It was a good winter to own a moving van. After all, you can charge extra to move
a Cy Young Award right?
We now know how all of pieces that changed place this
off-season are working out for their respective teams, but what about the
prospects that were sent back in return?
Some we’ve heard from in the majors already, but others are still honing
their craft between bus rides and Burger King. These are the guys who will make the difference down the
road.
Or so their new teams hope…
THE BIG NAMES:
The Blue Jays trade Brandon Morrow to the Mariners for Brandon League.
THE PROSPECTS:
The Mariners also acquired OF prospect Johermyn Chavez
A 6’3” Venezualen OF prospect who, up to 2009, had been all
potential, little production, Chavez broke out in his second season in Low-A
ball with a .821 OPS and 21 homeruns.
Now in the California League, Chavez has continued to keep it together
and is hitting over .300 on the season and has 22 extra base hits. His plate discipline will never be
stellar, but he is bringing it closer to respectability with each season. The biggest question for Chavez
will be to see if pitching at the more advanced levels of the minors can exploit
his aggressiveness and get him to chase pitches out of the strike zone, but
Chavez appears to be heading in the right direction in that regard.
THE BIG NAMES:
The Yankees send Melky Cabrera and Mike Dunn to the Braves for Javier
Vazquez and Boone Logan.
THE PROSPECTS:
The Braves also acquired RHP Arodys Vizcaino.
Vizcaino is a highly-talented who the Yankees did not want
to give up, but also had yet to appear in a full-season league or throw more
than 45 innings in a season. If
those were the biggest question marks surrounding Vazquez, then the Braves have
little left to worry about.
Vizcaino has handled the Sally League with ease, posting a
6.56 K/BB ratio. None of his
peripheral stats lead me to believe that his performance thus far has been an
aberration, hence his 2.52 ERA and 2.50 FIP. In other words, he’s exactly as good as he appears to be.
Which is very good.
THE BIG NAMES:
The Blue Jays send Roy Halladay to the Phillies as the Phillies send
Cliff Lee to the Mariners in a separate but congruent trade.
THE PROSPECTS:
The Phillies send Kyle Drabek, Travis D’Arnaud, and Michael Taylor to
Toronto and receive Phillippe Aumont, Tyson Gillies, and J.C. Ramirez from
Seattle.
This was the big one.
The Blue Jays cashed in their ace for a potential
top-of-the-rotation starter in Drabek, who has repaid their faith with a
quality start to his 2010 season in Double-A, where he spent part of 2009 as
well. He could easily be in
Triple-A by mid-season and in Toronto by next year.
D’Arnaud has shown off more power as a Blue Jay than he did
as a Phillie, and should that trend continue, it would elevate him from a
potential regular to a potential all-star catcher. He’s still far away (only in High-A ball this season), but
he’s in his second full-season of minor league ball and is closing in on 1000
professional at-bats already despite still being only 21-years-old. D’Arnaud will need to work on his plate
discipline ( his 2.01 K/BB ratio is too high), especially if this season’s
power display is a fluke, but he should still develop into a player who can
contribute for the Jays.
Taylor was flipped to the A’s immediately, and we’ll discuss
him below.
To make up for the players they gave up to get Halladay, the
Phillies sent incumbent ace Cliff Lee to Seattle for prospects to replenish
their farm system. The only
problem (besides the obvious lack of killer instinct) is that the trio they got
in return isn’t nearly as good as the trio they sent away.
Aumont has all the raw ability he had when he was drafted in
the first round by Seattle in 2007, but clearly no clue how to use it. He has run into the standard mechanical
issues that most pitchers his size (6’7”) have when they try to repeat their
delivery, but those are multiplied by two other factors – (1) Aumont is from
Canada, meaning that he did not get to play nearly as many games as an amateur
as prep players in warmer climates, and (2) between two organizations, Aumont
has been jerked in and out of the rotation without ever having a chance to
acclimate himself to one style of pitching.
The Phillies have him back in the starting rotation in
Double-A this year, but it hasn’t gone well at all. The Phillies have tried to refine his mechanics to make him
more consistent, but all it’s done is vary his velocity from one start to the
next. His mid-90’s fastball
sometimes shows up in the high-80’s instead, and Aumont has walked as many
batters as he has struck out. The
book is far from closed on Aumont, but he’ll need to get the mechanics under
control and hope that the Phillies find a home for him and keep him there.
Gillies has been equally as disappointing since becoming a
Phillie. Expectations were to be
tempered considering Gillies was coming off a career season in an extreme
hitters league, but certainly more than a .237/.282/.340 performance was
expected. Gillies’ BABIP is down
almost .100 points from last season, where it was not unsustainably high, so
some bad luck can be attributed to his struggles, but mostly the low BABIP has
been caused by a low line drive rate, which signals that Gillies just isn’t
squaring up Double-A pitching. He
has also battled some injuries this season, so there’s no reason to think
Gillies can’t turn his 2010 campaign around, but so far the Phillies can’t like
what they’ve seen.
Ramirez is the only Phillies acquisition that has performed
to his career levels, and his 4.10 ERA and 8 K/9 are right in line with what he
has done in the past.
Unfortunately for the Phillies, Ramirez doesn’t necessarily project as a
future starter and may find his home in the bullpen.
THE BIG NAMES:
none
THE PROSPECTS:
The A’s send Brett Wallace to the Blue Jays for Michael Taylor
The rare prospect swap of players of a similar caliber that
just don’t have an immediate home in their current organizations. The Blue Jays flipped Taylor to the A’s
for Wallace almost immediately, mainly because their outfield was crowded but
they weren’t confident in anyone in their farm system as their future first
baseman (not a good sign for David Cooper). The A’s found themselves in a similar situation with lots of
potential corner INF’s but in need of an impact bat for their outfield.
Taylor appears to be that bat, but has struggled in the A’s
organization. A’s fans shouldn’t
worry too much, however, as Taylor, a career .300 hitter in the minors, is
suffering from a bit of bad luck, signaled by a BABIP that’s about 70 points
lower than his career average. The
bad sign is that his two lowest BABIP numbers in the minors have come in his
two stints in Triple-A, which hopefully for A’s fans doesn’t signal an
inability to make consistent contact with more advanced pitching.
Wallace appears to be having no such problems, and his .276/.342/.505
line should land him in Toronto sometime this season. Wallace doesn’t control the strike zone quite as well as you’d
like out of a power hitter, but Triple-A pitchers haven’t exploited him too
much and his rates have been consistent with the rest of his professional
career.
