This. They could've taken Todd Frazier in that Reds/White Sox trade. Could've kept Hanley. Could've held onto Kemp. All would've been disasters.
If we never traded Kemp for Grandal we would have probably traded for Lucroy. And Kemp would be starting in LF over Howie. Kemp is shit in CF, no longer good in RF, but meh in LF... there are worse fielders in LF than Kemp. But about the only thing that keeping Kemp has going for it is that he hits lefties pretty well. 1.024 OPS. And we have a huge weakness against them. Anyone noticed that Kemp already has 30 HR and 100 RBI this season? His stats since going to the Braves have been really nice. Even his year long numbers dont look so bad when you factor in that we love Justin Turner and both he and Kemp are hitting .271 for the year. Although i do have significantly more faith in Turner in the clutch than i do Kemp. Just not against lefties since Turner kinda sucks against them. Grandal provides lots of excitement when he is hitting them homeruns... but his .220 something average really looks like he merely gets good wood on the bat when he capitalizes on some big mistake by a pitcher. If i had to pick between a duo of Kemp and Lucroy or Howie and Grandal i would prefer having Kemp/Lucroy in the lineup.
And Hanley Ramirez really kills lefties and has better stats than Agon. We had no position for Henley unless we used him at 3B and kept Turner at his old position of 2B or put him in LF. Turner in LF may have been a good bet. Howie/Utley 2B Seager SS Turner LF Ramirez 3B Agon 1B Lecroy C Puig RF Joc CF Sure its older, and takes a hit on D in some spots but improves the D in others... but its hitting would be better against righties and much much better against lefties. One of Ramirez/Kemp should have been kept if we were going to use so many others guys that are near platoon level players against lefties.
The cost of Hanley, Kemp, and Lucroy (even at his discounted salary) would bump up our payroll $40 million per year ($30 million if we don't sign Howie in this scenario). Trading for Lucroy would have cost us De Leon + (probably Bellinger and a lower level piece). And we would have done something last season to try to solve our catching problem before getting Lucroy.
I don't think he was... Grandal also took another foul tip of his glass shoulder and sat out tonight. Hope he doesn't go into another one of his famous slumps now.
Could you imagine if another NL contendor would have traded for Rich Hill? He would throw a fucking perfect game against us. He's been injured quite a bit but man, I'm sure we'd be furious if a team traded for him and we didn't
We may never know for sure if Roberts keeps pulling him from no hitters and perfect games in the 7th.
Was reading about how SF messed up big time by not going all in for Melancon. Thank GOD that didn't happen...he really would have been a huge difference maker for him. They slightly upgraded with Nunez/Moore but failed to address their biggest weakness and it has bit them in the ass.
kinda like the dodgers not getting a lefty killer like Danny Valencia from the A's instead of getting Reddick
Exactly Just looked him up and he's had a sub 1.000 WHIP for four years! along with a sub 2.00 ERA for most of the time
