December 8, 2005

Renteria, Mirabelli Traded

Edgar Renteria has been traded to Atlanta for third-base prospect Andy Marte.

Clearly (if you read the comments to my last post), Sean O will be happy. My question: why wouldn't Atlanta hang onto such a good prospect?

The deal previously discussed included Tampa Bay, with Marte going to the Rays and Julio Lugo coming to Boston. The Sox have also discussed Aubrey Huff and/or Danys Baez with Tampa.

And last night, Doug Mirabelli was traded to San Diego for 34-year-old second baseman Mark Loretta. Loretta says his former teammate Dave Roberts told him: "You have no idea what you're in for in terms of excitement."

I assume another deal for a backup catcher will be forthcoming. I can't see Kelly Shoppach getting the job. ... Bill Mueller may be close to signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers. ... One possible first baseman -- Lyle Overbay -- is out of circulation, having been traded to the busy Blue Jays.

Damn, we're seeing some serious changeover. The starting infield will be completely different next season. With Ramirez and Nixon being mentioned in possible deals, the outfield could be brand-new also (although not likely, in my view). Texas sent Alfonso Soriano to Washington -- so that probably kills a Manny-to-Rangers scenario -- although Seattle is still asking about Nixon.

Wakefield:
What the heck is our team going to look like next year? ... Why are they dismantling the whole team? The whole starting infield is gone. Manny will be gone. If they don't sign Johnny, he'll be gone. If they trade Trot, holy cow, the only guys left will be Varitek and I and Ortiz.
Check this out from the LA Times' Bill Plaschke:
In resurrecting Grady Little as the new Dodger manager, he hit a late-inning, backdoor slider out of the park.

The baseball folks in Boston may be wincing, but baseball folks everywhere else are smiling, waxing in the rebirth of a good man wronged. ...

Little took a diverse group and turned them into winners who, months after he was fired, became nationally known as "the Idiots." Then, of course, they finally won the World Series.
Ahhhhh, it was all thanks to Gump that we won in 2004. I see.

The great Fire Joe Morgan blog has it covered.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

YESSSSSS!
As for the Braves dumping him, I'm guessing it was 1). they have 3 people blocking him at third base and a good outfield already, and 2). they need a cheap SS. The fact is, he has very good mL numbers, has no injury history, is above-average defensively, and is the #1 prospect in the freaking minor leagues. Marte is the real deal, not a product of our hype machine like Hanley. Obviously he needs time at Pawtucket, but he could easily hit .310 with 30+ homers there and get a september callup to help us.

He's the kind of player you see in the top prospects list and think, why can't we get someone like that? If we trade him away for garbage like lugo or huff.....

Kyle said...

No Lugo!!! We do NOT want that guy.

Anonymous said...

I'm not all that thrilled with the Edgar deal. I know a lot of fans were less than enamored with him, but I personally liked the guy and was fairly certain he'd have a big turn around in 2006, given his career record. It seems weird to me to trade a known, relatively young talent like him for an X-factor like a prospect (who hit an impressive .140 during a brief stint in the majors in '05), hype or no hype. And who the hell is going to play shortstop now? If the FO's answer is Julio Lugo, I'm going to be extremely pissed off.

I share Tim Wakefield's sentiments on all of this wheeling and dealing. Where the heck is this team going now? Why is there so much turnover in one offseason? It's getting more than ridiculous and it's making me nervous.

Anonymous said...

Plain and simple, if we were making changes for change's sake, then I would be against this. However, dear god, look at what we're getting! Even if Renteria hits .320 /.400 / .550 next season, Marte is the better deal. He's young, has great power, and in spite of a rough MLB callup that came about a year too soon, he did surprisingly well in Richmond (a hitter's park) at the tender age of 21. In Pawtucket, don't be surprised if he breaks .300 and 30 homers, numbers I assume he'll be putting up frequently around 2008-2009 batting fifth at Fenway.

Marte is the real deal, 'nuf ced.

allan said...

It's much easier for the FO to trade Edgar now rather than in a year after he has (possibly) a subpar 2006.

So I'll side with Branch Rickey on this one -- better to get rid of a player one year too early rather than one year too late.

And while I'm not comparing the two, let's remember that Alex Rodriguez hit .204 (with 20 strikeouts in 54 AB) in a brief late-season call up in 1994.

If Marte had hit .450 in 40 September at-bats, we'd all say it was a small sample. And we'd be right.

I really wanted Edgar to succeed, but I'm not broken up about losing him. We should be able to replace his production, and if not, our increased offense at 1B and 2B should make up for it.