ESPN's annual ranking of the top 500 players in baseball: 493: Chris Carter (NR) 468: Justin Maxwell (NR) 464: Jose Veras (NR) 446: Carlos Pena (230) 432: Lucas Harrell (NR) 280: Bud Norris (323) Only 201-500 have been released. Altuve is the one guy missing so far. Compare to last year (2013 ranking): 166: Wandy (264) 314: Myers (370) 323: Norris (280) 326: Lee (NR) 398: Lowrie (265) 432: Altuve 500: J.D. (NR)
Wow. With 30 teams in the league, the average team should have 10 players in the top 300 and 16-17 in the top 500. It looks like we'll have 2 in the top 300, and 7 in the top 500... To be fair though, I feel like Norris and Harrell are probably somewhat undervalued on that list. If nothing else, there's a pretty big gap between Harrel and Pena/Veras that does not show up on that list.
Norris is more proven and has the better stuff. Guys like Harrell tend to be undervalued. I'm hopeful they can start pitching better on the road. Both of them were Cy Young candidates at home.
In 612 career PA , which is basically a one season, Justin Maxwell has a career WAR of 3.2 with 27 HR. There are not 467 players better than him, not saying he's Mickey Mantle. But he is a solid Major League player. People for whatever reason refuse to take Harrell as anything more than a one season fluke, if he is able to put up similar numbers this year, he'll be much higher. I think next season Carter,Maxwell,Altuve,Castro, and maybe Dominguez will all be top 400.
Altuve was #150, ahead of Hunter Pence, Ike Davis, and Ryan Howard. Michael Bourn getting his respect as a top 100 player.
Didn't we cut Jordan Schafer?? You know, the guy we got in the MICHAEL BOURN TRADE...... Still the worst trade in the history of the Astros, if not one of the worst in the history of baseball....
We have cut 2 players from that deal, Juan Abreu and Jordan Schafer (who went back to the Braves). We still have Paul Clemens and Brett Oberholtzer at OKC who could make their major league debuts this season. Clemens has the talent to be what Bud Norris is, and Oberholtzer could have a decent career as a back of the rotation starter that eats innings. The deal did suck, but not close to the worst in franchise history. See Joe Morgan, Kenny Lofton, Curt Schilling, Ken Caminiti, and Steve Finley
ATL knew they likely weren't getting anything for him, and he was going to demand a massive contract. They got 1.3 seasons out of him. I agree we should have gotten more, but it's far from the worst when you consider the difficulties they surely had in getting a team to give up prospects for a sure rental
Yet Bourn only got 4/$48. Braves probably would have given up more. Wade took their first offer, and when asked my another GM if he'd consider a better offer, Wade refused. The way the Bourn trade went down, it was clear Wade was a fool.
4/$48 for a 30 year old who relies in every possible way on his speed to derive value to his team is a lot imo. His SB declined after 3 high years. Not saying he's gonna fall off a cliff, but I think that's a huge risk because if he can't run like the wind, he loses both at the plate and in the OF. Regardless, is it confirmed that the trade went like that in our office? Where'd the serious inside info like that come from?
Supposedly another GM said that Wade wouldn't even discuss Bourn. Granted, Wade could have already agreed to trade Bourn.
I think it was in BusinessWeek. I'm on my phone, but if you google Wade, Bourn, & Wren, you'll see it.
[Thread] Anatomy of a Baseball Trade: How the Astros and Braves got a deal done [Story] Anatomy of a Baseball Trade Spoiler
