Kotchman traded to the M's

ESPN's Buster Olney broke the news yesterday on Twitter that the Mariners and Red Sox were very close to completing a deal that would send first baseman Casey Kotchman to Seattle. Over the past 24 hours more details have emerged and according to plenty of sources the Mariners will send Bill Hall, a minor leaguer and cash to Boston for compensation.

So...what does that mean? Well, the Mariners certainly upgrade their starting first baseman for 2010 as Kotchman is a better option than Mike Carp. But they do so at the expense of a great utility player that has experience playing several different positions and has played them well.

Here's the story on Kotchman:

Casey Kotchman, a former 1st round draft pick of the Los Angeles Angels entered the league in 2004 but didn't start seeing significant playing time until 2007. In his first full season, Kotchman posted a .296 batting average, a .372 on-base percentage, and a .467 slugging percentage. These are decent numbers for a gap-power left handed hitter. The only problem is each year following 2007 Kotchman regressed. His 2009 numbers were .269/.339/.382, hardly the production we received last year from Russell Branyan.

However, Kotchman does fit the mold of the guys Jack Zduriencik has brought over to the Mariners. He's an above-average defender posting a career UZR of 4.4 per 150 innings, he's a patient left-handed hitter who makes contact with the ball, and he's a young player who hasn't quite reached his potential. Of course, with this type of trade the question is how much will it cost. Kotchman is eligible for arbitration in 2010 and some reports expect his salary to be in the $5 million range. Bill Hall's salary for 2010 would equal $8.4 million and that's why the Mariners are expected to chip in some cash for the trade. Keep in mind though, when we traded with the Brewers for Hall back in August, Milwaukee sent a lot of cash over as well which will seemingly be used in this trade for Kotchman.

What do we lose giving up a player like Bill Hall?

The obvious thing is we lose the flexibility of a utility fielder that can play multiple positions in the outfield and at second and third base. Hall is an above-average defender in the infield and an average fielder in the outfield. However, it seems the Mariners were still waiting for Hall to repeat on his monster 2006 season when he hit 35 home runs and scored over 100 times. Turning around and trading Hall as quickly as they did means there had to be cause for concern with the front office that he wouldn't return to his power-hitting form.

Overall, the Mariners essentially traded two minor league players for Casey Kotchman. The player that will be sent to the Red Sox and Ruben Flores, the minor leaguer sent to Milwaukee. For all of these reasons I think this is a good trade. What I don't like about it is the Mariners have downgraded their offense compared to other options that are on the market such as Russell Branyan and Adam LaRoche. If Kotchman can show some sign that he's anywhere near the type of offensive player he was projected to be this could be a great move. As it stands right now, I'd call it as just being ok.

Betancourt traded to the Royals...How do I feel about that?

I'm sure you've all heard by now that Yuniesky Betancourt was traded to the Kansas City Royals for two minor league pitchers. As much as I've made a point to point out Yuni's flaws I'm truly sad to see him go. There was always a hope that he could become the defensive whiz out at shortstop while possessing the above-average bat that we saw flashes of when he broke into the league in 2005.

That being said, Yuni did not perform. It seemed Don Wakamatsu tried everything to get Yuni to see it his way; talking to him, calling him out in the newspaper, benching him. Each time Yuni would fix his mistakes...for a short while, but he always regressed to the player he was before the discipline.

Good luck in KC, Yuni. Finally, WFB and YFB will be reunited again. I really do hope he can turn his career around in KC. There is just too much talent there to dismiss as wasted. We'll see what happens.

Where do the M's go from here? Well...there is a huge glaring hole at shortstop, not that the trade of Yuni made it any worse than it was before but you just can't have Ronny Cedeno as your everyday shortstop. The value of Jarrod Washburn couldn't be any higher than after his 1-hitter. I think you'll see a package deal with Washburn and another player, maybe a Wladimir Balentien to fill the hole at short. This should be an exciting 3 weeks for M's fans.

Stay tuned as I'll take a look at the players the M's got in return for Yuni. From the initial look of things Jack Z pulled off another gem.

The worst trade in Mariner history

News broke today that Erik Bedard has been placed on the 15-day disabled list. The move is retroactive to June 8th but I think you can squash the possibility of trading Bedard by the deadline. You'd be hard pressed to find a general manager in Major League Baseball willing to give up a prospect or two in exchange for a left-handed pitcher with a history of injuries. Regardless whether his ERA and BAA is in the American League's Top-5.

So, let's recap this amazing trade engineered by the mastermind genius Bill Bavasi. (I know it's hard to establish sarcasm in written form but let me point out I was laying it on pretty thick in the last sentence.)

The Mariners receive a left-handed strike-out, ground ball pitcher who goes on to post an 11-6 record working 146.2 innings in a little under a year and a half with a 3.07 ERA. In those 146.2 innings he has struck out 137 batters and walked only 59. Not bad stats but obviously the glaring issue is the 146.2 innings pitched, roughly half of what he should be at.

Let's take a look at what the guys the M's have given up have done. The centerpiece of the deal, Center Fielder Adam Jones has gone on to post a .296/.341/479 with the Orioles. It's nothing earth shattering but if you also remember that 2008 was his first full-year in the majors and that the kid is only 24 years old, it hurts more than a little bit.

The other major league piece of the trade, George Sherrill has only saved 43 games for the Orioles in just under a year and a half. Hmm, I'm sure the M's would have loved that kind of production out of their closer last year and early this season.

Not to mention Tony Butler Chris Tillman instantly became one of the Orioles' best pitching prospects and looks to get called up later this year.

But what's done is done, right? Let's look to the future. As I was telling Garbs, if we didn't have Franklin Gutierrez in Center Field, arguably a better defender than Adam Jones by about 3 runs this would be a harder pill to swallow. The only reason I'm holding my head high is because I emphatically believe Jack Zduriencik is the man who can right the ship after this debacle of a trade and we have already seen how he can turn situations into positives for the M's.