Baseball Musings: Wells to San Diego

August 31, 2006

Wells to San Diego

I just got home and see Julien Tavarez pitching for the Red Sox. Sure enough, David Wells is now pitching for San Diego.

Details on what the Red Sox will get from the Padres were not immediately available.
Trade talks with the Padres had centered on George Kottaras, a minor-league catcher. Kottaras is playing for Triple-A Portland, where he is hitting .233 with two homers and 13 RBI. The Red Sox organization is in need of catching, and Kottaras has a reputation as a solid defender.

Wells is expected to start for the Padres on Saturday against the Reds.

The Padres were short a starter with Chan Ho Park suffering from internal bleeding. It looks to me like Mike Thompson will be the odd man out of the rotation for the Padres. David Wells had a very good August, which no doubt increased his trade value.

Posted by David Pinto at 07:35 PM | Trades | TrackBack (0)

Comments

Post-season be damned, I would NOT have given up 6 years of Kottaras for a month of Jumbo.

Posted by: John Seal at August 31, 2006 08:44 PM

Yeah... this sounds like a risky trade. Is Kottaras as good as they say, or is he a .233 AAA hitter? Time will tell.

Posted by: Adam Villani at August 31, 2006 09:09 PM

Umm...the Pads have Josh Bard, who's been killing the ball in his first big league season, and another young guy named Rob Bowen who I know nothing about. They were deep in catching, and Boston was shallow. Kottaras, by the way, is hitting .224 in AAA, but that's in only 107 ab's. Sounds like Boston got a pretty good return for Wells, but I don't blame San Diego for possibly overpaying a bit this time.

Posted by: the other josh at August 31, 2006 09:18 PM

Kottaras tore it up in AA. He might not be a blue chipper, but he's pretty good swag for a broken down old guy who isn't going to help the Padres win the World Series.

Posted by: John Seal at August 31, 2006 10:47 PM

Kottaras' reputation as a solid defender, it should be noted, is a result of his recent struggles at the plate. He's really an offense-first guy. Line drive hitter with gaps power and good plate discipline. I'm hoping the Padres are just giving back some of the money they took from the Red Sox in previous deals instead of Kottaras. If it is Kottaras, the only way to justify this is if Wells helps get the Pads to the World Series.

Posted by: Geoff Young at August 31, 2006 11:18 PM

Kottaras is not a good defensive catcher. He can however hit. He's posted 800+ OPS his previous two years and was over 800 this year at double A before being promoted. Bowen has not hit at all recently, Bard has not hit like this in any previous years, and Mike Piazza is old. Kottaras projects to at least a slightly above average offensive catcher, whose services the Padres would control for 6 years, and they just (most likely) traded him for 5 starts as an upgrade to the number 5 starter. Oh, yes, and a "veteran presence" with "postseason experience" who is "clutch", whatever the hell those mean. Who is going to take the third starter spot if the Padres make the playoffs away from a guy (Hensley) that has way outperformed him this year.

Posted by: Ben B. at September 1, 2006 04:15 AM

Well, you have to look at it from the perspective of San Diego - a postseason berth to a small-market (or I should say small payroll) team is worth quite a bit more than a guy who is likely to be a backup catcher in the major leagues. Bard is a slightly better projection, I think, as a backup catcher than Kottaras. I think Kottaras will be fine as a hitter, and he has a strong arm, but he's 6 feet and 185 pounds, and catchers that size don't last long behind the plate in the majors. Plus, he seems to have leveled off quite a bit as he's progressed through the minors.
And as far as Ben's arguments against Wells, well, actually, Wells' postseason heroics are well documented, unlike those of, say, Clay Hensley, and the Padres are a stronger team with Hensley pitching from the pen anyway, assuming of course that Jumbo has anything left. As much as I love Clay, he hits a wall around the fifth inning of games, which suggests to me his future lies as a reliever anyway.
And one more thing - the Padres already ripped off the Sox once this saeason, getting Bard and Meredith (0.89 ERA) for a 35-year-old backup catcher. Maybe they're just returning the favor...

Posted by: david at September 1, 2006 08:33 AM

I don't think this is that bad of a deal for SD. If they are as C stacked as I have heard it shouldn't be a problem. Plus, IIRC, they have had decent success developing catchers.
david, did you forget they gave up Loretta too?
It's weird, the Pads make some questionable trades but seem to take them in stride and end up balancing out.
For all Wells shortcomings, I truly believe he likes pitching in SD and against NL lineups, in that park, with Cameron in CF he can thrive, or at least be effective.

Posted by: Nate at September 1, 2006 11:46 AM

Nate,
I haven't forgotten about Loretta, but, let's face it, Loretta has maybe 2 years left as a regular. Barfield is going to be a starter for the next ten years and will probably be an all-star at some point during that time. Loretta was a fine player during his time in San Diego, but Barfield had to play this year, and I think he (and the Padres) are better for it. And if you analyze the trade as Loretta and Mirabelli for Meredith, Barfield and Bard, San Diego still comes out ahead. Mirabelli and Loretta are at the end of their careers, and Meredith, Bard and Barfield are all at the beginning of theirs.

Posted by: david at September 1, 2006 12:11 PM

It's also worth noting that the Dodgers picked up Marlon Anderson from the Nationals for spare change. Not a big move, but it does give them another left-handed bat off the bench.

Posted by: Adam Villani at September 1, 2006 12:23 PM

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