While most folks spend their July 4th holiday grilling and doing fun outdoor activities, we spent it wheeling and dealing. First, we made a big July 2 international signing, Bob Sanchez:
There's nothing not to like here - if he lives up to potential he's a star hitter with a great corner OF glove who can play a passable CF. Long way to go with him, though.
Then we made a pair of pretty good-sized trades because a team sitting at 59-25 needs a shakeup of course. First this one:
This trade accomplishes several objectives. First, it gets us off the Ed Pretty rollercoaster. Now I like Ed Pretty and he's had some great seasons for us, but of late it's been a wild ride with a horrible season in 2043, a very good one last year, and the makings of a poor one this year as you can see from those numbers. Nevertheless based on his track record and his 80 stuff, he still always comes up in various "make this work" trade shopping I do and it was time to cash him in before another season like 2043 puts a big dent in his trade value. In return we get Goulet, who could help us right now but I'm looking at new year. That's because to keep everyone on the roster we'd be projected to spend $220M, which we're not going to do so players will have to go. One of them is likely Gordie Ager, projected for $22M in his final arbitration year and another is Dan Robinson, projected at $19M, and that would punch of couple of holes in the rotation. That's where Goulet comes in, as here are his ratings as a starter:
Not too shabby. That's the OSA scouting, my scout has him at 65 stuff as a starter but both have him 75 as a reliever. Although Goulet just got called up by Atlanta, we're going to ship him to Durham because we're going to need Pretty's roster spot for the guys we acquired in this even-bigger deal:
This one brings us an established closer in Minier, a pretty good starter in Gibson, and even though we dealt away a top prospect in Gutierrez we get a decent one back in Wilson. First about what we gave up. Gutierrez is the #78 prospect in baseball, a righty power pitcher who was a scouting discovery in 2041. He was at A+ Charlotte, and doing OK but his potential is 50 stuff, 45 movement and 60 control which doesn't scream domination to me. Nevertheless he's highly regarded around the league and he brought us some serious pitching help. Here's the deal on Gibson, a late bloomer at 31:
Despite throwing around 100, he does pitch to some contact and his numbers have been helped by a .275 BABIP which is likely to go up with our mediocre defense. But he's a solid starter and is only projected for about $4M in arbitration next year, so that's a help to fill the 2046 rotation as well. Not sure yet whether he ends up in our current rotation as Caleb Ramos was excellent in his first start - for now he's long relief. Then there's Minier:
He's been one of the more consistent closers in the league over the last 3 1/2 seasons and I've had my eye on him for a while. He is a free agent at season's end but we need back-end bullpen help now with guys like Satoshi Sato and Sean Forbes injured and Mike Robichaux just about to come back from rehab.
But as they say on the late-night commercials, that's not all. We picked up Wilson, a pretty good 1B prospect:
He was KC's supplemental 1st-rounder last year and has done nothing but rake since turning pro.
What a day!