Angels fleeced D'backs in Haren deal
The Los Angeles Angels skulk about without the flashiness and bombast of their region, happy to play the big-market team with small-market sensibilities. It's disarming, and it lays the foundation for the sort of skullduggery they unleashed Sunday.
The Angels depantsed the Arizona Diamondbacks. They stole Dan Haren(notes) in a trade and left the directionless D’backs naked and with nowhere to hide. First, Arizona panicked by firing general manager Josh Byrnes earlier this season. Now, with suitors from coast to coast putting together packages for Haren, they jumped at one centering around Joe Saunders(notes).
Again, just for giggles: Twenty-nine year-old Dan Haren, one of the 10 best pitchers in baseball entering this season, and still an ace, for Joe Saunders.
OK, so there are a few kids involved, too: Twenty-one year-old left-hander Pat Corbin, 26-year-old reliever Rafael Rodriguez(notes) and a player to be named later who could be 19-year-old lefty Tyler Skaggs. No can’t miss prospects. No top-of-the-line major league players. Just Saunders, his miserable strikeout rate and a lot of dreaming.
Never mind the haul the Diamondbacks gave up for Haren less than three years ago when they bore the look of a longtime contender: two future stars in Brett Anderson(notes) and Carlos Gonzalez(notes), first baseman Chris Carter (with 23 home runs at Triple-A) and outfielder Aaron Cunningham(notes) (playing well for San Diego), among others. Unless Skaggs and Corbin grow into good major leaguers – and the saying there's no such thing as a pitching prospect is a modern chestnut – the Angels won in a Tyson knockout.
Perhaps more interesting are the wildly differing values of similar commodities: No. 1 starters. Two months of Cliff Lee(notes) and two late-first-round draft picks (if/when he leaves via free agency) brought a significantly better package than two-plus years of Haren and his under-market contract that includes a reasonable option for 2013. Seattle's haul for Lee, in fact, was better than the previous two packages for him as well as Cleveland's for CC Sabathia(notes) two years ago and San Diego's for Jake Peavy(notes) last year.
Even though Haren's raw numbers don't resemble ace quality, they come with caveats: balls in play against him are falling at a disproportionately high rate, fly balls are going over the fence similarly and his 141 strikeouts and 29 walks in 141 innings connote dominance.
So a day after Haren's teammates jokingly cleared his locker and removed its nameplate to bring levity to trade rumors that always carry a sense of awkwardness to a clubhouse, off he goes to the …
1. Los Angeles Angels, whose seven-game deficit behind the Texas Rangers looks more like a creek than a canyon. The Angels built themselves into a power last decade with starting pitching, and any team whose rotation leads off with Haren and Jered Weaver(notes) can contend as long as the other pieces and parts oblige.
Which, thus far, they haven't. The Angels sit four games over .500. They've been outscored by 12 runs. Their starters' ERA of 4.35 ranks 21st and their bullpen's 4.51 ERA is 26th. Saunders for Haren is like trading in a TRS-80 for an iPad, and the fact that the Angels were able to pull off the deal with Detroit, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Minnesota and the …
2. New York Yankees – especially the Yankees – vying for Haren highlights the level of heist that took place. Though robust, the market for Haren never grew to the level of a team including a sure thing like, say, catching prospect Jesus Montero(notes).
The Yankees offered Montero for Lee. They weren't willing to do the same for Haren, the opportunity cost simply not matching up. The Yankees, said a person familiar with their thinking, faced a choice: pay heavily in prospects for Haren and risk not being able to sign Lee in the offseason because the rotation would be too costly, or bank on Lee coming to New York and keep a seat – at catcher or designated hitter – warm for Montero. They chose the latter, a sign in the team's confidence that Lee next year will wear pinstripes.
Still, that's 0 for 2 on deals for pitching in the last month, though missing out on Haren can be looked at more like a sacrifice. The Yankees coveted Lee. They would've liked to have Haren. There is a difference, the sort of nuance in which the …
3. New York Mets do not dabble. As bad as that Jason Bay(notes) deal looks – among the outfielders with more Wins Above Replacement than him: Tony Gwynn(notes) Jr., Jim Edmonds(notes), Jack Cust(notes) and Jon Jay(notes), he of 90 at-bats – his is not close to the worst on the Mets' roster.
That would be Oliver Perez's(notes) rotting corpse of a three-year, $36 million deal, for which he has given the Mets 106 innings and 213 baserunners. The Mets are trying to unload the last year and a half of it, their imperative after a nice run had them dreaming of trying to stay in contention through a trade like the Victor Zambrano-for-Scott Kazmir(notes) debacle. Six years ago when they made the deal, they were 7½ games behind San Diego for the wild card. And now, as it would be, they're 7½ games back of Atlanta and trail five more teams for the wild card …
4. Including the impossible-to-peg Philadelphia Phillies, world beaters one minute and loafers the next. The Phillies ripped off a weekend sweep of Colorado, sit 3½ games behind San Francisco in the wild card and are dipping their toes in trades big (getting Roy Oswalt(notes) and dealing Jayson Werth(notes)) and small (they're in on Oakland reliever Craig Breslow(notes)).
Certainly GM Ruben Amaro Jr. isn't against a blockbuster. He stole Lee last year and had him stolen this offseason as they acquired Roy Halladay(notes). And while a trade for another starter – one more expensive than Lee, in almost all certainty – would signal just how big of a mistake that was, Amaro can't dwell on his season of disappointment.
Exactly how the Haren deal affects the Oswalt market will be interesting, since the asking price of the …
5. Houston Astros supersedes the value Arizona received for Haren, a superior pitcher with a better contract than Oswalt's. Still, Oswalt is the last potential postseason No. 1 on the market, and so what has been a buyers' market – either that or Arizona's scouts believe they know something others don't – could turn the Astros' way.
St. Louis' reported refusal of Jay, the rookie outfielder, and shortstop Brendan Ryan(notes) highlights the chasm between what Houston wants and will receive. Couple such expectations with Oswalt's preference that his new team pick up his $16 million option for 2012, and though industry sentiment believes a trade is a near certainty, scenarios exist in which the Astros will stand pat. They can always run Oswalt through waivers Aug. 1, see who claims him and try to work out a deal then, or wait until the offseason …
6. As the Milwaukee Brewers seem more inclined to do. Bidding on Prince Fielder(notes) demands more than a couple teams, and the first base market remains thin. Outfielder Corey Hart(notes) almost pulled a David DeJesus(notes), getting injured and taking himself off the trading block. He should return this week and keep Milwaukee's games among the big leagues' most scouted.
Because the need for hitting is just as acute for the …
7. Detroit Tigers as the desire for pitching everywhere else. Over the last week, Detroit lost its right fielder (Magglio Ordonez(notes)), third baseman (Brandon Inge(notes)) and second baseman (Carlos Guillen(notes)) to the disabled list. While GM Dave Dombrowski referenced by name pitchers Jacob Turner and Andy Oliver(notes) – the Tigers' two best prospects – when talking about youth he didn't want to mortgage, he didn't call them untouchable.
So the prospect of trading for Hart, or Toronto's Jose Bautista(notes), or any other bat to help Miguel Cabrera(notes) win the triple crown – and the Tigers win the AL Central – isn't far-fetched. Dombrowski certainly isn't against dealing young talent. Jair Jurrjens(notes) is thriving in Atlanta (for Edgar Renteria(notes) – d'oh.) Cameron Maybin(notes) and Andrew Miller(notes) are still in the minor leagues in Florida (while Cabrera has been the best hitter in baseball). And though they don't have the makeup of a team that could steal a division, the Tigers are still just two games behind the …
8. Chicago White Sox and their tenuous grip on the AL Central lead. The White Sox miss Peavy. They're rotating a group of replacement-level hitters at DH. Bobby Jenks(notes), lost his job as closer. And somehow, they're still in first place.
Getting Fielder, Adam Dunn(notes) or someone else who can step into that DH slot and provide the middle-of-the-order bat the White Sox have missed all season would transform them from even-money-at-best to distinct favorite. Minnesota, while on the periphery of big trade talks, doesn't seem inclined to make a blockbuster move, and the Tigers are injuring themselves out of October. Both of which make White Sox GM Kenny Williams all the more inclined to strike, his desire for a deal …
9. Similar to Ned Colletti's with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the only difference being Williams' payroll flexibility and Colletti's fiduciary handcuffs. Colletti was talking with the Mariners about Lee. He chatted with the Diamondbacks about Haren. He is engaging the Astros about Oswalt. Think the Dodgers need pitching?
The Dodgers find themselves in among the most awkward positions of contenders: six games back in the division but on the cusp of the wild card, with a little money to burn and prospects they're willing to deal. It's a strong combination for sellers, and the Dodgers seem happy to play chicken. Manny Ramirez(notes) came to Los Angeles in a July 31 deal two years ago, and unless a flurry of activity takes place before the deadline, Colletti could find himself right there again, juggling phone calls and proposals and trying to do …
10. What 30 miles down Interstate 5 the Los Angeles Angels desire: win their division. Except that, as the Angels showed Sunday afternoon, they're not just thinking about now. When general manager Tony Reagins proclaimed he didn't want to pay a high price for a rental player, he was being honest. He's perfectly happy to go beneath the radar and poach a player.
Last year it was Kazmir, of all players, from Tampa Bay, a trade that made sense at the time – use some of that big-market might to absorb a contract for one of the game's best left-handed arms. Today, it looks like a disaster. Among pitchers with at least 45 innings, none has a worse ERA than Kazmir's 6.92 – and the Angels let Kazmir throw 92 1/3 innings of that slop before flopping him on the disabled list.
Perhaps a year from now, Haren will be struggling, Skaggs and Corbin will be blowing through the minors, Saunders will have rediscovered the changeup that in 2008 ranked with Cole Hamels',(notes) Johan Santana's(notes) and Sabathia's as the game's best and the trade will look lopsided.
Probably not. Haren's too good. The Diamondbacks' return isn't. Hopefully by then the Diamondbacks will at least have hitched their britches back in place.
