Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
July 30, 2008
Tiger Fan on the Trade

Bilfer at The Detroit Tigers Weblog thinks Detroit should have received more for Pudge:

Farnsworth kind of fills a need, but not that well. The Tigers don't take a huge hit in terms of production and aren't giving up on the season. But my issue is that I think the Tigers could have done better for Pudge. He's having a good year at a hard to fill position. Factor in the loss of a draft pick and it's not good. No young player coming back? Not awful, but Dave Dombrowski failed to maximize Pudge's value. Yankees win this one easy.

Update; Replacement Level Yankees Weblog picks up on the free agent angle as well and likes the deal.


Posted by David Pinto at 06:25 PM | Trades | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Reading on Bronx Banter, it sounds like Pudge's no-trade was a big factor in what the Tigers got. There weren't many teams that Pudge would accept a trade to that matched up with the Tigers trade-wise. The Tigers were kind of hamstrung. Although it seems to me that you just don't make the deal then.

Posted by: Barron at July 30, 2008 06:38 PM

It's my understanding that you'd have to offer Pudge arbitration to get the draft pick(s) back. Arbitration could be expensive when coming off a $12M deal, particularly if Pudge overvalues his services and ends up not getting a multi-year offer he likes.

That's the major reason for making the deal now, but I still don't like it. Even one of the not-included prospects from the Nady deal would have been better, I think. Farnsworth just doesn't seem likely to be better than calling up a AAA arm and telling him to cut loose in the seventh.

Posted by: Subrata Sircar at July 30, 2008 06:50 PM

From the Red Sox perspective, the departure of Farnsworth is as distressing as the arrival of Pudge to the Yankees.

Posted by: Joe in Philly at July 30, 2008 06:54 PM

Listening to Toledo radio, the only one happy with the deal is Dane Sardinha, who's up to Detroit as Inge's backup. Everyone else is, ah, let's just say underwhelmed.

Posted by: rbj at July 30, 2008 08:31 PM

Subrata, I don't understand your point. If Pudge overvalues his services, then he will decline arbitration to test the FA market, right? The problem for the Yankees comes if he's realistic about his market value and an arbiter is unrealistic about them. (The point is that he has to decide whether to accept arbitration before he actually tests the FA market.)

Even in that case (if an arbiter were to award, say, $12M), the Yankees could cut Ivan and pay him 30 days of salary. They wouldn't get the picks that way. But the risk of offering arbitration is not high.

Posted by: RIYank at July 30, 2008 10:48 PM

This seems to me like a classic cost cutting move. I think there was a real good chance that Pudge accepted arbitration and then you're stuck with a 37 year catcher making 10-12 million a year.

The best deal he could possibly get in FA is probably something like 3 years 18 million. Well he gets most of that up front by accepting arbitration.

The Tigers just cut some risk and cut some cost, that's all. Seems there is a limit to what Illitch is willing to spend and the Tigers are probably approaching it.

The Yankees are always in a position to make these kind of "gee whiz wtf" moves because money is no object to them and they can always just take on salary to get a good deal.

I'm puzzled though why they asked for Farnsworth back, seems better to get some prospects, I don't think the Tigers are going to compete for anything this year, Pudge was giving them average defense and a 101 OPS+ from the catcher's spot, I doubt Inge and the player that takes his spot in a reserve role combine for more production than Inge+Pudge.

And Farnsy's spot might have as well been given to a AAA player.

Posted by: MattNYC at July 30, 2008 11:02 PM

I agree. I can't believe that Detroit let Pudge go so freely. I understand that they needed to fix their middle relief, but I don't think Farnsworth is even close to being a "sure thing" or a "real fix". Not only that, but even if he pitches well they likely aren't going to keep him.

The irony of this is that they ditched Chad Durbin, who has been a revelation in the Philly bullpen.

Posted by: Doc's Sports Picks Guru at July 31, 2008 01:12 AM

I don't know why everyone feels like the Yanks took the Tigers to the cleaners and it's being painted as though the Tigers are the 'sellers' here. From the Tigers perspective, they lose some offense but very little defense at catcher by putting Inge there full-time (he was catching about 1/3 of the time lately anyway).

Meanwhile, thier bullpen has struggled and cost them several games, and Zumaya's injury history does not inspire confidence. Assuming Farnsworth pitches well, he could have a huge impact in the late innings.

As a Tiger fan, I hate to see Pudge go because he was the first step in rebuilding from the pitiful state the Tigers were in for years. But, this seems like a move to get back in the thick of things.

Posted by: Tom at July 31, 2008 08:07 AM

Pudge would get a raise in arbitration and would be owed the full award if cut.

Posted by: a at July 31, 2008 12:59 PM
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