Tanner Talk: The Dan Haren Trade-A Year Later

Hello, this is my third segment of Tanner Talk. I will be writing this segment every Friday, giving my opinions not only from around the baseball world, but from a specific point of view; I’ll be focusing on the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. I will refrain from using the whole name for obvious reasons and I will stick with calling them the Halos or just the Angels. This week I'm revisiting the Dan Haren trade a year ago.

On July 25, 2010 the Angels traded Joe Saunders, Patrick Corbin, Rafael Rodriguez, and a PTBNL for Dan Haren. The PTBNL turned out to be Tyler Skaggs, Skaggs was the Halos' supplemental first-round selection (40th overall) in 2009. At first glance this trade looks like a steal for the Angels, they give up 3 prospects, and a SP that was never really that good. But hey, let’s look at it, in-depth.

Joe Saunders- Signed thru 2011, 1 yr/$5.5M Arb-eligible and a Free Agent in2013.

9-11 3.82 ERA 172 innings 91 K’s 59 BB’s 1.326 WHIP 8.8 H/9 1.2 HR/9 3.1 BB/9 4.8K/9 1.8 WAR

Patrick Corbin- #9 prospect in Diamondbacks Organization (According to Baseball America)
9-7 3.91 ERA 156.1 innings 139 K’s 38 BB’s 1.286 WHIP 9.4 H/9 .7 HR/9 2.2 BB/9 8.0 K/9

Tyler Skaggs-#82 prospect (according to Baseball America)
9-6 2.86 ERA 154.1 innings 191 K’s 46 BB’s 1.069 WHIP 6.9 H/9 .6 HR/9 2.7 BB/9 11.1 K/9

Rafael Rodriguez- Pre Arb-Eligible Free Agent in 2016
03 9.88 ERA 4 SV 37.1 innings 18 K’s 21 BB’s 2.170 WHIP 14.5 H/9 1.9 HR/9 5.1 BB/9 4.3 K/9

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dan Haren- Under contract for 2011 and 2012 at $12.75MM per season with a club option for 2013 of $15.5MM ($3.5MM buyout).
13-7 3.19 ERA 194.2 innings 159 K’s 27 BB’s 1.022 WHIP 8 H/9 .7 HR/9 1.2 BB/9 7.4 K/9 3.5 WAR

I took the liberty to bold the better stat of Haren vs. Saunders . . . It wasn’t too hard.

Now, how does Saunders hold up against the Angels’ 5^th starter in Piniero (not including Kazmir, Williams or Richards because lack of innings pitched and won’t include Chatwood because I believe he’s our 4^th starter). Well, out of the stats listed above, Saunders beats out Piniero 7-3.

But what we lost in Saunders as our 5^th starter we gained a lot more from our #2 starter. Though I do miss having Skaggs. . .

Weaver, Santana, Kazmir, Piniero, Saunders
A year later I see this trade as Haren for Corbin and Skaggs, the Angels wanted to win now, so they traded their two top pitching prospects in order to do so. The Angels might be able to extend Haren (if they pick up his option in 2013) to a below-market extension (hometown discount). So they might be able to have Weaver AND Haren for more another 5+ years.

So after first glance it looks like a steal, after an id-depth look? I think it’s not exactly a steal but it’s very close to it (especially if he signs an extension). This deal would only look bad if we hadn’t extended Weaver.

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Pirates Add Veteran Relief Depth

On Sunday, the Pirates signed veteran righty Aaron Heilman to a minor league deal. This made the Pirates Heilman's third team of the season. On Wednesday, the Pirates struck again; adding another veteran arm in 37-year-old Nelson Figueroa. Both were optioned to the Pirates AAA affiliate.

Heilman's stop in Arizona
was one to forget. 

Heilman started the season with the Arizona Diamondbacks, where he competed for a spot in the starting rotation and in the bullpen. Heilman failed to stay put at either role, and was ultimately released after posting a 6.88 ERA in 35 1/3 innings pitching out of the Rattlers' pen. 

Nice knowin ya Philidelphia.

The next stop for Heilman was Philidelphia. The Phillies signed Heilman to a minor league deal, hoping he could regain his form. However, Heilman was once again released, after a very short stay with the Phillies' AAA team.





Now in yet another
new home, can Heilman
regain his form?



Now, about a week later, Heilman joins the Pirates; once again hoping he can return to form. Will he? I guess we'll have to wait and see

Harper to miss rest of season

Baseball's top prospect, Bryce Harper, is most likely going to miss the remainder of the minor league season. Harper was injured during Double-A Harrisburg's win vs. Akron on Thursday.

After seeing a doctor earlier today, it was confirmed that Harper has a strained right hamstring, and Nationals manager Davey Johnson believes that it doesn't make sense to risk re-injuring it so Harper may as well be shut down.

Perhaps the most followed prospect of all time (Harper has been the subject of national attention since 2008, when he was 16, after Sports Illustrated ran an article on him), Harper had been having a solid season in the minors. He crushed High-A to the tune of .318 with 14 homers, 46 RBIs and 19 stolen bases in 72 games before being promoted to Double-A. He struggled early on there but had been heating up lately. His final, end of season stats at Harrisburg consist of a .256 BA, 3 homers, 12 RBIs, and 7 steals.

Harper will just turn 19 in 2 months but is expected by many to make his MLB debut sometime next season.

Tanner Talk: What to do with Morales in 2012?

Hello, this is my second segment of Tanner Talk. I will be writing this segment every Friday, giving my opinions not only from around the baseball world, but from a specific point of view; I’ll be focusing on the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. I will refrain from using the whole name for obvious reasons and I will stick with calling them the Halos or just the Angels. This week I'm writing about what the Angels should do with Kendrys Morales in 2012.

It’s Spring time in 2012, the sun is shining, and you can smell the grass on the diamond. It’s spring training! Now, for the Angels there is a lot to look at during spring training, there is Mike Trout, Garret Richards, and Brandon Wood Kendrys Morales. After two seasons of out of baseball, Morales looks to make the team out of spring training, yet there are obstacles.

· Obstacle One: Mark Trumbo has emerged as a top hitter on the Angels and has taken over 1B.

· Obstacle Two: the outfield is full, with Mike Trout in left, Bourjos in center, and Hunter in RF with Vernon Wells at DH (assuming Abreu is traded)

· Obstacle Three: Big time prospect C.J Cron is starting to appear in Vernon Wells rear-view mirror

· Obstacle Four: After leg and ankle injuries Morales would be lucky to be able to play 1B (OF is out of the question. And so is 3B . . . you know who you are)

So where does that leave us? Morales can play part-time at DH/1B, BUT having not played for two full seasons, the chance that Morales comes out of the Spring Training gates with a spot on the 25-man roster is highly unlikely (and repeating his 2009 season is also unlikely). Leaving him to play in AAA/AA; the reason why I mention AA is because the pitching in AAA isn’t really over powering. Most top pitching prospects skip AAA to go to the majors; so most of the talent is in AA. Also, being in AAA the league is called PCL and it is widely known as a hitters’ league with extreme hitters’ parks, so fans would be screaming out to the front office if Morales has 10 homers in the first three weeks.

So we have two options: let him split time with Vernon and Trumbo at 1B/DH or trade him.

Both options are reasonable but personally I’d rather trade Morales. Why? Because we could get the most out of him that way. Here are some teams that might go after Morales:

· A’s-Need a power hitting 1B/DH

· Indians-Need a power hitting 1B/DH. They can move LaPorta to LF/RF

· Twins-with Morneau injured most of the time, he could play 1B when he is injured, and DH when he’s healthy

· Blue Jays-Need a 1B. they could go after Prince, but Morales would be a lot cheaper

· Orioles-Same with Blue Jays

· Dodgers-Need a cheap 1B

· Rockies-Need a 1B-Helton and Giambi are getting too old

· Brewers/Cardinals-cheap alternative to Pujols/Fielder. Also Morales>Gamel

· Pirates/Cubs- Depends what they see in their organization. Colvin could play 1B for Cubs. Though I don’t see them giving up prospects in a rebuilding stage.

· Nationals-Cheap alternative to Fielder/Pujols. Morales>Noris>LaRoche

There are 12 teams there, and depending on his recovery it could go down to 5 teams. His trade value would increase heavily if he proves he can play 1B and show power in the minors. What kind of return could we get from him? He’s a free agent in 2014, he is arbitration-eligible for the second time in 2012, and Scott Boras is his agent. So any team that trades for him in the offseason would have him for 2 seasons. Now, our best bet would be to trade him during the season because then he would give us a bigger return after playing in the minors for 2-4 weeks.

So, what kind of return would he get? He could get 3 B-type prospects or he could command major league pieces. I’m not really sure how he will do and I’m not too fond of those teams listed above farm systems. But I believe Morales could command 2 RP’s and an INF prospect or 1 major league ready SP, a RP, and a B prospect.

Now, is it likely that he regains his 2009 form and goes on to hit 30 HR’s for another team? Yes, it’s possible, but highly unlikely. The worst thing the Angels could do, is non-tender him a contract, which I doubt they will do. Another thing they could possibly do is eat 8-10MM of Hunter’s contract and trade him, put Trumbo in RF, and Morales at 1B. Again, all of these outcomes aren’t possible until we find out the outcome of Morales’ recovery. Or they could sign Fielder, move Trumbo to RF (above scenario with Hunter) and rotate Vernon, and Trumbo with RF/DH; rotate Fielder, Morales, and Trumbo at 1B; rotate Fielder and Morales at DH. The last scenario, with the Angels signing Fielder, would almost guarantee Morales being traded.

What would you do? Keep Morales and play him part-time? Or trade him?

Jim Thome Joins the 600 HR Club

On Monday, Jim Thome and the Twins headed into Comerica Park to play division rival Tigers. Jim Thome entered the game with 598 home runs and was very eager to reach number 600. In the 6th inning Thome came to the plate against Rick Porcello with Jason Kubel on base. Porcello threw a fastball which Thome connected for No. 599. This gave Minnesota a 5-3 lead. In the next inning Thome came to the plate again seeking No. 600; facing Tiger, Daniel Schlereth. No. 599 and No. 600 were both opposite field HR's. The slugger got all of this one as he trotted around the bases, fist pumped, all smiles, with his teammates waiting at home plate to congratulate him on his prosperous accomplishment.

It was perhaps fitting that Thome reached No. 600 in a matchup of AL Central rivals. He hit 334 home runs with Cleveland and 134 with the Chicago White Sox. The Tigers posted a congratulatory message on the scoreboard after Thome’s homer, which was classy, and the Twins came out to greet him at home plate. Thome joins an elite group of 7 other players in the 600 HR club: Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Sammy Sosa, Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriguez. Thome is the oldest person to hit his 600th homer. Sosa previously held that mark at 38 years, 220 days. He reached the milestone in 2007. Rodriguez needed two weeks to hit No. 600 after reaching 599 last year. Thome waited one inning. Usually the 600 HR mark is a Hall of Fame lock, but people are questioning if Thome is of the same tier as the other members of the 600 HR club.

Thome high fives Twins third base coach as he connects on one of 600 career home runs.

Jim Thome's Career Averages: 102 R, AVG: .277, HR: 40, RBI: 110

Jim Thome's Career Accolades:

5 time All-Star

Silver Slugger Award

Roberto Clemente Award

Lou Gehrig Memorial Award

600 HR Club

Waiver Targets

Here are the players who have cleared waivers:

• Johnny Damon
• Hideki Matsui
• Ted Lily
• Tom Gorzelanny
• Chien-Ming Wang
• Jason Vargas
• Rodrigo Lopez
• Bruce Chen
• Carlos Zambrano
• Alfonso Soriano
• Carlos Lee
• Bronson Arroyo
• Chris Capuano
• Angel Pagan
• Wille Harris
• D.J Carrasco
• Jason Bay

Personally I see potential targets for the Giants to go after, such as Johnny Damon and Angel Pagan. I also think that maybe the Yankees should go after Ted Lilly and/or Bronson Arroyo to address their questionable rotation. Same with the Red Sox if they're still looking for pitching.

Let's see some comments! Who do you want to see your team go after?

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Weekend Recap: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Like every weekend of the season, this past weekend was filled with stories. MLB Features takes a look at what went well, what didn't, and what was just odd.

The Good:

Eovaldi's Stellar Start, Kemp's Walk-Off Single Carry Dodgers
Over Last-Place Astros

Matt Kemp celebrates with teammates
after a rare walk-off win.

On a night where bats were silent, it seemed as though no one would ever score. Rookie pitcher Nathan Eovaldi had held the struggling Astros to 2 hits over 6 solid innings. Typically a start of that caliber would deserve a win. But 9 innings past, and still the score remained 0-0. Dodgers fans thought they'd be suffering yet another loss, as that has been the theme this season. But Matt Kemp had something to say about that. With none out, and Casey Blake on 3rd base, Kemp hit a bloop single down the right field line. As he trotted around the bases, Kemp was mobbed by his teammates, as they celebrated a rare walk-off win. Nice job Kemp

The Bad:

Dan Uggla Ends 33-Game Hit Streak

Barney's spectacular puts end to MLB's longest active hit-streak.



Dan Uggla's hit streak ended at 33 games. The streak showed us that even someone who goes out of May below the Mendoza Line can still surprise us.



Inside The Streak:

During the streak, Uggla raised his average from .173 to .231.
Uggla's 15 HRs are the most ever during any hit streak.
Freddie Freeman quietly hit .350 during Uggla's streak.
Uggla's streak is the longest hit streak in Braves History.

Nice work Dan, your streak was a pleasure to watch.





The Ugly:

Jose Ceda Walks Relief Pitcher On 4 BAD Pitches.



Casilla's hardly in the box!



In yesterday's Marlins/Giants game, relief pitcher Santiago Casilla came up to the plate, about to make his first major league at-bat. Immediately, manager Bruce Bochy flashed the take sign, and Casilla didn't swing once. And just like that: four-pitch walk. Casilla threw his gloves to the dugout, and trotted on down to first base.

C'mon Ceda! You can't walk the opposing pitcher!

Baltimore Busts - The Story of the Once Heralded Season

This year was supposed to be the year Baltimore would get over the .500 mark for the first time since before Cal Ripken retired. Brian Matusz was supposed to be a superstar, and Jeremy Guthrie was supposed to repeat his second-half success from last season. Vladimir Guerrero was supposed to hit over .300 like he did last year, and Mark Reynolds was suppoesd to have 30 homers by now.

But, none of this has happened. The Baltimore Birds have hecome the Baltimore Busts. What happened?



Nick Markakis knows it's been a season to forget for the Orioles.


Jeremy Guthrie's season hasn't been all that aweful ignoring a few horrific starts, but his performance has not met expectations.

Brian Matusz's season was a lost cause from the start, where he missed his his first few starts due to an injury. He came back and looked ok in his first start against the Athletics, but it was all down-hill from there. The one brightside of his injury was that it opened the door for top Orioles prospect Zach Britton.

What happened to the April/May version of Zach Britton?

Britton was stellar in his first few starts, showing his stuff could match the best. But come late June, he began to struggle. It all started with his June 28th start against the Cardinals. Britton was rocked, giving up a home run and 4 total runs in 5.2 innings pitched. Britton has continued to struggled, and hasn't gotten a win since June 8th. He's currently on the disabled list.

Once highly regarded prospect Chris Tillman has floated between the minors and bigs this year. He currently resides in AAA Norfolk, since Buck Showalter was not impressed with his recent big league performances.

Another former top prospect, Brandon Erbe, was supposed to join Britton in the bigs this year as well, but he, now 25, has passed the prospect stage, and unless he's a late bloomer, it seems as though he'll be another bust as well.

Mark Reynolds - a Tale of Two Players.

Mark Reynolds has been very streaky this season. He's made stellar plays in the field, and he's thrown some into the 5th row. He's had days where he has 5 home runs in 8 days, and he's had streaks where he has 5 home runs in 8 weeks. There have been glimpses of greatness and failure from Reynolds this season. He has managed to cut down on strikeouts, so I will give give him credit for that atleast.

I'll wait to write Vlad off until after he gets off this hot streak.

The future rests in the hands of Manny Machado, Zach Britton, Andy MacPhail, and Buck Showalter.

So to all you O's fans out there... pray that these 4 can succeed and turn the Boys of Baltimore around. Watch other teams this year, and once again hope your boys in the black and orange can get some free agents and turn it around next year.

Tanner Talk: Breaking Down the Wells Trade

Hello, I’m starting a new segment on this blog called Tanner Talk. I will be writing this segment every Friday, giving my opinions not only from around the baseball world, but from a specific point of view; I’ll be focusing on the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. I will refrain from using the whole name for obvious reasons and I will stick with calling them the Halos or just the Angels.

Now that we’ve have gotten that out of the way, we can start.

January 21, 2011: The Angels acquired Vernon Wells of the Blue Jays, for Mike Napoli and Juan Rivera. Say what you want about this trade, but I’m only going to say two things:

1) This was a knee-jerk reaction to losing out on Carl Crawford.

2) This was a great trade for the Blue Jays

The Jays dumped Wells and his albatross of a contract (4 years 86MM) for a LF and a 1B/C/DH. Then they flipped Napoli to the Rangers for Frank Francisco. This freed up a ton of money for them to extend Jose Bautista long-term. Now enough about the Blue Jays… what about the Angels?

The Angels were looking for a LF upgrade and Carl Crawford seemed to be the guy they were looking at to replace Juan Rivera. They ultimately got out-bidded by the Red sox for the LF. I’m not too sure what was going on through Reagins’ mind but it seemed that he found a replacement as he was talking to Jim Hendry. A supposed deal was Fukudome, Gorzelanny, and Alfosnso Soriano for Scott Kazmir, Mike Napoli, and Juan Rivera. Talks were going on, until the cubs traded Gorzelanny to the Nationals. But talks continued as another deal would’ve been: Soriano and John Grabow to the Angels for Mike Napoli, Juan Rivera, and a minor league reliever. Sources say they were close to a deal and everybody was going to sign off on it, but the GM from Toronto Alex Anthopoulos stepped in and offered Wells. The Angels chose Wells, even though he was more expensive than Soriano, because they knew he was younger, had a better glove and was more of a complete player than Soriano. So that’s what happened, now let’s analyze this trade.

The Angels took on a huge contract, and Wells’ numbers have been heavily influenced by hitting in the AL East bandboxes although he only had 2 seasons in which he hit over 30 homeruns. The Halos gave away two players who were valued higher than what they were acquired for. They could have easily traded Mike Napoli to a team such as the Phillies, Mets, Pirates, Brewers or Astros for a reliever or two. I believe the Angels could’ve sent Rivera and Napoli to the Phillies for Antonio Bastardo, Vance Worley, and a B prospect. The Phillies were looking for an outfielder that was right-handed, and they could’ve used Napoli as an upgrade over Ruiz. Basically saying that Napoli’s value was pretty high after a strong year offensively and could net a starter and a reliever (or 2 relievers) and Rivera could net just a prospect, since he would be the new 4^th outfielder/platoon with Brown. Or they could’ve kept Napoli and just traded away Rivera, leaving the lineup to look something like this:

1) Aybar-SS

2) Kendrick-2B

3) Hunter-RF

4) Trumbo-1B

5) Napoli-DH

6) Callaspo-3B

7) Podsednik-LF

8) Mathis-C (by putting Mathis in this lineup, I’m not supporting that he should be in the lineup)

9) Bourjos-CF

You might have noticed a player or two not on the current roster on that lineup. Those players would be Bobby Abreu and Scott Podsenik. Bobby Abreu would ultimately be the 4th outfielder, limiting his plate appearances so that his 9MM option doesn’t vest. We would sign Podsednik to a 1 year deal so that when his one year is up we can plug Mike Trout into that lineup and have him play LF. Personally, that’s what I wanted during our offseason. But now we have a logjam with Trout, Abreu, and Wells (not to mention Hunter is a FA in 2012). Here are some stats from Napoli, Rivera, and Wells for this year:

Vernon Wells: .208/.241/.373 17 HR, 45 RBI’s, 8 doubles, 15 walks, 65 strikeouts. WAR: -.04

dWAR: -0.4 ~23MM

Mike Napoli- .289/.390/.592 18 HR, 46 RBI’s, 15 doubles, 36 walks, 50 strikeouts. WAR: 3.1

dWAR: 0.5 ~5.8MM

Juan Rivera: .264/.322/.393 8 HR, 41 RBI’s, 17 doubles, 28 walks, 53 strikeouts. WAR: -0.2

dWAR: -0.7 ~5.2MM

The numbers speak for themselves, so the final word is:

What was Tony Reagins thinking when he traded for Vernon Wells?

Thanks for reading, the first segment of: Tanner Talk

See you next Friday!