Jerry Crasnick and Ken Rosenthal are announcing the deal complete, Dan Uggla for Omar Infante and 25-year old RHP Michael Dunn.
Infante, 28, had a career year in 2010, spending time defensively at 2B, 3B, SS, LF, and RF. He also challenged for the batting title for awhile, but settled on a .321 mark with a complete slash line of .321/.359/.416 (.340 wOBA, 114 wRC+).
Dunn is 25, and has absolutely blisteringly nasty stuff, to the tune of 12.8 K9 in 2010 (career minor league 9.7 K9). He complements that epic K9, however with a BB9 of 8.1, one has to wonder if the guy is a really viable option. But hey, a 1.89 ERA in 19IP - that sounds totally legit and not prone to small sample sizes!
The fact is, the Marlins pretty much undersold Uggla, knowing that he was going to walk after 2011, and they just wanted to get something back in return. While Infante is not really a top-flight player (I know he went to the All-Star Game, shut up), he'll provide value to the Marlins in his positional versatility (especially if they can put Chris Coghlan back at 2B or something of that fashion) and his contact-heavy bat.
But let's think about this for a second. Omar Infante is a utility player who bats with a very AVG/OBP bat and not much power (although he DID hit 16 homers for the Tigers back in 2004) - kind of. Infante doesn't walk very much I'm afraid to say.
Frankly, I'm not impressed with the return, but Dan Uggla isn't exactly Matt Holliday. It's as if Jeffrey Loria is sitting out on his front lawn in a folding chair sipping lemonade with any player within 2 years of FA sitting on the curb, waiting for GMs to walk by and give him an offer. Larry Beinfest is off nailing Yard Sale signs to telephone poles.
Click past the jump for more interesting stuff.
Take a look at Infante's career line, and stack it vs Mystery Player.
Career | Bill James 2011 | |||||||||
AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | wRC+ | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | wRC+ | |
Omar Infante | .274 | .319 | .395 | .312 | 91 | .295 | .342 | .403 | .329 | 105 |
Mystery Player | .281 | .354 | .440 | .347 | 104 | .274 | .352 | .430 | .343 | 115 |
Now let's look at Michael Dunn and stack it vs a more different Mystery Player. Hell, I'll throw in 2 Mystery Players
MiLB Career | MLB Career | ||||||||||
ERA | MiLB IP | K9 | BB9 | K/BB | ERA | MLB IP | K9 | BB9 | K/BB | xFIP | |
Michael Dunn | 3.39 | 422.2 | 9.7 | 4.1 | 2.37 | 2.74 | 23.00 | 12.52 | 8.61 | 1.45 | 5.37 |
Mystery Player 1 | 4.12 | 262.1 | 8.8 | 3.2 | 2.75 | ||||||
Mystery Player 2 | 4.23 | 610 | 9.10 | 5.20 | 1.75 | 4.93 | 133.1 | 6.95 | 5.26 | 1.32 | 5.15 |
Michael Dunn is 25, Mystery 1 is 23, Mystery 2 is 24.
It looks like, just stacking the two different areas of the deal against each other, that the Marlins would be gaining a bit extra than Infante if they went with the Mystery Player, and losing a bit if they went with either of the Mystery Pitchers. But the point is that the trade stacks up just the same. These are guys in the Rockies' system.
You want to know who the mystery guys are? Ryan Spilborghs, Edgmer Escalona, and Franklin Morales. Don't TELL me we that the Rockies can't make that deal happen, because unless O'Dowd completely crapped on Larry Beinfest's shoes or something, how can they not be trying to make this happen?
Now oh no boo hoo they can't move Spilly and Morales has all of the potential in the world or whatever, but the fact is that Spilborghs was the only player likely to make any sort of impact on the 2011 team, at least a positive impact, but he'd be doing it as a 4th outfielder more than likely, or a platoon partner at best. Consider the fact that the Rockies would be moving his salary as well, it's not as hard of a blow. Morales and Escalona probably would be long men at best, Morales MAYBE the earlier-inning-lefty-guy, but we're not talking about replacing Street or Betancourt with either of them.
Hell, if Colorado can't move Morales or Escalona as part of the deal, why not just bite the bullet and move Matt Belisle? He's a great sell-high candidate, his arm might explode in 2011 given the racehorse-esque riding he received in 2010, and he looks all flashy and stuff to potential buyers.
But but it's just for one year! Come on, Atlanta gave up nothing of serious value, and the similar trade I'm presenting isn't much more costly than that. There's always the chance of re-upping Uggla, and at WORST, the Rockies get draft pick compensation. 2 #1 ranked drafts in a row and I'd say that's a pretty good return, given Colorado's scouting focus and general success.
But no. Colorado has to sit on their hands and watch Florida trade away the guy who MAKES PERFECT SENSE FOR COLORADO'S STRUGGLING LINEUP - and not just trade him, but trade him IN DIVISION, for spare parts, and we're just supposed to smile at the potential of Conor Jackson being the answer to the lineup? (Oh and Troy Renck tweeted that Jackson isn't happening either. Darn.)
I mean seriously, the Rockies are longing for a right-handed bat for Tulo protection. Uggla is right handed. They want it to be a big bat. We saw yesterday that Uggla is a big bat. We need a 2B. Uggla, while poor at it, is also a 2B. How is this not ringing any bells? Uggla looked like a luxury when everyone else was performing well, but when suddenly there are 2 potent bats on the Colorado Rockies and then a hodgepodge of struggling youngsters and veterans running out of gas, how do you not make this phone call?
To make matters "worse", Jake Westbrook just signed a 2 year deal with St. Louis for $16.5M. This means that Colorado is going to have to get Jeff Francis back, kick the tires on Bartolo Colon, ball up and land James Shields, or settle for signing Jon Garland.
Just unreal. It's not like I wanted any of the guys mentioned except for Uggla, but is the Front Office just expecting to sit around and have another Kaz Matsui trade land in our lap? It's not happening, and this club needs to get proactive if they're going to make magic happen in 2011. The internal candidates aren't too impressive and the team is simply not filling its needs.
Whatever, we've seen this happen before, so I suppose we just trust Dan O'Dowd to figure something surprising out. I mean, what else are we supposed to do?