We have a pair of minor moves now, neither of which is worth a full post on their own….but together? Yeah, we could make a post out of that. First off, the Giants picked up Orlando Cabrera from the Indians for AAA OF Thomas Neal. Cabrera is a decaying corpse at this point, and he doesn’t even add value defensively to the team. The incumbent in San Francisco, 24 year old Brandon Crawford, has been nearly as bat with the bat as Cabrera, but at least provides value defensively. This is a questionable move for the Giants, who always seem to have a veteran fetish around this time of year. The trade also has another benefit to the Indians, as it’ll allow top prospect Jason Kipnis to start playing every day at second.
Neal was ranked as the sixth best prospect in the Giants organization coming into the year by Keith Law, and it’s stunning that the Giants gave him up for a player currently as worthless as Cabrera. Neal has a .761 OPS for AAA Fresno while only playing in 60 games on the season. He doesn’t have much patience or power, but in 2009 for San Jose of the California League, he put up a 1.010 OPS and was a Topps Minor League All-Star. This is a guy with actual value, and the Giants essentially traded him away for someone who could actively hurt their team down their stretch.
I predicted that Derrek Lee would be moved when the Orioles traded Koji Uehara and picked up Chris Davis, and tonight, they moved Lee to the Pirates in exchange for Aaron Baker, a 23 year old Class A first baseman. Lee will be a huge upgrade at first for a Pirates team that has suffered through Lyle Overbay’s terrible season, and was a move that the team could afford to make. They didn’t trade a top prospect, they didn’t mortgage the farm. All the Pirates did was trade a low level prospect for a guy who could make a nice impact on the team. Lee only has a .715 OPS this year, but he’s playing in the AL East against tough pitching every night. Moving to the weak NL Central, where he spent six and a half years of his careerr with the Cubs, can only help him. Pittburgh will be Lee’s fourth team in the last two seasons.
As for Baker, he’s not much of anything. A 23 year old hitter in A-ball is nothing to get excited about. While the .820 OPS is good, it’s not really stellar. He’s got good power and patience, but is way old for the league. I’d like to see Baltimore advance him a little bit to see if they actually have anything here. The trade also allows Davis to play every day at first for the Orioles to see if he can shed the moniker of a 4-A player. But man, him and Mark Reynolds in the same lineup is a pretty funny proposition.
