Trade Review: Napalm and Anal

S. Napalm receives:

SP Mike Minor ATL

C Brian McCann NYY

22^nd rounder

AHershiser receives:

C Alex Avila DET

SP Josh Collmenter ARI

16^th rounder

Nothing like a good Sexual/Anal deal. These are no doubt upgrades to Mike’s squad, but these are not the same guys who were deemed keepers before the season. Minor has been dreadful and put up another stinker the day before the trade was executed. His BABIP is .358, 59 points higher than his career average, and his xFIP is 3.69 (ERA is 5.32), so there’s some luck issues going on here. But, man, he’s a hard guy to keep rolling out there in a playoff hunt. Of course, so if Josh Collmenter. It’s been quite the decline for Minor, from being deemed a keeper, to being dealt for a fledgling Verlander, to being swapped for essentially three rounds. Meanwhile, his  former batterymate, McCann, has just been dreadful. I was certain he would flourish in New York, but he has most decidedly not flourished in anyway, with an OBP that is 50 points below his career average and an ISO (=power) that is 60  points below. Maybe its New York, maybe it’s the .258 BABIP (29 points below career), but he too has not been anywhere near keeper value. I expected 30 hr and 90 rbi with a .350 obp. That’s not happening, obviously.

All that said, its an upgrade for Mike across the board and he gave up very little to get it. Have to think Andrew might have done better by waiting until the open trading period to see if these guys improved. I certainly would’ve paid a lot more for Minor if he got hot. I wasn’t going to touch him now though. I give McCann a good probability to be much better, if not the superstar he has the potential to be. All in all, it’s a good investment for Mike but he does risk Minor blowing up his rates for a few weeks until he can get out of this funk.