Mariners - Acquired Langerhans

Seattle Mariners - Acquired OF Ryan Langerhans from the Washington Nationals for UT Mike Morse.

I both love and hate challenge trades.  Without the imbalances in position, contract, or short and long-term goals, I get the benefit of generally being able to declare a winner.  This is more fun to write than a wishy-washy entry about how both teams did OK and got what they needed.  The downside, of course, is that there aren’t a lot of outs if I’m wrong.

In this case, I give the win to the Mariners.  Morse is a useful player, but he’s no great shakes defensively and the Nats really need some better gloves.  This is what makes the trading of Langerhans so puzzling as he is an extremely accomplished defensive player at the corners and did everything he could the last 1.5 years to erase the memory of a horrific 2007 campaign.  Some analysts in favor of this trade have suggested that Langerhans can replace Chavez’s performance.  They’re wrong; Langerhans is probably better than Chavez.  Chavez is unlikely to come even within sniffing distance of 2006’s .779 OPS and will most likely stay under .700 for the rest of his career.  As good as Chavez is defensively, Langerhans matches him.

The M’s still aren’t going anywhere with an abysmal two-man offense, but this is still a good move.  The team wasn’t going to get a huge bat for Morse.  Given the hand Jack Zdurien…Zduren…Jones was dealt, he qualifies for sainthood just for resisting the temptation to send most of the offense to Darfur on a goodwill trip and “forget” to arrange the return flight.

2009 ZIPS Projection - Ryan Langerhans
——————————————————————————————————————

                AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB   BA  OBP  SLG
——————————————————————————————————————

Year-to-Date   210   29   52  14   0   7   32   24   53   6 .248 .328 .414

Rest-of-Year   177   26   43  10   1   5   22   26   51   4 .244 .343 .394
——————————————————————————————————————

Total          387   55   95  24   1  12   54   50  104  10 .246 .335 .405

Totals include minor-league translations, if applicable.

2009 ZIPS Projection - Michael Morse
——————————————————————————————————————

                AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB   BA  OBP  SLG
——————————————————————————————————————

Year-to-Date   261   29   70  10   0   7   38   15   53   0 .268 .318 .387

Rest-of-Year   178   20   47  10   0   4   23   11   32   1 .265 .312 .382
——————————————————————————————————————

Total          439   49  117  20   0  11   61   26   85   1 .267 .316 .385

Year-to-date totals include minor-league translations, if applicable.