Boston whiffed on J.J. Hardy. Might another whiff be coming?
The Arizona Diamondbacks are talking to the Toronto Blue Jays about catcher Chris Snyder. This is not the first time Snyder has come up at Fire Brand.
I was on shift at Rotoworld.com when the news broke, and here’s what I had to say:
Snyder hit .200/.333/.352 in a scant 165 at-bats during the season, losing his starting gig to Miguel Montero, and having the year marred by injuries. Due $11.25 million through 2011, the 28-year old has a reputation as a great defensive catcher who has a healthy rapport with pitchers. The Jays’ top prospect is widely considered to be catcher J.P. Arencibia, so you have to wonder what Toronto is thinking if the rumor is true.
Snyder isn’t a world beater, but he did hit .237/.348/.452. If Boston wants to upgrade offensively and defensively, one way might be to go after Snyder, put Victor Martinez at first and slide Kevin Youkilis over to third.
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They are asking for Overbay. The bottom line is Overbay is a better player than Kotchman
Firstly, I would definitely choose Overbay over Kotchman. Secondly, given age, defense, previous success, potential future success, I think it's closer than you're making it sound like.
Well Kotchman is allergic to hitting the ball in the air. He is like the left handed version of Lugo. But Kotchman plays gold glove defense which is why i deal with him.
I'm not sure if there's that much difference between Overbay and Kotchman. Based on their contracts, I'd probably rather have Kotchman. Overbay is making $7 million next year, which is probably about as much as he's worth. Kotchman is solidly above replacement level, made less than $3 million last year, and has barely three years of service time.
I don't have any idea why Arizona was so into Overbay anyways. My guess is that the trade was contingent on the Jays picking up a lot of the salary, and it fell through because they didn't want to pick up enough.
Snyder had a 77 OPS+, Lowell….who you are effectively replacing him with had a 108 OPS+. 11 Mill for a guy who was injured last year and had a 77 OPS+
Ok, how about this: trading for Chris Snyder AND Stephen Drew. I wonder what kind of package Arizona would ask for those two.
Stephen Drew is extremely valuable, or at least perceived to be so. Snyder + Drew would take at least Kotchman + Bard + probably a couple live arms, at least
Never mind the salary, I'd take Kottaras over Snyder anyday.
In any case, Snyder is not a player who worth give anyone of value. Specially because we are gonna need to use a lot of prospects if we want to land the player we really need: Adrian Gonzalez.
Precisely. Also, with the addition of Hermida, I think you can add Josh Reddick to that list.
Miguel Montero was a trade chip last year, and the kid turned into the starting C. We probably blew that, but who knew. This year's "who knew", IMO, is Mark Wagner. He just keeps getting better, has thrown out nearly half of attempted stolen bases, and is as good with the bat as Montero turned out to be.
I'd love to see Tek have his usual hot start and then, when the decline starts, give way to Wagner who will be prepping in AAA. Tek goes on the DL, as he will need it, spends a month or two learning the coaching side with Wagner, Expo, Fedex. He returns to the roster 9/1, and enjoys a mammoth retirement party at end of season. Then he returns in a FT coaching role. Great segue for a great Red Sox player.
I don’t want Tek back, unless is at a coaching position. His offense is absolutely horrible and now he has lost his defense too. He is finished. Let him die in peace. Bringing him back has no sense at all. In fact bringing him back last year was a mistake (we could have got a draft pick for him). Kottaras is a better option right now.
V-Mart is our primary catcher without a doubt. Kottaras is the backup, and, yes, I agree, we could give Wagner a chance. I don’t know what to expect of his bat, but at least he is widely regarded as a good defensive catcher.
You miss an important point in your unconditional hatred–yes, Tek is an extremely bad player, but we wouldn't have gotten a draft pick for him…because for that to happen someone else would have had to sign him.
Hatred? I don't hate Tek. I just recognize his career is finished, and I don't want to hurt the team for sentimental reasons.
And if you don't think anyone else would have signed him last year, then obviously you recognize nobody else believed in his value. And we clearly made a mistake re-signing him, draft pick or not.
Hi MAG, just remember how well he started last year, fresh off an intense training regimen and ST. He hit 13HR in a couple of months, with accompanying RBI, R, OPS, etc. He started to fade in June-July. I see no reason why he wouldn't start equally strong in 2010, catch Beckett or whomever, then when he fades, he goes DL, and Wagner (I really like Wagner's potential right now, but it could be Kottaras, Brown, Expo, Fedex) takes his spot on the 25-man roster. This way, Tek has a good first half, gets a shot at coaching, comes back to mentor his proteges on 9/1, then hangs them up with hooplah, and returns as a coach, and the Sox get max value from his $3MM contract for 2010. The Sox would lose much too much by just letting him just walk away.
The reason noone else would sign him was because they would have given up a draft pick. We would not, meaning he was of a different value to us than anyone else. I do think that the contract was a mistake, but I'm kinda onboard with the Wagner scenario. If he develops, get rid of Tek mid-season. A little bit of Tek is not going to kill us. He's not much worse than most back-up catchers anyway.
You can use just OPS+. What about fielding, baserunning, salary, position, age, future production?
Tradin for Snyder would be a sure upgrade defensively, but offensively we would take a big step back.