Sunday, November 26, 2006

the Milwaukee/Arizona trade

So if you haven't heard of it there was a trade yesterday involving Milwauke and Arizona, a six player deal that is quite interesting and may be one of those trades where both sides win...

To Milwaukee:
Johnny Estrada: A 31 year old catcher who last season had an 91 OPS+ in over 100 games and had asked to be traded by Arizona when they wouldn't sign him long term. He had a VORP of 14.3 last season and will replace the aging Damian Miller as the everyday catcher.
Greg Aquino: A 29 year old reliever who last season had a 107 ERA+ in 48.3 IPs after horrible 2005 along with a VORP of 6.2.
Claudio Vargas: A 29 year old starting pitcher who last season had his highest ERA+ since his rookie year: 99 ERA+. He also had a career high 167.7 IP along with a VORP of 13.4.

To Arizona:
Doug Davis: A 31 year old starter who last season had a 91 ERA+ (lowest since first full season in Majors). He has pitched over 200 innings for 3 straight years, had a VORP of 18.8 and will be a free agent after this season.
Dana Eveland: A 23 year old LHP with a 55 ERA+ in 27.7 IPs in the Majors. He was much better in AAA with 2.73 ERA, 110 Ks in 105 IPs.
Dave Kryznel: A 26 year old CF, currently playing in AAA where he had a line of .213/.314/.359 with 23 stolen bases

I think there's a better chance that Milwaukee would get the better end of this deal than Arizona. Davis has been a good pitcher and they badly needed someone behind Brandon Webb but Vargas comes off a career season. Hopefully for them it's buy low (Davis), sell high (Vargas), however they could lose Davis after this season. Meanwhile, Estrada will be replaced by 25 year old Chris Snyder and a prospect. The prospects acquired in this deal weren't found in any top ten lists although Eveland seems interesting as a LOOGY and possibly more. This seems like a good baseball deal on all sides, the future will determine it...

  • JD Drew is close to being a Red Sox according to some sources
  • Look below for the first part of the Depodesta article about his trades in his 2 years as general manager. The second part should be posted tomorrow.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know Milwaukee wasn't going to be able to re-sign Davis, but surely they must have bigger needs than improving their catching tandem...?

Anonymous said...

Yeh, I was thinking the same...but Vargas isn't that bad a pitcher if he can pitch like last season. And who knows, they may know something about Davis that Arizona doesn't know

Anonymous said...

I think Davis is going to have trouble achieving the same kind of success he had with the Brewers.

But then again, it doesn't appear that he's EVER pitched in Arizona. I find that a bit odd.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/6299/splits?year=career&type=Pitching

Dan Julien said...

That is odd, Davis wasn't a great pithcer before finding himself in Milwaukee and he struggled at times last season. I actually really like this Milwaukee team, although now I think they're missing a starter. But the moves Melvin has made in the past year have looked good.