Posts tagged CaseyKotchman at FanHouse

Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2009.

It's pretty obvious to any Braves fan that Frank Wren has to do some major retooling this offseason. Atlanta has never been a win-now-at-any-cost type of team, and they shouldn't suddenly become one; but the Braves have a loaded farm system and no major league pitching.

And frankly, there's only so long that you can allow prospects to develop without actually using them to make your team at the big league level better (that's not to say that trading blue chipper Tommy Hanson is acceptable; it's not). But the Braves, by virtue of the Peavy rumor train that's rolled through MLB gossip circles over the past few weeks, are one of the biggest teams to watch over the next few weeks: a new GM gets his chance to make a mark on a team with the chance to return to glory by pulling off a trade with his West Coast counterpart and fitting the pieces to make the Braves stop stinking up the NL East in embarrassingly anti-historical fashion.

When the Braves learned they'd have to put Tim Hudson and Chipper Jones on the disabled list, it pretty much put an end to any hopes of winning the NL East this season, so they went ahead and traded Mark Teixeira to the Angels to make sure of it. Little did they know at the time that they would already be behind in the 2009 season as well.

That's because Tim Hudson has finally given in to reality and knows he has to undergo Tommy John surgery, which of course will end his season.

The veteran will have the surgery late next week. Dr. James Andrews will do the procedure, and Hudson faces a 12-month rehabilitation period.

"I just needed to convince myself," said Hudson, who on Wednesday was advised by two orthopedists - Andrews and Dr. Xavier Duralde - to have the surgery. "I needed to throw one more time, to convince myself of what needed to be done."

If there's any good news for Hudson, and there isn't much, it's that he's got plenty of teammates who have already had Tommy John surgery so they'll be able to prepare him for what he's going to go through. Of course, the bad news is that 12-month rehabilitation period.

Maybe the Braves can call the Angels and see if they want Casey Kotchman back in exchange for a starting pitcher.

Take a deep breath, baseball fans. The dust has settled after another trading deadline, and what a deadline it was. Three future Hall of Famers were moved. So was a reigning Cy Young winner and two former All-Stars. And we haven't talked about Rich Harden yet. Undoubtedly, 2008 was the most entertaining trading season in recent memory for baseball fans.


Truth be told, it will take years before we know who helped themselves or hurt themselves at the 2008 trade deadline. That's just the way it is when boom-or-bust prospects are involved. But here's an educated (and roughly ordered) guess anyway at which teams won and which teams lost now that the July 31 deadline has come and gone.

Winners

Angels: With a double-digit lead in the AL West, the Angels didn't need to do anything to get to October. They went out and got slugging first baseman Mark Teixeira anyway, and it's nothing short of a coup. For all the praise heaped upon Mike Scioscia's throwback run-at-all costs strategy, it hasn't done much for Los Angeles in the postseason. The Halos have scored 17 runs in their last eight postseason games dating back to 2005, and they don't have single regular slugging over .500 this year. They needed a bat to go all the way in October, and that's just what they got in Teixeira.

Just as soon as one rumor dies, another rumor becomes fact. That Mark Teixeira trade, which the Braves finally agreed to execute, found a suitor rather quickly as the Angels have stepped up and traded Casey Kotchman, and AA lefty righty Stephen Marek to Atlanta for Tex.

It could have been easy for the Angels to sit tight as they have a huge lead in the A.L. West, and we've never known the Angels to make a trade like this in-season. But they understand that to take a division championship (of which they have three in the last five seasons) to the next level, they needed another impact bat. Teixeira more than fits the bill with his splits of .283/.390/.512, while on his way to another 30 HR, 110 RBI season, and now you have to consider the Angels a serious candidate to not only get to the playoffs, but to make the World Series as well.

For Atlanta, they get Kotchman ... who like Tex is a free agent after this season is under the Braves control over the next three seasons. Marek currently has a 3.71 ERA for AA Arkansas this season while averaging 11.13 K's per nine innings, so it seems they got a stud back for Teixeira. But do you believe that Kotchman, Marek, and a season of Teixeira (with no playoff appearance) are worth Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Elvis Andrus, and three other minor leaguers? That's a tough sell.

It has been a long, long season for the Atlanta Braves. What started as a legitimate World Series campaign has suddenly become an injury riddled nightmare for first year GM Frank Wren.

Yet, he refused to give up on the season and trade the team's biggest soon-to-be free agent asset, Mark Teixeira. Until now.

On Monday afternoon, the Braves officially glued a ribbon on Teixeira's head and stationed him in their main display window. After gathering their chief decision-makers in Atlanta for a meeting Monday, they then began the process of informing other teams that they plan to trade Teixeira if they get the right deal.

The feeling of clubs that have spoken with Braves GM Frank Wren is that he hasn't seen anything lately that would convince him his team has a 41-17 run in it (which is what it would take to get to 90 wins). And neither has anyone else.

Wren followed his team to Philadelphia over the weekend, to try to get "a feel" for which way it was headed, he said. What he witnessed was almost incomprehensible -- a weekend in which the Braves blew leads of five-plus runs to the same team in back-to-back games for the first time in franchise history.

Well, it was a decent run for the Braves this year. I mean, not actually "decent" but they at the very least hung in there given the nature of all the injuries they have sustained. And, it has to seem pretty obvious that the injuries to Chipper Jones and Tim Hudson are the final straw for the season.

With the trade deadline right around the corner, our MLB editor brings you the top five rumors every day until July 31.

- The elephant in the room four days from the trade deadline is Manny Ramirez, who once again is on shaky ground in Boston. In a perfect world, the Red Sox would love to rid themselves of the near-constant headache that Ramirez provides. In practice, they are still very much in the hunt for their third World Series in five years and would need to replace his production in step with any deal. That makes the completion of any trade unlikely in the next few days.

Joel Sherman and Mike Puma of the New York Post run down the potential list of suitors for Ramirez, and because of Boston's desire to ship him out of the American League, it is a very short one. The Dodgers, Diamondbacks, Mets and Phillies are the teams with both the need and the financial wherewithal to pick up the tab for Ramirez's $20 million deal. Because the left fielder has 10-5 rights (10 years in the league, five with the same team) he can veto any deal the Red Sox put together. That leads Sherman and Puma to conclude that Ramirez would only accept a deal to Philadelphia, where he would be reunited with manager Charlie Manuel, who was his hitting coach in Cleveland.

- And what of the Rays? The Yankees have gotten stronger already, and could add Jarrod Washburn or another pitcher at any moment. The Red Sox are embroiled in the latest Manny drama, but are more likely to improve from within. Tampa Bay has been pretty quiet, but they are out there looking for upgrades in the form of a right-handed outfield bat and bullpen depth. With Xavier Nady and Casey Blake off the market, the team may look internally for a right-handed bat, with the rehabbing Rocco Baldelli a possibility. That leaves the club looking to trade for a left-handed reliever with Brian Fuentes at the top of the Rays' list, with Arthur Rhodes, Jack Taschner, Will Ohman and Ron Mahay as backup options.

One of the biggest criticisms by Angels fans of Bill Stoneman when he was general manager of the Angels was that he never made any big mid-season trades to help the ballclub. Whether these criticisms were fair or not, I don't know. Sure, he never made any huge deals, but it never kept the Angels from being the cream of the crop out west in the American League.

Well, Stoneman left last season and now in his first season as a replacement, new Angels GM Tony Reagins isn't planning on doing anything any differently. Don't look for the Angels to make a big move before this year's deadline either.

"I'm real confident in the guys we put together," Reagins said. "At this point in the season I still don't think we're clicking on all cylinders and yet we have the best record in our league or close to it. We haven't been clicking on all cylinders but we've been able to play at a high level and achieve the success we've had.

"My confidence level in this group is high. ... To make a move that would take away a significant piece - I don't see that happening at this point."

If the Angels were to make any improvements before the deadline, odds are they would be to the offense, because the pitching staff has been doing just fine. A name being thrown about as a potential addition in L.A. is the Braves Mark Teixeira, but I'm not sure he'd be worth it for the Angels. First of all, the Braves aren't even sure they want to move him, so the Angels would have to come up with a nice package to get him.

Secondly, it's not like Casey Kotchman sucks or anything. He doesn't have the power of Tex, but he is hitting .300 with an OPS of .795. Giving up some of their pitching depth for a player they're likely to have for only a few months, and one they don't really need in the first place, would be counterproductive.

Major League Mongering will look at players rumored to be on the move between now and the July 31st pseudo-trade-deadline.

In what's been a pretty quiet trade market so far this season without any big name players switching jerseys, a lot of the focus has been on Mark Teixeira of the Texas Rangers. The first baseman is easily the best player available to any contending team who's interested, thanks to his big bat and gold glove defense. It's basically a given that Teixeira will get traded, but to whom?

The two teams who are competing against each other for Tex's services are the Braves and Angels. With a new movement by teams around the league to do everything possible to keep their top prospects, you would think that Jon Daniels would've jumped at the Braves offer. Jarrodd Saltalamacchia, Elvis Andrus, and the Braves best lefthanded prospect in Matt Harrison for Teixeira. That's three top notch prospects for one player. Considering the Rangers are entering a rebuilding process, that's exactly the kind of deal they'd have to be looking for.

The sticking point is that the Angels just won't go away. General Manager Bill Stoneman has told Daniels that he'd package Casey Kotchman, Joe Saunders and a prospect for Texeira, just as long as that prospect isn't Brandon Wood or Nick Adenhart. Daniels, of course, is telling Stoneman he wants either Wood or Adenhart in the deal.

When the Angels finally got tired of dealing with Ervin Santana's struggles and sent him to the minors, it was a move that most Angels fans were happy to see. Many have felt for a while that Joe Saunders should have held Santana's spot in the starting rotation, where he is now.

Now that the Angels have fixed that problem, it's caused another. The Angels had been in trade talks with the Rangers in an attempt to pry Mark Teixeira from their division rival. The Rangers were interested too, until Ervin Santana completely fell apart.

The Angels hoped to build a package around Santana and first baseman Casey Kotchman , two players the Rangers had great interest in, but when Santana was demoted to triple-A Salt Lake last week with a 5-11 record and 6.22 earned-run average, talks between the teams cooled.

According to a source familiar with the Rangers' thinking, if they're going to trade their franchise player, a 27-year-old switch-hitter who averaged 35 home runs and 112 RBIs in his first four seasons and is signed through 2008, they need to make a deal their fans and the industry would applaud.

Had Santana been performing anywhere near the lever that saw him go 28-16 in his first two seasons in Los Angeles, and this deal would probably be very close to completion. Of course now that it seems that there's definitely something wrong with Bartolo Colon, Santana might get another shot with the Angels to prove he belongs in the Majors.

Be it in Anaheim, or Arlington.

Previously at FanHouse:
Ervin Santana Sent to Minors

One reason Angels owner Arte Moreno is hesitant about bringing Alex Rodriguez to Anaheim, besides that $25 million price tag, is he doesn't want to disrespect Vladimir Guerrero.

Moreno doesn't want to upset his current superstar, by bringing in another superstar, and paying him twice as much. I don't think Arte really has to worry all that much, because Vlad trusts his owner. When asked about the possibility of A-Rod joining him with the Angels, Vlad had this to say,

"I've never even thought about it," Guerrero said through an interpreter. "I'm not worried about anybody else, and I don't want to comment on players outside the organization, especially if it has to do with money."

"The players I'm surrounded by now can do the job," Guerrero said. "I respect Alex. He's a tremendous talent. But beyond that, I don't want to comment, because there are too many pieces that don't fit. I like the way Arte runs the team. He'll do the right thing."

So now the only thing that Moreno has to ask himself is if Rodriguez is really worth the price. It's not like the Angels are struggling and need his bat to get over the top. Besides, they already have an All-Star at short as it is in Orlando Cabrera. Well, at least he should have been an All-Star.

If the Angels put too much of their money into A-Rod, it might leave them a little short when it comes time to sign guys like Jered Weaver, Casey Kotchman, and Reggie Willits in the future. Though with Bartolo Colon's $16 million salary off the payroll, it might not be that hard to make room for everybody.