(Depressing) Trade Talk

Well – good news Bullpen Boys – we’ve had a few movements in the comment section and are picking up a little steam during the mid-summer classic break. First and foremost, CABG (Cabbage, or Cabby) is back! I thought you had some solid posts this week Cab, and even took your blue tinted glasses off on a few – it’s refreshing to hear that every now and then. I know we were all convinced that he’d never return, but he pulled off quite a shocking return (almost as impressive as Roy Hobbs comeback after that crazy, gun-toting woman ended his pitching career – easily the worst women in the history of the world – Susan Smith excluded for lack of being a human). Speaking of women who own guns, I’d like to formally welcome Lindsey to the board – strong first post that included a NKOTB drop. Finally, Ol’ Bubba returned with his first post since the inaugural post back in February – and he didn’t disappoint. A strong post with characters spilling on to 3 separate posts that probably made CABG green with envy like the Wrigley Ivy. Very good breakdown of the recent trade Bubba – my initial reaction was identical to yours. Though, some of you might be upset to know that I’ve softened on this deal (still dislike it though). I’ll touch on this further in the post.


So, I was putting the finishing touches on a nice little sabermetric post (I’m excited to discuss this post with you all – it will have to wait though), when Dayton Moore abruptly put my brain down for the count. I literally had a brain spasm when I saw the news about the Yuniesky Betancourt trade. The Royals have been linked to Yuni (as Fr. Hillman will certainly dub him) for a few years now. There are rumors (with pretty decent traction) that DM offered Billy Butler straight up for Yuni about two years ago. Thank God that Bill Bavasi was easily the dumbest GM in baseball and turned that down. I actually had one fellow Royal fan say, “This trade isn’t so bad, at least at wasn’t Butler!”. That's sad. Even sadder, Bavasi was fired and Seattle’s new GM is very well respected and pulled off a nice little trade on Dayton. Anyway – what did we give up? AA Pitcher Dan Cortes and Low A Pitcher Derrick Saito. Saito was just drafted last year and has really good K numbers this year, but doesn’t project to anything more than a LOOGY – so that’s fine. Cortes, 22, is much more interesting however, as after a very nice year in AA last year he was our #1 rated pitching prospect coming into this season (rated #3 overall behind only Hosmer and Moustakas). This year he is repeating a 2nd year in AA, he has had a disappointing season for a #1 pitching prospect, but still sports a 3.92 ERA and is still said to possess his great “stuff”. His two main problems are harnessing his stuff and harnessing his partying. Dan Cortes is famous for a couple internet photo’s in his day. He was once photographed naked passed out on a toilet with a bottle of booze at his feet (something Diet Caffeine-Free Mendota Springs Lime aka Curt does from time to time up here in the Windy City). He also has been photographed on the net with a bong in hand as well (shockingly, this didn’t create as much attention as Michael Phelps toking saga). Finally, just last week he was arrested for drunk & disorderly when he peed on a fence while stumbling outside a bar. Wow, and to think this guy had control problems? Thank you, thank you - I'll be here all weekend, please tip your watiresses. Now you know the details, so let’s break it down.

You’ve probably read some info on Yuni in the past few days. Bubba laid out some good info in his comment as well. To summarize: Betancourt WAS a decent Cuban prospect when he came up at age 23 in 2005 with the Mariners. He was regarded as a free swinger who could hit for a decent average and was said to have plus defense. Since then we’ve learned that he can hit for a decent average (.279 Career BA), not get on base at a good average (.302 career OBP), and his defense has slipped considerably (consistently ranks at the bottom of AL shortstops). I will say that in 2007 he banged out 38 2B’s and 9 HR’s, so that is pretty decent pop out of the SS position. Problem is that Yuni is 27 so it’s hard for him to completely overhaul his skill set at this point (especially when its trending down). I think that is my biggest beef with the trade. Dayton tried this same thing with Mike Jacobs. He takes a player with over 2000 career AB’s (who was once regarded as a hot prospect) who has not lived up to their potential. He then trades for this (somewhat expensive) player with something we have depth in. He traded our deep bullpen for Jacobs in search of power (not working out to well) and now he has traded from our minor league SP depth in search of an everyday SS (time will tell).

I’m going to tell you why I don’t like the trade and then I’ll throw out a few qualifiers that brought me down off the ledge. I don’t like this trade because:

1. This is more evidence that DM really isn’t that good at putting together an offense. Betancourt has a career OBP of .302 and DM has been giving lip service about how he values OBP. Prove it – bring in a player with a good OBP HISTORY. Not potential – HISTORY. I know those are expensive or hard to find, but just humor us and find ONE.

2. This quote in response to being told Betancourt is rated very poorly defensively. "The defensive statistics - I still really don't understand how some of those statistics are evaluated, I really don't. When you watch baseball games every single day, it’s very apparent who can play defensively and who can't." Ok, obviously CABG will defend this quote and yes, even I have admitted that defensive statistics are fairly new and not as objective as OBP – but damn, Dayton – that sounded really, really bad. You don’t “understand them”? Tell me you think they’re unproven or that you think they’re too subjective, but please don’t tell your fan base you “DON’T UNDERSTAND “ a statistic (especially when 5 minutes later in the interview you say that you have a sabermetric team – to which I say: BS!)

3. Dan Cortes still had value and I think he could’ve gotten Betancourt for far less. Seattle had vocally expressed their frustration with Yuni and everyone knew they wanted to get rid of him – though I assume throwing in Cortes helped Seattle pick up some of the salary. If you wanted to send other players a message but shipping out Cortes after his recent arrest, I understand that – but I think he could’ve been a piece to a bigger deal as he still has pretty good stuff for a 22 year old prospect.

4. There have been recent reports that Yuni has a bad attitude and that teammates don’t like him. His work ethic has been questioned more than once. This really surprised me that Dayton would take a guy like this – shows how desperate he is to find a SS.


Dayton has a problem with taking has-been prospects and thinking he can “rescue” them with a change of scenery. I’ve tried this with a couple girls in my past with not very good results. You think you can change them, but you really can’t. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it’s very tough. However, in his defense I know why he does it. Due to the Royals budget constraints he needs to find a Carlos Pena (TB picked him off the scrap heap after everyone said he was done), take a chance on a Carlos Quentin, and find a gem like that. He needs to find one of these guys and partner them with our young talent and hope for a nice run like the Rays had. It is very hard to do this. He tried and ultimately failed with Jacobs – now he is trying again with Betancourt (on a much smaller scale he would admit). It probably won’t work with Yuni either, but that is why he is doing it. He probably hopes Yuni can do .290/.310/.420 and play adequate defense and honestly in today’s non-steroid era (I think?) that is passable for a SS. BTW - You see you don’t need an .800 OPS for a SS – but you certainly need it from a DH Mr. Jacobs!!

Another factor to realize is that the Mike Aviles injury debacle was a really bad thing – between Mike not speaking up and then our inept staff misdiagnosing a Tommy John injury – and this trade is a fallout of that injury. Make no doubt about it. That put DM in a bind. He now has to choose between Willie Bloomquist, Tony Pena Jr., and Luis Hernandez to play shortstop at the Major League level. My first reaction to the trade was to just to ride out this season with Bloomy at SS and get a FA in the off-season. Dayton said he thought about doing this, but his choices would be:

Orlando Cabrera (35)
Alex Cora (34)
Craig Counsell (39)
Bobby Crosby (30)
Adam Everett (33)
Chris Gomez (39)
Alex Gonzalez (32)
Khalil Greene (30)
Jerry Hairston Jr. (34)
John McDonald (35)
Marco Scutaro (34)
Miguel Tejada (36)
Omar Vizquel (43)
Jack Wilson (32)

The only viable names out of there are Marco Scutaro and Jack Wilson. Scutaro (34 next year) is in a contract/career year and has been boringly below average up to this point in his career – he will command at least over $6M a year next year. Jack Wilson is highly overrated (32 next year) and his bat is actually a couple ticks worse than Betancourt – he too will cost over $3-4M per year. The two 30 year old's Greene and Crosby suck worse than Betancourt. Also don’t forget how HARD it is to get FA’s to come to the Royals. We offered more money to Orlando Hudson this past offseason only to see him sign with the Dodgers. This rules out a player like Tejada from the list. Until we start winning, this will remain the case. The book is closed on 2009 FA's in my opinion.

After the 2010 season, JJ Hardy (28 in 2011) of the Brewers (.264/.325/.435) becomes a free agent and I like him despite his current struggles this season. The problem with Hardy is that he will command over $6-8M per year most likely AND we’d have to go another full season with Bloomquist/TPJ. That is a lot of money for us as well. Yuni will cost us $7M for the next 2.5 years after the Mariners chip in their $$, so he really doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. Also, as I said above, it’s not a guarantee that Hardy would even sign with us.

Ok, so those are some things I feel needed to be pointed out. That, yes Yuni will probably suck for us, but did we have other alternatives? I just wish he would’ve done this for something less than Cortes (even with his stock dropping pretty quickly). Basically, the Mike Aviles injury royally Effed the Royals. Well, that and the fact that the SS anointed before him was TPJ – so that is on you Dayton. The fact that this clown is still on the team makes me more upset than anything DM or even Baird has ever done in my life. He is statistically one of the worst hitting players in the history of the game – that is 100% fact. Please swallow that nugget (settle down The Dude – didn’t mean to get you excited) when you think of Hillman trotting him out there on a MLB field 40 times this year!!!!! Blue Steel? Ferrari? Le Tigre? They're the same face! Doesn't anybody notice this? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills! If he is not cut when Yuni and Gordo are activated – I will consider quitting life.


Speaking of Gordo, he is RAKING down in the minors and should be ready for Friday. So with Gordo and Yuni in the infield we can move Teahen to OF and sit Guillen and Platoon him and Jacobs at DH and if Butler heats up, and if Hooch and Banny keep pitching well, we can go on a little run! There is the inner homer in me…


Exit Question: I know you didn’t like the trade, I didn’t either (I’m sorry for somewhat defending it), but does anyone have any other viable options we could’ve done over the next year or two at SS?