I’ll break down the trades that went down today for a quick minute and also spend a little time complimenting the Pittsburgh Pirates. Hey, I ripped them when they made bad deals so they deserve credit when they do well…<\/p>\n
Cliff Lee to the Phillies<\/strong><\/p>\n This deal makes all the sense in the world for both teams. The Phillies get the top of the rotation starter they desperately needed – especially for the playoffs – and the Indians trade Lee while his value is at its highest.<\/p>\n Would the 2010 Tribe be better with Lee? Sure, but\u00c2\u00a0they’re not building for 2010. They’re looking to 2011 and beyond, which is why V-Mart may be moved here soon as well.The Indians get a good SS-3B bat in Jason Donald, a decent catcher in Lou Marson, an underachiever with talent in Carlos Carrasco and a teenage giant with a howitzer of an arm in Jason Knapp. Not a bad haul. Donald looks like he could be a decent regular, Marson strikes me as a #2 catcher, Carrasco could be a steal and Knapp is the long-term project with top of the rotation (or back of the bullpen) stuff. Very nicely done.<\/p>\n The Phillies get their ace and a nice bat off the bench in Ben Francisco. Deal makes sense all around.<\/p>\n Freddy Sanchez to the Giants<\/strong><\/p>\n I get why the Giants would want Sanchez – he’s better than anything else they have in the middle infield and it’s not even close – but I don’t get how they were swindled into moving Tim Alderson for him. That’s just too high a price to pay for a good contact hitter with no power or speed.<\/p>\n It’s not a franchise killer because the G-Men have several young aces left in the system to go with Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain, it just seems like they were bidding against themselves.<\/p>\n Giving up a Top 50 prospect for a contact hitting middle infielder seems a bit much but if the Giants make the playoffs then MAYBE it will have been worth it. Maybe, but I doubt it.<\/p>\n Sweet move by the Pirates that makes up for their bad deals earlier on.<\/p>\n I’ll give the Giants a little bit of a mulligan on this one because I really liked the Ryan Garko pick up. Nice move, underrated player who might bust lose if given another shot to play every single day.<\/p>\n Jack Wilson to the Mariners<\/strong><\/p>\n Here’s where I pay homage to the Pirates. What is the attraction to Wilson? He’s a slick fielder and all that but, I mean, there are lots of those guys around. Wilson’s a good player, don’t get me wrong, he just makes too much money for what he does.<\/p>\n In the deal the Mariners also get Ian Snell, a talented pitcher who is worth the risk in my opinion, so it’s not a completely bad deal for them. Moving Ronny Cedeno is neither here nor there but I am\u00c2\u00a0a bit surprised they gave up on Jeff Clement. I know Clement never clicked in the bigs but he’s a nice pickup for the Buccos. Could be their first baseman next year…Aaron Pribanic is a 22 year-old right hander with some size (6’4″ 200) who was having moderate success in Low-A. Brett Lorin is also 22 and is even bigger (6’7″ 245), plus he was having more success than Pribanic at Low-A\u00c2\u00a0and has some strikeout ability. Nathan Adcock is 21 years-old, 6’5″ and was struggling at High-A.<\/p>\n Somehow the Pirates got more quality for Wilson and Snell than they did for Nate McLouth. No matter, they’ve made up for the poor trades earlier.<\/p>\n Getting that foursome, along with Alderson, and a hitter with some power potential for two “ok” middle infielders is fantastic.<\/p>\n Nice job, Buccos. I ripped you when you made bad deals so it’s only fair to pat you on the back when you load up on talent with two other deals.<\/p>\n Kevin Wheeler is the host of Sports Open Line (M-F 7-9 PM ET) on News Radio 1120, KMOX in St. Louis (<\/em><\/strong>www.kmox.com<\/em><\/strong><\/font><\/a>) and he is a baseball instructor with All-Star Performance (<\/em><\/strong>www.all-starperformance.net<\/em><\/strong><\/font><\/a>) and the St. Louis Gamers (<\/em><\/strong>www.stlgamers.net<\/em><\/strong><\/font><\/a>). You can reach him via e-mail at <\/em><\/strong>thebaseballgods@gmail.com<\/em><\/strong><\/font><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ll break down the trades that went down today for a quick minute and also spend a little time complimenting the Pittsburgh Pirates. Hey, I ripped them when they made bad deals so they deserve credit when they do well…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":236,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t