Preposterous

Monday night I received the following email:

Bat out of Hell sends Rollins and Borowski to Cartel for Cedeno and Hamels.

That would be Jimmy Rollins (06 contract) and Joe Borowski (08-17) for Ronny Cedeno (07-7X) and Cole Hamels (08F-5).

Mr. Leaguer sent the following message: “Preposterous.”

I got a message like that from him once. We made a deal last year with the Bums in which we gave up Chad Tracy and Lastings Milledge and we got back some guys I can’t remember which included Eric Byrnes. Byrnes hit about minus .148 the rest of the way, costing us at least third, and maybe second place.

We got an email from Mr. Leaguer that said something like “You should be ashamed.”

It actually made me rethink the deal to see if we had raped the Bums that badly. If we had, we would have offered to rework the deal. At the Doc’s suggestion, I called the Old Rip, Boof Brittain, the wheelinest dealinest guy in BABI to see if we had gone too far. He said he didn’t have a problem with the trade.

So we decided not to be ashamed.

But that is what the word of the BABI Lord can do to one’s psyche. So is this deal preposterous?

The Doc and I discussed the deal this morning. What we think is Ronny Cedeno is a very nice young player is doesn’t look like he’s going to be a great fantasy player, at least any time soon. He can hit a bit, but he has little power, and he’s a 15 SB guy right now, not a 30 SB guy. He’s a keeper at 7, but he’s like the 8th or 9th keeper on your team: a nice little piece.

Cole Hamels is quite the package. Some days he’s Nolan Ryan and some days he’s Pete Gray. Do you guys know who Pete Gray was? He was the guy who played outfield for the St. Louis Browns in 1945 (the last of the war years) who only had one arm. This is not to say Hamels only has one arm, but he has got to be the most injury prone prospect ever. Heck, he’s already been on the DL in the majors, and his major league career is shorter than Pete Gray’s was. But there is no arguing: Hamels has serious stuff, as his outing Tuesday suggests.

For these guys, Bats gave up a premier speed guy in Jimmy Rollins and a mediocre closer on the worst team in the NL, Joe Borowski. The Old Bat had just gotten Borowski from Mr. Leaguer for an injured Jon Lieber, so we know what Mr. Leaguer thought of Borowski. He offered Borowski to us via email. Being email guys, we immediately responded, “Is this a joke?”

It’s the other guy, Rollins, who is the key. He’s only hitting .252, but he’s got 13 steals and 6 homers. There is a short list of bona fide stolen base guys who will be available in dump trades this summer. He’s the kind of player who is very valuable in the race, and we think if he had been better marketed would have fetched something more significant as a keeper for next year.

That said, I like Ronny Cedeno and Cole Hamels. They might turn out to be really good players, not just next year, but even this year. But a partial closer and a top steals guy have trade value.

Nothing can be considered preposterous for a while. At the time it was made, the Utley/Coffey for Wagner/P. Wilson deal looked one-sided for the Rips. Now it looks preposterous for the Pounders. Nice deal there, Boof.