Steve Phillips' Trade Ideas

[ronnynat]

This cracked me up.

Steve Phillips' Moronic Guide To The Reds
from MLB Trade Rumors by Joe Pawlikowski

I was sent this ESPN The Magazine article, and wow, I'm just blown over with its utter stupidity. Of course, it's by Steve Phillips, so this comes as little surprise. But still, it's low, even by his standards. Hopefully you all have a good chuckle at it.

Phillips's first idea is for the Reds should call up the ChiSox and offer up Ken Griffey for Josh Fields or Carlos Quentin. Let's substitute names for a second. He thinks that the Reds should trade a 38-year-old outfielder in the final year of his contract -- who is hitting .244/.317/.378 -- for either a 25-year-old outfielder who is hitting considerably better, or a 25-year-old third baseman. Of course they should! The only problem is getting Ken Williams drunk enough to say yes.

Next on the list: unload Adam Dunn. The 28-year-old can still get on base and mash, and can be an asset to a contender. So who does he think are fitting targets? The Blue Jays for starters. What should they ask for? Adam Lind and Dustin McGowan or Shawn Marcum. All the sarcasm in the world can't fully capture the stupidity of that idea. Another target is Cleveland. What's the haul, Steve? Cliff Lee, and then one of Franklin Gutierrez, Jeremy Sowers, or Aaron Laffey. Yep. Nothing like trading your pitcher with a 0.81 ERA for a three-outcome slugger in his walk year.

For a break in the laughter, he suggests trading Bronson Arroyo and bringing up Homer Bailey. That's fine and good, especially since he doesn't name names.

Here's my personal favorite. Call up Hank Steinbrenner and completely circumvent GM Brian Cashman on this deal, because apparently Phillips thinks Steinbrenner is a raging moron who smokes PCP dipped in embalming fluid. Make him an offer he can't refuse: Jared Burton and Jeremy Affeldt for Phil Hughes.  Hey, Burton has 22 strikeouts in  15.2 innings, so he must be good! Nevermind that it's a terribly small sample (he also has a 4.02 ERA in those innings). Nevermind that Burton has never had that kind of strikeout success above A ball, and that this might just be a fluke.

But no, because Phil Hughes has struggled through the season's first month, he's got to go. And as an added bonus, Joba Chamberlain can move to the rotation! Nevermind that this is the plan anyway. You can only do it if you trade Hughes for two relievers! Yes, because two relievers is absolutely a fitting price for a 21-year-old pitcher who in 2007 was rated the best pitching prospect in the game.

His final idea is to trade Ryan Freel for Scott Proctor. Eh. Not bad enough to throw around some more snark.

The crazy thing is, I remember when a team made a series of moves like this, where they gave up all the crap on their roster and turned it into an All-Star lineup. It was my team in MVP Baseball 2005. Man, we rocked. I should have made Steve Phillips the honorary GM of the team.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2008/05/steve-phillipss.html

[xposbrad]

lol Steve Phillips can't really work for ESPN.

[ronnynat]

lol Steve Phillips can't really work for ESPN.

He's really unintelligent when it comes to baseball.

[blue911]

He's really unintelligent when it comes to baseball.

The funny part is he sounds like many baseball fans.

[soxfan59]

He's about 3 years too late on the deal to send Griffey to the White Sox.  Supposedly, after Frank Thomas got hurt again in 2005, there was a deal worked out that would have sent Griffey to the Sox for an unknown package of players, but the ownership of the Reds, which was just about to change, didn't want to hand over a team totally bereft of stars and hometown fan favorites.  Because the Sox won it all in 2005, hindsight makes this look like a poor deal.  But, would we have then made the Aaron Rowand for Jim Thome deal prior to 2006?  Interesting.