Allen Craig / Justin Turner – My oh My

♦ December 5, 2016 ♦ 1 Comment

I always wondered what kind of contract Allen Craig would have gotten had he hit free agency after his three-year run from 2011 – 2013 as Justin Turner has done instead of signing that  5/31 deal in the spring of 2013.  5/80 maybe?

I remembered Craig having a nice run for the Cardinals after coming out of nowhere at age 25. He was never a ranked prospect because he was usually considered old for his minor league levels.

So when he showed up and kicked ass at age 26 for the Cardinals you can say the baseball world was a little surprised.  He kept it up for three years and then simply fell off the planet.

But he did have one hell of a three-year run. And damn if wasn’t almost like Justin Turners recent three-year run. I’ll be honest, when I started putting the numbers in the spreadsheet I was pretty surprised at just how close they were.

Player OPS+ PA Runs HR RBI Walks K’s TSL
Craig 136 1296 180 46 229 92 229 .312 / .364 / .500
Turner 136 1393 180 50 193 112 236 .296 / .364 / 492

They even had a declining OPS+ from year one through year three. Plus they started year one as a part time player building into year two.

 

 

 

 

 

110 IP gets you 3/48

♦ December 5, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

By many accounts, Rich Hill is a great guy, great competitor, fun to watch pitch, and now very wealthy.

Perseverance paid off for Rich Hill when he inked a 3/48 deal with the Dodgers today.  For the time being, Hill  slots into the number two behind Clayton Kershaw in the Dodger 2017 rotation.

As noted earlier today, Rich Hill is all sorts of an enigma. It might be fair to say that no one has taken the route that Rich Hill did to success. Even if that success was 110 innings. When he pitched in 2016, he was one of the best pitchers in baseball. Problem being, he only threw 110 innings. And that was after pitching all of 54 professional innings in 2015.

His history is so checkered with red flags he could be working the Daytona 500, but you can’t discount how far he has come in the last fifteen months. In July of 2015 he was still pitching Independent baseball but refused to give up.  His story was barely a flicker, but when he wakes up tomorrow it will be a full blown flame fueled by almost $50,000,000 buckaroos.

The Dodgers decided that they will only look at his recent history and that 2016 was an indicator of what he could bring to the team from 2017 – 2019.

This will be the fourth time in three years the Dodgers sign a health risk to a contract. Brett Anderson, Brandon McCarthy, and Scott Kazmir have not worked out so well though they did get one good year from Anderson before doubling down with a QO last winter.

Hopefully,  the fourth time pays off for the LAD front office.

Hill has made the curveball cool again, and until he hung one against Jose Lobatron he was looking like Don Sutton in game two of the NLDS. His home run rate in 2016 is why he had such sparkling numbers.  To keep those numbers sparkling he’ll need to make sure that hanging curveball is a rarity, and I’m just not one of those who think you can throw it as often as he does (42%) without hanging them just enough to offset all that great stuff he can do.

Time will tell if this curveballer is the real deal. The LAD front office is betting on it, I’m hoping they are right, but I’m not betting they are right.

Hill/Turner/Jansen – what a bizzare trio

♦ December 5, 2016 ♦ 1 Comment

The LAD have three big free agents this season and all three of them are as unlikely as they come. At some point,  all three of them had to think their major league careers were either over, never going to happen, or be satisfied with making a team every spring. By the end of this week, this trio may be close to scoring a combined quarter million in earnings.

Kenley Jansen is now the all-time Dodger save leader, but at age 21, he was still a horrible hitting catcher in A ball. If not for the switch to pitcher, it is doubtful that Jansen would still be in professional baseball.  And what a switch it was, quite possibly the greatest switch in history from full-time position player to pitcher.  Jansen should be looking at something like a 5/80 deal this winter, possibly more, doubtfully less.

Rich Hill has only made nine million dollars in his long but sketchy career that started in 2005. He might double that in 2017 based on 110 innings in 2016.  He is 36, has made all of 94 starts since 2005, has pitched only 610 major league innings.  How unique is it for someone to have their best season at age 36? I don’t know, but I don’t remember it happening in the pre and post-testing era of MLB and I’ve been around a damn long time. Just 15 months ago, it seemed his career was over, now he looks to be scoring a 3/40 deal, possibly more, doubtfully less.

Justin Turner was a solid utility player for the Mets from 2011 – 2013. Inexplicably released by the Mets, Ned Colletti scooped him up in Feb of 2014. Turner was 29 years old at the time. He has done nothing but hit rockets since being a Dodger. He has been so good I even did a little story to see if he has had the best three years stretch of any LAD 3rd baseman in history.  His comp would be Casey Blake, except Casey Blake could only dream of having the run that Justin Turner has been on. Strangely enough, it was only this past May when Justin Turner was struggling mightily and many fans felt they needed to upgrade at 3rd base, and quite a few Longoria trades were being floated.  Also as good as Turner was this year, it was the 3rd straight year he actually saw his OPS+ or wRC+ decline. His OPS+ as a Dodger has been 155, 134, and 123. Yet his glove has gotten better and better. Rarely do you see a utility player at age 29 become a star. Even rarer do you see a 3rd baseman have their career season at age 31 in at bats. Justin Turner looks ready to score at least 5/85 this winter.

Baseball is all about the curve, and for Jansen, Hill, and Turner, this was a great curve.

 

 

Who will stay, who will go

♦ December 5, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

The hot stove is heating up and by the end of the week, it appears very likely that the Dodgers will be adding some new blood while saying good-bye to old friends, or never were friends.  This is an exciting time for fans but a strange week for players as they wait to see where they will be playing in the future.

The Dodger 40 man roster currently sits at 39. The Dodgers are expected to sign Rich Hill but they may be delaying that action as they work to clear more space on the 40-man roster.

Veteran Dodgers likely to get moved this week include either Scott Kazmir or Brandon McCarthy or both.  Yasiel Puig’s name keeps getting mentioned. Along with the veterans if the Dodgers do make little or big trades you can expect some prospects to get moved.

Names being mentioned this hot stove include:

Andrew McCutchen, Brian Dozier, Ian Kinsler, and Yangervis Solarte.

Supposedly Justin Turner and Rich Hill are still very much in the Dodger wide angle lens.

This past July I listed the Dodger prospect list and the prospects I least wanted to get traded. Montas was on that list and he was in the Rich Hill trade. Since that time several prospect sites have upgraded their lists so this is what the top thirty Dodger prospect list currently looks like sorted by MLB ranking.

I’ve sorted by the MLB prospect rank, but have also included the Rotowire and Fangraphs Dodger prospect rankings.  As you can see Cody Bellinger is either 1 or 2. Fangraphs is much higher on Yadier Alveraz than they are on Jose De Leon as is Rotowire. Alex Verdugo has the honor of being ranked number three across the board. Rotowire is higher on Starling Heredia than anyone else. DJ Peters pops in on both Fangraphs and Rotowire while being ignored by MLB. Andrew Toles for some reason does not have a fan at MLB but both Rotowire and Fangraphs like him very much. MLB goes 30 deep, Fangraphs goes 21 deep, Rotowire only goes 10 deep.

Prospect BirthDate MLB Rotowire Fangraphs POS
Cody Bellinger 7/13/1995 1 1 (15) 2 1st/OF
Jose De Leon 8/7/1992 2 6 (79) 4 SP
Alex Verdugo* 5/15/1996 3 3 (42) 3 CF
Willie Calhoun* 11/4/1994 4 4 (74) 6 2nd
Yadier Alvarez 3/7/1996 5 2 (25) 1 SP
Yusniel Diaz 10/7/1996 6 5 (81) 9 CF
Walker Buehler 7/28/1994 7 7 (126) 5 SP
Jordan Sheffield 6/1/1995 8 10 SP
Gavin Lux* 11/23/1997 9 12 SS
Austin Barnes 12/28/1989 10 11 C
Will Smith 3/28/1995 11 14 C
Omar Estevez 2/25/1998 12 18 2b/SS
Starling Heredia 2/6/1999 13 8 (135) 16 OF
Brock Stewart 10/3/1991 14 7 SP
Josh Sborz 12/17/1993 15 SP
Imani Abdullah 4/20/1997 16 17 SP
Chase De Jong 12/29/1993 17 SP
Brendon Davis 7/27/1997 18 SS
Jacob Rhame 3/16/1993 19 RP
Jacob Scavuzzo 1/15/1994 20 OF
Micah Johnson* 12/18/1990 21 2nd/OF
Ronny Brito 3/22/1999 22 SS
Johan Mieses 7/13/1995 23 SS
Kyle Farmer 8/17/1990 24 C
Keibert Ruiz 7/20/1998 25 13 C
Edwin Rios* 4/21/1994 26 1st/3rd
Mitch Hansen* 5/1/1996 27 OF
Andrew Toles* 5/24/1992 28 9 (137) 8 RC/CF
Mitchell White 12/28/1994 29 15 SP
Trevor Oaks 3/26/1993 30 SP
D.J. Peters 12/12/1995 10 (143) 18 OF
Dustin May 9/6/1997 19 SP
Yaisel Sierra 6/5/1991 19 RP

 

Young guns for hire

♦ December 3, 2016 ♦ 2 Comments

rubby

Once upon a time the minor league fireballing heroics of Nathan Eovaldi, Rubby De La Rosa, and Chris Withrow made Dodger prospect hounds salivate with the idea of adding these three high-velocity prospects  to the Dodger rotation.

All three have several things in common:

  • Each of them was a top five Dodger prospect
  • Each of them could throw a fastball through a barn door
  • Each of them has had TJ surgery
  • None of them have ever reached the original expectations though Eovaldi and Rubby have had moments.
  • Each of them has been cut loose this winter and are now free to sign with any team

It was back in 2011 when Rubby showed up throwing 96 MPH and was the gem of the system.  He made his first appearance for the Dodgers on May 24th, 2011 and would stay with the team until he blew out his elbow in late July. Until the elbow went out, everyone expected him to be a permanent fixture in the 2012 rotation. He would never pitch for the Dodgers again as he was traded the following summer in the Punto deal. It took Rubby a while to get over his TJ surgery but every once in a while he would show some glimpses of what his future might be.  In the summer of 2015, Joc Pederson hit a grand slam off of Rubby and on June 8th his ERA sat at 5.98 and he seemed destined for AAA or the bullpen. However, something clicked and over his next thirteen starts he put up an ERA of 2.83 in 81 innings. He wasn’t great by any means but he was averaging six innings a start during that stretch.  Many expected Rubby to take the next step up in 2016, he turned 27 on March 4th and was supposed to be part of the newly revamped Diamondback team that was going to make a run at the Giants/Dodgers. We know how that turned out and as bad as it was for the Diamondbacks it was even worse for Rubby whose season ended on May 25th. He would come back in late Sept for two games to show he could still throw but 2016 was a bitter season for Rubby. The Diamondbacks have new management and they didn’t feel that Rubby was worth what he might win in arbitration so he’s now free to make a deal with any team.

Nathan Eovaldi actually replaced Rubby in the Dodger rotation in 2011 and while he didn’t AVG 96 on his fastball he did average 94 and could hit 99 at times. His command was spotty in 2011 but he did make six starts before moving to the bullpen in Sept. Eovaldi cracked the Dodger rotation in 2012 by late May and would make 10 starts for the team before being traded for Hanley Ramirez. In the winter of 2014 he was traded to the Marlins for Matin Prado and was a mainstay in the Yankee rotation until he blew out his elbow on Aug 10, 2016. He has undergone TJ surgery and will be out all of 2017 so the Yankee’s non-tendered him several weeks ago.

With Rubby and Eovaldi gone, 2007 1st round pick Chris Withrow would show up in 2013 and also hit 96 MPH and give glimpses of a bright future. Withrow made his Dodger debut in June of 2013 and would stay with the team the rest of the season. He was a bright spot in the bullpen giving up only 20 hits in his first 34 innings. His best game that season was a scoreless three-inning extra inning effort to help the Dodgers beat the Diamondbacks on July 10th. He started out 2014 as the best pitcher in the bullpen. In his first 16 games, he pitched 17 innings, gave up one earned run, and only three hits.  On May 17th his career came crashing down, as he gave up five runs and one game later was slated for TJ surgery. Withrow would also never again pitch for the Dodgers, being part of the silly Callaspo trade in the summer of 2015.  Withrow took a long long time to come back from his TJ surgery and did not pitch for the Braves until 2016. He wasn’t great this summer, but he sure wasn’t bad.  He had one horrific game on June 12th in which he gave up six runs but in all the other games combined he pitched in 45 games, 37 IP, 9 Earned Runs, only 24 hits. Of those 45 games, 37 times he pitched a scoreless outing.  Fangraphs has him only hitting 94 MPH these days.

You could make a case for all three of these pitchers pro and con. I made the case for Eovaldi several weeks ago as someone to sign now to a two-year deal and hope for a payoff in 2018.

Rubby is a huge injury risk. He avoided TJ surgery this summer but was shut down in Sept when he attempted to come back. He said he doesn’t have pain but that he just didn’t feel right. Either way, whoever takes the chance on Rubby might be doing themselves a favor by also looking to move him into the bullpen.

Withrow looks like he’d help any bullpen in some capacity. He no longer is the guy that some(including me) felt could be a dominant closer but he certainly seems to have come back to the point of being at least a Chris Hatcher.

 

Trading Places – Don Ameche for the win

♦ December 2, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

donameche

No, Don Ameche is not the right-hand bat the Dodgers seek, and no, this is not Dodger trade talk.

This is about one of my favorite all time movies, Trading Places. Why would I write about Trading Places now you ask? Because someone brought up Dick Van Dyke at TBLA and for some reason, my brain pivoted to “I’d have loved to see Dick Van Dyke play Mortimer Duke”. Not that I didn’t love Don Ameche. In fact, this movie relaunched the career of this 1940’s iconic movie star.

If you are a fan of the movie, you will probably love all this inside information on it.

And he came in and was prepared to read for me. I was so shocked. I said ‘You don’t have to read for me.’

He hadn’t made a movie in 14 years, he’d been doing dinner theater.

While we were shooting later in Philadelphia — he was so wonderful — I said, ‘Don, may I ask a question? How come you haven’t worked in 14 years?’ And he said, ‘Well, nobody called!’

The great upshot of this is after Trading Places came out, the next movie he was in was ‘Cocoon,’  which he won an Oscar for. He never stopped working the rest of his life — he made like 10 more movies — I worked with him twice more.

One of the reasons I loved the film so much is that I love the world it worked in, even with all the sleaze and old money.  I may have had to explain the movie to a dozen people who didn’t even know what a commodity was at that time.

The writing was great, the cast was brilliant, it helped push along the careers  of many of its participants. Putting Dan back on the map after the death of Belushi, getting Jamie Lee Curtis out from under the Horror films so she could bedazzle us in “A Fish called Wanda” (also one of my favorite comedies), showing the range of Eddie Murphy, and getting Don Ameche back in front of audiences.

 

Trade Talk Time

♦ November 30, 2016 ♦ 2 Comments

With the winter meetings around the corner a few pieces are falling into place for other baseball teams but the Dodgers have yet to make any moves beyond Rule 5 decisions, and minor league transactions.

One of the vexing problems for the Dodgers this off-season will be how to add some right-hand pop to the left-handed heavy lineup. Especially if Justin Turner takes his talents elsewhere.  Turner had a great year, but he did his best work against RHP, and the Dodgers need someone who can wreck some havoc upon the southpaw side of the equation.

With that in mind, my first trade proposal involves our friendly rivals from Missouri. We have a solid young left-handed center fielder who is completely inept against LHP and I don’t think that is going to change as he ages which leave him as a platoon CF. On the plus side, Joc does excellent damage against RHP which of course is the predominant arm.

If you want to get a strong RHB who can play CF, and matches up age wise with Joc you are probably looking at Randall Grichuk. The former 1st round pick of the Angels had a massive 2015 but regressed in 2016.

The Highlights:

The Lowlights:

  • High K rate, almost 30%
  • Low walk rate, 5.8%
  • Was demoted to minors in 2016 after struggling to start the year but finished strong
  • Was horrible in high leverage situations

How does that compare to Joc?

The Highlights:

The Lowlights:

  • High K rate, 28%
  • Can’t hit LHP at all, trending down, career OPS of .599, in 2016 it was .469
  • Horrible in high leverage situations

Grichuk has earned 5.3 fWAR over the last two years with 3.1 in 2015 and 2.2 in 2016 . Joc has earned 6.5 fWAR over the last two years with 2.9 in 2015 and 3.6 in 2016. Joc did this in 1061 PA, while Grichuk did it in 828 plate appearances.  Joc has the big advantage in on-base skills, and almost one year in age though that age does not translate to having more team controlled years. The biggest advantage for Grichuk is that he can be played against both left and right-hand pitching, and will help the Dodgers with their southpaw problem.

Anyway, I’m going to keep going because the player I want to acquire if the Dodgers don’t sign Justin Turner is Jedd Gyorko.

Why:

Sooooooooooooooooooo

With all that in mind, this would be my trade proposal:

Grichuk and Gyorko

for

Joc Pederson and Enrique Hernandez and somebody to make it enticing for the Cardinals.

 

The Cardinals have two right hand hitting center fielders in Grichuk and Pham and this gives them more flexibility having Joc/Pham. They save some money for a player who might only be a utility player for them in 2017 if Wong/Diaz/Peralta stay healthy while getting a player like Hernandez who can play anywhere and might bounce back from his dreadful 2016.

Of course, if I’m the Cardinals, I’m using Gyroko as my starting 3rd baseman not Peralta and I don’t make this trade unless the Dodgers significantly add to it.

But it was a fun exercise.

 

 

Is Cody Bellinger just another glorified James Loney?

♦ November 29, 2016 ♦ 1 Comment

As Cody Bellinger’s prospect stock continues to rise, I’ve started to hear two things that intrigue me.

  1. He should be untouchable because of his perfect timeline within the Dodger organization.
  2. He’s basically a hyped James Loney

His timeline does in fact,  match up perfectly for the Dodgers. Adrian Gonzalez will be off the books at the end of 2018 at which point IF Bellinger matches the hype, he would be the perfect replacement, not only from a cost issue but from a production issue.  But that should not make him untouchable. Yes, people throw around untouchable a little too easy these days when we know no one is untouchable if the price is right, but in this context, it should take something significant to pry Bellinger away from the Dodgers.  Bellinger is the best prospect on the team replacing Cory Seager and Julio Urias from last year.  Seager in one year has proven he’s an MVP talent, while Urias still has much to prove given he’s rightfully been handled with kid gloves. I don’t think the Dodgers will trade him, but if they do I’m sure the return will make Dodger fans giddy for 2017 to start.

Regarding being a glorified James Loney. Yes,  they are both 1st baseman. Yes, they are both left handed. Yes,  they have both been young for their respective minor league seasons. Yes, they both had a reputation in the minors for being excellent glove men.

But

That is the end of the comparison.

Loney had the great rookie league season and the hype built from there but he never replicated that production until the major leagues where he inexplicably proved the scouts right by having two great 1/2 seasons before normalizing into the player he would become the rest of his career.  His minor league career did nothing to suggest he would be anything more than what he became. A good glove man, decent OBP numbers, little power.

Bellinger is athletic enough to play the outfield, including center field.  Bellinger can run, Loney never could. Yet the real difference is the power tool. Loney never displayed power in the minor leagues and in fact hit one home run in his final season in AAA while playing in the offensive PCL league. Over his minor league career,  James Loney hit 38 home runs in 2600 Plate Appearances.  Bellinger has hit 60 home runs in only 1440 minor league plate appearances. And he hasn’t even had a full season in the PCL yet. You want power from your 1st baseman and for the first time in decades,  the Dodgers have a legitimate power hitting 1st baseman as a prospect.  Bellinger led his age group in home runs in 2016 with 26 between AA and AAA. He’s turned 21 back in July but for baseball purposes,  his 2016 season was his age 20 season.

Prospects being what they are, the signs look good for Cody Bellinger but many things could change between being a highly ranked prospect and turning that into a slugging 1st baseman.  MLB is littered with the failures of highly ranked prospects, but at this point in time, I don’t think there is any comparison between what James Loney in the winter of 2005 was expected to bring to the table compared to the winter of 2016 Cody Bellinger.

FTR – Rotowire has him as their top Dodger prospect, Fangraphs has him as their 2nd Dodger prospect, MLB has him as their top Dodger prospect. Being the top or even 2nd best prospect in a still loaded Dodger system is nice from a ranking point of view.

 

McCutchen is not an old 30

♦ November 28, 2016 ♦ 1 Comment

One of the most famous trades of the past 60 years occurred in the winter of 1965 when the Reds traded future HOF Frank Robinson to the Baltimore Orioles for Milt Pappas. The Red General Manager Bill DeWitt made the famous comment that Robinson “was an old 30”. At that point the soon to be 30 years old Robinson had already accumulated over 6,000 plate appearances,  six top 10 MVP seasons and one MVP. He would, of course, go on to win the Triple Crown and MVP in 1966 for the World Champion Orioles, and that trade is considered by many to be one of the worst trades in baseball history.

Why are we bringing this up? Evidently,  Andrew McCutchen is on the trading block. Jim Bowden from ESPN Insider has suggested a Dodger match of Jose De Leon and Cody Bellinger for Andrew McCutchen.

I’m not sure I’d do that deal given how perfect Bellinger is lining up for the Dodgers. McCutchen only has two more years on his contract with favorable terms. He’s owed $14M in 2017 and $14.7M in 2018. He’d be a free agent after 2018 working perfectly with all the other contracts coming off the books over the next two years.

He had a sub-par age 29 season in 2016, both offensively and defensively. The Dodgers don’t need a center fielder, they need a left fielder that can hit left-handed pitching, or they need a full-time right fielder if Puig gets moved.

Want to add this link where a Pirate Blogger took a look at his strong finish.

At the end of July Andrew McCutchen had a 22.2 percent line drive rate and a 33.1 percent hard contact rate. Since August 5th his line drive rate is still 22.2 percent, but since August 5th he has experienced a big spike in hard contact rate. Since August 5th McCutchen’s hard contact rate is 41.5 percent.

Earlier in the season Andrew McCutchen was reportedly dealing with a wrist issue. Despite this, McCutchen played through it. However, a wrist injury is arguably the worst injury a hitter can get. It can have a negative impact on your bat grip, your bat speed, your batting stance, and your all-around ability to hit.

If you look at baseball history, not very many outfielders have put up the kind of numbers that McCutchen has put up and not continued to be effective for their age 30 and 31 seasons.

If McCutchen is indeed available, I think the Dodgers should be all over it. I’d think they have enough minor league depth to make this happen without having to make Cody Bellinger part of the deal.

There have been only 20 outfielders to have an OPS+ > 130 by age 29 with over 5,000 plate appearances since 1947.

Player WAR/pos OPS+ PA From To Age
Mickey Mantle 84.3 175 6697 1951 1961 19-29
Hank Aaron 73.5 158 6582 1954 1963 20-29
Ken Griffey 70.6 149 6688 1989 1999 19-29
Willie Mays 68.2 158 5301 1951 1960 20-29
Barry Bonds 66.2 157 5403 1986 1994 21-29
Frank Robinson 63.8 150 6408 1956 1965 20-29
Rickey Henderson 61.3 134 5930 1979 1988 20-29
Al Kaline 59.7 132 6746 1953 1964 18-29
Carl Yastrzemski 53.2 139 5978 1961 1969 21-29
Duke Snider 53 144 5494 1947 1956 20-29
Cesar Cedeno 49.2 130 6051 1970 1980 19-29
Reggie Jackson 48.3 150 5058 1967 1975 21-29
Tim Raines 45.5 133 5621 1979 1989 19-29
Bobby Bonds 43 133 5236 1968 1975 22-29
Darryl Strawberry 40.1 144 5137 1983 1991 21-29
Andrew McCutchen 37.5 138 5179 2009 2016 22-29
Jim Rice 31.8 136 5131 1974 1982 21-29
Juan Gonzalez 29.9 136 5283 1989 1999 19-29
Greg Luzinski 19.1 133 5321 1970 1980 19-29
Adam Dunn 15.7 132 5417 2001 2009 21-29

 

I was trying to see if anyone else had been traded before their 30th age season besides Frank from this list.
Ken Griffy was also headed for 30 when he was traded from the Reds to the Mariners. As we all know his time with the Reds was not as productive as his time with the Mariners but his five years right after the trade were certainly productive enough that you’d make that trade again and again.

Rickey Henderson was traded long before he reached 30 years old.

Cesar Cedeno is on the list but his best years were at age 21 and 22, and by 30 it was clear he was in huge decline. He had not received a top 10 MVP vote since he was 25.

Reggie Jackson was traded after his age 29 season but that was because he was going to be a free agent after the year he was acquired.

Tim Raines was traded after his age 30 season. He would never again receive any MVP votes, but you’d have to decide for yourself if he would have been worth acquiring. He was still a productive player but no longer an all-star.

Bobby Bonds was traded after his age 28 season. At that point he had an OPS+ of 131 and two top five MVP seasons. It was the ultimate challenge trade for Bobby Murcer who was also 28 and had an OPS+ of 134 with three top 10 MVP seasons. He would also never have another top 10 MVP season.

The last person on the 20 player list was Adam Dunn who was traded during his age 28 season for Free Agency reasons.

Eleven HOF from that list of 20.

Busts after 30 would be Strawberry, Murcer, Juan Gonzalez, Cedeno, Gregg Luzinski

Merkel Merkel

♦ November 21, 2016 ♦ 1 Comment

For all my German friends

As the Dodgers get started on their free agency spending spree, it is good to remember they are “the honey with the money”.