One Step Closer
Wow. News today that Matt Thornton was traded to Chicago for OF Joe Borchard has me nearly falling out of my chair in excitement. A few other tidbits that I shan't publicly share as well, keep boosting my excitement, and reinforcing my faith in Bavasi. George Sherill is now one huge step closer to being freed. Ignore his current ERA, and the fact that he's given up more HRs than he's K'd people. "GS52" will pull it all together and get back on track very soon.
Aside from the fact that "Thorn-in-George's-side-ton" is actually a decent guy that (unlike Ryan Franklin) realizes he needs a bit of work on his pitching, I'm excited to get some fresh blood in the OF corps. While Joe Borchard hasn't exactly impressed at the big-league level, he does have a decent minor league track record. And, having a switch-hitter on the bench will be nice. He'll be more useful to the M's than Matt Thornton ever would. And, even if he falls flat on his face, he'll inflict potentially less damage than Thornton would.
Usually Mondays are horrid for me. I hate 'em more than Garfield does. But this one's going to stay on my calendar for quite a bit...
posted by PositivePaul @ 10:41 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Our OF bats pretty much LH, if my decrepit memory serves me well, and Borchard is a RH hitter. I think Borchard is worth taking a chance on. He has some pretty good power and maybe he's ready to succeed at the major league level. Thornton has talent, but he hasn't been able to harness it yet. Maybe the trade will be good for both Thornton and Borchard!
Just a great, great move. Wow...even if Borchard isn't able to hit for average, he's got undeniable power, can play a bit of OF (better than Morse, in all likelihood), and as you mention snave, can hit right handed.
Morse has options, and probably needs to work on his OF defense.
Borchard adds a dimension to the bench that we just didn't have. Conisder a bench of Lawton, Borchard, Petagine (and WFB)...it could happen at some point this year! Holy crap!
I keep scanning the news for some correction that this deal isn't done, or is an early April Fool's joke or something.
And let me echo snave in saying that I really hope this works out for Thornton too. He's got a lot of talent, and some sox fans think their pitching coach might be able to get through to him. I have my doubts, but: good luck, Matt!
In the rumors section at FOX Sports today, it says the M's might have interest in the Pirates' Craig Wilson, who is also a RH hitting OF/1B type that had a lousy year last year but has a good career OPS above .800. That would be interesting... think they're planning to move one of their current group of outfielders?
Craig Wilson? Available for what?
My god, of COURSE we should be interested. Forget the 12 man staff thing and consider a bench of:
Craig Wilson
Roberto Petagine
Joe Borchard
Willie Bloomquist
Rene Rivera
Okay, yeah, it sort of tails off there at the end, but still. That's pop off the bench from right and left, and there's some flexibility in there too (though not a whole lot of speed save WFB). It gives Morse more time to learn OF, but unless the M's are willing to give up on Lawton and/or go with an 11 man staff, I'm not sure they do the deal. And that's a shame.
I think that Wilson rumor is pretty old. My hunch is that the Mariners were interested pre-Lawton, but have since moved on. I have read elsewhere that Littlefield (Pirates' GM) also was asking for a lot in return.
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