Post#14 » by tsherkin » Sat Jul 21, 2007 6:27 pm
Heh, Vernon's the last guy we want to trade. Gold Glove defense + traditionally good hitting = not worth moving right now.
Glaus, it'd be a shame to move that kind of power, really. I'd like a more athletic player on the hot corner but his bad is going to be tough to replace if we move him.
I wouldn't be at all opposed to trading Burnett, since he's perpetually injured and isn't that great a pitcher even when he's healthy. He's exactly a .500 pitcher on his career, with a career WHIP around 1.3, an ERA that doesn't stray to far from league average, gives up around 3.8 BB/9, puts up about 8.1 K/9, 7.8 H/9, 0.8 HR/9...
Burnett's a decent pitcher but we're paying some hefty coin for a guy who has 2 30-game seasons since becoming a starter. His injury concerns and plain performance really aren't that special. He's a nice thought because of his fireball and he's got decent stuff that aside but he's really not a really GOOD starter, just an average one. The Jays need a second go-to pitcher very, very badly, especially guys who have better ERAs.
You'll notice that our starters are all giving up an ERA of 4.3 or worse (except for Marcum), that we've got three starters giving up ERAs over 5 and only three guys with winning records (Halladay, Marcum and McGowan).
So we've got a very clear core rotation and then we've got the last two spots that have been bouncing between Towers, Chacin, 10 games for Okha, 3 total to Taubenheim and Zambrano...
And Marcum spent 13 games in the 'pen, so we weren't even fully utilizing him (he's got an ERA a hair over 3.7 right now).
I wouldn't mind trading Burnett... if we get a pitcher in return.
As much as I'm not overwhelmed with his brilliance as a pitcher, he's still not stupidly expensive nor is he incompetent. He's just rarely around. He's giving us about 6.4 innings per start over the last year and a half and has posted ERAs of 3.98 and 4.31 so far as a Jay. That's pretty acceptable, especially his performance last year.
So yeah, if we give up Burnett in a trade, it had better be for a pitcher.
Likewise, if we give up Glaus, we'd best be getting power back to fill that void.