For the sake of conversation
The future of Michael Young is one of the greatest enigma's facing this team. He is commonly credited with being a strong veteran presence and given credit for setting a tone that has been followed by many of the team's younger players. This past year he experienced a drop off in his offensive numbers, and while he may not be the next Paul Molitor, it would not surprise me to see him get back up to .300 and stay there for another four or five years. His defensive limitations, however, are more alarming, and it could easily be argued that improved range at SS could help our pitching staff tremendously.
Everyone around here knows all of this, and they know about his looming contract. His tradability and his market value has long been debated. But I wonder if he still could present value to another team in a different situation than the Rangers.
Namely, the Dodgers.
The Dodgers are about to see a huge sum of money come off their books with Manny, Lowe, Penny, Maddox, Blake, Furcal and others leaving via free agency. They still have a glut of young talent, and they appear to be headed to at least the second round of the playoffs this year(and with their pitching staff, quite possibly beyond). But a team losing this much talent, veteran experience and player name recognition will be looking to replace those things this winter. Especially a team with the financial resources the Dodgers enjoy. While it is possible they look to keep some of the previously mentioned players, Furcal stands to be one of the most sought after FA's this winter and may be difficult to retain. The Dodgers had a slew of injuries hurt their middle infield this year, with Furcal and Garciaparra missing a lot of time. Young's durability is taken for granted around here but probably not in LA. All of this leads me to believe that it is possible the Dodgers could place a higher value on Young than the Rangers next season and beyond. That he happens to be from southern California is not a huge factor, but is something to consider.
The Rangers would not, and could not, ask the world for Young. Guys like Kershaw, Billingsly, Ethier and Kemp should not be realistically considered. But what about a package like LHP Scott Elbert, LHP Hong Chih Kuo and SS Chin Iung Hu? Elbert no longer looks to be a future front end starter because of his injuries, but he could easily settle in as a dominant left handed reliever over time. Kuo made huge strides this year in their bullpen and but he has started in the past and could do so for the Rangers, meeting a dire need for a left handed starter, and Hu could step in and give the Rangers a plus defensive SS for a year or two while Andrus continues to develop (his offensive limitations are easier to forgive with a team like the Rangers than with a team like the Dodgers). I know that is three guys currently on the 40, and that is something to consider, but I didn't feel like mining their minor league pages for other names...
Is such a deal possible? Am I asking for too much, or too little?
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If the Yankees trade Cano
wouldn’t they need a replacement at 2B? Maybe we could get some coke (Phil) for him.
"Some mornings it just doesn't seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps."
- Emo Phillips
Is it spring training yet?
Bryan Smith (12:17:17 PM PT): Justin Smoak and Josh Hamilton. The AL West might just have found their Bash Brothers, v. 2.0.
decent idea
but I think a big part of any trade proposal has to be how much of the contract the Rangers are picking up even with a rich team as the partner
i’m all for trading MY but it’d be nice if you could deposit him with a contender and his hometown team in the process
With the no trade and the size of the contract
and MY’s status as FoTF, good luck on making this happen.
"Oh well, McCain is pretty communist anyway,... we can be 70% communist with McCain,"-Sharky
the no trade
might not be as much of an issue if the Dodgers are involved, seeing as how they are currently vying for the NL crown and MY is from southern Cal. The contract would be an issue, but I don’t think the whole FoTF would be a huge issue, because we have guys like Kinsler and Hamilton who can readily take on that role, and local guys like Teagarden and Davis who are poised to become fan favorites. Young filled that role previously by default.
Your idea has
a lot of promise. MY is probably not un-tradeable, but the Rangers will not get like value back and will have to swallow a little of his salary.
However, exactly why are we trying to get the Rangers payroll down into the $40 – 50 million range? After next year, the Rangers have $22 – 24 million coming off the books in vet pitchers unless they get a lot better results than they got this year.
What free agents would we spend this money on? Milton probably shouldn’t be signed for long term due to his injury and temperment. We keep being told not to spend big money on 30+ year old free agent pitchers which seems to be prudent course of action. We seem to be growing our own offense, not really being able to find a place for everyone to play.
I’m really open to trading MY, but I’m not really sure that freeing his salary does much for the growth of the team. However, it does relieve Mr Hicks from paying any extra money to support the team, which is very low on my list of priorities for the Rangers.
Dodgers
have become a penny-pinching bunch. They gave up a better prospect just so they didn’t have to pick up Casey Blake’s contract.
P.S. The Dodgers will have Jason Schmidt and Andruw Jones coming off the books after 09.
probably too much...
his albatross contract and the slippery slope that are his growing defensive limitations are probably enough to make him someone we’d have to pay to get rid of… i don’t see us getting much of anything in return except eventual working capital to lock up someone young and useful…
"He wont have anything. 1 man, 0 tools."~ hiafex bout longhorn...
perhaps
but i think another team may value his consistency, health, and veteran experience more than we do. and as Chris pointed out, the Dodgers have two other bad contracts coming off there books after last year. They have been burned badly by injuries to their position players over the past few years, so a guy like Young could really present a cornerstone for their young bunch.































