While the Cubs and Padres players were trading slaps on the field, the front offices were wheelin' and dealin'. When I heard about the Barrett deal in a 2 second blurb on ESPN radio today, I was enraged. I promptly text messaged CubsTattoo, BudFanCubsMan and the only reader of this site, Dapper Dre. How could the Cubs trade their 3rd best hitter!?!? How can you give "our guy" away for a backup catcher and a "hot minor league prospect" (to quote Colin Cowherd)? I was thinking this and then BudFanCubsMan verbalized it for me, if you don't want him, cut him loose at the end of the season for the compensation pick. Those picks are useful, no doubt about it. Draft picks are important in MLB because they aren't easy to come across (you can't trade them like in other sports).
Here's my breakdown of the trade. SO, who did we give up? I'm a Michael Barrett fan (as are both of my fellow bloggers here at MyCubbies.com). I like the scrap that's in him. Makes him and the team fun to watch. And he's been a stud over the last 3 seasons. Best of all, we didn't give up anything to get him (Damian Miller!). The calculations I did before the season for him are a 3 year average. His were .289/.334/.494 for an OPS of .828 (for the uninitiated, that is batting average / on-base percentage / slugging percentage). Really solid. One of the best offensive catchers in baseball. This year, so far, his line looks like this: .256 / .307 / .427. That is, quite bluntly, horrible. Michael Barrett is what he is. He's an offensive catcher. He's not exactly one of the "amazing catching Molina brothers". His defense is sub-par for the league, but it hadn't mattered because he killed the ball at the plate. Well, so far this year his defense is worse than ever and he is strugg-a-ling at the plate. As eluded to previously, his contract is up at the end of the season.
SO, what did we get? I have to admit, I'd never heard of this kid. I watch a lot of baseball. I loved Baseball Tonight (back when I had cable). And Peter Gammons is my personal hero. But, who the heck is Rob Bowen? Brother of the dirty player from the Spurs? Turns out he is a pretty able-bodied and young catcher from the Padres. I should have known him because he hammered a dinger against us last week. He might be a backup in San Diego, but he's got good numbers. His line for the season is this: .268 / .371 / .439 for an OPS of .810! You'll notice how despite this being just one season, his numbers this year are almost as good as Barrett's last 3 years.
That is a solid pick up. With Barrett about to hit the road anyway, if this kid pans out at all, that is a steal. Not only that, but getting younger with catchers is always a good idea and this kid is under a minor league deal for the foreseeable future (I couldn't find his contract details online). CubsTat pointed out that his splits against leftys are ridonculous (but that could partly be due to small sample size). We also got rookie league outfielder, Kyler Burke. Rookie league outfielders don't often make it to the bigs, so I'm not worried, but the Cubbies are obviously re-stocking their farm system (note all the college players taken in the draft, which I'll write a blog about soon). This kid was taken in the supplemental draft last year, so he is probably the equivalent of compensation for the pick they lost by not losing Barrett's number at the end of the season.
All in all, this was probably a deal that Barrett forced them to make. It sounds like the Cubs did what they could. I hope it works out. I'm going to miss Mike, but I will echo the sentiments of Jim Hendry when he said, "I'll be rooting for him all the time when he's not playing against us."
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2 comments:
Sports talk radio says that this deal was forced by Sweet Lou, who apparently considered Michael to be a clubhouse cancer. Apparently Hendry still believed in old number 8, but he brought him here. After some re-evaluation it may turn out to be an alright deal if he is a better defender and we can keep him cheap.
Why don't the Cubs win on a consitent basis? We talk about pitching and hitting stats. Is there clutch hitting and now how important is clubhouse chemistry? Lou is an old school guy and I bet he thinks clubhouse chemistry is very important. I think it's hard to understand a team when common folk like us don't really know that much about them as people. Teammates have to talk and be social to the extent that they are civil and discuss baseball options. Wouldn't you love to listen in on a conversation #18 & #88. Hell, they probably draw up routes on their fancy-smancy cloth napkins.
Good Luck Mike.
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