Comments on: Closers and the Trade Deadline

By: thelaundry

thelaundry — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 18:32:54 +0000

As a Royals fan living in St. Louis, I’m trying to get some Colby Rasmus to KC rumors going. His numbers are down, a lot of fans have turned on him and he’s never been a favorite of LaRussa (a beef with TLR seems to have gotten other valuable guys run out of town).

Sounds bad, huh? But what I see is a young, athletic CF
with power whose value has never been lower. If I remember correctly, he is under team control through 2014 – just like Soria. Guess who badly needs a closer, a veteran starter and a 2B/3B/SS like Aviles?

Could Soria, Francis/Chen, Aviles and a low minors arm get us Rasmus and Shelby Miller (their top pitching prospect who could be ML ready by next year)? Anybody else have a possible trade in mind?

By: Tony

Tony — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 18:30:09 +0000

Not sure he basis for believing that all closers but Rivera and Hoffman get figured out. Plenty of closers effective for long period of time … the common denominator with most falling off is age. And, a lot of players don’t assume closer role until late 20s, which gives many a relatively short shelf life. But no reason to think Soria (who is the youngest pitcher in the top 25 in active career saves), can’t be very effective for another 5 or 6 years. Every player goes through a slump … Soria’s was pretty brief. He’ll end year with 30+ saves and ERA in high 2s or low 3s, which is very good by every standard but those he has set himself.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 16:34:35 +0000

Yes, you do have to “consider” offers. No player should be completely untradeable. The reason he is back to form, is b/c he dropped that cutter. He stopped trying to be the Mariana Rivera, and started being Soria again. He is a very good closer, with pretty good stuff. I think that Crow or Holland have more dominent stuff, but Soria is a better pitcher than them.

If the trade offer from the Yankees last year was true, they should have jumped all over it. Wasn’t it Montero, Nunez, and someone younger? That is a trade you HAVE to jump on, even if Montero isn’t a catcher.

By: Ben Phelan

Ben Phelan — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 02:48:46 +0000

I don’t see any reason to trade for a 2b. Giovatella leads all of professional baseball in hits in June and Colon is right behind him. Starting P, C and corner OF seems to be mroe pressing than 2b. I won’t trash getz and I know Jim has a soft spot for him:)

By: jim fetterolf

jim fetterolf — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 01:00:21 +0000

I agree that Soria is tradable, as is Butler and maybe even Gordon. The question is, what is Soria worth and would someone offer that? I would think a top 100 AAA 2B or C prospect and an A level P ready to pitch at Wilmington would do the deal.