LaRoche to the Red Sox
Man, the Pirates trade another veteran. Adam LaRoche is really gonna bitch about this. Oh wait . . .
12:12 p.m.: LaRoche has been traded to the Boston Red Sox. No word on return yet. Still no official word of any kind from the team.
12:46 p.m.: Strange, but LaRoche is still sitting in the Pirates’ dugout during the game. Hard to tell if he has a uniform on because he is wearing a jacket over the jersey, but he is wearing a Pirates cap. Could be that the Pirates are awaiting paperwork to be completed.
Take the hint, Adam! Leave the dugout.
UPDATE: Thanks to reader Randy for the heads up on the return for La Roche:
According to multiple baseball sources, the Pirates will receive shortstop Argenis Diaz and pitcher Hunter Strickland when the deal is finalized. Diaz is known as a gifted defensive player, but there are questions about his bat. The 22-year-old Diaz is hitting .253/.309/.310 with Double-A Portland this year. Strickland, an 18th round pick in 2007, is 5-4 with a 3.35 ERA for the Greenville Drive of the Single-A South Atlantic League this year. The 6-foot-5 20-year-old has shown excellent command for the Drive, with a 51-13 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 83.1 innings this year.
I guess Strickland sounds interesting, but when you’re unloading a slow-of-foot, intermittently disgruntled soon-to-be free agent making $7 million, you take whatever is offered.
The Pirates have become the AL East’s extra farm system…
Here’s the return:
http://fullcount.weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/2009/07/22/report-red-sox-acquire-adam-laroche/
But it looks like J. Wilson is on the bench, too. Not sure why that would be, but there’s been ongoing interest in him.
Sox recently signed a 16 yo Dominican SS and a 19 yo Cuban SS so Diaz was expendable and I’ve never heard of Strickland (hopefully he’ll do better for Pittsburgh than another Strickland I do know of not all that far away).
Don’t think Boston is done yet but I’m not sensing a major move on their part until the offseason.
Basically, the Pirates dealt the contract for some chaff, and the Red Sox get someone who can keep the 1B glove away from Mark Kotsay and Jeff Bailey. That’s useful for the stretch, I guess.
And LaRoche is historically much better in the 2nd half.
LaRoche keeps the glove off of Kotsay, which wasn’t the problem in the first place. Kotsay was far from a butcher at first, but he gives nothing with the bat anymore. So a lefty with pop makes some sense.
It doesn’t take Bailey’s glove off the field, it keeps Bailey’s butt in Pawtucket when he comes off of the DL.
This is like getting the NL equivalent of Aubrey Huff, and he’s hitting better than Huff has, so its a little less vomit-inducing. It still does nothing substantial, and if anything it proves that V-Mart isn’t coming and neither is Gonzales. Somehow, someway, the roster Theo created has to start hitting again.
And someday the &%$#% have to lose again.
Dan, the Phillies NEVER lose!
Thanks for almost making me laugh.
@Randy
According mlb.com: “Shortstop Jack Wilson missed his second straight game Wednesday because of tightness in his left hamstring”
Neyer stated that LaRoche isn’t a good player. Is he that much worse than Nick Swisher, who Neyer seems to like? Career OPS+ for LaRaoche is 113, for Swisher it’s 112. I see that Swisher gets on base more, are their defensive stats all that different? Similar age. Is it just the OBP? Help me out here.
Swisher is an adventure in the OF, which is only where he’s played this year (IIRC). Today’s a perfect example: botched an easy catch; later in the inning he made a run saving lunge by the wall.
Swisher at least appears to be fun and a good clubhouse guy while it always seems that LaRoche has a dour look on his face. Not exactly scientific….
Nick Swisher can play the OF, and LaRoche is a platoon 1B. That alone makes their value substantially different.
Maybe he’s a platoon now, but he wasn’t historically, was he?
LaRoche averaged 145 games a season the last four years. Obviously not a platoon player.
Dan, but he won’t be a FT 1B right now… Youk bumps to 3b when LaRoche is playing, sending Lowell to the pine. Can’t see that being the permanent lineup.
Here’s guessing that he plays a few times a week to rest Lowell.
I understand that but the question was, why would Neyer say LaRoche isn’t very good yet think so highly of Swisher when they have virtually equal OPS+ and the claim was made that Swisher is more valuable with the same OPS+ because he plays more than a platoon first baseman. Fact is that Swisher and LaRoche have logged similar numbers of games per year.