A Good Old-Fashioned Trade

When Detroit sent their portly vegetarian first-baseman to Arlington yesterday for keystoner Ian Kinsler, each team got a fielder. The Rangers got Prince, a 30-year-old basher with on-base skills and seven years of lottery winnings left on his contract. The Tigers got a 32-year-old second baseman with mad leather skills, a nice bat and quick feet on the basepaths.

It's a straight-up deal, a star for a star. And the big winner is, Jurickson Profar. The Rangers' second base uber-prospect can now step out of Kinsler's shadow and demonstrate his skills. At 20, he spent half-a-season showing he belonged in The Show despite bouncing among positions like a yoga instructor.

For that reason, this deal makes sense for Texas. Their Kinsler money lands Fielder, who replaces the steroid-pumped bat of free agent Nelson Cruz, and Profar cushions the blow at second. Their big concern is the $138 million they'll owe their new slugger through his age-36 year. Fielder comes off a down season and four years of declining walks. But as Ranger GM Jon Daniels noted, Prince is untouchable without the down season. And the walks may be an artifact of batting behind the league's MVP: the other team can't walk both of them.

With this trade, the Tigers get all the colors straight on their Rubik's cube, even though Kinsler's peak ended in 2011. Absent 32-year-old free agent Omar Infante, they had a big black hole facing them at the keystone and a logjam of big-boned DH types playing the field. The swap allows them to limit Miguel Cabrera's damage with the glove by rolling his spherical self back to first, add hitting and base stealing at second and find a third baseman who can actually play the hot corner. That's prospect Nick Castellanos raising his hand out there in left field.

Kinsler has $62 million coming through his age 36 season, plus $30 million the team is sending to Texas to offset some of Fielder's pay. (That figure is already included in the amount the Rangers will owe Fielder.) He is also damaged goods following a season with the fewest walks, worst base-stealing and lowest OPS of his career. That said, he was credited with 4.9 wins against replacement, which is basically All-Star level. The Tigers took on much less risk and improved their feng shui by moving the parts to their correct places.

It would be great to see more of these kinds of trades and fewer salary dumps, veterans for prospects deals and headache swaps. It's one trade we'll be able to look back on and determine who got the better of it.

Inflicting Pain With the Leather

Don't blame Prince Fielder.

The Big Vegetarian is scoffing down collard greens in Detroit these days, but that's not the reason his former team, last season's NL Central Division champs, is being lapped by the pretenders in Houston and Pittsburgh.

The Milwaukee Brewers deserve the 18-26 spanking they've received from Major League Baseball this year, after wining 94 a year ago. Despite the off-season departure of 275 pounds of slugging, the Brewers continue to rake, tallying 4.34 runs per game, fifth in the senior circuit.

The problem with the Brewers is the pitching. Check out these two high-priced noodle-arms in the rotation:

Shaun Marcum: 2-3, 3.93 ERA 19BB/49K

Zack Greinke: 5-1, 2.70 ERA 12BB/59/K

Whoops! Looks like those two are delivering like email. But the rest of the rotation is pure spam. Consider these in a 3.95 ERA league:

Yovani Gallardo: 2-4, 4.62 ERA 25BB/48K

Randy Wolf  2-4, 6.02 ERA  21BB/29K

Marco Estrada  0-3, 4.50 ERA  7BB/34K

The bullpen is even worse, leaving the team with a 4.48 ERA. That's nearly a full run worse than last year. You can't blame the former first baseman for that. 

You can't blame Fielder for the decline in Fielding either. He contributed less than the racing kielbasa on defense last season. (You never sausage a lousy glove man.)

 

In just 44 games, the Beermakers have cost themselves 27 runs afield, according to Baseball-Reference's Zone Fielding metric. That's about three losses on the defense alone, compared to two wins in 2011. Since the team is third in the Majors in avoiding errors, that can only mean they have all the mobility of a derrick crane. Can't blame Cecil's kid for that. The tatooed first basespheroid actually cost the team six runs with the leather in 2011.

Milwaukee gave up a lot of future talent for Greinke and Marcum, but they can't do it alone. They need some defensive help -- in the field, behind them in the rotation and after them in late innings. They proved last season that they have the talent; they just need to begin showing it before the woebegone Cubs catch them.

b

He's A Prince But He's No Fielder

Time for all you Detroit Tiger fans to practice your cartwheels -- an athletic act that Prince Fielder, Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez can't replicate.

I know the folks in Motown are atwitter over the Murder's Row -- or duo, for now -- of Fielder and Cabrera in the wake of the nine-year, $214 million signing of Cecil's son. No doubt, that's some formidable pop in the middle of the lineup. You might say it's . . . sizable.

My hatred for this signing is sizable too. You might say Prince Fielder-sized.

Prince Fielder is a certified stud with the wood. The length of the commitment and the outlay required is not the problem; it's the cost of signing a 28-year-old, top-five slugger. The problem is that the Tigers have to take the field every half inning, and in that vein, they now have three Hummers in a gas-conscious world. Detroit plans to play Fielder at first and Cabrera at third and Jhonny Peralta at short. They might as well stick Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and Jose Feliciano in the outfield because that is one ghastly defensive team.

At 275 pounds, Cabrera has all the mobility of a sofa-sleeper. Sixty pounds ago he staffed the hot corner for Florida -- in much the same way that Capt. Francesco Schettino "staffed" the Costa Concordia. His attempts to snare groundballs beyond arms length in 2012 will either be comic or tragic, depending on how hard you root for the White Sox.

In addition, he and Peralta (and keystoner Ryan Raburn) had better make good throws to first, because Fielder is ironically named. At 260 pounds himself, Fielder will be Cabrera's doppelganger across the infield. It won't get any better when V-Mart returns from a torn ACL -- probably next year -- because that guarantees at least two of the trio will have to play the field if the third DHs.

In short, Detroit now has three scary sluggers, but all three play the same defensive position -- none. Add to that a pitching staff that includes a Cy Young winner who is nearly certain to regress and a supporting cast that boasts Doug Fister and three guys whose records masked their mediocrity last year.

Sure, the Tigers will hit, but they won't catch and they won't run (49 steals last year and Austin Jackson had 22 of them) and their suspect pitching won't get any help. This combination of parts has Edsel written all over it and it's not due for an upgrade until V-Mart's contract expires in three years. Prince Fielder is a great pickup -- but not for this team.

b

An Homage to Ed Wade

And so draws the curtain on the December finals-time hiatus...

The Hot Stove percolates more actively this millennium and with more onlookers. Some observations:

The Braves offered their impressive relief tandem of Rafael Soriano and Mike Gonzalez arbitration, knowing they wouldn't accept, and then reeled in Billy Wagner and Takashi Saito with reasonable one-year deals. The applecart overturned when Soriano cheated Atlanta of the draft picks by accepting arbitration. Keeping all three, while not the worst idea if you're New England's team, or Orange County's, is cost prohibitive for the Braves. But I'm surprised by the bag of chips they got in return for Soriano, especially considering how badly Atlanta needs hitting.

Chief Nakahoma barely broke a sweat last year celebrating Brave home runs, and Chipper isn't getting and more chipper as the years pile on. (Join the club, Larry.) Atlanta's usually deft GM, Frank Wren, should be able to parlay his unique pitching surplus for a couple of guys who can swing the bat pretty much anywhere but shortstop or catcher. I don't know why he didn't dangle Soriano as bait for such. Word on the street is that he's willing to part with Javier Vazquez or Derek Lowe. Perhaps one of those guys for a proven slugger like Josh Hamilton or a group of positional prospects.

-----------------

Time for the yang on all the Yankee-bemoaning yin:

For all their significant advantages, the Yankees certainly haven't skimped on the brass. Brian Cashman has once again cranked the machinery on a three-way deal that brings to the Bronx something for nothing. In relinquishing prospects Austin Jackson, Phil Coke and Ian Kennnedy, and middle reliever Brian Bruney, to fill their single biggest major league need -- center field -- Cashman has improved his club without sacrifice. Curtis Granderson is young, affordable (as if that matters) and valuable on both sides of the ball. The prospect status of Jackson, Coke and Kennedy had begun running out and Bruney is an inter-changeable part. Kennedy alone among that group might have delivered value to the Yankees, but unlikely the value -- tomorrow -- that Granderson will deliver.

The move has a second benefit for NY: it moves Melky Cabrera and Brett Gardner into part-time, defensive replacement, pinch runner roles for which they are better-suited. It also leaves the Yankee minor league cupboard almost completely bare, but when has that been a problem?

We can whine all we like about Steinbrenner domination of MLB world, but if all it took to get Granderson were these guys and some imagination, any team could have swung the deal. Credit Cashman for getting there first.

-----------------------------

The Brewers should consider trading Prince Fielder.

There, I said it. Milwaukee isn't positioned to contend in the next two years, not with that pitching staff, and they won't be able to afford the portly basher when he hits the free agent market. His body type and fielding challenges suggest a rapid drop-off in his 30s, so why not package him following a gargantuan year for a couple of major league pitchers, which would be one more than they currently sport. The Beerman's two best starters in '09 were Yovani Gallardo and "ppd. rain."

They have to find someone to overvalue Fielder, i.e., someone who believes his future value is reflected in his present line of .299/.412/.602, 46 home runs. For just these situations God created people like Ed Wade, the general manager who just spent $15 million on a middle reliever, apparently unaware that his roster in Houston boasts a grand total of five, mostly overpaid, Major League position players. It is the Ed Wades of baseball on whom competent GMs like Doug Melvin feast, and it's time for a little Thanksgiving in Milwaukee.

Not that I'm suggesting that Melvin pursue a deal with Houston. Other than Wandy Rodriguez, I don't know what the Astros could offer the Brewers, and I'm not sure they would part with their only above-average, below-35 pitcher. In fact, the Astros' roster probably comprises the worst combination of ability and age in the majors, so I'm not sure they could be anyone's trading partner, though I suspect there's some wool that Theo Epstein or Andrew Friedman (Tampa Bay) could pull over their eyes. Maybe Wade would like another aged star for Hunter Pence or Michael Bourne.

-----------------

You haven't heard much about the Metropolitans this off-season and the reason is clear: no one knows what they have. If their three injured superstars return good as new, the Mets are a player in the NL East, not withstanding their pitching woes. But if David Wright's mystical power outage persists, Jose Reyes loses a quarter-of-a-step and Carlos Beltran begins sliding down Father Time's greasy slope, it could be a long and painful decade in Queens.

Assuming some kind of return to normalcy, the Mets can probably win with their current lineup, even if it's not firing on all cylinders. The mound corps needs an overhaul, but it's important that the Mets don't pile more leaden contracts into a team station wagon already in need of a tune-up. The question is whether the help they need for Johan Santana comes in the form of a refurbished Pelfrey and Maine or outside assistance.

If I were Omar Minaya, I'd lay in the weeds this off-season, strategically inking some inexpensive B-level deals to bolster the staff while moving a year closer to sloughing off the more burdensome contracts. That will give the brass a season to assess their team and a better free agent landscape in which to get busy next year. If that means another poor performance in '10, at least it's not a drain on future flexibility.

That's it for now. I'll have more Hot Stove musings between semesters as things develop.

b