Thoughts on Lee Trade
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by user ASwaff
Sorry I couldn’t have more information for you earlier. This story broke literally five minutes before I left for work. After stewing over it for a few hours, I am convinced that the Texas Rangers robbed the Milwaukee Brewers. Only time will tell just how badly they robbed them, though.
Obviously, Carlos Lee is the headliner in the trade. Many teams were rumored to be after him, including the Yankees. With Lee, the Rangers get a guy with 30-40 homerun power, who can also hit for respectable average (.284 lifetime) and has shown himself capable of being a 100 RBI man. That is a huge pickup for a team that has really struggled to hit for power. His 28 homeruns this season almost doubles the total of the leading Ranger (Brad Wilkerson, with 15). That’s more homeruns than Hank Blalock and Mark Teixeira combined (26). He also has 81 RBI already this season, 14 better than the next-best Ranger (Michael Young, with 67). Rangers fans should also be giddy about the fact that Lee doesn’t strike out much. His 39 Ks are fewer than every Ranger that has played in at least 75 games.
Let me say that in another way - there are Rangers that have played in as many as 27 fewer games than Lee that have more strikeouts than he does.
The reason I say time will tell on how much the Rangers robbed the Brewers is because Lee is a free agent at the end of the season, and he has been seeking a five year, $75 million deal. He couldn’t reconcile what he wanted with the four year, $40 million deal the Brewers were offering. If the Rangers re-sign him, they will have really robbed the Brewers.
Even if they don’t re-sign him, though, they got a great minor league prospect in Nelson Cruz. In 104 games for the Triple A Nashville Sounds, Cruz was batting .302 with 20 HR, 73 RBI and 17 stolen bases. However, he also had 100 strikeouts. Another strikeout king. There are whispers that the Rangers will have Cruz in the starting lineup immediately, but he is not currently on the Texas roster.
They got this in exchange for Francisco Cordero, Kevin Mench, Laynce Nix and Julian Cordero. It’s funny how quickly things can change - if the Rangers had made this deal this time last season, we’d say that the Rangers got robbed. But, Coco had to work his tail off just to get his ERA down to the 4.81 he has today. After his performance against the Yankees Wednesday night, it was starting to look like Cordero’s 2.08 ERA in June was more a fluke to average things out than a sign that better days lay ahead.
Why the Brewers think they improved their bullpen with a guy that has nine blown saves this season is beyond me.
Mench turned out to be a streaky hitter. That’s an understatement. He’s the streaky hitter to end all streaky hitters. After a stunning April that saw him bat .342 and hit seven homeruns in seven consecutive games, Mench came down to earth. He has hit just two homeruns since May, and is batting .266 since that amazing April. He hit .219 in the month of June.
Laynce Nix is another outfielder the Rangers had high hopes for, but appears to have hit his ceiling much lower than they thought he would. After going 3-32 (.092) to start the season, Nix was demoted to Triple A Oklahoma, where he is currently hitting .269 with 77 whiffs in 77 games. He also has just ten homeruns.
Julian Cordero is still a bit young to tell just how much the Rangers lost there. The left-handed reliever was 1-2 with a 2.91 ERA for the Single A Clinton LumberKings.
So, all-in-all, I’d call a great bat and a very good minor league prospect in exchange for one minor league prospect and three players who seem to have peaked prematurely an awfully good deal on the Rangers part. But, you also have to be wary of what high-profile acquisitions have meant for the Rangers in recent years. Chan Ho Park. Alex Rodriguez. Adam Eaton. They don’t have a good track record. Let’s hope Lee turns that trend around.
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Date
Fri 07/28/06, 1:34 pm EST
