The snowstorm fell apart rather quickly for all of us here
on the eastern half of Pennsylvania, so it makes sense that the only deal that
went through was right at the beginning of it all.
Choo was predicting 12 to 18 inches of snow, so he was sure
we needed to start the snowstorm trading.
In the first and only deal of the weak storm, he sent Alex
Rios and his second overall pick in the fourth round to Chalupa — of course —
for Josh Hamilton and Chalupa’s newly acquired eighth overall pick in the
fourth round (via Jerk). They also swapped 10th-round picks.
It’s a simple deal for Chalupa. He continues to move up to
the top of the fourth round, and perhaps, he has a right-fielder in Alex Rios.
Nevertheless, Rios was a throw-in and only a piece to think about at this point, with a few other outfielders ahead of him on Chalupa's depth chart.
For Choo, he adds Hamilton to an already crowded
outfield. Hell, it’s an already crowded lineup. Max Scherzer and Johnny Cueto
both were shipped off this offseason as Choo works to build a power lineup to
take into 2015.
Right now, with his 10 bats heading 2015, Choo is projected to get 227 home runs. Now, that’s projected out over an entire MLB season, so I
adjusted the prediction for our five-month regular season, and it makes it 190
HRs for Choo. The JLB single-season record is 225 (by the Outs in 2012), so
that leaves 35 homers left for Choo to find in the draft as fill-ins for the starters on off-days and bad matchups. It's feasible he could make a run at the record. And I’m sure he would think that Fangraphs’ HR prediction totals are a
little low for all of his Cubans, other than Jose Abreu, so there's some more HRs there.
Too bad HRs is only worth one category. OK, yes, RBIs follow, but that's two of 11 — and with aces Scherzer and Cueto gone, we might as well mention that it's two of 22 categories. Choo will have a response for this, and we should listen to it.
We've questioned his deals before, and what has he done? He's gone to two straight World Series.
He's like Billy Beane, except his team actually can get out of the first round of the playoffs.
That said, Hamilton is an interesting choice to grab via trade before the keeper deadline. He seems more like the kind of guy you try to draft in the fourth round, not trade a fourth-round pick for.
Nevertheless, the Choo added him and his projected 19 homers to the lineup. He had
only 10 last season, so the Choo is really looking for a comeback year from
him.
This also means that it might be the end for the “Choo.”
Shin-Soo Choo is now on the outside looking in at a lineup that might send him
packing.
Unless, of course, another snowstorm comes along and Choo
goes on a trading spree. We all know that is possible for both he and Billy Beane.
Comments