As you probably know by now, the Padres have traded Ben Davis, Wascar Serrano, and Alex Arias to the Seattle Mariners for Brett Tomko, Ramon Vazquez, Tom Lampkin, and $1 million.

My gut reaction on seeing this was close to horror. I still believe Davis is going to be a Mike Lieberthal type offensive player and one of the better defensive catchers in baseball. Wiki Gonzalez is a nice ballplayer, and it’s good to see him get a shot to start, but when all is said and done, he won’t be anywhere near what Davis will be. Long-term, the only legitimate catching prospects in the system are the intriguing but raw Omar Falcon and USD grad Greg Sain, who still is relatively new to the position.

His high error total as a rookie notwithstanding, I’m also not convinced of the need D’Angelo Jimenez off shortstop so soon. It goes without saying that Kevin Towers and his staff are better judges of baseball talent than I am but I liked Jimenez’ actions at shortstop. He appeared to move reasonably well to both sides; the biggest problem was his arm but I’m not sure it was a lack of strength so much as a lack of focus. He sailed a lot of easy throws where it looked like he just lost his concentration. At least that’s what it looked like to this observer.

Moving onto the other particulars, Serrano wasn’t going to start in San Diego so that’s not a great loss, although if he can keep the ball in the park, I believe he could be a Jose Paniagua type reliever. Still, a far cry from the #2 or #3 starter he was thought to be just a few years ago. I have mixed feelings about Tomko. On the one hand, he had some early success with the Reds. On the other, he’s done very little over the past three seasons. Over the course of his career, he’s gradually become more hittable while losing command. That’s not a good combination. If the Padres are lucky, he could be a late-model Dustin Hermanson, a #4 starter who can soak up a ton of league-average innings. I guess the one wildcard is that Tomko is a native San Diegan who apparently has been campaigning for a job with the Padres for 5 years. So maybe a return to SoCal will kick-start his career. I’m not overly optimistic but Towers has surprised me in the past so who knows.

As for Vazquez, he’s a bit old (25) for a guy just getting his first crack at the bigs and he doesn’t strike me as a player with a whole lot of offensive upside. But he’s supposedly very steady in the field, and steadiness on the infield is definitely something the Padres could use. I expect he’ll be a lot like Chris Gomez, and if that turns out to be the case, I’m sure the pitching staff will be very happy. John Sickels thinks "he can hit .275 with a nice on-base percentage." Basically, 1998 Gomez.

The interesting aspects of this trade are the ripple effect it causes within the organization. Short-term, the Padres will have a 100% turnover of their infield. Phil Nevin is replaced by Sean Burroughs at third, Jimenez by Vazquez at shortstop, Damian Jackson by Jimenez at second, and Ryan Klesko by Nevin at first. Okay, that’s really only 50% turnover, with the left side of the infield moving across the diamond.

Klesko moves to right field as anticipated, Mark Kotsay presumably remains in center, although talks of acquiring Boston’s Carl "Walk the Dinosaur" Everett put that in doubt, and Ray Lankford and Bubba Trammell platoon in left. So the Padres re-upped Jackson and Trammell, and now are relegating them to backup status. Granted, they still should get about 300-400 plate appearances each this year but this is a curious way for a "financially strapped" club to be spending its money.

The acquisition of Tomko also suggests to me that the Padres don’t expect to hang onto Kevin Jarvis. They have publicly stated that one of Lankford or Jarvis would not be returning, and I’m thinking that Tomko pushes the latter out of the picture for 2002. But then, if Lankford and Bobby Jones go to Boston as part of the rumored Everett trade (there will be no shortage of rants in this space if that goes through), maybe there would be room for Jarvis?

We’ll have to see how all that shakes out, of course, but in the meantime here’s what I have as the Padres 2002 lineup:

1. Jimenez 2b
2. Kotsay cf
3. Klesko rf
4. Nevin 1b
5. Lankford/Trammell lf
6. Gonzalez c
7. Burroughs 3b
8. Vazquez ss

And the rotation:

1. Jones
2. Brian Tollberg
3. Brian Lawrence
4. Tomko
5. Jason Middlebrook/Dennis Tankersley/Brett Jodie/Rob Ramsay

Of course, this all could change at a moment’s notice. We’ll see what happens…