Re: Bombers-Nomads Deal
Reply #8 –
Hmmm... I'd love to have been a fly on the wall for this one. David, in your current rebuild-for-next-season position, why would you give up on Martinez? Was it all about Frazier? Is he *that* good? I think you could've gotten more than just a money swap, one year of Madson, and one good prospect for him.
Kyle,
Not that I really need to justify the trade, but I'll bite. What it comes down to is my rotation. In the last offseason, I signed a number of bats, including Martinez, in the hopes that my young pitching would have good years and that I could ride young pitching and hot bats to a 2018 championship. I've had anything but good pitching this year. Currently, the only guy on my current team that I can defensibly start next year is Aaron Nola. Seriously. The rest of my pitching consists of:
- Homer Bailey (10+ ERA)
- Odrisamer Despaigne (almost 8 ERA)
- Robbie Erlin (still recovering from Tommy John)
- Brandon Finnegan (who will have maybe 50 IP by the end of season)
- Kevin Gausman (big regression from last year)
- Wily Peralta (7+ ERA)
- Hector Santiago (almost 6 ERA)
- Adam Wainwright (5+ ERA) and
- Zack Wheeler (almost 5 ERA)
Obviously I need to sign some starting pitchers in the off-season. So relieving myself of salary is incredibly important. While I can't do much with Adrian Gonzalez's albatross of a $7.25M contract, I can do something about some other guys. So even though I'd prefer not giving up Martinez at $6M since he's highly underpaid, I feel like it's a necessity. And while I can't fully replace his bat, I figure I'll get 90% of him with either Carlos Gomez, Nomar Mazara, Aaron Hicks, or even Eric Thames (though his fielding % is 100% in RF, he may not have enough appearances to quality in DMB). I have alternatives in right field; I have none in my rotation.
When you say, "Not that I really need to justify the trade, but I'll bite..." it makes me not want to opine about trades at all, period, ever again. Especially with Matt being "irked" as well. I honestly was just curious. Figured you guys knew me well enough to know I wasn't sitting on my couch yelling at my laptop thinking this was unbelievably stupid. I just like talking baseball. If that's no longer a thing with MSB without people feeling offended, I'll stop.
Your reasoning for the trade is sound, by the way.