Ed Wade Is Off His Meds

We have a leader in the clubhouse in the 2008 Dave Littlefield Sweepstakes. Littlefield was the Pirates GM who last year traded for the washed up Matt Morris and his entire salary at the trading deadline with his team buried in last place. The trade had no basis in common sense and was the last straw which got Littlefield fired.

If Ed Wade thinks that his sad sack Astros team is in any kind of pennant race, he is serious deluding himself. If he thinks that Randy Wolf, 1-6 with a 6.63 ERA outside of pitcher's haven Petco Park, is going to pitch them into the playoffs, he is delusional on a scale of the residents of Arkham Asylum.

This is Wade's "thinking:"

"We still think the club we have is good enough to play better than it's played. We've got a million games left in our own division at this point in time. Our fate rests in our hands and I think it's important for us to do whatever we can, from the baseball ops side, to give our guys as much support as we possibly can."

He may be slightly exaggerating the "million games" part. I'm going to go on record right now that the Astros won't be in contention for at least five years.

Trading Places

Hey -- some for-real-trade-news! And some...uhh...not-so-real trade news.

The Johan Santana saga finally reached its conclusion, and reaction seems mixed. Well, not about the trade...but about how screwed the Twins got in the deal.

There's a couple people questioning whether or not Twins' GM Bill Smith waited too long, got forced into a corner when neither the Yankees or the Red Sox started a bidding war, and had to settle for a lesser package of prospects.

And then there's the contingent who believes that the trade was made solely to make ten-year-olds cry.

I don't know much about the guys the Twins got from the Mets (Jim, any help here?). But it seems that these guys are still a year or two away from being ready for the Show, so we'll have to wait and see how smart Smith is.

Meanwhile, Erik Bedard is still an Oriole. Some people say that it's because Peter Angelos is a meddling jerk. But Andy MacPhail says that ain't so:

Asked if Angelos was responsible for nixing a deal, MacPhail responded, "No." He wouldn't elaborate further or provide details on why the talks appear to have hit a snag.

Not exactly a stirring defense of his boss. But a lot of the speculation I've read that Angelos is meddling in this deal seems to be based solely on the fact that he's been a meddling jerk in the past.

And maybe that's true. I dunno -- I'm no mind reader. For the sake of the Orioles franchise and its fans, I hope it's not true. Or, at the very least, if Angelos is nixing the deal he's got a real good reason for it.

A Bird in the Hand

A while ago, Jim mentioned the tedium of the ongoing Johan Santana saga. I will suggest that the endless speculation over where Erik Bedard will spend 2008 is rapidly approaching that level.

The latest bit of non-news from the AP says "Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail has been actively seeking to trade Bedard for prospects. He appears close to working out a deal with the Mariners, but insisted Monday that a trade was not necessarily imminent. "

In other words...nothing to report.

But that's the way it goes, as we slog through the last few weeks of winter. Training camps open in about two weeks, and I can hardly wait. Then maybe we'll have something to write about.

Santana

Is anyone else as tired of this story (or non-story) as I am?

I'm pretty sure I've written about this before, but I think it bears repeating. The entire Johan Santana story is about the feeling of entitlement held by fans of the Yankees, Mets, and Red Sox; the belief that any good player they want should be handed over to them posthaste, for whatever pittance that is offered.

The decision of whether to trade Santana or to hold onto him belongs to the Minnesota Twins, not to ESPN or anyone else in the East Coast media. The Twins are under no obligation to deliver Santana to the Red Sox or Yankees just to enable the wet dreams of Yankee fan in the media. Ungrateful Twins! Why won't they just accept Melky Cabrera and be done with it?

Be prepared to hear variations on this theme all the way up to the trading deadline.

No One Can Succeed Like Doctor Roberts

I've been pretty quiet about the Cubs since our return, and for good reason. There's just not a lot going on with my heroes lately.

Sure, there's Fukudome-mania about to erupt. But outside some obvious jokes about Ron Santo mispronouncing his name (and incurring an FCC fine or two), all I can say is that I think he'll be an improvement over Jacques Jones and Cliff Floyd. And if that's not damning with faint praise, I don't know what is.

Other than that, the biggest story swirling around Clark and Addison is whether or not the long-rumored deal for Baltimore second baseman Brian Roberts will go down or not. Dr. Phil reported last week that the deal was imminent, but he frets that the price might be just too darned high -- Sean Marshall, Sean Gallagher, and Ronny Cedeno.

Is that really a high price? Cedeno's OK, but his career seems to be heading into a super-sub arc (if he's lucky). Marshall and Gallagher have had their moments, and I project them to be mid-rotation starters. There's value in that, but is it worth putting the kibosh on getting Roberts?

There's been some scuttlebutt from Orioles Fan on the message boards at chicagosports.com that Roberts is over-rated (along with the usual hysterical rantings from Cub Fan ready to string up Hendry for daring to think of trading a product of the farm system -- hasn't the guy learned anything from Brock-for-Broglio???). Besides perhaps being over-rated, there is the unpleasant fact that after the Mitchell Report was release, Roberts admitted to doping. Once. And never again.

On the one hand, at least Roberts had the decency to 'fess up. He claims he hasn't used since that first time because it was a "terrible decision." Since he hasn't bombed any tests, I can only assume he's telling the truth.

And on the other hand, that admission allows us the luxury of giving him a wacky nickname. One of the Goatriders dropped "The Injector" on him, which I do like. However, as a fan of the Beatles, I'm inclined to stick with "Doctor R0berts," for his self-medicating ways.

Setting aside the doping issue for now, will Roberts be a plus for the Cubs? To answer that question, I provide two stat lines from 2007:

Doctor Roberts: .377 OBP, 269 times on base, 448 outs
Chicago Cubs Lead-off Hitters (mostly Soriano): .341 OBP, 257 times on base, 507 outs

So...yeah...I think sticking Roberts at the top of the lineup just might be a good thing.

I think a Roberts for Marshall/Gallagher/Cedeno deal would be good for my boys, and Hendry should pull the trigger on it now if he can. However, I have my doubts that this trade will ever see the light of day. Partly because of other rumors floating out there that the Mariners are willing to make a bigger deal to get both Doctor Roberts and Erik Bedard. But mostly because Dr. Phil claims that "the deal is almost certainly going to happen."

In my experience, the only person who has been more wrong than Dr. Phil making trade prediction was me playing roulette at my company's last casino night (meanwhile, my Reason for Living was putting her chips on the square root of pi and 83 Plaid and winning every time -- but did she share her winnings with me? hell, no!).

This is one situation I wouldn't mind being wrong (and giving Dr. Phil props for being right). Trading young pitching is never a pleasant experience, but Marshall and Gallagher are already on the bubble of the Major League roster as it is. If we can score a proper lead-off hitter for them before we lose them as minor-league free agents, I say go for it.

Kenny Williams Finds An Outfielder

Back in November and December, pundits in the Chicago media were wailing and gnashing their teeth over Kenny Williams' "failure" to sign a high-paid, aging center fielder with a misspelled first name such as Andruw Jones or Torii Hunter. While not much interested myself in either Jones or Hunter, I had been wondering if there was any plan to improve on an outfield that was among the worst in baseball in 2007.

Well, three cheers for Billy Beane's rebuilding program. Today, the Sox were able to obtain slugging, popular, and borderline insane outfielder Nick Swisher from the A's. While not exactly Willie Mays, Swisher can at least cover center, has 30-homer power, and, most importantly, gets on base, a concept most Sox hitters, seemingly emulating their manager, had little knowledge of in 2007.

Back in December, the Sox made a little-noticed trade with the Diamondbacks, sending power prospect "first baseman" Chris Carter to the Snakes for busted prospect Carlos Quentin. While I liked Carter (who now, ironically, has also been dealt to the A's), I still like Quentin, who has a bit of power and also can reach base. While I don't think he'll ever be the star I once thought he would, Quentin is also an upgrade to the lineup.

The bad news of the Swisher trade is that the Sox once again gave up the very best of their farm system. Gio Gonzalez and Fautino de Los Santos were the two best pitchers in the organization. Remember, this is a team that thinks Gavin Floyd is a viable starting pitcher, so the loss of Gonzalez may be felt hard some time this summer.

Williams' next trick will be to clean up the logjam on the left side of the infield. The trade for Orlando Cabrera made Jose Uribe superfluous (not that he wasn't a crappy player to begin with) and the rules only allow one third baseman on the field at once, so either Joe Crede or Josh Fields will have to be moved. I advise Williams to try giving Brian Sabean a call; the Giants are good at collecting crummy veterans who can't get on base.

The AL Central is going to be a handful, and even with the Swisher trade the Sox still trail the Tigers (who made a much bigger deal last December) and the Offensive Stereotypes. But it's certainly a step in the right direction.