Postgame Spread: Soriano to ATL for Horacio Ramirez

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Pending physical. Just a horrible, horrible deal. Maybe we still end up with Hudson somehow and this is related, but on its own terms it's completely deflating. What a stupid idea.

5 Comments:

I retract my initial "well, not that bad" sentiments, on the grounds that they could have gotten more. It's a textbook "jeez, if I knew you were gonna do THAT..." trade, where all other 28 teams will come up with offers that beat Horacio Ramirez.

The most logical explanation I can think of is that Theo Epstein kept offering stupid trades involving Putz and Soriano, until Bill Bavasi got so pissed off that he did something rash. Where Bavasi was like "fuck you, Epstein, you want Soriano so bad??? CHECK THIS SHIT OUT," and he accepted the first trade he saw. Followed by Bavasi being all like "YEAH BITCH, YOU MADE ME DO THAT!!!" and halting all Manny talk for the foreseeable future.

Or maybe not.

By Jeff, at 6:33 PM
My theory:

ATL is mulling the Hudson/LaRoche --> Seattle for Soriano + a prospect from SF (who get Sexson) deal that had me fucking creaming my pants when the Pirates snuck in and offered Gonzalez for LaRoche. ATL jumps on that and then Bavasi freaked out. The combination of Schmidt signing with LA for an only 3 year deal after we'd offered 4 and just about as much money, and Hudson being pulled off the table made Bavasi feel like he had to make a move. Panicky, hrrible, all of that.

Ramirez might not be terrible, but if we risked putting Soriano in the rotation, he would almost certainly be better for as long as he was healthy. And I don't see Ramirez as some great clean bill of health that is way less risky than Soriano to the rotation. I'm extremely pissed.

By Jesse, at 7:04 PM
Edit: the player from SF was Benitez, not a prospect. I just wasn't paying attention because I didn't much care who it was.

Although, the Mariners are denying the trade is official yet, so maybe there's hope.

By Jesse, at 7:10 PM
The only person who could properly put this Soriano deal into proper perspective is Bill Walton.

By Alex, at 8:16 AM
What really kills me about this (apart from losing arguably my favorite Mariner for kind of a nobody) is that it takes what was a huge team strength (close to the best bullpen in baseball, and the best 1-2 punch) and turns it into a mediocre guy for the rotation--WHO WILL PROBABLY NEED A BULLPEN TO BAIL HIM OUT A LOT.

There are ways this could turn out ok. If Mark Lowe comes back from his injury ok, he's more or less Soriano's equal in the bullpen (but could never start, whereas Soriano probably could). Jon Huber was very strong there at the end of the year, and the Mariners have been very good at converting failing starters from their system into very good relievers (see Putz, J.J).

But still, no way was this fair value for Soriano. And no way does Ramirez turn into the starter that Soriano could have been if they'd just given him a chance. Ridiculous. As Dave over at USSM put it:

Soriano as a starter > Ramirez as a starter.

Soraino as a reliever > Ramirez as a reliever.

Soriano as a reliever > Ramirez as a stater.

There’s no way to spin this as a good move. It’s not. It’s trading a dollar for a quarter.

By Jesse, at 11:18 AM