Hello to Yu and goodbye to you

Phil Gurnee ♦ July 31, 2017 ♦ 2 Comments

The Dodgers made the big splash at the last second to save what had been a very disappointing trade deadline day.

Until 12:59:05 Dodger fans were trying to reconcile with the idea that the biggest moves the Dodgers had made were to bring in Tony Cingrani and Tony Watson.  All that changed when this tweet came through.

Source: Darvish to #Dodgers

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 31, 2017

Five minutes of mayhem followed as everyone threw their hat into the air. Now, what was the price?

Source: Dodgers send Calhoun, Alexy and Davis to Rangers for Yu Darvish. Deal done.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 31, 2017

Are you kidding me? Maybe I shouldn’t be so ecstatic about the price but I’d had a hard time figuring out what the Dodgers could do with Willie Calhoun and so I’d never really pegged him as a future Dodger.  Willie could end up a great hitter but you’d be hard pressed to find a place for his bat in the NL. Tear Texas up Willie.

AJ Alexy is a nice pitcher and was the 18 ranked LAD prospect by MLB last week.  He was not ranked by Baseball America entering the season. I’ve written about Brendon Davis a few times. He had a decent year for the Loons and was promoted to Rancho last week.  Brendon had been dropped to the 28th LAD prospect by MLB.com.

It would seem the Rangers got a major league ready bat and two very young prospects who may or may not ever turn out to be anything.

The Dodgers got the best starting pitcher available. They got who I wanted. They got the guy who dominates the NL and is best suited to help them in October. They got the guy who should give the Dodgers a legitimate four man rotation in October. They got the right handed arm to slot between Kershaw and either Wood or Hill.

They got what they needed for the rotation.

What they didn’t get was a lock down left handed relief pitcher. In two minor deals they acquired left handed setup man in Tony Cingrani and Tony Watson. They both have warts,  but Watson at one time was great, and Cingrani could be. The Dodgers wanted them so there must be a reason for it.

The price for Cingrani was Scott Van Slyke and Hendrik Clementina. We all know who Scott Van Slyke is and we lost his bat a long time ago.  I had never heard of Clementina until last week when he made the Pioneer League all-star team. I wrote about him earlier today because he was in the running for last weeks Farm Factory Award.  That seems like a good get for the Reds.  Clementina was not on any top 30 LAD prospect list but I bet he was about to make them this coming winter.

The price for Tony Watson could be interesting. Angel German was one of them.  I don’t much care about him. Oneil Cruz, however, is another story.  He’s a young infielder for the Loons who grew to about 6’6 after he had been signed at 6’1. Now to tall to be a SS they were trying him at 3rd. He made a bazillion errors but his bat was slowly coming around.  A legitimate 18-years-old in A ball, he was ranked as the LAD 22nd prospect in the system.

So coming:

Yu Darvish, Tony Watson, Tony Cingrani

So going:

Willie Calhoun, Scott Van Slyke, Oneil Cruz, Hendrik Clementina, Angel German

So far to make room, Peter O’Brien has been released.