I don’t know if he would do it, but Millwood did it, and he was a Boras client.

In his best season, Crede had a .323 OBP. And that’s only because his BA was .282 that year – 25 points higher than his career BA. His career OBP is .306. That’s awful.

And while he does have pop, his SLG is 30 points lower on the road than at home in his career. 55% of his homers have come at home, despite only 48% of his plate appearances being at home. It seems unlikely that even a fully healthy Crede is a worthwhile investment, and of course the chances of getting a fully healthy Crede are very slim.

Mario: Disregard the emails from my son, Andy. We no longer speak.

Did you place him on Mike Vick’s backyard doghouse?

The word you’re looking for is “superb.” Superb seems good enough to cover Ozzie and Maz, and I assume that Ellis is not beyond those guys. Anything “beyond superb,” you’re talking about a guy covering two positions.

Hello Peter,

You’re not the only way to mention this about moving Peralta, but personally, unless you get an absolute boatload for him, I don’t see how you can move him right now. He was one of our most solid, most complete hitters last year, and is still young enough to put up similar or even slightly better numbers (provided he stays consistent for a whole season like he did throughout the last 3-4 months of 2008), and with the question marks surrounding Hafner and our questionable production from the OF (Grady notwithstanding and Choo showing great potential, with Francisco and Gutz providing some moments here and there), I don’t see how we can trade him without causing a major hole in our lineup.

Like I said, we’d have to fill 1-2 holes to make up for losing one of our best bats in the lineup. Personally, I’m not confident in Hafner’s ability to rebound to his 2004-2005 level, let alone 2006 level, so unless we get at least 2 big bats for the lineup, I can’t see and would not want to see us trade Peralta at this point.

While Peralta’s value may drop a bit in moving him to 3B, if it fits the team better overall, that’s probably something we’d have to do, especially if we’re wanting to contend for the postseason in 2009. I think I’d rather see his value drop slightly going to 3B rather than just trade him to get a questionable piece that really isn’t going to improve us much or that will just fill one hole while creating another. Besides, it’s not like he couldn’t move back to SS after he has played 3B, so I’m not so sure that his trade value would drop THAT much. While it’s doubtful any team would trade for Peralta for his SS defense, that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t trade for him to play SS if they felt his bat was potent enough to play there and they already had a good 3B; Jhonny’s bat is certainly well above-average for a SS, so that doesn’t necessarily preclude someone wouldn’t trade for him to play everyday at SS, not because of his defense, but because of his offense and the way their team is already structured.

If it happens Peralta playing at 3B gives us the best chance to compete in 2009, then that’s likely what they’ll do, even if it does lessen Peralta’s trade value a bit down the road, and not trade him for maximum value now, especially with the way Hafner is hitting, the question marks at SS and 2B, and the questionable OF production. There are arguably too many question marks surrounding our offense and our middle infield to trade Peralta unless you get a boatload in return, and even though he may bring back maximum value now and might not later, I’m not sure you can afford to trade him at this point, especially if you want to compete for a postseason berth in 2009. He solidfied the #4 spot in the lineup nicely, and right now, I don’t see Hafner producing that much in that spot, since he has readily struggled since the middle of 2007. Combine that with the weak production from Marte at 3B or Barfield at 2B, and I’d think you’d need Peralta’s offense to help keep this offense strong. Otherwise, at best, you have Sizemore (who’s streaky), Martinez (presuming he remains healthy) , Choo (provided he stays consistent like he did in 2008), Shoppach (provided he’s playing on a regular basis), and Cabrera (presuming he stays consistent like he did in his return from AAA in 2008); the rest of the lineup contains many question marks (Garko, Hafner, Dellucci, Francisco, Gutierrez, Carroll, Barfield, Marte, etc.)

Just my 2 cents.

Same could have been said for Phillips before we let him go. Or Guthrie. Not saying the front office erred with any of these players, but it’s hard to know what you have in a player if you don’t give him a fair shake. Sometimes a change of scenery is necessary for these players to break out. Maybe they thrive on crappy teams like Cincy and Pittsburgh

Sorry man I didn’t see one legitimate point here. You’re right that similar players fall through the cracks but does that justify the decision? Not even close. Would some teams have given up on him sooner? Sure, but that says more about those teams than anything about Marte or our FO. I don’t know maybe I hold Shapiro and crew to a much higher standard but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Regardless (emphasis on this word) of how Andy Marte performs with his new team, this team’s handling of him was nothing short of disastrous.

As for his walk rate, it’s not nearly atrocious. Needs serious improvement? Of course. Sub par? Definitely. Now if you want to see what an atrocious walk rate actually looks like take a gander at Robinson Cano’s 2005 season. While you’re at it, compare that walk rate to his walk rate last year or to a lesser extent this year. Players tend to improve their walk rates when they aren’t developed extremely poorly.