Comments on: Angels trade Kendrys Morales to Mariners for Jason Vargas

By: beastmode5150

beastmode5150 — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 23:50:02 +0000

Swu, no. He’s actually worse than he’s given credit for. He gave up 7 homers at Safeco and 27 on the road.

By: swu32733

swu32733 — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 02:37:15 +0000

Trader Jack got his lunch handed to him. Vargas was the number two pitcher and a much better pitcher than people are giving him credit for. I guess Felix will go next for some guy batting .270 or so. We also cleaned up on the Fister trade.

By: magicrat13

magicrat13 — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 12:50:17 +0000

yeah…like maybe they could have traded vargas to the nationals for harper….lol

By: temporarilyexiled

temporarilyexiled — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 11:48:36 +0000

You have to admit, regardless of eating dead money, if the Angels can now also move Vernon Wells (perhaps for more pitching), the team will have done quite the makeover. Impressive stuff.

By: danucks604

danucks604 — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 10:53:10 +0000

He’s a 3rd or 4th starter on almost any team, and as it stands right now he’s the 3rd starter for the Halos.. Now if he played for the Blue Jays he’d be a back-end starter.

By: yahmule

yahmule — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 05:48:25 +0000

I double dog dare you to call him a “prancer” to his face.

By: yahmule

yahmule — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 05:46:24 +0000

Mine would be seeing Steve Yeager take a Bill Russell bat shard in the throat while he was waiting in the on-deck circle. It nearly killed the guy and was the reason behind the invention of the catcher throat protector that quickly became a standard piece of the tools of ignorance.

By: tashkalucy

tashkalucy — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 05:24:56 +0000

The Mariners are an Eric Wedge team – Mark Shapiro’s partner. Baseball geniuses….just ask them.

Of course they have a lot of DH’s – defense doesn’t matter. And they are trained to hit a lot of foul balls as their most exciting offensive play is coaxing a walk. Look at the multiple RISP BA’s – Indians and Mariners at the bottom or near the bottom in the AL in just about every category.

So you guys think Morales is going to help the offense, right? Lucky the man is in his walk year. By the time Wedgie and his coaches are done with the guy, he won’t remember how to hit anymore – like a couple dozen other players.

By: denny65

denny65 — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 05:15:21 +0000

Agree. Montero is certainly not a catcher, and to watch him when he runs–he’s a “prancer,” always up on the balls of his feet–one has to question his athletic ability.

I anticipate he’ll spend considerable time at Tacoma in ’13, learning first base. John Jason is an underrated catcher and will do fine behind the plate for the Mariners.

By: beastmode5150

beastmode5150 — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 04:56:32 +0000

Thanks Angels, better player for half the money.

By: mazblast

mazblast — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 04:53:45 +0000

In my opinion, the deal has more upside for the Mariners than for the Angels. However, the teams weren’t looking at upside, they were looking at what each player can give now.

Good trade for both teams. Deal from strength to fill need, the old-fashioned approach.

By: cktai

cktai — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 04:28:50 +0000

You may not believe in sabermetrics, but surely the fact that Vargas is one of only 16 pitchers to give away more flyballs than groundballs should tell you that he is not a groundball pitcher? That’s hardly advanced statistics.

By: thereisaparty

thereisaparty — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 03:53:25 +0000

Middle of what rotation? He is at best a back-end starter for a first-division team

By: danucks604

danucks604 — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 02:16:56 +0000

This is a good trade for both teams because it fits their needs but I think the Mariners win this trade because Morales has the potential to put up all-star numbers, where as Vargas has always been and always will be a middle of the rotation starter. If it weren’t for Morales’ injury this trade would have never happened.

By: thereisaparty

thereisaparty — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 01:06:18 +0000

Hopefully either Jaso or Montero can learn how to catch.

By: thereisaparty

thereisaparty — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 01:01:26 +0000

By what measure is Jason Vargas very good? And he is most definitely NOT a groundball pitcher. In 2012, he posted his highest GB% and finished with the 17th-worst GB% amongst all qualified starters in the MLB.

By: thereisaparty

thereisaparty — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 00:56:30 +0000

Sorry you feel this way. Why should I not believe in DIPS theory? Also, I provided ERA, just with park and league adjustments (less than 100 is that percentage better than league avg. ERA; over 100 is that percentage worse than league avg. ERA). I would hardly classify this as sabermetrics.

You do realize that WAR’s have positional adjustments, right? If you don’t agree with them, create your own WAR with your own positional adjustments. Just be consistent and explain your reasoning.

By: kappy32

kappy32 — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 00:46:50 +0000

@Thereisaparty:

Sabermetrics for pitchers is a bad way to determine how good they are. It’s almost as stupid as comparing two different players at two different positions using WAR. I haven’t yet to find a saber-stat that is more telling of a pitcher’s production than the “old, archaic” ERA & WHIP.

By: mungman69

mungman69 — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 00:45:13 +0000

Just don’t hit any walk off homers.

By: kappy32

kappy32 — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 00:43:25 +0000

Good trade here for both teams. It’s obvious the Angels don’t see Morales as part of their future & they needed pitching. Due to Vargas playing in a small market, on a bad team, and slotted behind Felix Hernandez, he doesn’t get the recognition he deserves. Vargas is a very good, sinker / change, ground ball pitcher & had he played in a bigger market, he would have more notoriety & probably be paid pretty highly. As for Morales, he’s not done just yet. He showed that he still has some game left & most importantly, he showed he can stay healthy & that the ankle is behind him. When a player suffers a catastrophic injury, it normally tales one full season for the player to return to form. It happens in every sport & baseball is no different. I still think the M’s are a few more players away from making some noise, especially with Murderers’ Row in their division, but this is one of those trades involving low-level players that could have big impacts for both teams. Good job, good trade.

By: deathmonkey41

deathmonkey41 — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 00:19:55 +0000

He was centerpiece of the Cliff Lee trade, wasn’t he? I thought Jack Zduriencik backed out on the Yankees because he thought Smoak was better than Montero.

By: shawnuel

shawnuel — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 00:19:34 +0000

Jaso/Montero most of the catching, Smoak most time at 1B and Morales most time at DH. Considering health and platoon splits, this should turn out fairly equitably.

By: ireportyoudecide

ireportyoudecide — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 00:07:27 +0000

Now trade for Tulo and Longo and put the whole gang back together.

By: thereisaparty

thereisaparty — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 00:01:58 +0000

And by nearly identical, do you mean worse by almost every measure?

By: thereisaparty

thereisaparty — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 00:00:34 +0000

ERA- and FIP- over 100 the past two seasons. This is below average. He is a below-average MLB starter that pitched over 200 innings on some bad Mariners teams. I consider good to mean “above-average”.

By: Reflex

Reflex — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 23:42:05 +0000

I doubt it too, honestly, but I was wondering. Since he’s only signed for a year I don’t think they should ditch Smoak as that just leaves them with a hole come 2014. Perhaps this will just become some sort of 1B/DH/C rotation or something with Smoak/Jaso/Montero/Morales.

By: fhuizar

fhuizar — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 23:36:13 +0000

The guy had a very bad leg/ankle injury. He didnt look too mobile last yr and barely ran well on the bases. I doubt he plays RF.

By: Reflex

Reflex — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 23:33:58 +0000

Good move. Kind of curious about Morales in RF, he played the position for the Angel’s a few years back, but I don’t know how well. His ankle should be healed up enough by now, and he’s only 29, but it would maximize the big bats in thier lineup given that Smoak showed signs of life in the second half last year.

By: bennoj

bennoj — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 23:31:02 +0000

I would not be surprised if Montero spends most, if not all, of next year in Tacoma learning to play adequate 1st base.

By: bigdinla

bigdinla — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 23:26:15 +0000

To bad, I was hoping Atlanta would trade a pitcher for Trumbo.