December 22, 2009

Brandon League a Mariner? Yep, League's a Mariner




UPDATE #7: (2:27 pm) According to the Drunks, Chavez was ranked Toronto's #1 prospect by The Hardball Times.

Chavez, from Tumero, Venezuela, had a very successful year in Lansing this season putting up a .283 AVG, .346 OBP, .474 SLG. As an international free agent, he was signed to a $2 million contract in 2006.

UPDATE #6: Rumour has Johermyn Chavez pegged as "the prospect." I have no idea who he is. Which is bloody awesome!!1

Rumours are flying around Twitter late tonight (12:15 am) that It's true: Alex Anthopoulos and the Toronto Blue Jays have acquired Brandon Morrow from the Seattle Mariners for Brandon League, and a prospect. Who that prospect is, I (still, at 2:40 am) have zero fucking idea. Nobody does at this point. David Cameron, from the reputable USS Mariner, has speculated that it might be Brett Wallace, which doesn't make sense to me, otherwise he would have went Seattle's way in the three-team Roy Halladay trade and it's not.

But let's hold on a second here. I'm losing focus. What you need to do right now is pray for our good friend Lloyd the Barber from Ghostrunner on First. First Doc. Now League. They were right: life isn't fair. If you read GoF, and I assume you do, you know how highly we, the community, think of League.

Moving along: Brandon Morrow. Everyone and their mother is high on this kid. He strikes out a ton of batters, and walks plenty of them as well. I'm sure he'll get along great with The Manager. At the end of the day, as long as "the prospect" isn't Brett Wallace or Travis Snider, we're good. (Except for Drew. Sorry mate.)

In a perfect world, the prospect is Lyle Overbay. He was huge in 2006. Tremendous upside, and he's a Washington boy!1

Here's what the 2010 Blue Jays rotation looks like:

Ricky Romero
Shaun Marcum
Brett Cecil
Brandon Morrow
Marc Rzepczynski

A good left-right mix, with Scott Richmond as the long-man, and Brian Tallet back in the bullpen where he belongs.

Here's what we know for certain: Alex Anthopoulos is doing work. He's putting his stamp on this team.

Playoffs!!1

UPDATE: Here's David Cameron with some insight on Brandon Morrow ...

Plus fastball, inconsistent curve, minus minus command. Has potential, still needs a lot of work. A.J. Burnett upside. But in terms of development, he's basically a Triple-A starter. Very raw.

Burnett is dead to me, so fuck him. But there's nothing wrong with raw talent. It's a good thing this team's got one Roy Halladay, and Brad Arnsberg, to teach Morrow the ropes. Oh ...

UPDATE #2: My man @dlbrows posted the following link on Twitter, from The Mockingbird, about Brandon League and his 97 MPH sinker. You know, the pitch nobody else in baseball throws. If this rumoured trade is fact, League will be sorely missed around these parts, no matter how good Morrow is. To these eyes, he was always the closer of the future.

UPDATE #3: I hope "the prospect" is not R-Zep. It can't be R-Zep.

UPDATE #4: The Seattle Times's Geoff Baker believes in Brandon League.

UPDATE #5: (1:38 am) It's not Wallace. We knew this already. Because there was no way that was happening in the first place. But it's good to know know.

27 comments:

Nick said...

Morrow should start the year in AAA. His control is no where close to being at the MLB level. Plus if he spends a month and a half (probably a bit less) in AAA the Jays should get an extra year of control.

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

I like the way you're thinking, Nick. That way we get an extra year of control, and Morrow comes up in June to help us as we chase the Yankees for the AL East crown. Yes.

Twitchy said...

Morrow's 25. He's not a prospect anymore, and he's gonna be 26 next season. Not to mention the fact he's beyond overrated, and has shown less control than Purcey in the majors.

It's not a matter of just sending him down and getting control. This is what he is. He's never been a good pitcher. XFIP tells you that. tRA tells you that.

Awful trade. The Jays trade the better pitcher in League, AND add a prospect.

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

"...less control than Purcey in the majors."

That's fucking frightening, right there.

And they said the same things about A.J. Burnett. That he'd never get it. But we put him together with Brad Arnsberg and Roy Halladay, and made a pitcher out of him. And now both of those guys are gone.

You're right on the money about XFIP, though. League came in 3.16 last season; Morrow, 4.89. League blew his tRA out the frame too, 4.13 to 5.54.

Well. Fuck.

Mark Barany said...

I think it's Snider.
He's from Seattle and the Mariners want someone who can play left field for them this year.

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

I can't imagine AA and the Jays being THAT high on Morrow as to include Snider in the deal. AA was alongside JP when they drafted AA. Morrow went 5th in 2006; Snider 14th. But, still, I just can't see the Jays giving up on that type of hitter with the amount of young arms they've already got.

DaveC said...

Uh... Snider in that deal would be enormously dumb. It's not him.

Probably one of the million middling pitchers we've got, one of the lefties and League for Morrow sounds like a good deal to me.

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

Seattle traded an outfielder, Tyson Gillies, and two RHP, Aumont and Ramirez, to get Cliff Lee. Gillies ripped it in A-ball. He batted .341 and stole 44 bases (got caught 19 times). Walked a bunch; a .430 OBP and a .916 OPS. Apparently a lead-off hitter of the future. I can see Seattle asking for Snider, perhaps. And I can still see AA saying no. Considering they dealt two arms, it could be Cecil, or R-Zep, although I wouldn't call either of them prospects. But they did shoot through the system pretty fast. I really have no idea right now. I'd love to know. I really would.

Anonymous said...

League is terrible. Billy Koch with glasses. good riddance. can't believe we got any value for him

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

We'll have to agree to disagree on that one.

Anonymous said...

And multiple sources are saying either David Cooper who is expendable with Wallace and showing signs of regression or JP Arencibia who has the plate discipline of a 5 year old with ADD. If it's Cooper than it is a fantastic trade and if it's JP we just traded for his replacement in the Roy deal and we have two other catching prospects in the system

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

Who are these multiple sources you speaketh of, Anonymous friend?

The Mariners drafted Arencibia, although it was pointed out on Twitter that the front office has changed since then. If it is JP, that's fine by me. d'Arnoud is the guy behind the plate now. Also: get rid of all the JPs!!!1

Anonymous said...

prospectinsider.com
battersbox.ca

bkblades said...

Brandon League may be Billy Koch with glasses, but he was our Billy Koch with glasses.

By the way, Billy Koch sucks, Brandon League didn't suck. So I guess what I'm saying is, I'm a rambling mess with Leaguers being dealt.

lrxst said...

Pity Lloyd the Barber, but pity Mike Wilner too. No sooner does the guy finally get to see Roy Holiday shipped out of town, than gritty winger Brenden Morrow is added to the mix.

Escaped Lab Rat said...

Very interesting trade. League was very hit-or-miss I think--kind of like Morrow (who was mostly miss last year). Still, I like the trade--better to have the potential starter with upside vs. the reliever (who wasn't going to close with us I don't think). Hopefully both guys do well.

Let's hope "the right-handed Purcey" does not stick as his nickname.

Overbay IS a legit prospect. Why has nobody else picked him up? He's only, like, 30 or something, right?

Aquamelli said...

The comments left on that USS Mariner blog entry are absolutely hilarious... the Ms fans commenting are 100% convinced that they are getting Wallace... wow

The Ack said...

eyeb, can you check your email dude? I need a solid...

Kevin said...

It's just not the same when you look at that Rotation, and no Halladay. Anthro has already found a great closer and managed to get some insane prospects for Doc, so this is going to be great. PLAYOFFS!!1

Drew said...

So long as AA steals liberally from the great Jack Z I'll get over this deal a lot faster.

Josh Roenicke is the closer of the future.

Steve G. said...

League for Morrow seems like a decent challenge trade for both teams, so I'm surprised that there is apparently another prospect involved in this trade. However, I imagine it has to be a B-prospect / fringe Major League guy, and the Mariners' fans are absolutely effing high if they think they're getting Wallace.

The Red Sox have a slew of those B-type guys that mentioned as throw-ins or they've given up: Brandon Moss, David Murphy, Abe Alvarez, Charlie Zink, etc. Kind of low-ceiling prospects, end of the Major League roster filler. It wouldn't surprise me if the Jays gave up a similar type to complete this deal.

MarvelousWin said...

looks like it is Yohermyn Chavez

Twitchy said...

This trade went from bad to awful in no time at all!

Steve G. said...

If we're talking about this guy, I don't see the big deal:

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/C/Johermyn-Chavez.shtml

His 2008 was horrible, and this season, he was passable while repeating a level. But those are some tasty strikeout numbers in A-ball. I'm guessing he's some sort of uber-tools prospect?

Aquamelli said...

any chance we can get a picture of Docs full page ad?

Aquamelli said...

nevermind eyebleaf... toronto sun finally put it on their site

http://storage.canoe.ca/v1/dynamic_resize/?src=http://www.torontosun.com/sports/baseball/2009/12/22/royW.jpg&size=640x480&quality=60

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

@ BK: It's been a rough go of late.

@ lxrst: Gritty winger Brenden Morrow brings exactly the type of grit this team has been lacking since David Eckstein left.

@ Escaped: Yeah, it seems like a "our hit and miss guy" for "your hit and miss guy." Although many will argue, and I think I'd agree with them, that League wasn't as hit and miss as people think. I'm really going to miss watching him strike out Teixeira and A-Rod, back to back. That was some beautiful shit. But, definitely, the plus Morrow might be able to bring to the rotation is huge. And I like that he's a RHP. I'm not too enamored by the Purcey nickname, or even the AJ Burnett comparison. Hopefully he can carve out his own identity. Looking forward to it.

@ Aqua: What we've learned from this trade is that Mariners fans are pretty, well ... let's just call them optimistic.

@ Space Weed: You're right, the rotation isn't the same at all. But there's a lot to be excited about. Marcum's return, Ricky's sophomore season, Morrow's debut, the maturation of Cecil and R-Zep. Hell, even Purcey. Not so much, really, but you know.

@ Drew: I imagine Roenicke will be given the opportunity League got this past season. I figure Downs and Frasor close, until Downs is traded at the deadline for some more prospect porn. Same with Frasor. Zach Stewart is another guy out of the bullpen, and it'll be interesting to see how he does down in Vegas this season. If he turns out, wow, JP really fleeced the Reds on Rolen.

@ Steve: Knowing our luck, this Chavez guy will turn out to be a STAR.

@ Marvelous: Yohermyn is a pretty awful name.

@ Mark: Your negativity is frowned upon.

@ Steve: Apparently he is a 5-tool guy; signed as an international free agent a few years back. Who the hell knows. I'm moderately knowledgeable when it comes to Toronto's prospects, but I'd never heard of this kid.

@ Aqua: Thanks for posting that link. Doc is pure class.