Oscar goes to..The Padres for RP Cla Meredith

[Austin]

Depending on the outing, you could give him a Cla+ or a Cla-

That's a stretch, I'm sorry.

[GoldGlove21]

We just traded Salazar for a reliever that can throw the ball. You heard him linked to other teams as well. so its not like the guy has no value. What were we really expecting to get for Salazar? A fading prospect or over the hill contributor? We just landed a reliever that could make the Baez or Sherrill trade an easier transition. We could always trade Meredith and Baez to a team gaining a fairly good prospect and saving $3.5 Million or so off the books.

If this trade pushes us to deal Sherrill for an abover average corner infielder, would everyone be ho hum about the trade. It's hard to trade role players off the bench for players that actually get in the game.

I like this deal, a lot as I think it sets us up beautifully for another deal. If we do not make a side deal, then this deal is still not a bad trade IMO,

[RipkenWay]

You know things are pretty slow in O's land when there is a 17 page thread devoted to acquiring Clay, I mean Cla Meredith.

IMO this is nothing really exciting. Looks like we gave up a good hitter off the bench for a Bradfordesque type pitcher.

[Crazysilver03]

Just heard its a four way deal with the Mariners sending us Ronny Cedeno, the Padres sending us Sean Gallagher and the Cubs sending us Donald Veal.

In an unrelated deal, Brian Roberts has been sent to the Cubs as the PTBNL in the Rich Hill trade.

Veal is a Pirate.

[GotNitro]

Elsid, please see to it that this picture gets passed around the entire bullpen! Maybe a printout of it on the OPACY bullpen wall would be a nice welcome gift.

[TonySoprano]

Andy MacPhail, mover and a shaker. Take THAT, "haters."

[csgordos]

Anybody know how good or bad the infield defense is in SD? If he pitches to contact and the infield ends up ranging to the balls in the middle will that help his ERA and hits/9 innings? I purposely said range up the middle as we know we have no range at the corners. I think this trade also goes to AM's philosophy of stockpiling arms. Time will tell. We were going to lose Salazar tomorrow for nothing anyway so the chance at something is better for nothing! This had to hamstring AM somewhat as everybody knew we had a roster crunch. Props to AM for getting something.

[Austin]

Veal is a Pirate.

Well then I guess we can scratch that idea!

[wildcard]

I was hoping we might get something useful for Salazar. Judging from this guy's declining numbers and his home/road splits this year, I'd say we didn't get much of anythying useful. We'll see.

I won't judge this trade on how Cla is pitching right now. He has pitched better in the past. He has an option. He could go to Norfolk, get straighten out and make this trade look good. It's the trade of a 31 year old for a 26 year old with major league experience. The trade may have some upside in the long run. See post #225.

[threedaysrest]

Ordinarily, I portray MacPhail as a polite but stealthy swashbuckling despot who robs teams for the least of our players, but I can't give this trade a hearty MacPhail the Mighty ARRRRRRRRR! Instead, I'll quietly lift a pint of grog and nod my head.

Does this transaction make Baez, who has been pitching poorly of late, expendable?

[TonySoprano]

Ultimately, the choice for MacPhail came down between Oscar and Felix.

<img src=http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/columnists/jimbaumbach/blog/odd.bmp></img>

[hatepaste]

A great trade. The fact you can get anyone worth a lick when everyone knew that Salazar was going to be DFA'ed within a couple of days is a good trade.

[BRob51]

I really like the idea of calling him Cassius Clay. I like this trade a lot, it's the most we could expect to get from a career minor leaguer. Also, I'm glad we picked up a submariner/side-armer from VA.

[ccbird]

Anybody know how good or bad the infield defense is in SD? If he pitches to contact and the infield ends up ranging to the balls in the middle will that help his ERA and hits/9 innings? I purposely said range up the middle as we know we have no range at the corners. I think this trade also goes to AM's philosophy of stockpiling arms. Time will tell. We were going to lose Salazar tomorrow for nothing anyway so the chance at something is better for nothing! This had to hamstring AM somewhat as everybody knew we had a roster crunch. Props to AM for getting something.

That's what people need to keep in mind. He was going to be gone tommorow for nothing. If you want to argue AM should have made another roster move that's a different story but it became apparent in AM's opinion and many others that Oscar was the odd man out. Getting back a guy who is 26 and has pitched to a career sub 4.00 ERA over 3+ years in the majors and is still arb eligable for a few more years is good by me.

[Three Run Homer]

This is a reasonable trade considering Salazar's age and lack of proven production at the major league level, and considering the roster crunch.

However, I think there is good reason to suspect that Salazar is a late bloomer who could have given us a couple of respectable seasons as a stopgap everyday first baseman until we're able to develop or trade for a younger alternative. With a little creative roster management we could have postponed D-day on Salazar until after the trade deadline, giving AM time to deal Huff.

I'll also point out that a bunch of people on the board warned that we would wind up losing Salazar way back when he was called up to replace Izturis on the roster. Those people were correct, although at least we didn't just lose him on a waiver claim.