Contributor: Seamus
And with that, we have our first major trade news of the '09 season (that doesn't involve a high-profile hayseed pitcher blue-balling the White Sox); Nate McLouth has been traded to the Atlanta Braves for a package of Gorkys Hernandez, Jeff Locke and Charlie Morton. The Braves has certainly "utilized" a farm system that at one-point-or-another over the past three years included Neftali Feliz, Tommy Hanson, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Jason Heyward, Elvis Andrus, Jordan Schafer, Gorkys Hernandez, Gregor Blanco and youngsters Jeff Locke, Freddie Freeman and Julio Teheran. Of these players, only Heyward, Freeman and Teheran remain on Braves-affiliated minor league rosters. Hanson, at long last, has been promoted to the big leagues, just in time to avoid a grade-A conniption fit from yours truly; soon he will reunite with CF Blanco, and eventually Schafer, who made the club out of spring training but has since been demoted. Feliz, Saltalamacchia and Andrus, on the other hand, were dealt for approximately one year of Mark Teixeria, and later turned into Casey Kotchman and Stephen Marek. And now Hernandez, Locke and Morton (a successful 25 year-old Triple-A pitcher who struggled in his first big league action ('08)), are headed to Pittsburgh in exchange for McLouth, a 27 year-old corner outfielder whose ludicrous 2008 Gold Glove award may see him miscast as a center fielder for another year or two (though I would guess he will play at least some left field for the Braves). McLouth, a career .288 EqA hitter over three full[ish] seasons, is posting an impressive .299 EqA in 2009, though he has regressed from his aberrational 2008 numbers (.276/.356/.497) towards his career norms (.261/.339/.462) by posting a .256/.349/.470 thus far in '09, very good but hardly elite production. McLouth's EqA is also helped by his penchent for stealing bases--and for rarely being caught (64 steals, caught only five times career). Contracturally controlled through 2011, McLouth should help the Brave's stagnant offense in a way that off-season signee Garrett Anderson was simply incapable of at his advanced age. In addition, it will remove some of the organizational pressure from the Braves player development people, as Jason Heyward (who was recently placed on the DL in Hi-A Myrtle Beach with a hip-flexor injury) can now take his sweet time to develop instead of being rushed to the big leagues as a band-aid fix for a floundering offense. (Although, after holding Hanson down as long as they did, I doubt this would have ever become an issue.)
And with that, we have our first major trade news of the '09 season (that doesn't involve a high-profile hayseed pitcher blue-balling the White Sox); Nate McLouth has been traded to the Atlanta Braves for a package of Gorkys Hernandez, Jeff Locke and Charlie Morton. The Braves has certainly "utilized" a farm system that at one-point-or-another over the past three years included Neftali Feliz, Tommy Hanson, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Jason Heyward, Elvis Andrus, Jordan Schafer, Gorkys Hernandez, Gregor Blanco and youngsters Jeff Locke, Freddie Freeman and Julio Teheran. Of these players, only Heyward, Freeman and Teheran remain on Braves-affiliated minor league rosters. Hanson, at long last, has been promoted to the big leagues, just in time to avoid a grade-A conniption fit from yours truly; soon he will reunite with CF Blanco, and eventually Schafer, who made the club out of spring training but has since been demoted. Feliz, Saltalamacchia and Andrus, on the other hand, were dealt for approximately one year of Mark Teixeria, and later turned into Casey Kotchman and Stephen Marek. And now Hernandez, Locke and Morton (a successful 25 year-old Triple-A pitcher who struggled in his first big league action ('08)), are headed to Pittsburgh in exchange for McLouth, a 27 year-old corner outfielder whose ludicrous 2008 Gold Glove award may see him miscast as a center fielder for another year or two (though I would guess he will play at least some left field for the Braves). McLouth, a career .288 EqA hitter over three full[ish] seasons, is posting an impressive .299 EqA in 2009, though he has regressed from his aberrational 2008 numbers (.276/.356/.497) towards his career norms (.261/.339/.462) by posting a .256/.349/.470 thus far in '09, very good but hardly elite production. McLouth's EqA is also helped by his penchent for stealing bases--and for rarely being caught (64 steals, caught only five times career). Contracturally controlled through 2011, McLouth should help the Brave's stagnant offense in a way that off-season signee Garrett Anderson was simply incapable of at his advanced age. In addition, it will remove some of the organizational pressure from the Braves player development people, as Jason Heyward (who was recently placed on the DL in Hi-A Myrtle Beach with a hip-flexor injury) can now take his sweet time to develop instead of being rushed to the big leagues as a band-aid fix for a floundering offense. (Although, after holding Hanson down as long as they did, I doubt this would have ever become an issue.)
On the minor league side, the Braves farm system will suffer the departure of yet another highly-regarded prospect, Gorkys Hernandez, batting champion of both the Rookie Gulf Coast League and the Lo-A Midwest League since being stolen from the Tigers in the Edgar Renteria heist. To be fair, Hernandez is a CF lead-off type, a role the Braves currently have a surplus of suitors for. Even after ineffective big leaguers Anderson, Francouer and Diaz are (presumably) shipped out of town, the Braves can still count on a McLouth, Schafer/Blanco, Heyward outfield in the coming years, not too shabby if future happenings approximate current player projections. If they don't, however, this could well become another move the team regrets. Assuming Schafer or Blanco sticks in center, Hernandez would have immediately become one of the premiere corner outfield defenders in all of baseball, and if center field were to open up (not outside the realm of possibility), Hernandez would also have been capable of manning that position admirably. A true range rover with a strong, accurate throwing arm, Hernandez is everything you look for in an outfielder. With the bat, however, Gorkys has struggled somewhat since his promotion to Hi-A Myrtle Beach, posing a .268/.348/.387 over a full slate of games in '08. While it is not uncommon for youngsters to struggle offensively following a promotion, this particular stat line highlights one problem with Hernandez's game, a marked lack of power. To his credit, he did steal 20 bases, nevertheless, concerns may have lingered that he would never have provided the power necessary to justify a corner-OF spot, assuming the talented Schafer remains in center. And with an organizational surplus of similar players, losing Gorkys was a blow the Braves were willing to absorb. Ditto Morton, who doesn't look to be anything more than a back-of-the-rotation/mop-up guy with his unremarkable repertoire and makeup. Jeff Locke would have caused me to hesitate, however. Locke is a pitbull on the mound, whose awkward delivery (leading to an all-to-often inconsistent release point) can make it hard for opposing hitters to pick up on his low-to-mid nineties fastball. True, Locke struggled last season for Lo-A Rome, but "telecast" numbers are of relatively little consequence for A-ball hurlers (if peripherals are okay), and with 113 SO to only 38 BB, Braves officials had to have liked what they saw, at least in-part. Pirates GM Doug Littlefield certainly did.
Still, I can't help but wonder if the Pirates could have made out better in this deal. Perhaps this is just conditioning (call it the "VanBenschoten-Bullington-[Moskos?]-effect"), as i have very little faith in anything Pirates mgmt does; whatever the case, this will most certainly be better than swapping Bay for An. LaRoche, Moss and Hansen, or Nady for Olendorf, Karstens and Tabata. It's not that they got fleeced by any stretch of the imagination, but this is rather early in the season to trade a coveted asset like McLouth, especially considering he hasn't exactly been riding a hot-streak lately (or done anything of note to push his value up). Then again, the market on "CF's" isn't exactly booming right now and, pending injury, doesn't look to heat up substantially in the future--try and think of a contender who both desperately needs a CF-upgrade and has the resources to pull off such a deal. (One such team, the Mets desperately need a corner-outfielder and have plenty of money, but simply do not have the prospects to compete with Atlanta's package). And, to be fair, McLouth is no longer a center fielder; perhaps the early consummation of this deal was simply an implicit recognition of this fact by Pirates mgmt; thus dealing McLouth while his value was falsely inflated (playing essentially out of position) becomes clever and devious. Whatever the case, Littlefield has to be excited about his future outfield duo of Hernandez and recently recalled Andrew McCutcheon (more so if he manages to land a right fielder with some power (Bradon Moss: 144 AB/HR this year)). Assuming retention of the LaRoche brothers, perhaps this bat will be that of Pedro Alvarez, currently posting a .240/.344/.448 line (50 G), with 9 HR and 41 driven-in for Lynchburg of the Carolina League...is it safe to assume he'll be roaming right field in PNC next season? It hardly matters, as Pittsburgh is probably at least a few years away from contending (to break .500, that is); however it plays out, kudos to the Braves for promoting Hanson (finally); the righty will start his first game on Saturday versus the Brew Crew. Hear, hear!
