Breakfast Is Served

Of the list of possible replacements I saw for the other guy that used to play center, Coco Crisp was at the top in my book. This is the guy I wanted to get so I’m pretty happy about it.

Here’s the way I see the entire trade. Starting with the catchers, I think it’s a wash. Shoppach and Bard are pretty similar to me. Shoppach is 25 and has had only a handful of ML at bats. He’s been taking a long time to develop and although it looks like he might finally be ready he was only going to be a backup here for the next few years anyway. Bard is a couple of years older with a lot more ML experience. He never quite developed into the player that the Indians thought he would be, but he should probably be pretty solid for us as Tek’s backup and might not be too far off from what Mirabelli was.

The reliever situation is a little strange to me. You’ve got 2 questionable pitchers changing teams. I guess it all depends on what each team believes they’re going to get from said pitcher. Mota was one of the top set up men in ‘03’ and ‘04’ but he was slowed by injuries last year and there are still questions as to whether or not he has recovered enough to be effective again, and last the entire season. Riske has been pretty solid for the last 3 years in Cleveland pitching at least 70 innings with good numbers. But there is some question as to whether or not he can handle pressure situations. The Indians never really gave him the chance last year after he blew some saves in ‘04’. We know Mota can handle it mentally, but not physically. It’s other way around for Riske, so it really depends on what chance you prefer to take. I like the one we’re taking.

We did have to throw in a player to be named in order to appease the Indians because of Mota’s shoulder. I’m glad it didn’t end up being Delcarmen.

The only bad part I see about this trade is giving up Marte. He’s one of the top prospects in baseball and I felt like we got him for a steal from the Braves in the Renteria trade. It’s tough to see him go like this, but the way I look at it is, he’s still a prospect and hasn’t proven anything in the Major Leagues yet and we got a player that we really needed for him.

Of course that player is Crisp. Here’s my prediction. Crisp will become a fan favorite very quickly and make all of us forget about old “what’s his name”, see I’ve already forgotten him. We have him for the next 4 years, which is the same amount of time the other guy is signed for with his new club.

During this period, we will see 2 very similar players. Crisp is just as good of a defensive outfielder with a slightly better arm, and probably just as tough. Offensively I think they will put up very similar numbers with Crisp getting a little better each year and the other guy slowly declining. As of right now, the other guy will probably walk a little more and most likely score more runs with that offense behind him. But Crisp will get better at taking pitches and he’ll learn to get on base more as time goes by.

I think right now that Crisp will steal more bases, hit more doubles and home runs, and be right up there in batting average. By the end of the 4 years he’ll have the superior numbers.

This is a great trade for us, even if Marte goes on to bash the hell out of the ball like most think he will. It looks with the addition of Crisp we keep a pretty solid offense on the field and can go ahead and sign Alex Gonzalez to play SS, if it hasn’t already been done.

We still have quite a few question marks, but at least one of the big ones has been answered.