Baseball Musings: Crisp Day in Boston

January 28, 2006

Crisp Day in Boston

The Red Sox and Indians completed the long rumored (and oft rumored to be dead) trade that sends Coco Crisp to the Red Sox and Andy Marte to the Indians. The Red Sox did sweeten the deal, although the actual players involved didn't change much.

Mota’s physical Tuesday concerned the Indians enough that the Red Sox had to sweeten the deal with the cash considerations, believed to be in excess of $1 million. The player to be named later/further cash considerations option also seems to be the second step in assuring Cleveland that they will not be disappointed with Mota, who has some shoulder weakness.

So Cleveland pried more money and possibly an extra player out of the deal. Good for them. They had a commodity the Red Sox needed, and got as much as they could for him.

The Indians also made a deal for Jason Michaels, dumping Arthur Rhodes on the Phillies. This is almost the opposite of the Milton Bradley deal, where they dealt away a talented trouble maker. Michaels, however, makes his trouble off the field, so maybe the Indians are more open to that kind of player.

Michaels gets on base more than Crisp. Jason posted a career .380 OBA compared to Crisp's .332. Michaels, however, is four years older, so there isn't much upside there. Still, any increase in OBA is good for the team, and Michaels should be a very good table setter.

The risk with Riske for the Red Sox is the home run. David strikes out lots of batters, doesn't walk many, but has allowed 44 home runs in just 317 1/3 career innings.

Shoppach showed a lot of power in the minor for a catcher. He's probably a better player than Bard, but not exactly a prospect, as Kelly will be 26 in 2006.

The Indians appear to come out the best in this deal. The replaced their outfielder with a better OBA, picked up a hot prospect who's likely to replace Aaron Boone before 2006 is out, and made an even swap on relievers and catchers. The Red Sox plugged their hole in centerfield with a player who still has some room to improve offensively, and they control for four years. It's not a bad deal for the Red Sox, given their needs. However, if you look at this as Renteria for Crisp, the Sox just plugged one hole by creating another.

As for the Phillies, Michaels was expendable after they picked up Rowand, but you would think they could get more for the outfielder. I guess brushes with the law made Jason less desirable, and the Phillies paid for that.

Finally, the Indians may not be done. As the second link suggests, Cleveland and Cincinnati are talking about Westbrook for Kearns. Stay tuned.

Update: In response to a comment, Michael's splits are here. Yes, he goes down vs. righties, but he's still much higher than Crisp.

Posted by David Pinto at 07:26 AM | Trades | TrackBack (1)

Comments

Be careful about Michael's OBP; he's got Cuddyer Syndrome (platoon starter vs LHP plus being spotted to face weaker RHPs only), and his OBP is likely to plunge 30-40 points if he's actually an everyday player.

Posted by: doug at January 28, 2006 09:26 AM

I don't undertstand this trade. Crisp for Marte makes sense. Sox need a CF. Crisp is replacable for Cleveland, and the Indians will take as much young, cheap talent that they can get. But, the rest of the trade baffles me. Sox give up Shoppach, Mota + cash for Riske and Josh Bard. Shoppach looks like Bard did 2 years ago. And, Riske looks (roughly) like Mota did 2 years ago (though with different trade-offs---more consistent, but more HRs). Grass always looks greener on the other side?

Posted by: Jason at January 28, 2006 09:53 AM

Even if his OPS goes down as an everday player, his OPS vs righties (Michaels is also a righty) is .822 which is pretty darn goo. Even if it fell to the high 7's, that's pretty good in exchange for a middle reliever.

Posted by: sabernar at January 28, 2006 10:42 AM

I think you missed my point; his splits are alarming because he faced so few RHPs, which may indicate he was being spotted and not asked to face the Clemenses and Oswalts of the world. Crisp played everyday.

A quick look at his batter-vs-pitcher seems to confirm this; you don't see very many #1/#2 pitchers in his list.

Posted by: doug at January 28, 2006 11:35 AM

Riske's strike out numbers in 2005 are alarming, to say the least. While he used to strike out a lot of guys, he did not last year.

Posted by: Benjamin Kabak at January 28, 2006 12:59 PM

I think Shapiro has other plans for Shoppach.

See my post on my website www.rotomusing.blogspot.com (or just click on my name.)

Posted by: Rotomusing at January 28, 2006 01:47 PM

I hope coco outplays damon.

Posted by: Colin at January 29, 2006 12:17 PM

Colin, I think it is extremely likely that Crisp outplays Damon. But I also think that Michaels will outplay Damon. If Mohr gets to play for the Sox, he might outplay Damon, at least in raw numbers.

The excellent BrewCrewBall posting last week on BABIP and luck has Damon due for a double digit decline in BA -- even if he had stayed in Fenway. Given Yankee Stadium's tendencies, Damon will probably struggle to keep an acceptable OBP. His HR power will go up somewhat, but he is primed for an apparent collapse year.

Posted by: Craig A. Damon at January 29, 2006 01:50 PM

Doug: Its not like Michaels never plays against right handed pitching. Just over 61% of his ABs have been against RHP over the last 3 years. To put that in context, Grady Sizemore faced 71% RHP last year. And I would guess that some of his Sizemore's 4 games off were against LHP. So Michaels PA versus RHP will rise by something like 16% over what he was doing. Hardly grounds for expecting a major shift in his outcomes. He has not shown any of the platoon problems that a player like Howard has.

Posted by: Craig A. Damon at January 29, 2006 02:04 PM

re: michaels for Arthur Rhodes

First, I like this deal because Arthur Rhodes is on my list of top ten Arthurs who have ever played major league baseball. He has a nasty fastball and a couple of other nasty pitches and he is a strikeout pitcher who can get both lefthanded and righthanded pitchers out.

Second, Michaels was a teammate of Pat Burrell at the Univ of Florida. There was no way he could have gotten traded if he hadn't gone and gotten himself into a barroom brawl and assaulted a Philly cop, to which he pleaded guilty and has to do 100 hours community service. That might be ok for you or me to do, but Michaels was a baseball player and the Phillies justifiably feel he should set a higher example. Consequently, the Phillies sent him out of town.

Third, Michaels did a very good job here last year. The year before last, not so good. His defense is good, his speed is good, he has some power, and he does get on base--he waits out the count. However, he is a dead fastball hitter and better suited to the National League therefore.

Fourth, the Phillies before this were thinking about moving Abreu and starting Michaels in RF, so Michaels is considered to be a very good player by the Phils.

Fifth, Rhodes ain't done. He's only 36, and assuming his physical is ok, he can both setup and close, so he and Tom Gordon are interchangeable. Rhodes is kind of closer insurance. Depending on the situation (if there are a lot of lefties in the lineup) you might want Rhodes to close on a given day.

While Michaels may well develop further, I think he's already developed into what he will be. Rhodes plugs a hole right now. I could see the Phils re-acquiring Michaels later if he irons out his personal issues.

--arthur john kyriazis
--philly

Posted by: arthur john kyriazis at January 30, 2006 04:49 PM

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