I’ve got a new article up at Hardball Times on everyone’s favorite first baseman from Eastlake High…
Triple-A
No games scheduled in the Pacific Coast League.
Double-A — South All-Stars 7, North All-Stars 3
Kyle Blanks, Chad Huffman, and Craig Cooper combined to go 0-for-9 with a walk. The other Missions representative, Matt Buschmann, worked two scoreless innings of relief.
The game took place at Hammons Field in Springfield, which I visited on my way back from Cooperstown last summer. That was the day before my car got smashed. Good times…
High-A
No games scheduled in the California League.
Low-A — Fort Wayne 8, West Michigan 0
Drew Cumberland (SS): 1-for-2
Lance Zawadzki (DH): 3-for-5, 2 2B
Justin Baum (3B-2B): 2-for-4, HR, BB
Yefri Carvajal: 0-for-3, BB
Felix Carrasco (1B-3B): 1-for-2, 2 BB
Brad Chalk: 0-for-4
Wynn Pelzer: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 HR, 2 BB, 5 SO, 3 WP (9 GO)
Robert Woodard: 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 HR, 0 BB, 2 SO
Cumberland left the game in the second inning with a back injury. It’s not certain whether this is related to the problem that forced him to the disabled list at the end of May.
Short-Season-A — Eugene 7, Spokane 6
Sawyer Carroll: 0-for-4, BB
Emmanuel Quiles: 1-for-4, E
Rookie — AZL Royals 6, AZL Padres 5
Kevin Hansen: 2-for-4, 2 2B, SH
Keisy Marte: 1-for-4, SH
Jaff Decker: 2-for-3, 2B, BB, SB
Danny Payne: 2-for-4, 2B
Hansen isn’t a prospect, but he played at USD, so I’ll be keeping an eye on him.
DSL Padres
Information often is slow to arrive from the Dominican Republic, but I’ll try to track a few guys down there as best I can:
Jonathan Galvez: .417/.600/.694, 13 BB, 6 SO, 3 SB
Rymer Liriano: .176/.291/.392, 11 BB, 37 SO, 6 SB
Both are 17 years old; Liriano just turned 17 last week. Anyone else worth following? I’m open to suggestions…
#7@Field39: Yesterday Field said that it was time for the FO to stop messing around and work on making some trades.
I know that AZ has fallen back and can’t seem to score runs. I know that the Dodgers are not all that exciting. I know we think that we have a chance to climb back into the race. I know.
I also know that getting value for a couple of our players may be the best way to improve for 2009. I am not saying pull the trigger today, but we need to be dispatching our scouts and making heavy in-roads to getting deals done so that come July 31, we are ready to pull the trigger…multiple times.
CM: What do you propose we trade to make a deal? I don’t see that any of our prospects will bring anything of value. Admittedly, in a year or two they might, but now, “No.” Our current starters have little value, otherwise we wouldn’t be mired in last place.
We could trade Giles, who is under contract next year, but we have no one to replace him. We could trade Maddux, but what do we get in return? We aren’t going to trade Adrian or Jake.
I don’t see any sort of positive outcome for this year or next.
The only possible trade that I could see if the Kouz for Bay that was discussed yesterday – but I think Lamar hit it on the head, there really aren’t any deals out there to be made.
Also most trades today are as much about money as about talent.
on a giles trade….
say for example the front office trades away giles for some mid level prospect. And, then they use the freed up money to sign that hot young prospect (16?) from wherever that the A’s are supposed to be all over – we’d be getting a great return for giles. not that i see the pads investing that kind of money on someone that young, but just trying to make the point that the talent we get directly from the trade isnt the only repercussion.
#4@Sam: Big problem with trading Giles is that he can veto up to eight teams and he gets a $2 million dollar annual bonus if traded.
So for a team to pick him up Giles would command a salary of $11 million and could even involve picking up his option in ’09 for $11 million. I like Giles, but I don’t think his skill level justifies that type of payday anymore.
On another subject I hope everyone has had a chance to listen to the weekly spots on the Mighty XX with Sandy Alderson – great interview the other day with Darren Smith. Smith acutually asks some tough questions – which is a lot easier to advocate than to do.
Now we know why the Dykstra negotiations have stalled. The NCTimes reports that the Padres are digging into his medical reports. After his freshman year in high school, Dykstra required surgery and a bone graft for avascular necrosis in his right hip and a tumor on his thigh bone.
Now that doesn’t mean he’s doomed. It may not mean anything at all in terms of his ability to play pro baseball. He had 3 good years in college and 2 good seasons on the Cape with that history. It would seem to make it less likely that he’s capable of holding up in left field, especially in Petco, but his value was in his bat anyway. The worrisome thing is that this information, unlike Tim Stauffer’s injury, was common knowledge. Doesn’t it seem like the go/no-go decision should have been reached before draft day, not after it?
#2@LaMar: I am simply saying stop trying to play coy. This is not a contending team and if the rumors are true, both ATL and Chicago have called about the availability of Wolf and Maddux. Baltimore may have interest in KG (assuming we can find a suitable replacement).
Giles is a decent player, worth more to us at $11mm for 2009 than someone else at $13mm, but there may be a team that could use a solid LF/RF with good OBP skills. What is that worth in the market? I don’t know, but the FO needs to be prepared to answer that.
I am mostly advocating an admission that this season did not work and if we can get some value, we are going to be open to saving cash and improving for ’09.
#6@Tom Waits: They signed Allan Dykstra for $1.4mm a little while back.
#3@John Conniff: I don’t believe most trades require balancing money right now. Baseball revenues have increased a lot over the last 4-5 years. We don’t see as many salary dumps or salary swaps as we used to. But, like you point out, two of the most desirable Padres (Giles and Maddux) have complications. A lot of teams wouldn’t mind paying Giles 5-6 million for the rest of this season, but that 3 million tag next year is non-negotiable. It’s possible we’re going to have to kick in money to make a deal happen with him, at least a deal that brings back something we want. His NT clause isn’t such a problem, because he put mostly bad teams on it who don’t want him anyway.
#2@LaMar: If we trade Giles, it doesn’t matter who replaces him this year. We’re punting the season at that point. But our best move may be to keep him, pick up his 2009 option, and plunk him in LF next year.
#8@Coronado Mike: No, they didn’t. It was announced as a done deal, but nobody’s signed. See today’s NC Times for details.