Beckett Update
Well, apparently the previous trade fell through, and Mike Lowell & Josh Beckett are going to the Red Sox for Hanley Ramirez and another prospect. Not nearly as interesting a trade as the other one. It's the typical MLB trade where a team with money gets players in exchange for taking on substantial salary and prospects.
posted by Todd Martin at 6:16 PM
3 Comments:
Hi, Todd. Long-time reader and fan of the Raw reports.
As a devoted Red Sox fan and more so a baseball fan, I have quite a bit to say about this one. Ramirez has struck me as a bit of an enigma ever since I first heard of him as this incredible prospect playing in Single A Lowell. The reputation has always preceeded him despite some rather ordinary minor league numbers with EqAs of .228, .240, and .262 has last three years. With Renteria in tow for three more years and Pedroia ahead of him, I'm not too sad to see him go.
Beckett, meanwhile, is coming off his best year and has very strong K/9 and HR/9 rates.
This will be unpopular around Boston, but I like Lowell more than the affable Bill Mueller. Lowell is actually younger and, despite the drastic drop in offense still, was a strong defender last year according to Clay Davenport's innovative fielding stats. Both players have had injury problems so that strikes me as a wash. The $9M is a bit much, but remember just two years ago, he justified that kind of contract.
Note: All the stats come from baseballprospectus.com which I strongly recommend to any baseball fan.
Thanks for the thoughts, Phil. As an Oriole fan for most of my life (I'm in the process of conversion to the Nationals since I'm from DC and the Orioles have been anti-DC for a long time), I'm suspicious of overrating prospects, since just about every major Oriole prospect of the past 10 years has been a bust. Particularly in Boston or New York's farm system. So I'm suspicious of Florida's side of the deal. Mueller for Lowell seems to me a lateral move, although I may be underrating Lowell because I always liked him and spent all of last year waiting for him to turn it around. That sort of beat into my head he's a player on the decline, even if it isn't true. Beckett has all the stuff you could possibly want from an ace, but he reminds me too much of fellow Texan/pitching prodigy/perpetual DL dweller Kerry Wood for me to be all that comfortable with him.
I am not sure of the value of Mike Lowell. Remember steroids have only been illegal in baseball since the beginning of the 2004 season. Lowell has faded tremendously since the beginning of the 2004 season. Gold Glove defender yes, but you need more than .230 8 48 from your corner infielders.
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