Andrew Bailey to Red Sox

[brettac1]

http://sports.yahoo.com/m...ap-redsox-athleticstrade

 

Bailey and Ryan Sweeney to Boston in exchange for Josh Reddick, Miles Head, Raul Alcantara to the A's.

 

Seems like a pretty small return on Bailey, and Sweeney actually isn't bad as far as being a 4th/5th OF type with some on base skills and zero pop. On the bright side, the A's will hopefully be able to move to San Jose by the sound of things. This seems to be part of a full-on rebuild in preparation for that, since you don't have much use for a closer with a 70-75 win team.

[dlk9s]

BEANE

[brettac1]

On the Red Sox side of things, this should clear Bard to definitely move to the rotation with Melancon and Bailey at the back-end of games now. I always felt they wasted Papelbon (who was very successful in the minors as a starter) by using him as a closer, so I am glad they aren't going to do the same with Bard. He didn't have a ton of success in his one minor league season before being made a reliever, but I think they should give him a shot.

[Ennder]

Papelbon became a closer because of injuries so I don't see it as a waste. The best reasons to move a SP to RP is they only have 2 pitches or they have injury issues. Bailey is an injury prone RP so I don't see that he has a ton of value and I don't expect his ERA to be anywhere near what it has been since his stats have eroded, he'll be in a hitters park and the peripherals never matched the ERA until last year, not really sure if those prospects are any good or not so can't comment on the trade itself much.

[brettac1]

They were actually going to move him back to the rotation because of his shoulder injury that he had in 2006.

[RockCoCougars]

Is it me, or does Beane make trades for the sake of making them? He seems to be in a constant state of rebuilding, but then he will swing a deal giving up prospects for a veteran.

[TooLiveBrew]

Imo doing something 'for the sake of doing something' in this situation would have been keeping Bailey on a team that wasn't expected to contend in 2012 or all that soon. Anytime you can turn a RP into some good prospects, it's a good time to make a deal.

[brettac1]

I agree, Bailey is not really a special guy. I did think he would fetch guys who were closer to MLB-ready, though.

 

As far as why Beane is making these trades, they are extremely low on cash until they get a new stadium situation. Bailey is arbitration eligible this year, and thus likely not worth his salary for a team in the A's position. Fautino De Los Santos has a chance to be a total stud "closer" if people are looking for fantasy sleepers this season. His BB rate is on the high side, but he is straight up nasty.

[RockCoCougars]

I guess that Beane wanted the money to give to Cookie Crisp....2 years/$14 million (I checked a few sources to make sure that I wasn't reading it wrong). What am I missing here?

[brettac1]

I'm not sure why they did that.

[Ennder]

Well Crisp is worth more than that so I'm guessing they just have a good relationship with each other but yeah I'd rather just go with someone young instead if I were in the A's situation.

[brettac1]

He is a solid player but it's just odd to go with him, and his price tag, when they are shooting for 75 wins anyhow. It's certainly a better buy than Cody Ross, though, which has been rumored.