Prospect Insider - M's deal Bedard, Fields for two OF

M's deal Bedard, Fields for two OF

By Jason A. Churchill

By 07-31-2011

The Seattle Mariners have traded left-hander Erik Bedard to the Boston Red Sox along with right-handed reliever Josh Fields in return for outfield prospects Travyon Robinson from the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chih-Hsien Chiang from the Boston Red Sox.

This is now official.

Certainly a good deal for Seattle. Scouting reports on the M's haul coming later this evening. In the meantime, follow Prospect Insider on Twitter for updates to this story, and all kinds of banter, including me getting irritated at people for reporting tweets to me and pretending I am claiming to be reporting news.

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Comments
The following 29 comment(s) for this article are shown below:

1. By: aerichner on 07-31-2011 15:47:02
I LOVE JACK AND HIS FRONT OFFICE!

2. By: Lombardie360 on 07-31-2011 15:47:02
yeah I was dying at your "People, I am following Stark, too, I don't need you to report tweets to me."

3. By: Hackinator on 07-31-2011 15:48:32
Wow!!!

4. By: bilbo on 07-31-2011 15:50:40
Wow, that is a great haul for a rental and a RP that has issues throwing strikes.

5. By: Shawnuel on 07-31-2011 15:54:09
Really psyched. We actually got a top 100 prospect for Bedard and Fields. Plus a guy with a 1.046 OPS in AAA.

6. By: The Great Pumpkin on 07-31-2011 15:54:50
Does Jack ever dissapoint? He exceeds expectations again. Well done!

7. By: Jason A. Churchill on 07-31-2011 15:55:31
I fully expect prospects.young pitchers to be moved on more than one occasion this winter for big-league hitters.

8. By: rotoenquire on 07-31-2011 15:55:56
Chiang has 18 HR's and 38 2B that totals for 56.. With minor league guy that translates into a LOT of pro lvl power... everyone wanted a LF Power bat we just got it... Robinson has been hitting a LOT of HR's. That is parting from his strong suite. He I hope will be turned back to what he is good at... Hitting for average and stealing bases...

9. By: FelixElRey on 07-31-2011 15:59:38
Where did these guys rank in their respective systems?

10. By: DAMellen on 07-31-2011 16:03:18
Fangraphs lists Chiang as a 2b/of, but everybody keeps calling him an outfielder. Is he just terrible at second?

11. By: dawgncarolina on 07-31-2011 16:03:41
Holy wow that's above and beyond expectations for sure

12. By: bhenken08 on 07-31-2011 16:06:40
@9 Mlb.com has Robinson at #3 behind Dee Gordon and Zach Lee.

13. By: The Great Pumpkin on 07-31-2011 16:06:49
Does Jack ever dissapoint? He exceeds expectations again. Well done!

14. By: bhenken08 on 07-31-2011 16:19:52
Chiang is ranked as Boston's #18 prospect on http://www.soxprospects.com/

15. By: mjkleko on 07-31-2011 16:32:02
Ladies and gents', your new favorite Taiwanese Mariners prospect..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-Upp4WHpVQ

16. By: dewey on 08-01-2011 00:02:02
#13 Yes he has dissapointed me on every hitter he has gotten except for Ackley.The list is long and ugly to go with awful contracts Guti,Figgy,Cust,Olivo and Jack Wilson so i would say he dissapoints us all.

17. By: baseballman on 08-01-2011 01:46:54
wow dewey...just wow.

18. By: dawgncarolina on 08-01-2011 07:51:32
16 - you didn't believe in Ackley for the longest time either

19. By: dewey on 08-01-2011 11:54:13
#18 Ive allways believed in Ackleys bat ive allways questioned the defense and still do.If im the bad guy because i speek the truth so be it.But go back and look at those 5 guys names and tell me im wrong and also i guess im a bad guy because i think we missed on Smoak also.As people love to say around here the numbers dont lie...Also tell me the good M.L. hitters we have gotten in his 3 years as GM?

20. By: PositivePaul on 08-01-2011 13:22:41
I'm sorta with Dewey - Jack has more often than not sacrificed offense for the sake of defense. I, too, have concerns over Smoak. I wouldn't say that I don't like him, of course, but he's shown me just enough for me to be concerned about his ability to hit consistently.

Guti hasn't hit, save for a few months at the beginning of last year. He looks terrible at the plate even still, and doesn't look to be improving any time soon. I think we're well beyond being able to excuse it as not having spring training. Figgy's been deplorable offensively, and even before the ink dried on his contract I knew he wouldn't put numbers up anywhere close to 2009's and expected his numbers to be collapse (even while admitting I didn't see this level of collapse coming). Cust was teetering on extinction last year and while he did have a little surge it was more of a denouement. His bat is gone, and the signs were pointing it out clearly LAST year. Decent risk, sure, I suppose, but it just didn't pan out. I didn't expect it to. While walks are nice-especially with the bases loaded-you have to produce way more than that. They're important and certainly better than making outs, but hitting is so much more than that.

And if you count Ackley in Z's favor, well, yeah. Unlike in 2011's draft, Ackley was clearly and undoubtedly the best player available at 1 or 2 along with Strasburg. When Washington chose Strasburg it became a fireable offense to NOT draft Ackley.

Certainly I'm not going to complain overall about Zduriencik. I think he's done pretty remarkably especially considering the holes he's had to climb this franchise out of AND the limited resources he's had to deal with both financially and prospect-wise. But he's clearly not without fault in all of this either. While no one's perfect, there's some overall trends that I'm not sure I'm comfortable with moving forward. But I'm certainly not bailing on him w/my support. Just trying to keep a balanced eye on things...

21. By: baseballman on 08-01-2011 13:28:08
You're right dewey, what the heck has Jack been doing?! I mean really, he should have signed guys like Crawford and Werth for deals over $200 million each AND Pujols should be an M by now!

22. By: baseballman on 08-01-2011 13:31:03
Where has Jack sacrificed offense for the sake of defense? When has he chosen a defense player when he could have had offense?

23. By: StandinPat on 08-01-2011 16:13:39
"The list is long and ugly to go with awful contracts Guti,Figgy,Cust,Olivo and Jack Wilson so i would say he dissapoints us all"

Guti was acquired because of his defense, and if the Ms exercise their buyout for the last year they will have paid him just under $20 mil for 5 years. So far in his Ms career he's been worth 8.8 WAR, which would already make that a value for the Ms. Additionally, I'm not sure how you hold Jack accountable for Guti's IBS and concurrent falloff at the plate.

Figgins, well he has been a disaster, but it's not like anyone could have predicted a collapse of this magnitude. Since becoming a regular in 2004, there was only one season, 2005, where he wouldn't have been worth the $9 mil they are paying him.

Cust, well he was the cheapest DH option on the market, so I'm not getting him lumped into the awful contracts part, but he wasn't very good, and the Ms moved on... not sure what the big deal is here.

Olivo, already been worth his 2011 salary.

Jack Wilson, well, if you think Jack Wilson was acquired because of his hitting... then that's just bizarre.

"If im the bad guy because i speek the truth so be it."

Whatever someone might call what you "speek," I doubt the truth is the first thing that would come to mind.

24. By: VikingArthur on 08-01-2011 16:42:25
This is definitely a worthwhile discussion to have. I think you have to look at Jack's GM reign in the broad picture. Let's look at the major moves...

1. Trading Putz for Vargas, Carp and Guti.

Obvious win... Carp should be the DH going forward and will be reasonably productive (honestly I think he is a better hitter than Smoak). Vargas is a league average starter and Guti (despite his offensive woes this year) has been a net positive.

2. Signing Figgins - disaster, no other way to put it.

3. Clement-Wilson trade... gave up nothing, got nothing.

4. Morrow-League trade- I think this trade was brought on by Morrow's distrust of our training/front office. Obviously Bavasi started jerking Morrow around and it ruined his M's career. Bavasi's wrong headed obsession with relievers (conversion of Morrow, draft of Fields, etc) can't be overstated. Morrow was a lost cause here I believe and needed a new start...he has been streaky and dominant at times and terrible at other times. Got OK value for him but I look at this trade as a result of Bavasi's idiocy.

5. Lee transaction- Gave up NOTHING for Lee, got Smoak (jury is somewhat out), Beavan (The Fist's younger brother), Laffey (from Lawson) and Lueke. Incredible steal overall. All three guys will be helpful in the next 3-5 years for sure.

6. Bringing Bedard back- great move, netted us some solid pitching (when healthy) a good haul of prospects.

7. Morse trade- Bad move, no one saw Morse becoming what he is now.

8- Washburn- got value for a guy whose career was basically over.

9- Ryan, Pauley, Wright - underrated moves, all very useful and cheap.

10. Signed WILY MO! Ha,ha. We'll see.

I would say that is a great record and when you consider the talent he has drafted over the last 3 years I would give him a solid B+ as the GM.

25. By: StandinPat on 08-01-2011 16:56:34
"1. Trading Putz for Vargas, Carp and Guti.

Obvious win... Carp should be the DH going forward and will be reasonably productive (honestly I think he is a better hitter than Smoak). Vargas is a league average starter and Guti (despite his offensive woes this year) has been a net positive."

Don't forget Cleto was flipped for Ryan and Chavez was on his way to an above average season before he was submarined by Yuni.

"3. Clement-Wilson trade... gave up nothing, got nothing."

I wasn't a big fan of this trade when it went down. Probably could have gotten a different, slightly better something for the "nothing" we gave up. Don't forget the salary tied up in Snell and Wilson. For a team without much payroll flexibility, I'd have to chock that up as a loss.

"7. Morse trade- Bad move, no one saw Morse becoming what he is now."

Isn't it a bit unfair to Judge this as a bad move for Z if "no one saw Morse becoming what he is now."

26. By: VikingArthur on 08-01-2011 17:28:11
@25

I am a Jack supporter but getting Langerhans for Morse is a bad move. Did anyone see Morse becoming a force? No but ultimately a guy with not-so-obvious upside was traded for a spare piece whose limited upside was a known factor. At some point you have to look at the results on trades even if at the time it looked like an insignificant deal.

Also... understand on the payroll flexibility point... that trade was a loss at second glance when you consider the $$ paid to those bums Wilson and Snell.

27. By: dewey on 08-01-2011 18:07:56
If you ever watched Morse hit BP you allways wondered what would happen with M.L. atbats he could hit them as far as anyone i know BP isnt the game but it was interesting.I get the deal for Wilson was a wash kind of but we resigned the guy thats the issue.Ive heard people say Figgins bat speed had slowed the year before they signed him i was sitting at safeco by the scouts one day and just listend it was interesting and this was before figgins went bad.Cust brutal,Definite win in Putz deal but gave Guti multi year deal on one year? War isnt the only answer for most people who watch the game.Where was the value in Washburn deal it was a wash.Olivo has hit some bombs yes but his game calling ability and his ability to handle the pitches is awful he is allways running to the backstop not a good catcher anymore sorry .He also is hitting 218 for 4 million not real good sorry.You dont have to sign giant deals like Werth and Crawford every year and you see guys like Friedman taking his low payrole club to the series dont you.Even the pirates our contending they all have a payrole about 50 million short of ours and thats the facts

28. By: dewey on 08-01-2011 18:53:26
#24 i have a question did the Mariners get a haul for Fister and Bedard? Our we sure the Mariners gave up nothing for Lee? They gave up very young guys two of them seem to be making strides and the other has been hurt with the Phillies i think it may be a little early to call that nothing? Hell it might be nothing but so might all of these guys we just got in trades. Getting too high our too low on young propects is dangerous how many hyped guys do nothing? About 85 to 90% of them in every org.

29. By: VikingArthur on 08-01-2011 19:30:11
@28

Aumont was the big piece of the Lee trade. I'd be shocked if he ever is anything more than mop-up for a terrible team. The rest? We shall see.

Point is that turning Aumont and the other guys into Smoak, Beavan, Laffey and Lueke is quite obviously amazing.

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