Rangers - Acquired McCarthy
Texas Rangers - Acquired P Brandon McCarthy and OF David Paisano from the Chicago White Sox for P John Danks, P Nick Masset, and P Jacob Rasner.
Quite a gutsy move by Kenny Williams, trading the young pitcher that was guaranteed the #5 spot in the rotation. While I don’t think McCarthy was very well suited to such a homer-prone park, I’m not sure if this was the best move for him. You already have 4 pretty durable starters - why not try to shore up the outfield a bit?
Despite a lot of press, he definitely needs another full year at AAA - honestly, I think that Thomas Diamond is more ready than Danks is. Masset, however, I believe will beat the projection below and be a solid reliever pretty soon. He’s got a nice sinker and will have a nice White Sox defense behind him, a good combination for a big step forward.
McCarthy probably isn’t terribly well-suited to Texas, either - he’ll still allow a lot of home runs there. He could really come into his own in a bigger stadium, getting a bigger-than-usual boost from somewhere like Petco. Maybe the Padres can steal another young pitcher from the Rangers for magic beans after 2007?
Paisano and Rasner are both a long ways off. Paisano looks now that he might be a leadoff-type, but he just turned 19 and hasn’t played above the Venezuelan Summer League yet.
2007 ZiPS Projections
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Player W L G GS IP H ER HR BB SO ERA
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Danks 7 15 32 31 176 205 123 43 68 127 6.29
Masset 8 10 39 23 168 186 99 24 69 112 5.30
McCarthy 7 8 40 17 143 145 76 25 38 118 4.78
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Dan Szymborski
Posted: December 25, 2006 at 01:37 AM |
29 comment(s)
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1. Dewey, Steven Wright Wannabe and Soupuss Posted: December 25, 2006 at 04:00 AM (#2268279)This move doesn't necessarily preclude that.
This move doesn't necessarily preclude that."
It does preclude Chicago trading McCarthy for outfield help, right?
But Danks is tradeable, as is Gio Gonzalez, Gavin Floyd, and Nick Masset.
What the White Sox need is an outfielder who can play a quality centerfield and hit at an above-league-average level. It didn't seem that anyone who had someone like that would have given him up for Brandon McCarthy, and Kenny Williams wasn't about to trade him for some castoff fourth outfielder just to fill a perceived hole.
Instead, the Rangers offered him what he saw as an upgrade, and he took it.
Just curious- would you have traded McCarthy for Lastings Milledge? That seems like a pretty perfect fit for both teams. McCarthy's HR problems would be mitigated by Shea, while Milledge could step right in and play CF for the Sox...
I'd strongly consider it, but I'm not sure that Kenny Williams would want to go into the season with a rookie centerfielder again, and I'm not even sure that Omar Minaya would go for that.
Maybe he called Kenny a pimp? Or maybe he's injured and Kenny is hoping to pull another fast one. Kenny!
The same thing applies - the White Sox need a multi-dimensional outfielder. Sure, Williams could probably have gotten, say, Adam Dunn for McCarthy, but is that really a better return than Danks and Masset? And that still only solves one-half of the equation, as they still need someone who can play good outfield defense in that case.
I don't see why in order to improve LF they need a multi-dimensional player. It doesn't take an All-Star to (significantly) better Scotty Pods. Adam Dunn would be a much better overall package than he is, but even if you grant the multi-dimensional stuff, a guy like Craig Monroe would seem easy enough to get. Not literally Monroe, but players of his sort for LF are not so rare.
Maybe not, but I haven't seen a player even rumored to be on the block that has that sort of skillset. I'm sure Williams did his due diligence and asked around after outfielders that he liked.
I would bet that Craig Monroe himself is available, or Marcus Thames. I just don't think that there is a fit between Detroit and Chicago.
Not only that, but Kenny Williams probably got a better package than either Monroe or Thames for McCarthy. If Dombrowski had traded either Monroe or Thames for Danks and Masset, everyone here would be crowing about how much of a genius he was.
I think what JRE is trying to say is the Sox need a LFer with more than one tool. And because Anderson is far from a sure thing to be a major league CFer, it the new LFer should also be able to play CF.
Not only that, but Kenny Williams probably got a better package than either Monroe or Thames for McCarthy. If Dombrowski had traded either Monroe or Thames for Danks and Masset, everyone here would be crowing about how much of a genius he was.
Maybe, but good trade analysis should evaluate the context at the time and the teams' needs. Net overall talent value in exchange is always the best measure of a trade, but other factors such as "did the team address a need or did the team trade from a position of oversupply?" also factor in.
Sure, but let's wait until April before we decide that Williams has left glaring holes in the team. As it stands, I don't believe in making suboptimal trades just to fill a perceived need unless it's absolutely necessary, and no trade is necessary in December.
Exactly. Bringing in a one-dimensional outfielder solves one problem. Bringing in a multi-dimensional outfielder solves multiple problems.
And I still think that, between Sweeney, Owens, and Anderson, there's at least one player capable of filling a hole, either in center or in left. Really, I think the Sox are one good outfielder away from being ready to go for 2007. But this is something that doesn't need to be resolved right this second, and again, I don't want to see a suboptimal trade (say, for Jacque Jones) just to put a band-aid over a hole.
When did Williams realize the White Sox have a hole in LF to fill? Realization necessarily comes before fulfillment.
Last season. Podsednik got less and less playing time as the season went on. I was shocked that they brought back Podsednik at all, but he's got to be on a very short leash, if he's with the team at all come April.
Apparently, at least according to himself, Brandon McCarthy neglected to work on his changeup in the minors, just mowing people down with the yakker. Of course, McCarthy was a scrounge-round draft pick trying to distinguish himself, Danks a top-ten "Can't Miss" being groomed.
Rangers fans should be very worried with McCarthy. His official excuse for being awful much of last year was he couldn't adjust to the bullpen. That makes me really skeptical as middle relief is usually regarded as being easier than starting -- I can't think of a relief pitcher being moved to starter on a team to get out of his funk, even on a hopeless losing team. Now he's moving to a park where every half-hit fly to right is a four-bagger; how long will it be before he's just nibbling at the outside corner with junk to try to survibe?
Was he for real in 2006, or at least before the staph infection? He'd be a near-perfect fit if that were the case.
When he had some time to get settled, whether starting or in long relief, he was capable at the very least. I'm optimistic about McCarthy. He gives up homers, but he had the lowest WHIP on the Sox staff for most of the year.
In general this is true - individually there are plenty of exceptions. Plenty of guys are better every 5th day in a routine than when they don't know if they are going to pitch or not on any given day.
He was basically pencilled into the fourth inning for every Buehrle start.
He was basically pencilled into the fourth inning for every Buehrle start.
If only Guillén ever had a quick hook...
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