Baseball Musings: K-Mart Special

January 29, 2005

K-Mart Special

The Chicago Sun-Times has more on the Sosa trade story, speculating that Jorge Julio might be in the deal as well. Julio does one thing well, strike out batters. Unfortunately, he also does two things not so well; he walks a lot of batters and gives up a lot of home runs.

Hairston or Julio (or both with Farnsworth going to the Orioles as well), this deal is a give away. The Cubs are basically paying the Orioles to take Sosa off their hands. I wonder why more clubs aren't jumping in? According to the numbers in the article, it looks like a club can have Sosa for a marginal major leaguer, two prospospects and $17 million dollars in salary for two seasons. The upside is that Sosa hits 80 HR with a .360 OBA over two seasons and you get to promote Sammy chasing 600 HR, then Mays, then 700 if you decide to keep him. The downside is that you get 30 HR this year and 25 the next with more injuries and declining skills.

It looks like Baltimore is willing to take the risk. It will all depend on who they deal as prospects, I suppose, but Peter Schmuck sees parallels in another deal:

If the AL East is all about star power, than Sammy might be just the thing to boost the Orioles into the spotlight alongside the Yankees and Red Sox ... if he has anything left.
Remember, this is the guy who went swing for swing with Mark McGwire in the most exciting home run race ever. This is the guy who has hit 60 or more home runs in a season three times - more than any other player.

This is also a "me guy" who was suspended and fined for using a corked bat a couple of years ago and has heard his share of steroid inuendo. Nobody said he was perfect - just maybe perfect for an Orioles franchise that has spent the winter flailing around.

There is a precedent. Former Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox slugger Albert Belle was caught with a corked bat back in the 1990s, and look where he ended up in the twilight of his career.

Sorry I brought that up.

Actually, if Sosa comes anything close to Albert's 1999, it will look like a very good deal for the Orioles.

Posted by David Pinto at 08:47 AM | Trades | TrackBack (4)

Comments

At this cheap a price, Sosa may be a good gamble for the O's, but his numbers the last few years are a straight downhill run. Add in questions about whether he's phycially smaller and whether he was corking his bat more often than he admitted, and you have a guy who seems a poor bet to bounce back.

Posted by: Crank at January 29, 2005 10:55 AM

It's definately a good chance to take considering they're not going to pay his salary and they're only giving up a spare part and a couple prospects (unless they are top line prospects). I'm surprised more teams didn't go after him, especially AL teams.

Posted by: sabernar at January 29, 2005 12:01 PM

You know, not to make this a Chicago feud thing, but I'm more and more surprised at how little the Cubs have actually done this off-season, while the Sox have dropped high salaries and added cheap decent production.

Posted by: Joseph Finn at January 29, 2005 12:43 PM

Let's see, Mr. Finn: The Cubs re-signed an All-Star shortstop and a very good-hitting second baseman and catcher. They are not done yet. Aubrey Huff may wind up in right field. And anyway, the Cubs are a much better team than the White Sox are, and so had less to do.

Posted by: Kevin B. O'Reilly at January 29, 2005 01:39 PM

Aside from many other questions, you've got an
arrogant, unstable diva, who at the least, exited the
team during the early part of a game without per-
mission. That action alone is sufficient grounds for
a team to release a player. It only makes sense for
teams to pass this cancer by.

Posted by: susan mullen at January 30, 2005 12:31 AM