We have our fourth trade of the season, the third one that I've been involved in and the first for Dissect Yourself. Dissect Yourself had made it clear that Ubaldo Jimenez was available and I had been looking to move Chris B. Young, so we worked out a deal on June 8th that had my team, Adrian's Revenge send Chris B. Young and Gil Meche for Ubaldo Jimenez and Kosuke Fukudome.
I've had Chris B. Young in our keeper league ever since his rookie year in 2007 when he hit 32 HR and stole 27 bases. His numbers dropped a bit last year, but they couldn't prepare me for what he's done this season when I decided to trade him: .178 BA, .233 OBP, .314 SLG, 4 HR, and 8 SB. The Diamondbacks had just called up Gerrardo Parra, who seemed like a threat to his playing time, and though I still believed in Young's speed and power, I wasn't certain that he could get enough playing time if he couldn't hit the ball. Since Micah had said that Jimenez was available, I checked to see if he'd have any interest in Young.
Despite the fact that Jimenez had started off the season with a couple disastrous outings, I'd been intrigued by the numbers that the young pitcher had put up since then. Jimenez puts up solid strikeout totals, and he's cut down on his walk rate from last season. He consistently pitches pitches into the seventh inning, and he induces more groundballs than flyballs, which is a benefit when you pitch half your games at Coors Field. My team needs pitching help, and I felt that Jimenez was the type of underrated pitcher that could be had cheaply.
Micah was willing to trade Jimenez for Young by themselves, but he wanted to find out if I would be willing to include Meche for Fukudome. Meche has had some decent years for the Royals, enough to make him an underrated pitching asset, but he had put up some mediocre numbers in the first two months of the season, and I was worried that his chronic back problems would keep him from ever pitching to his potential. Fukudome had struggled as the season went on last year, but I was hoping that he could turn that trend around this year now that he was familiar with the major league season. My offense needed a consistent 4th or 5th outfielder, and I felt that Fukudome could fill that role if he could avoid tiring as the season progressed.
The day the deal went through, Meche pitched a 7 inning, 11 strikeout gem for his first win in a month. Those stats went to me, but he followed that up with a complete game shutout against the Diamondbacks. Micah may have gotten Meche at just the right time if he can pitch to the potential that he has shown in recent years. Young has also shown a bit more at the plate since the trade, hitting 2 HR and 3 doubles to go along with 2 SB in six games. Fukudome hasn't shown me anything since I've received him and he's 0 for his last 20. Jimenez had his own complete game win in his last start, but the fact that he threw 127 pitches and 4 walks doesn't give me a lot of hope in his next start.
How will this trade be remembered? Hard to say. Early dividends give the trade to Micah, but sometimes trades are not about screwing another team over. Instead, they can be a tool to get players that you believe will help your team. None of these players may be on our rosters next year, but it's all about improving your team's weaknesses.
2 comments:
So far it does seem like i fared better, although I did miss out on some of Chris Young's surge because i had him on the bench. Its also worth noting that in the short term, i ended up losing a start that week since Meche pitched a day before the trade and Ubaldo the day of the trade. Having either one of those starts would have changed my week (7-3 if I had Ubaldo or 8-2 or even 9-1 if i had Meche). We'll see how Ubaldo does tonight against the Rays.
I meant to link to this in the post, but better late than never. Rotoprofessor wrote an article about why it might be a good idea to acquire Chris B. Young. Follow the link to the article. http://rotoprofessor.com/baseball/?p=3063
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