OT: Brandon Wood anyone?

GameChannel · Post #1 » by **GameChannel** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 3:08 pm

Angels just DFA'd him. I know he was once a highly-touted prospect and crushed minor league pitching hitting over 150+ career homers in the minors. Since then he has been a disaster throughout his majors career.

But should AA take a chance on him? Any chance we can sent Riviera and cash to them for Wood?

There There · Post #2 » by **There There** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 3:18 pm

GameChannel wrote:Angels just DFA'd him. I know he was once a highly-touted prospect and crushed minor league pitching hitting over 150+ career homers in the minors. Since then he has been a disaster throughout his majors career.

But should AA take a chance on him? Any chance we can sent Riviera and cash to them for Wood?

Even though he was serious prospect porn a couple of years ago, I'm no longer convinced Brandon Wood could hit a ball off a tee.

If Nix wasn't in the picture, maybe you take a flier on Wood. But we really don't need both of them taking space on the 25 man.

Also, pretty sure offering Rivera back to the Angels would be akin to sleeping with a man's wife, videotaping it, and then offering to hold a public viewing with him as the special guest of honour.

SharoneWright · Post #3 » by **SharoneWright** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 3:30 pm

Love that King of Limbs album...

damadmonk · Post #4 » by **damadmonk** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 5:10 pm

If the price is right, I'm in.

Great glove, and minor league hitting success. Higher ceiling than Nix.

The next player on my list of possible Jays targets is someone who may have worn out his welcome with the Angels…
3B Brandon Wood – LAA
6’3″ 210 lbs / Bats Right, Throws Right / 25 years old
Drafted: in the 23rd rd of the 2003 draft by the Angels
A player who could win a gold glove at 3B due to his excellent defensive play, Brandon Wood has obviously outlasted his welcome in Los Angeles as Maicer Izturis and Alberto Callaspo will likely be the mainstays at 3B for the Angels in 2011. Due to his (tremendous) struggles at the plate, the cost of acquiring Wood should be more than tolerable. Knowing that the Jays went as far as to audition Eric Chavez for 3B depth purposes, I would imagine that adding Wood fits in perfectly with whatever plan they had for Chavez. And, as a bonus, the Jays would get a player who is generally healthy and could turn out to be a steal if they can revamp his swing, whereas Chavez had already reached his potential.
Here is what Wood has accomplished thus far:

http://jaysjournal.com/2011/02/24/assessing-potential-jays-trade-targets-brandon-wood/

Post #5 » by **Schad** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 5:32 pm

There's no way in hell that I would consider giving Wood a major league roster spot. He's just an unspeakably bad hitter...can't hit fastballs, really can't hit off-speed stuff, swings at everything.

Post #6 » by **Duffman100** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 5:38 pm

Schadenfreude wrote:There's no way in hell that I would consider giving Wood a major league roster spot. He's just an unspeakably bad hitter...can't hit fastballs, really can't hit off-speed stuff, swings at everything.

As much as I'd love to believe he can turn it around, I gotta go with Schad on this one. Every single time he's brought up to the majors, he's awful. He actually gets worse each time he's promoted.

He'll go down as one of those guys who just couldn't figure it out.

GameChannel · Post #7 » by **GameChannel** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 5:52 pm

Well, it's not like we have clubs lining up to trade for Rivera, I see us putting him on waivers later in the year anyways. So if we are going to do that eventually, see if the Angels will take him and send some cash their way to compensate for the extra salary hit on their part. It's not like Wood can do any worse than what Rivera is doing.. Bring him in, play him some 3B, some 1B, some 2B and see what you got..

damadmonk · Post #8 » by **damadmonk** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 6:12 pm

He's got the ability to hit, his approach seems to be bad. Wouldn't giving him a chance to work with Murphy for a bit be low risk-low cost/high reward to see why he was rated the #3 prospect a few years ago?

Is that worth buying out E5 or Juan? Designate Nix?

Post #9 » by **Schad** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 6:18 pm

GameChannel wrote:Well, it's not like we have clubs lining up to trade for Rivera, I see us putting him on waivers later in the year anyways. So if we are going to do that eventually, see if the Angels will take him and send some cash their way to compensate for the extra salary hit on their part. It's not like Wood can do any worse than what Rivera is doing.. Bring him in, play him some 3B, some 1B, some 2B and see what you got..

The amazing thing is that Wood can do at least as badly as Rivera is doing, setting aside the fact that Rivera is just experiencing a slump (he's a notoriously slow starter). We're talking about a guy who managed an OPS+ of 5 in 243 plate appearances last year...for the sake of comparison, that's the exact same mark that Greg Maddux managed over the course of his career. So yeah, a guy who hits like a pitcher is probably a worse offensive option than one who has provided more than a decade of league-average hitting but is mired in a bad start.

He's got the ability to hit, his approach seems to be bad. Wouldn't giving him a chance to work with Murphy for a bit be low risk-low cost/high reward to see why he was rated the #3 prospect a few years ago?

Is that worth buying out E5 or Juan? Designate Nix?

Good lord no.

There There · Post #10 » by **There There** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 6:21 pm

GameChannel wrote:Well, it's not like we have clubs lining up to trade for Rivera, I see us putting him on waivers later in the year anyways. So if we are going to do that eventually, see if the Angels will take him and send some cash their way to compensate for the extra salary hit on their part. It's not like Wood can do any worse than what Rivera is doing.. Bring him in, play him some 3B, some 1B, some 2B and see what you got..

Wood can do worse than Rivera. Much much worse.

And I despise seeing Rivera in the lineup.

Wood's strikeout rate would make Rob Deer blush.

As Schad alluded, you could bowl the pitch from the mound to the plate and Wood would take a gigantic hack at it.

edit... Come to think of it, Wood probably would have taken a nice big hack at that botched Verlander pick-off attempt/WTF moment... So yes, it's entirely possible Wood could do much much worse than what Rivera is currently doing.

WpgPage · Post #11 » by **WpgPage** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 7:02 pm

Would maybe trade one of our many burnt out position prospects that has nothing left send him to AA get him into a few workouts with Murph and Cito, at the vary least he can make our AAA team better so we can move the hell out of LV.

GameChannel · Post #12 » by **GameChannel** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 7:06 pm

WpgPage wrote:Would maybe trade one of our many burnt out position prospects that has nothing left send him to AA get him into a few workouts with Murph and Cito, at the vary least he can make our AAA team better so we can move the hell out of LV.

We can't send him down to AAA if we were to trade for him. He's out of options. The only possibility for him to end up on our AAA team is if he first clears waivers after Angels DFA'd him and we sign him up. However, if we were to trade for him, he will have to remain on the 25 man roster or we will have to DFA him and he will need to clear waivers before he can play on our minors teams.