Trade Review: Cowhide and Urban

Urban receives:

1B/2B/3B/OF Matt Carpenter STL

OF Nate Schierholtz CHC

16^th rounder

Cowhide receives:

OF Desmond Jennings TB

1B/3B/OF Todd Frazier

23^rd rounder

Interesting deal. Certainly, Carpenter has been the best player this year and was a great pick for Dave in the 19^th (or 13^th) round. The stats say Dan is definitely getting the better side of the deal, but the promise lies with Dave. This is particularly true for Jennings, who has undeservedly been a perennial keeper despite his lack of on base skills. However, it’s the 20/40 potential everyone has waited for and its shown glimpses of showing up this season, particularly in the power department. Though it seems like he’s been around forever, he’s still just 26 so there’s reason to believe he will improve.  Certainly, he provides some category juice potential that makes this a smart move for Dave. Frazier is tough to love. He had a great first month or so, but has really struggled to be consistent. He’s had a pretty good past month and has great power upside but I think he may have been a little too hyped for his own good. Certainly the eligibility at several positions is a benefit.

I don’t mind the move for Dan either, as Carpenter has proven able to be a very effective on base guy, getting on at a .397 clip, with a stellar 60 runs and 7 homers from a multitude of positions. Ideally, the optimal use for a guy like this would be to have a solid option at 2B so you could move him around at will and realize the true value of his flexibility. Schierholtz has a nice overall ranking but he’s just a guy you use when he’s streaking and dump when he’s not. The seven round upgrade with Carpenter makes this a safe but solid deal for Dan, who can again improve on his middle infield – Carpenter/Rutledge is a massive improvement over KJohnson/Crawford. And he has Marte, BUpton, DBrown and Bryce coming back for OFs, so Jennings really was not needed. The problem now being that he has no 1B. Itd be tough to use Carpenter there since you’re sort of losing his positional value, but the waiver options aren’t great either.

Good deal overall. I believe Dave will see the most benefit from it initially, but the seven round upgrade is significant for next season and Carpenter could very well play his way to keeper consideration.