Rangers - Acquired Hamilton

Texas Rangers - Acquired CF Josh Hamilton from the Cincinnati Reds for P Edinson Volquez and P Danny Ray Herrera.

Interesting trade this one was, definitely out of the blue.  There are huge upsides and downsides on each side, particularly on the Rangers side.

The upsdie for the Rangers is pretty obvious.  Josh Hamilton was a hot prospect for a reason and when healthy, was terrific for the Reds.  Hamilton’s problem, however, is a number of reasons that have kept him off the baseball field over the last decade.  In the event that Josh Hamilton gets on the field, he’s the most talented centerfielder (assuming you don’t consider Juan Gonzalez one for his early days) in Ranger history - one cannot watch Hamilton play a few games in baseball and not love watching him play.  Catching a handful of Reds games is enough to unleash the exuberance, both rational and irrational!

Volquez is the safer player here and when the hard-throwing pitching prospect with command issues is the safer bet, you know you’re dealing with some big uncertainties.  The man with the destined-to-be-misspelled-a-lot first name has electric stuff, but knowing what to do with it can sometimes be an issue for him.  If you think command isn’t important, just ask General Burnside.  He may end up becoming a reliever, and a good one too.  That leaves Daniel Herrera, an interesting relief prospect - an extreme groundballer who has this funky changeup-screwball-sinker thing that batters just hit straight down.  I always like guys with interesting pitches, especially when those pitches exist and the pitchers in question actually throw them.

Can’t really complain about this trade either way as I love everybody involved in the trade.  It’s really just a question of two organizations deciding which risks they can accept at which positions for what upside.  OK, that’s a bit weaselly, but the players in this trade are risky enough that the odds of this entry coming back to haunt me, with people linking this entry with HAHA YOU SUCK (see Soriano trade) are extremely high.

2008 ZiPS Projection - Josh Hamilton
—————————————————————————————————————————————————

              AB   R    H  2B 3B  HR RBI  BB  SO  SB    BA   OBP   SLG   OPS+  RAR  DR   WMV ($M)
—————————————————————————————————————————————————

Projection   334  47   94  17  1  17  53  33  69   6  .281  .349  .491   115    15   4      6.23 
—————————————————————————————————————————————————

Opt. (15%)   371  61  115  23  2  23  82  42  70   9  .310  .383  .569   144    37   8   

Pes. (15%)   233  27   58  10  0  10  37  19  56   3  .249  .307  .421    88     1   1 
—————————————————————————————————————————————————

Top Offensive Comps:  Jim Edmonds, Mack Jones, Roy Hobbs

2008 ZiPS Projection - Edinson Volquez
————————————————————————————————————————

            W   L   G  GS   IP    H   ER  HR  BB  SO   ERA  ERA+  RAR  WMV ($M)
————————————————————————————————————————

Projection 10  14  33  33  178  188  103  31  77 141  5.21   89     8    2.7  
————————————————————————————————————————

Opt. (15%) 13  12  34  34  191  183   87  25  65 166  4.10  113    33  

Pes. (15%)  6  14  28  28  147  175  101  29  69 105  6.18   75    -9 
————————————————————————————————————————

Top Comps:  Rich Dobson, Catfish Hunter

No Herrera projection yet since my internet is craptacular at the moment.