Montezumas receives:
OF Shin Soo Choo CIN
SP Yovani Gallardo MIL
19th rounder
Napalm receives:
OF Hunter Pence SF
SP Jarrod Parker OAK
15th rounder
Ahhh, a nice controvercy. The trading season has officially started.
On the surface, Gallardo was a keeper and Choo was a first rounder, while Pence and Parkers were fifth rounders. Given the relatively minor pick upgrade, it looks like I did well. But below the surface is where it evens out a bit. Lets start with Pence/Choo. Both have been outstanding and rank among the top 30 players overall. The really unique thing about Pence is he's stolen seven bases and is on track for a 30/30 year. His history doesn't show that is likely (his high in 18 three years ago and he's never hit more than 25 dingers), but as a perennial 100 rbi guy, even a 25/20 season would be valuablee no matter what OBP he posts. While he rarely takes a night off, which is nice when managing a roster, his only middle-of-the-road numbers take a bit of a hit on a per-game basis. Regardless, he never should've last as long as he did in the draft and could be on his way to a career year in his age 30 season.
A unique aspect of the two offensive players is both Pence and Choo are free agents at the end of the year. While some believe that has little impact on the overall numbers, there have certainly been cases where it has. So far this season it looks like both are motivated. The nice thing about Choo is that, though he's unspectacular in most categories, he's a very capable contributor in all five, highlighted by a stellar OBP. Cincinnati is a nice lineup and park to be in, especially during the summer, so we could see Choo, also 30, post career numbers.
If you call those two a relative wash, you have to get down to the pitching and I honestly don't know what to expect. I do know I wanted -- in my exceptionally shitty position in all pitching categories -- to go with the track record of production. I picked up Parker last year and ultimately traded him away (ironically, to Troy) for Tim Hudson, but he was exceptional last year and very consistent with a high QS% (69.0%) and solid K rates. Mixed with a tremendous pedigree and large ballpark, I liked him enough to make him my #3 coming into the season. But make no mistake about it, he's sucked balls. He seemed to have lost his control and was being threatened with demotion at one point. His last few starts have been better, not great, but better. Gallardo meanwhile has also stunk, but in a most consistent way and with less Ks. While Parker's velocity has been the same, Gallardo seems to have lost something on the heater, which is a concern. He has actually been the worse pitcher the last two week. Still, 200 ks is nothing to sniff at and he's consistently there with a manageable 3.60 era and 1.30 whip, along with a bunch of QS (75.8% in 2013). I still like Parker and expect him to rebound, but I also think Gallardo will be the better pitcher this year. He's traditionally a slow starter and looking at game logs from 2012, his K numbers weren't great and in mid may his ERA was worse than it is now, at 5.04. He brought that down to 3.66 by season-end. Here's hoping he does the same.
In terms of the pick swap, the 15th round yielded a high of Buchholz and Fowler and lows of Ichiro and Porcello, while the 19th round produced E. Santana and Pettite but also gave us Buehrle and Ackley. Obviously, there's a difference in the high-level talent there, but there's some pretty hefty flops in both rounds as well. A good upgrade there for Mike.
As is typical, I'm not going to make a call on who won my own trade. I'd never make a trade I didn't think I won. As I've offered in the past, if you feel like taking over the reviews when it involves one of my trades, I'd love to hear perspective outside of my own. They don't have to be of any particular length. Let me know if you're interested.
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