When the closing bell rang on the floor of the Choo York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, three deals went down, including two that involved the Big League Choo.
Another two trades involved the team that aspires to be the new Choo, Steroid.ERA.
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R.A.
Dickey is now a member of Steroid.ERA, joining other veterans like
Kris Medlen, Jake Peavy, Doug Fister and C.J. Wilson. Who will make the 2014 Steroid.ERA keeper list? Only three can get there. The other two go into the draft. Tough decisions ahead for ERA. |
The N.J. Bombers sent R.A. Dickey and the ninth pick in the fifth round to Steroid.ERA for the 11th pick in the fourth round.
In a separate deal, the Bombers sent Aroldis Chapman and the fourth pick in the fourth round to Big League Choo for Carlos Beltran and the 11th pick in the third round.
And in the final deal of the night, Choo sent Danny Salazar and the second pick in the 10th round to Steroid.ERA for Jedd Gyorko and the 11th pick in the 10th round.
The Bombers had an excess of pitching so he dealt a pair and added an extra bat in Beltran to give him some more power. He already had a strong outfield with Starling Marte, Jacoby Ellsbury and Jay Bruce, and Beltran will slot in at UTIL.
Pitching-wise, he ditched Dickey in favor of Anibal Sanchez, Jered Weaver and Francisco Liriano, which makes complete sense for him.
For ERA, I'm not sure how this move helps him. First of all, I'm not a huge fan of Dickey. ESPN projections for him are nice, 15-11, 3.87 ERA and 175 strikeouts, but I can't say I completely agree with those projections.
Secondly, this now gives him C.J. Wilson, Doug Fister, Kris Medlen, Jake Peavy and Dickey for three spots. Medlen, Peavy and Dickey were all traded for, so I would imagine they are keepers, which means Wilson and Fister are out. But why? I just don't know why you trade a draft pick to get Dickey in favor of Wilson or Fister, whose ESPN projections are similar, if not better in many categories.
Then, he trades for another starting pitcher, Salazar, but he's minor league eligible, so he avoids the log-jam at veteran starter; however, he finds himself in a jam at minor league keepers now. On the pitching side he has Tyler Skaggs, Sonny Gray, and Trevor Rosenthal (or Addison Reed, whomever he does not keep at RP), who were all traded for this offseason. Zach Lee also is eligible, so that's five minor league spots taken up.
On the offensive side, there's a good number there, too, which is probably why he felt safe trading Gyorko, but for Salazar? I'm just not so sure about this deal.
With the abundance of players acquired, Steroid.ERA has to be searching for another deal. He has to be trying to flip some of these players, but that can be risky. I'm evaluating trade by trade, so it may seem harsh now, but we won't really be able to properly judge Steroid.ERA at least until the keeper deadline hits.
Even then, it may take some time to tell.
For Choo, he gets a solid backup for Chase Utley and he clears out room in the outfield for the younger players. He also gets a huge upgrade at reliever where he was searching for an answer. Chapman, who should be a Cuban Slammer, is a huge step up from Steve Cishek.
Choo may not be done — because he is the Choo — but right now, the roster is looking pretty good heading into 2014.
Then again, who cares what the Choo's roster looks like at the start of a season?
Out of 34 players kept/drafted in 2013, only seven made it to the end of the season on the Choo's roster.
Seven.
That's amazing.
But only one of us has room to criticize him for the moves, and that's the World Series Champion Outs. Big League Choo, as the runner-up, has bragging rights over the other 10 teams, and he wouldn't trade that away for the world.
Choo just perked up in his seat: "Wait, someone is offering the world for bragging rights? The world is still very young, relative to the whole universe. It has potential. I like it. I accept the trade."
Well, I guess I could be mistaken.
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