Ducks Send Andy McDonald to Blues for Doug Weight, Michal Burner, and a Pick

Too bad the Ducks couldn’t get Gordon Bombay for the coaching staff in this deal as well. 

The Ducks made a trade yesterday.  Giving up one of their core players from a year ago, Andy McDonald, was not a move they necessarily wanted to make, but because of the return from retirement of Scott Neidermayer and McDonald’s fallen production this season, the team felt it was necessary to move the 30-year-old center to clear cap space. 

In return Anaheim received Doug Weight, who is basically a 3rd or 4th line guy at this point in his career, along with Michal Burner (a mediocre prospect, 21 years-old, and a left-winger) and a 7th round pick in the coming draft.  Additionally, the team will now have a better chance to re-sign young winger Corey Perry, who is in the midst of a break-out season, already having netted 17 goals.

St. Louis also wins in this deal, as the team gave up very little for a potential #1 or #2 center who is in the middle of a scoring slump.  This could be a nice case of buying low.

Steroids! Actually, No. Hot Stove Talk Instead.

Dan Haren will be bringing his sexy locks to Arizona for the next three seasons. 

Dan Haren was traded to the Diamondbacks along with Connor Robertson for tremendous quantity and solid quality.  The big name coming back to Oakland is Carlos Gonzalez, a potential All-Star caliber outfielder.  Along with Gonzalez, the A’s got themselves three decent left-handed starting pitching candidates in Dana Eveland, Greg Smith, and Brett Anderson, as well as recently traded 1B prospect Chris Carter and OF Aaron Cunningham. 

Overall I must say I thought the A’s could have gotten more top grade prospects for Haren, who is under contract at a reasonable rate for 3 more years and has been extremely durable over his entire time in Oakland.  While Haren is certainly not in the same class as Johan Santana, he is a bonafied #2 starter on a World Series contender in either league and should be worthy of two grade A prospects with high likelihoods of making a large contribution in the Majors.  This trade could end up as a find for the A’s, who certainly picked up a whopping 6 potential Major League contributors, but it appears a lot of luck in development and young pitchers avoiding injury will play just as much of a role in the outcome of this trade as will Oakland’s ability to evaluate talent. 

In another move, the D-Backs sent Jose Valverde to the Astros for Chad Qualls, Chris Burke, and minor leaguer Juan Gutierrez.  A quick breakdown: Valverde was excellent last year for the Diamondbacks, but his performance could be semi-flukeish and he has serious injury potential.  Chad Qualls is a solid reliever in a set-up role, Chris Burke is a fallen prospect who adds some possible depth to the D-Back bench, and Gutierrez is a mediocre pitching prospect who could jump into the end of the Arizona rotation within a couple years.  Overall it’s an interesting move for both teams, one that I’m not sure I would have made if I were Arizona, but I can see why they did it.

Arizona clearly has established itself as a top contender in the National League with such a formidable top of the rotation, assuming its offense learns it doesn’t need to swing at every pitch thrown its way, which is quite probable considering the tremendous youth the team sports in its line-up. 

Houston still sucks.

Jim Edmonds and cash to the Padres for prospect David Freese.  This trade nets the Pads their starting CF for the coming season, in theory.  However, given that Edmonds will cost them a good deal of money (about $8 million after the Cards chip in a million of their own), has regressed offensively 4 years running, and clearly is not the same type of defensive player after years of crashing into walls and diving on every catch rather than running full speed to catch a ball in the air, we can most likely expect the new Padre to miss significant time and perform poorly when in the line-up.  San Diego’s monstrous outfield will only hurt Edmonds, as his shrinking range and power will be spotlighted.  As far as David Freese is concerned, he is a mediocre prospect with a chance to find himself of a Major League roster in some capacity in the future, but this deal was more about a salary dump than anything for St. Louis, making it a nice move for the Cardinals.

Japanese reliever Kazuo Fukumori signed with Texas.  Interestingly enough, another Japanese reliever, Akinori Otsuka, owner of impressive career numbers in the Majors, was let go by the team in order to clear a spot on their 40 man roster.  Otsuka will be a smart pick-up for cheap by someone.  Not sure about Fukumori, whose numbers don’t translate to great success by any means, but at such a low cost, and considering he’ll have the advantage of being unscouted for much of his first year, it’s worth a shot for the Rangers.

Mike Lamb signed with Minnesota for 2 years and $6.6 million, with a an option year at the end of the deal.  Not a bad signing, at least it means Minny can stop wasting at-bats on Nick Punto.

The Yanks are still candidates for Johan Santana.  What a shock!…pause…not.

UPDATE: Hiroki Kuroda has decided to sign with the Dodgers.  Based on some simple scouting reports and his numbers over in Japan, I would expect him to be a solid #3/4 starter, perhaps with a year or two above that projection in the NL.  He doesn’t have dominant stuff, however, which is backed up by his only solid strikeout numbers in Japan, so there’s a chance we could see him struggle in the Majors.

Simmons Saves Knicks! Plus Trade and Celtic Notes

This magical genie and his underwear would be a big draw in New York.

In his most recent mailbag, Bill Simmons suggested a trade that actually makes some sense for the Knicks and the Heat (although trading Shaq might be a tough sell to Miamianos). Below is the trade along with a rebuilding plan for the team from the horse’s mouth:

“Don’t acquire any big contracts that extend past the 2010 season. Why? Because we need to create enough cap space to woo LeBron when he becomes a free agent in the summer of 2010. Look, the Knicks aren’t winning a title for the rest of the decade. It’s not happening. So why not be upfront about it? If you took the Knicks GM job and told the fans over and over again, “Just be patient, I want to be a big-time free agent player in the summer of 2010 and I’m not doing anything to screw that up,” the Knicks fans are smart enough to understand the logic behind this.

To that same end, I’d pursue Shaq (expires in 2010) because Miami is hemorrhaging money and needs to dump salary. For instance, this trade works after December 15th: Eddy Curry (less than half the pricetag of Shaq for the same stats), Stephon Marbury (expires in 2009) and Fred Jones’s expiring deal for Jason Williams’s expiring deal and $82 million worth of Shaq and Mark Blount (both of whom expire in 2010).

If you’re running Miami, you say yes because you’re dumping $20 million in salary after the 2009 season AND saving $11 million this season ($5.5 million in salary plus an equal amount of luxury tax money) without affecting this year’s team. As for the Knicks, they don’t care about losing more money — as we witnessed the past four years — and the double-barrelled good will of acquiring Shaq and dumping the sullen Marbury/Curry combo would diffuse the fan base’s bitterness by about 35 percent. Maybe Shaq isn’t Shaq anymore, but he’s not completely washed up yet, and it would still feel like a bigger “event” when he’s out there … and sticking Shaq in the Big Apple would be fun, right? More importantly, dumping Curry’s contract creates enough cap room after 2010 to make the aforementioned run at LeBron. Who’s the only guy that matters here.

To recap, here’s my plan for saving the Knicks: Grease the media; trade for Shaq; be upfront with the fans; stay away from any long-term deals past 2010; stick every egg in the LeBron Basket. Vote for Simmons to save the Knicks!”

Why did I just put a 400 word quote in there from another writer? Because I actually think it’s a great idea. Here’s the trade machine breakdown with Udonis Haslem in place of Mark Blount because the trade machine won’t allow it since Blount cannot be traded right now due to a trade exception, but the trade might make just as much sense with Haslem in Blount’s place anyways. It would be pretty cool to see a motivated Shaq in New York.

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The Bobcats and Pistons made a trade today. Nazr Mohammed heads to Charlotte for Walter Herrmann and Primoz Brezec. Check out the trade machine here. I’ve got to say this is a horrible move for the Bobcats. Mohammed is 30 years old and already mediocre. He also has four years left on his contract at over $5 million a year. Four years! He’s already not worth that much and will only get worse. Brezec is having a horrific season but his contract comes off the books after this season so no harm there and Herrmann, whose deal also expires after this year, is basically already just as good as Mohammed. Score this one a big win for the Pistons.

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The Celtics kept up their dominance with a big win against the Bucks. Ray Allen missed the game with his balky ankle, which he recently rolled and has been playing on over the past couple weeks. In his place started Tony Allen and he was fantastic on defense and solid offensively. This is great news for the Celtics, as the team continues to show that it has some depth and is only going to get better as the season progresses (yes, I realize they can’t get any better record-wise but I mean in terms of beating the Spurs in the Finals).

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I remember when some people said the Magic were crazy for passing up Emeka Okafor to take some unproven high schooler, despite Okafor’s questionable back and Dwight Howard’s Hall-of-Fame potential. I think the doubters are the ones who look crazy now. Just imagine if Howard can learn to make a free throw someday. Scary.