Ken Rosenthal Does Not Know How Good Choi Is
The Sporting News’s Ken Rosenthal calls the Dodgers one of his “losers” following the trade deadline. In calling the Marlins one of his winners, Rosenthal writes, “GM Larry Beinfest and Co. were at their feverish, creative best, acquiring a heart-and-soul catcher, Paul Lo Duca, and one of the game’s top setup men, Guillermo Mota, in a deal in which their only significant loss was righthander Brad Penny.” Strange to say that the loss of Hee Seop Choi was not significant when Choi came in to today’s play ranked 20th in the National League in the Equivalent Average.
I think BP’s Joe Sheehan gets the Dodgers-Marlins trade right:
I was, and remain, absolutely astounded over the reaction to what was an excellent deal for the Dodgers. They traded away two players who have already peaked—-Guillermo Mota in ‘03, Paul Lo Duca in ‘01—-who are rapidly becoming expensive, whose perceived value far outstrips their actual value, and whose in-season trends are downward. In exchange, they upgraded their rotation and acquired a young left-handed hitter with monster upside who is already a productive player.
As Sheehan notes, the mainstream media has portrayed this trade as a huge help for the Marlins. I had not realized that was the case until I was driving home from a wedding last night and Karl Ravech closed his interview on ESPN Radio of Theo Epstein by asking him, with the answer clearly implied by the way in which it was asked, if the Marlins were the biggest winners of the trade deadline deals. Ravech’s “question” caused me to do a double-take. The Marlins stayed the same, at best. The Dodgers seemed to me to have done quite well.
The Cubs, now there’s a team that improved. They got rid of their biggest offensive whole (by far), and replaced it with one of the best shortstops in the game.