Strange Column On Bugs And Cranks

by victim of the sixties on Nov 16, 2008 12:41 PM EST Comment 4 comments

If you go to Bugs and Cranks.com and click on the cards, you will find a ridiculous column titled "Do You Smell What the G.M. is Cooking?" In this column this guy, Chris, really gets down on Mo. He says the Holliday trade was ridiculous. That I tend to agree with, but Mo has said that that idea never got near as far as the press claimed. He thinks that Mo wants to trade Ludwick AND Ankiel for Kelly Johnson. And generally says that Mo has done nothing and he stinks. I don't know where this dude gets his info, but he should switch sources.

His column did make me think a bit though. On its face, trading Ludwick and Ankiel sounds crazy. But what do we really have in each player? Rick is most likely a one year rental since he is represented by Scott Boras and will undoubtedly test the free agent market. Ryan has one really outstanding year under his belt. But will that be his norm? Most writers think he will become a .280 hitter with 20-25 home runs. In that case, he is replaceable.

Looking at it in that way, I would take Escobar and a reliever and possibly a prospect or two for Rick and Ryan. We have Rasmus to replace one outfielder, Skip to replace another and Mather and the other young guys could compete. The team still would have some other trade chips to such as Brian Anderson to use to pick up a power hitting outfielder such as Jermaine Dye. Mo needs to spend his money on pitching. I could see Rasmus and Escobar hitting one and two; Albert hitting third; Dye fourth; Glauss fifth, Yadi sixth, second baseman seventh, pitcher eighth, Skip ninth.

Your ideas?

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Comments

There is no way Luddy will regress to 20-25 homers

Unless he gets injured. He has always shown great power in the minors and with the protection of Glaus and Ankiel behind he really should be expected to hit 35 homers.

by vivaelpujols on Nov 16, 2008 8:43 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

i don't know,

maybe 25-30

The NL Central Blog.com

by dunc4life on Nov 16, 2008 11:05 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

He hit 37 last year

So you’re basically saying that he should be expected to replicate last year every year. Also, 35 HR is good for 11th in the majors in 2008, and would have been good for 7th in the majors in 2007. Expecting that out of any player without a spectacular MLB pedigree is expecting too much out of them, particularly when their home park is a pitchers’ park like Busch is.

if Ludwick regresses to something like .290/.370/.500 with 25 HR, I would think we would have to be pretty happy with his performance in 2009. With his defense, he’s probably still a top 30 or 40 batter in the mlb. Anything more than that would be golden.

They say that it's never too late, but you don't get any younger...

by Valatan on Nov 17, 2008 3:43 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I am still of the impression

that if healthy, Ankiel has a chance at 40. Put that along with 15-20 from Rasmus (crossing fingers) and 25-35 from Luddy, and we have the best defensive, offensive, highest batting avg (cross fingers again) outfield in the NL, if not the majors.

For some reason, I don't enjoy watching Big Mac hit #62, but I fondly remember Ray Lankford blasting the ball out of the park in the same game. He had one sweet swing!!

by miniboscorino on Nov 17, 2008 7:58 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs