I was reading Nate Silver's article on BP today, and noticed this:"How to explain a trade like Scott Moore and Rocky Cherry for Steve Trachsel? Nobody noticed this one, but it might be the worst trade in several seasons..."
"We’re fortunate to get him. There were a lot of teams interested in him. He was one of those high profile guys who cleared waivers. But I think it was a fair deal."
In 140.2 IP with the Orioles this season, Trachsel issued 69 walks, while striking out only 45 hitters. His ERA was somehow only 4.48, but he was actually pitching a lot worse than that- Silver notes that his QERA- which uses only walks, strikeouts, and groundball rate, thus taking the factors of luck and defense out of the equation, was 6.47 with Baltimore.
Predictably, Trachsel was awful in his first two starts, allowing nine runs in eight innings, with the Cubs losing both games. He was actually decent on Thursday, allowing 2 runs in 5 innings against Houston. But the Astros offense is awful, and his peripherals (3 walks, 4 strikouts, 2 home runs) continue to be terrible.
But no big deal, the Cubs only gave up a couple minor leaguers for him, right? Well, not really.
Before the season, Baseball America listed Moore as the Cubs' #7 prospect. And at the time of the trade Moore was probably even higher than that, as he hit .265/.373/.526 with 19 homers, 69 RBIs and 48 walks in 321 AB with Iowa; pretty impressive numbers for a 23-year old in AAA.
To recap: the Cubs received a guy who walks more guys than he strikes out and turns 37 on Halloween, while giving up a 23-year old third baseman who had an .899 OPS at AAA this year. It's somewhat rare that a trade looks so lopsided immediately after it occurs, although it's certainly happened before.
Picture from here. Stats from B-R and The Baseball Cube.
Predictably, Trachsel was awful in his first two starts, allowing nine runs in eight innings, with the Cubs losing both games. He was actually decent on Thursday, allowing 2 runs in 5 innings against Houston. But the Astros offense is awful, and his peripherals (3 walks, 4 strikouts, 2 home runs) continue to be terrible.
But no big deal, the Cubs only gave up a couple minor leaguers for him, right? Well, not really.
Before the season, Baseball America listed Moore as the Cubs' #7 prospect. And at the time of the trade Moore was probably even higher than that, as he hit .265/.373/.526 with 19 homers, 69 RBIs and 48 walks in 321 AB with Iowa; pretty impressive numbers for a 23-year old in AAA.
To recap: the Cubs received a guy who walks more guys than he strikes out and turns 37 on Halloween, while giving up a 23-year old third baseman who had an .899 OPS at AAA this year. It's somewhat rare that a trade looks so lopsided immediately after it occurs, although it's certainly happened before.
Picture from here. Stats from B-R and The Baseball Cube.
The Cubs had Moore up and looked at him quite a bit in Spring Training. With A-Ram and D-Lee signed to long-term deals there was really no place to put him. I believe they had him play the OF in the minors but it was determined he was a DH at best. Cherry had been up with the big club and struggled. I think they were opening up a couple of spots on their 40-man roster as much as anything.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, the O's will find some way to fuck it up
ReplyDeleteFair point that he's blocked at the infield corners, but with the premium put on young players that the club controls for years to come, they could have gotten Trachsel for a lot less. (Why they wanted Trachsel in the first place is another question in itself.)
ReplyDeletethats bunk - cherry was solid. he had some bad outings, but he's a league above ohman, for sure. as a cubs season ticket holder - take my perpetually let-down word for it. THIS IS OUR YEAR
ReplyDelete"but he's a league above ohman"
ReplyDeletecompletely differing situations
Ohman is a lefty and a decent/mediocre LOOGY.
Cherry is a righty with fringey stuff for a right handed reliever.
In the Cubs pen he would've been the last guy in the pen as the Cubs have a bunch of solid righties ahead of him in Wuertz, Dempster, Howry, Wood and Marmol. That's not even including people like Guzman and Gallagher as right handed relievers.
Also I believe he was/is a 6th year minor league FA at the end of the year. Which I think was the case with Moore though I'm not sure if the Rule changes if said player changed organizations like Moore did