Baseball Notebook: Rays-Twins Complete Six Player Trade
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by Niteowl049
The Tampa Bay Rays traded away one of their hottest young players in Delmon Young to add some depth to their pitching rotation by acquiring Matt Garza in a six player trade with the Twins.
The Rays were third in the AL in home runs with 187 and scored more runs than six other AL clubs. However, the Rays were 30th in the majors in ERA with a 5.53 ERA so it was a no-brainer that they would try to strengthen their pitching even at the expense of losing a player like Young in the exchange.
In the 2007 season Rays were second in allowing home runs as they gave up 199 home runs. Only the Astros who gave up 206 gave up more home runs. They led the majors in runs and hits allowed but they were second best in majors in strikeouts with only the Cubs having more strikeouts by their pitchers.
Garza and Young are the key players in the trade. Garza brings a 5-7 record from the Twins but he had the second best ERA on team with a 3.69 ERA with only Johan Santana having a better ERA at 3.33 among Twins starters.
Young hit .288 and hit 13 home runs and drove in 93 runs for the Rays in 2007. He also played in every Rays game last season. In an exchange of starting shortstops the Twins get Brendan Harris who hit .286 and had 12 home runs and 59 runs batted in. Jason Bartlett now joins the Rays and he hit .265 hitting 5 home runs and driving in 43 runs so it looks like the Twins got the best of the shortstop exchange.
Jason Pridie an outfielder also joins the Twins. Pridie has been in minor leagues for six seasons and he has a .279 lifetime batting average. Last year between stops at Montgomery and Durham Pridie hit 14 homers and drove in 66 runs while stealing 26 bases.
Rays also acquired pitcher Eduardo Morlan who has played four minor leagues seasons and is a strikeout pitcher posting 337 strikeouts in 274 innings in his minor league career. Twins were grooming him to be a reliever after being a starter earlier in his career and he could be a great addition to the Rays bullpen but has not played past Double A ball so may be a season away from joining the Rays major league team.
In a couple of years it will be easier to say but at first glance it looks like both teams were helped by this trade as Rays strengthened a weak pitching staff while Twins improved their offense and Young is a cheaper option for Twins than to have re-signed Torii Hunter but not the player Hunter is at this stage in his career.
Death of Lyman Bostock
With the news of the death of Washington Redskin safety Sean Taylor this week it reminded me of another senseless death which was that of Lyman Bostock Angels outfielder 29 years ago. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1950 and his dad Lyman Bostock Sr. had been a baseball player in the Negro Leagues.
Bostock had played for Twins for three years before being signed by Gene Autry to a $2.7 million contract over five years which is not much more a year than what a rookie makes today in their first season which is $390,000 a year minimum salary.
He struggled in the first month with his new team and even went so far to call Autry and offer to give back his check for the first month of the season. (Can you see Scott Boras let one of his players do that today?) He told Autry if he couldn't play up to his capabilities he didn't want to be paid for it. Today we have players who don't even step on the field all season making $15 million like Mike Hampton and doubt he has offered to return even one penny to the owner.
Later in the season he started hitting again and had 5 home runs and 71 RBI's with a .296 average but those were the last changes in his numbers as on date his life ended with this account coming from a tribute page at angelfire.com:
Lyman Bostock had a routine 2-4 game in a 5-4 loss to the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park. He lined a base hit in his final at bat. Following the game, he got in a car and made the short trip to Gary, Indiana, where he was staying with his uncle as he always did when the team was in Chicago. After eating a meal with a group of people, Bostock got in the back seat of his uncle's car. As the vehicle crossed the intersection of 5th and Jackson streets, a car pulled up along side them. The driver got out and fired one blast of a 410 gauge shotgun into the back seat where Bostock was sitting. The shooter, Leonard Smith, did not even know Lyman Bostock. His lethal wrath was intended for his estranged wife, Barbara Smith, who was along with the group as a guest of Bostock's uncle, Thomas Turner, who happened to be her godfather. The blast missed the woman but struck Bostock in the left temple. He died two hours later at a Gary hospital. Just like that, a life with so much to live for was snuffed out in a senseless act of violence. It was later discovered that Bostock had known the woman in the car for a total of twenty minutes.
With this senseless act Bostock's life ended at the age of 27. It ended a career that may have led to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He had a .311 lifetime batting average and was one hit shy in 1977 of having 200 hits.
Like Sean Taylor a killer kept Bostock from finishing his career. Criminals have no respect for anyone. Taking a life means nothing to them when they are out to burglarize a house or exact revenge even if they shoot the wrong person like they did in the Bostock case.
Delmon wasn't the best and Garza is pretty good.
I don't love it, but I understand it and I definitely like it.