November 14, 2004
Breaking Up is Hard to Do
Nick Canepa is concerned about the Padres trading Phil Nevin, and asks an interesting question:
If GM Kevin Towers trades Phil Nevin, he'd better get plenty in return. The Padres aren't exactly loaded with 100-RBI guys . . .
All this trade talk. Why does an 87-win team have to be broken up? . . .
To answer this, one has to understand the two separate tasks the Padres have tried to achieve. The first was to establish the team in the new ballpark. This was a rousing success. San Diego combined a new home with a winning team to bring over 37,000 fans per game to PETCO park. To do this, Tower traded youth (Bay, Perez) for a solid veteran (Giles). This, however, was a short term solution.
What I suspect, now that the Padres have established their fan base in the new park, is that they will act more like the Oakland Athletics. They'll let expensive, older players go and concentrate on building a winner from good young players. So you trade Phil Nevin because he's in his mid-thirties and he's injury prone. You consider letting Giles go. He's also in his mid-30's, and likely in the decline phase of his career. Giles especially would bring some talent, as he doesn't have the injury baggage of Nevin. I don't think this is breaking up an 87-win team. This will be, piece by piece, turning an 87-win team into a 95 win team that will make the playoffs.
Brian Giles sure would look nice in LF for the Cubs this year.
brian giles sure would look nice in right field for the stros.
of course, we don't have any decent players in AAA....