A year ago around this time, the Nationals released Felipe Lopez outright. He had become such a drag on the team, that they were happy to pay him to go away.
Yesterday, the Arizona Diamondbacks traded Lopez to the Brewers for two minor leaguers, High-A right-hander Roque Mercedes and Triple-A outfielder Cole Gillespie.
Gillespie, 25, was a third round pick in 2006 and was rated the #9 prospect in the Brewers system by Baseball America. He's an unspectacular but all-around solid player who should become a useful fourth outfielder, at least.
Mercedes, 22, has a 1.08 ERA with 45 strikeouts in 41.6 innings in the pitcher-friendly Florida State League.
Neither of these players are franchise-changers, and this isn't a deal that could have happened by the time Lopez was cut by the Scats, but still it's frustrating to see a team get value in return for a guy we paid to go away a year ago.
Even more galling, the Brewers will be in line to get an extra draft pick if he is offered and declines arbitration this off season, since Lopez is likely to qualify as a type-B free agent.
Put this on the long list of "buy high, sell low" roster mismanagement episodes from the Bowden years.
Monday, July 20, 2009
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3 comments:
Hard to blame Bowden for Lopez. I blame more Harris/Acta. Not only was he bad last year, he was a clubhouse cancer that gave up on the team. Fans hated him for dogging it.
If a player quits on the game, I think it's more fair to blame the player and the manager.
Bowden's job was to get talent. The coaches need to get that talent to perform. The fact that Lopez was so crappy as a Nat seems to fall more on the coaching staff than the GM.
This parsing of blame is kind of boring to me, but regardless there's nothing that forced Jim to hold FLop until the moment that he had no trade value at all.
This parsing of blame is kind of boring to me...
Though given your blog's title one could perhaps be forgiven for thinking otherwise. ;)
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