Food For Thought

by ToyCannon on Jun 22, 2008 11:31 AM PDT

What can the Dodgers do to help their team without gutting the kidpack? I've checked the rosters of the teams who are out of it and most deals would involve as Bob Timmerman put it "robbing peter to pay paul".

I have uncoverered one deal which could benefit both teams without involving any of our young prospects. Right now our biggest hole is SS and while Furcal is expected back he could go back down any time since we are talking his back. Houston is completely out of the race. If we were to swap shortstops we'd get 1 1/2 years of Tejada and they would get two compensation draft picks when Furcal becomes a free agent at the end of 2008 for a team that needs to rebuild.

Tejada is not the Tejada of old and his road splits this year are hovering at around 700 OPS. After an initial tear in April he has slowed down considerably but when you think about who he is replacing, he'd still be a huge upgrade. The Astro's would be off the hook for his 2009 season and they could use the draft picks to help rebuild one of the worse minor league systems in baseball.

1 1/2 years of Tejada would give Hu/DeJesus more time to percolate and give the Dodgers a little more punch in the lineup in 2008.

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not the worst trade idea i’ve seen, but what if Furcal gets over this back problem and goes back to doing what he’s capable of doing? What about moving Furcal over to 2B next year when Jeff Kent’s corpse retires?

by lurkingdodger on Jun 22, 2008 2:05 PM PDT 0 recs

Re:

Furcal may have the best arm of any shortstop in the big leagues. He has no desire to play 2nd base. Do you give him an extension when he’s been healthy for the less then 1/2 of his current 3 year deal while in the prime of his career?

Right now the offensive black hole in the Dodger lineup is SS. If Furcal returns and is healthy that will be a huge pick me up but don’t expect him to hit like he was hitting in April. That was as good as it will ever get for him.

by ToyCannon on Jun 22, 2008 3:39 PM PDT up 0 recs

Intriguing thought

Furcal will only bring two picks if he is a Type-A FA SS of course. Any reasonably productive year and he would be, but will he play enough to be one?

From the CBA: “A Type A Player shall be a Player who ranks in the upper twenty percent (20%) of his respective position group.” (for all players, not just FA-eligibles.) I can’t find on the web the official “A Statistical System for the Ranking of Players” referenced in the CBA, but according to:
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2007/10/stats-used-for-.html
Furcal’s position group is 2B, SS, 3B and the stats used for the Elias Rankings for that group are PA, AVG, OBP, HR, RBI, Fielding percentage, Total chances at designated position. (Check out the difference between SP and RP!)

From:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/nl/2007-10-31-elias-rankings-complete_N.htm
if I am reading it correctly, if Furcal was FA-eligible going into 2008, he would be Type B based on his and his “peers” 2006-2007 performance.

Now I’m guessing/extrapolating here a little, but if the 2009 FA Type ratings are based on 2007-2008, Furcal’s subpar 2007 and 2008 DL-time are not going to help.

I guess the bottom-line is if one trades for Furcal, one shouldn’t count on him being Type-A or that it may be low probability, withType-B being much more likely.

Houston’s interest may depend on their SS prospect situation, which I know nothing about. (I think it’s also the case that a player can’t be traded while on the DL, so this couldn’t happen until Furcal is active.)

(The cynic in me says that what’s more likely is that Colletti doesn’t sign Furcal, then trades, oh, Lucas May and Josh Bell for one year of Tejada.)

by El Lay Dave on Jun 23, 2008 11:47 AM PDT 0 recs