I expected a left hander to get traded this week, but I expected it to be Mike Maroth. Instead the Tigers sent Wilfredo Ledezma to the Atlanta Braves for lefty Macay Mcbride.
Mcbride is a year younger than Ledezma, and I believe he has options left. That second option might be the bigger factor. Mcbride has posted high K-rates throughout his career in the minors – 8.38 per 9 innings. He’s translated that in limited experience at the big league level averaging a strikeout an inning over 85 innings. His problem is control where he has walked 3.27 per 9 over his minor league career and 15 in 17 innings this year. He has limited lefties to a .514 OPS at the big league level.
Me thinks Mcbride will be the bullpen arm who is sent down on Friday so we might not see him for awhile.
I’ve always been a fan of Ledezma and hard throwing lefties are hard to come by. But the stuff and potential just never seemed to materialize into consistent results. He’s 26 so he probably still has a lot of baseball in front of him.
This move also shows how much confidence Jim Leyland has in Bobby Seay and Tim Byrdak to hand lefty specialist duties over to those two.
Mcbride is actually 2 years younger than Ledezma as he was born in October of 1982 vs January of 1981 (or at least it’s 22 months or so).
I like his K numbers, but his control is definitely erratic. Seems like a clone of Ledezma’s potential, but at least he is 2 years younger. Wil is rapidly approaching his prime and he seems to have regressed.
He is essentially younger Wil Ledezma with options. I like the move from the Braves side of things. I think he sees starting time down in the ATL as they can’t be having Kyle Davies and whatever bum they run out eating up 40% of their starts.
I think Wilfredo starts in Atlanta. After their top 3 in that rotation it’s no one special. So we just traded potentially good arms back and forth and got us some roster flexibility.
I still think both Monroe and Robertson will be traded.
Well, I didn’t expect to see Ledezma get the hook. It’s too bad that he just hasn’t improved this year. I really dug that cat.
Any chance we still make trades to bolster the bullpen? Or does everyone think we may be done since Kenny Rogers is on his way back?
Agreed on that point Andrew.
I think we’ve quietly assembled all of the pieces we need for the bullpen in the last couple of weeks. It’s just a matter of effectively assigning roles.
I’m not too surprised to see Ledezma dealt. I feel bad ’cause I was big on his bandwagon. but it gives the Tigers roster flexibility and they didn’t downgrade at much, or at all, by swapping lefties.
Except the reason McKay was available is because he was brought in against the Red Sox on Monday and turned a blowout into a situation where Wickman had to be summoned by giving up a couple of hits and a walk. Cox was fuming. It was pretty clear he’d never pitch for the Braves again.
Sorry for all the double posts, nothing was being posted that I wrote.
I’m kinda surprised to see Ledezma traded as well. I hope he pans out for the Braves.
As for Monroe and Robertson, I can’t believe that either have much value right now. The time to deal Monroe was during the off-season. Again, I’m left feeling frustrated by Dombro’s inaction this past winter.
Inaction? I don’t think we would have gotten much for Monroe and dealing for Sheffield was hardly inaction. We’re among the best offenses in the game now and the pitching staff is still strong. We’re miles better than last year. I don’t see how anyone can rag on Dombrowski for the offfseason… well, ok, mesa, haha.
Still though, I don’t think we would have gotten much for C-MO and the guy does have power, so trotting him out for another season wasn’t a bad gamble.
You’re right Luke. I’m being hard on him. But you have to admit that Monroe’s value has dropped and I was really hoping that he’d get traded in the offseason. There are a lot of bad GMs out there that could have been suckered I’m sure. Look at the money Gary Matthews Jr. scored. You don’t think some nitwit would’ve given us something for Monroe’s 28 homeruns?
And I can’t just ignore his attempt to shore up the bullpen with Mesa.
Well, Monroe rakes in August and July, so hopefully he turns it on through the end of june and into July and his value rises — especially if he goes on HR tear like he did for a couple weeks last year.
Man…this one blind sided me…I was busy at work all day and didn’t check the site….I saw the McBride guy on Monday Night…and he isn’t the answer, hope Bilfer is right and he is the one who goes down.
If they do send down McBride, they still would have to send down at least 1 more guy for Robertson and 1 more guy for Miner. Unless they send down Miner as well. Byrdak or Seay appear safe b/c they are the 2 lefties. So who goes down for Robertson? Thats the real question.
My prediction for the next trades: Maroth, Shelton, VV, and Colon (if they want him) to Texas for C.J. Wilson and Otsuka. They get an innings-eating #1 starter (yeah, he’d be their ace), a fair to middling starting prospect or two, and a cheap 1st baseman for when Tex goes. We get pen help from the most pointlessly awesome bullpen in recent memory. Then, with our newfound glut of lefty relievers, try to get Abraham Nunez from Philly for Seay and McBride (and Grilli if they want him). No more Neifi. Bullpen of Durbin/Robertson, Wilson, Byrdak, Otsuka, De La, and Jones lets us hide F-Rod until he figures it out or will clearly never figure it out.
Braves should never had left gone Sheffield, they just don’t like to spend money… they will keep having losing seasons if they don’t do something interesting….