Boo Mark Teixeira Hurray Todd Helton!
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by user JasonComack
Ken Rosenthal had a long column about the Yankees and Rangers working on a trade involving Mark Teixeira. Teixeira, a power hitting first baseman obviously would be a great fit in NY. He would probably bat 5th and provide better protection for A-Rod than Matsui can. However… The Yanks are surging, and with the lineup and pitching staff we have, do we really need to make a major splash on offense? I say no, however, if we do decide to acquire a big hitter at first base I hope it’s not Teixeira.
It’s not that Teixeira isn’t great…because he is. It’s the cost to get Tex that scares me. For starters his contract is over after next year. He makes 9 millon this year, next year with arbitration he could probably go around 12 millon. Not to mention that fact that baseball enemy number one Scott Boras is his agent. Teixeira is going to be the prize of the 2009 Free agent class and is going to get a massive contract. If the Yanks trade for him and don’t resign him after 2008 it’d be a disaster. Especially if… We give up Phil Hughes for him. It makes me uneasy even writing that.
While I think it’s complete malarkey that we would even contemplate trading Hughes I’m not a baseball insider, Ken Rosenthal is. Rosenthal is pretty good with his news and rumors and I don’t think he’d claim Hughes is able to be had if he wasn’t. Rosenthal believes, it would probably take a package of Tex, Gagne and a low level prospect for Hughes. While this would be an appropriate bounty for Phil I still think it’s insane to trade him. We are talking about a 21 year old kid who was pitching a no-no when he got hurt, he’s the real deal. He’s not the second coming of Brandon Claussen. Rosenthal also mentioned getting Tex for a lesser package of Chase Wright/Chamberlain, Melky and another decent pitching prospect. While this trade wouldn’t be as disastrous I still think this would be a mistake. I love Melky, but he’s expendable. He’s young but his ceiling really isn’t that high. You can find a lot of players like him rather easily and cheaply. Chamberlain on the other hand I would not want to trade. From everything I’ve read Chamberlain seems to be on the fast track to the majors.
“Joba Chamberlain, who is less polished than Hughes was at this stage but has more power.” –Ken Rosenthal
In an ideal world he would become our number three in our young pitching staff in two years. It would be foolish to give up a lot of prospects for Tex. Especially when… Todd Helton is available. Helton is older, 33, but he is still a force as a hitter. He’s a career .332 hitter, with a .431 OBP and slugs .588. His homerun power has diminished somewhat but he is still a threat to hit 20-30 homeruns. He is just an on base machine. In my eyes you can never have enough hitters with a high OBP%.
(Anthony and I feel that average is in fact a greatly overrated stat. We believe in Money Ball and that OBP, SLG, and OPS are the true measures that should be used to judge a hitter…but that’s for another column.)
If we got Helton I wouldn’t mind moving Jeter to leadoff, than batting Abreu and Helton in front of A-Rod. Ideally A-Rod would be coming up to bat with at least one man on base in the first inning of every game. That my friend is a pitchers nightmare. What make Helton more attractive is…
What it would cost to acquire him In the words of WWE personalities Cryme Tyme “Money Money Yeah Yeah” (Editors Note: The following contract information comes from http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/) Helton’s gi-normous contract is a burden on the small market Rockies. The Rockies would be willing to eat about 40% of Helton’s contract just to ship him out of town. Helton is owed 90.1 million through 2011. Take out the 7 million already paid to Helton this season and the Rocks would end up paying about 33 million of Helton’s contract under this scenario. The Yanks in turn would be on the hook for 57 million for about 4 and half seasons of Helton, or about 12.5 million a year. All of a sudden that ridiculous contract doesn’t seem so ridiculous. Helton is older and I have bashed the Yankees in the past for acquiring old players.
However, I think Helton is an exception. Since he makes a living with his eye as much as his bat his skills are less likely to quickly erode. Even better is the fact that we simply wouldn’t have to trade the kind of top level prospects in a Helton deal as we would in a Tex deal. A Helton deal is about money, much like the Abreu trade last year. Another advantage of a Helton trade is… Bust out your crystal ball In 2008 Helton makes Abreu expendable. In fact with the option in Abreu’s contract he can be “Sheffielded” and traded for better prospects than we’d probably be giving up in a Helton trade. I think acquiring Helton under these terms is a no brainier and a significantly better option than trading top prospects for one and half years of Mark Teixeira. As I wrote earlier in the season “Paging Doctor Helton…will Doctor Todd Helton please report to Yankee Stadium”
