all-star Jason Kendall while basically losing nothing in the deal. They giving up Arthur Rhodes, someone who broke down last year and was making too much money that the A's wanted to get rid of, and Mark Redman, who the A's also wanted to get rid of and can be replaced by any one of the starters imminent of reaching the majors in their system. There will be money exchanged in the deal, with A's sending a million or two to Pittsburg this year and the Pirates picking up half of Kendall's $13.5 million salary in 2007.
No matter what you say Billy Beane always seems to get his guy, usually discarding junk which he doesn't want in his system either. Despite the fact of Moneyball, GM's still seem to be more than willing to give this guy what he wants, and I just cannot figure it out, but kudos to him.
Now to the main point of this deal, Jason Kendall was a real Cub-killer during his career as a Pirate and I am happy to see him sent packing. However, Mark Redman has been an even bigger Cub-killer in his carrer and the prospect of facing him possibly 6 times next year does not bode well. Not including one game in the NLCS of 2003 Redman has completely shut down the Cubs over his carrer against them, including arguably his best pitching performance of last year in a 8 inning, zero earned run performance against the Cubs in interleague play.
Main point 1A in this deal also has me a little upset...the Pirates keep trading away guys that I believe can actually look like Pirates. If you put a black or red pirate looking bandana and some hoop earrings on Kendall or Aramis Ramirez while they were with the Pirates, i think they could be bonafide Pirate looking. Think about Jack Wilson with an eye-patch and a parrot on his left shoulder....good god he would be a freakin' Pirate. And he is the lone one left on the team now. So sad, they're entire team should have guys looking like pirates......
posted by Herboturbo @ 11/26/2004 02:32:00 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
JZang....Unless Redman returns to form in 2003, which would appear to be his outlier year carrer-wise so far, the Pirates got taken in this deal, which tends to happen whenever Beane has been involved in a trade. If you can point out where I gave Beane the credit behind Oaklands success I'll give you the point, but all I say is despite Moneyball (collaborating with your point) he still gets what he wants in deals without giving up nearly as much in return. Beane is out from under a big contract for a broken down reliever and got rid of a pitcher who is a no.3 at best for what is one of the few all-around catchers in the game right now...and he got the Pirates to pick up half of Kendalls tab in 2 years. To me, this deal seems prett lop-sided, which was my point, not that Beane was the creator of an Oakland mini-dynasty. He got lucky that those three players were in the system, but the majority of his trades have consistently been swindles. We will start to see what kind of real talent evaulator he is since his drafted prospects that he has not traded are now starting to hit the majors (Bobby Crosby, Nick Swisher, Rich Harden, Joe Blanton, Huston Street, etc.) with the departure of guys he cannot afford to resign.
This does not change the fact that Redman is still a Cub-killer, much like Joe Mays was the Sox-killer when he still pitched.
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