By Mike Thomas
League 13
This week’s trade comes from League 14 where ‘Forgetaboutit’ trades Nate McClouth to ‘Beaneaters’ for Jake Peavy. Everyone has fairly strong opinions about trading a pitcher for a bat.
Nonetheless, this deal helps out Forgetaboutit this year and Beaneaters in the future.
Forgetaboutit is 12 points behind and in second place, with its weakest pitching categories being wins and strikeouts. While Peavy is an exceptional pitcher, he plays for a truly unexceptional team. He currently stands at 9-9, so he’s not a large producer of wins and never will be … unless something changes in San Diego. He is only 27 and still strikes out almost a batter an inning.
However, his strikeout rate has dropped this year, and that can always be the sign of a decline or a hidden injury … like the fractured rib he forgot to tell management about in the playoffs a couple of years ago.
Forgetaboutit also rosters Johan Santana, Cole Hamels and Clayton Kershaw as well, so this owner is going to have some serious keeper issues in a five keeper league … unless he can move some starting pitching in the offseason. Keeping more than one starting pitcher, even quality ones like Santana, Peavy and Hamels, can hinder building an offense through the draft.
Regarding McClouth, talk about picking up a guy when he’s down and out. Aside from suffering through a horrible August (see below), McClouth spent all of last week out of the line-up with what the Pirates were calling a “stomach virus.”
This must be a different bug than the one most batters got whenever Nolan Ryan was pitching as Pittsburgh ran McClouth, first, though a mononucleosis test (negative) and then through a complete blood work up. Apparently, there was nothing more to it as McClouth pinch-hit over the weekend and is now back firmly entrenched in the Pirates’ batting order.
2008 has been a ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ season for McClouth as demonstrated by his monthly logs:
April - .330, 6HR, 22R, 2SB
May - .279, 6HR, 22R, 2SB
June - .214, 2HR, 13R, 4SB
July - .277, 7HR, 24R, 4SB
August - .243, 0HR, 5R, 1SB
McClouth wasn’t given significant playing time until the last two months of 2007, and he finished with 13 HRs and 22 SBs. Given that he is only 26, he has 20HR/20SB potential written all over him for years to come. If the Pirates continue to bat him in the leadoff spot, he’ll also finish with over 100 runs scored this year.
The Beaneaters will be sorting through players like Pujols, Mauer, Bruce, Longoria, Granderson and Stewart for its keepers. Adding McClouth to this mix is a winner, particularly since it is out of the running for this year.
If you are in a simulation league, play Scoresheet or Game Day Ritual, McClouth has an added benefit. Baseball HQ reported this week that he leads NL center fielders with a fielding percentage of 1.000. That’s zero errors in 118 games! He’s also tied for fourth in assists with five.
On another topic, in a previous column, we addressed what role Victor Martinez might play when he comes off the DL this year … given the performance of Kelly Shoppach in Cleveland. We suggested that he might see more time at first base. This week, the Cleveland Plain Dealer quoted manager Eric Wedge on this matter:
“Kelly has taken advantage of the opportunity to play every day,” Wedge said. “Victor is still our catcher, but you’d like to find a way to get Kelly in there more as well. We’re going to have to see how it all plays out. Kelly is still learning. He’s still getting better and needs to get better. But when you evaluate him overall, he’s done a very good job. At the very least it gives us more options and more versatility. Especially with Victor’s ability to play first base.”
Anyone who owns Martinez needs to monitor this closely in the offseason … and in Spring Training in particular. While Martinez will retain his catcher eligibility in most leagues next year, a permanent move to first base could seriously diminish his fantasy value.