Yanks Acquire Austin Kearns

The Yankees acquired outfielder Austin Kearns on Friday for a player to be named later, according to sources. Kearns, who at one time was a top prospect with the Reds, is hitting .272 with a .354 OBP this season playing everyday in Cleveland. From ESPN.com:

"We can use him a lot of different ways because he's a guy who's used to playing every day," said Girardi, who expects to have Kearns available for Saturday night's game against the Rays. According to Girardi, Yankees GM Brian Cashman first mentioned the possibility of acquiring Kearns on Friday afternoon. Cashman did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

"It'll give me a chance to rest some of our left-handed hitting guys," Girardi said. "We're in the midst right now of 37 games in 38 days, so I won't have to run the same guys out there every day. You can keep them healthy and physically strong, because we're going to need them."

Adding Kearns will necessitate the Yankees' making a roster move, and although Girardi said he was undecided who would be sent down in order to make room, the likeliest candidates are Juan Miranda or Colin Curtis, both of whom have been used in the role Girardi envisions for Kearns.

Kearns is nothing to get excited about, but like Girardi said, he does add flexibility to a line-up that has to play a lot of games over the next 5 weeks. Kearns is also a menial bench upgrade over miranda or Curtis, and his presence gives Girardi another right-handed bat off the bench to go with Marcus Thames. For the cost (practically nothing) it's a fine move.

Roy Oswalt, the Astros and the Phillies Attempt to Make Me Look Like a Fool

Well it's not going to work, alright! Because I said the biggest thing holding this deal up was the economics of Oswalt's insistence on having his 2012 option picked up and 16 million, which espn.com is reporting they ultimately did not have to do. Oswalt's desire to leave the Bermuda Triangle was powerful enough that he agreed not to have the option picked up by the Phillies, who will instead pay him a 2 million dollar buyout.

In exchange for Oswalt, The Phillies sent pitcher J.A. Happ and 2 prospects, outfielder Anthony Gose and shortstop Jonathan Villar to Houston with a significant amount of cash. At first glance this seems like a great deal for the Phillies. Not only did they not give up their best prospect, outfielder Domonic Brown, they also will reportedly get an extra 11 million dollars from Houston to help pay for Oswalt's pro-rated 2010 salary and his 2011 salary, totaling around 23 million. So essentially, the Phillies get a year and a half of Oswalt for 12 million, well below market value for a pitcher still in his prime.

The deal did not appear great for the Astros, but they did immediately ship Gose off to Toronto for 3B prospect Brett Wallace, a player Baseball America ranked the 27th best prospect in baseball. Currently, Wallace is hitting .301 with 18 home-runs in triple-A. Happ, a lefty who works in the low-90's, was a darling of the Phillie faithful last year when he posted a 2.93 ERA, but he didn't miss a ton of bats, and his FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) of 4.33 was uninspired. Happ's 2010 has been mired with injury, and his 1.76 ERA doesn't go well with the 5.17 FIP he has (small sample size of 15 innings, I know). Overall, looks like the Phillies did well, for this season and the next.

Roy Oswalt is Good (And Other Fairly Obvious Trade Deadline Observations)

The scuttlebutt around the league right now is that Roy Oswalt will not be leaving the black-hole, baseball oblivion of Houston anytime soon. Oswalt has made it clear that he will only waive his no-trade clause if his 16-million dollar option for the 2012 season is picked up by the acquiring team. Unfortunately, for whomever would like to acquire him, that totally sucks. Oswalt has said he's willing to restructure the option in an attempt to make things more appealing, but the bottom line is most teams will be priced out no matter what.

Demands like that make you wonder if Oswalt really wants out of Houston, a team so bad they've asked Walter Matthau to manage them (OMG ROFLMAO!!!). Any team in contention would be happy to have him however. Oswalt's FIP is better than it's been in 4 years, and his K/9 is the best it's been since his rookie season in 2001. Even Oswalt's contract (the remaining pro-rated 2010 salary and 16 mill. for 2011) isn't terribly daunting for most major market teams, especially if the Astros decided to kick in some cash on their end.

But that whole 2012 option thing really muddles things. It's hard to know what Oswalt means when he says he's willing to "restructure," but unless he means 'defer for many years' or 'take a pay cut' chances are the reconfigured deal will still cost his new team a pretty penny in 2012, something they may not be able to afford. For instance, the Phillies have been in on Oswalt from the start, but their current financial situation has them considering moving right fielder Jason Werth in the middle of a pennant race because they won't be able to afford him after this season (but they can afford that glorified DH they have at 1st base for premium player money, but I digress). In theory, Werth could command an annual salary at or around Oswalt's figure for the next 2 seasons, which makes you wonder why they think Werth is too expensive but Oswalt isn't.

Bottom line seems to be that Roy Oswalt probably won't leave Houston this year, and if his 2012 contract demands continue, they probably won't find it easy to move him next year either. Good thing Houston is going to turn it around quickly with their phenomenal farm system!

Dan Haren to the Angels

The Los Angelos Angels of Anaheim, Los Angeles county, state of California, United States of America acquired pitcher Dan Haren from the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday for pitcher Joe Saunders and 3 minor leaguers. On the surface, Haren isn't having a season that qualifies as "Ace status," what with a 4.60 ERA and a 7-8 record. Unfortunately that assessment of Haren is brain dead, because we here at saberdummies know that ERA is not the be all and end all of pitching quality, and win-loss record is largely irrelevant due to how reliant it is on team performance and not individual performance.

You can see where I'm going here. Haren has had a decent season, if unlucky, with the best strike-out rate of his career (9.21 K/9). His problem, as has been his problem for some time, is his penchant for giving up the long ball. His 14.1 percent HR/FB rate (meaning 14 percent of the fly balls he gives up leaves the park) is the highest of his career, and he isn't stranding the runners he puts on base with the same frequency of the last 3 seasons.

Dave Cameron at fangraphs had a good piece about why many scouts don't view Haren as an ace; namely his impeccable control. Perhaps if he threw a bit more out of the strike zone, he wouldn't give up as many home runs. Going to the AL probably won't help either, although Arizona's home ballpark wasn't exactly conducive to a lot of fly balls. We need to remember however that Haren's FIP is more than a half-run better than his ERA, and that strike-out rate will work well anywhere. Factoring in career norms, we can surmise Haren probably has some better pitching in him, and that luck of his will probably change too (.355 BABIP).

Overall, the Angels did well in acquiring a pitcher with good stuff, great control, and a workable contract for the next few seasons. In my estimation, Haren is not exactly an ace, but he can certainly be an effective number 2, who gives you ace-like stuff relatively often.

Joba Chamberlain is Sucking (Sort of)

Great post from July 20th on Rob Neyer's espn blog about Joba Chamberlain's unimpressive performance this season. Turns out, Chamberlain has not been nearly as bad as his 5.66 ERA would indicate (his FIP is actually 2.66). On top of that FIP, and the argument Neyer makes, it's also worth noting that Chamberlain's BABIP this season is an incredibly unlucky and unsustainable .405, meaning that of the balls put in play against him, 40 percent are falling in for hits, whereas league average is 30 percent.

Of course this feels like little consolation for Yankee fans, who have watched him give up at least a run in quite a few of his performances this season. And for those who say, "well maybe his stuff isn't as good and people are just hitting the ball harder" Neyer responds by saying that his rate of giving up line-drives (very hard hit balls) is up, but only slightly, and he has maintained his velocity. So in conclusion, the jury is still out on Joba, but all signs point to unluckiness being the main culprit in explaining the rough season. In fact, this all may just be relative, in that Chamberlain may simply be a victim of a his own hot start to his career. Yankee fans want and expect 2007 Joba, the fire-breathing dragon who struck everyone out, but that isn't very realistic. Although he may never be that again, he certainly should and probably will be a very good reliever.

Trade Deadline- Padres

The 2010 trade deadline is fast approaching, and for teams still in contention, it's time to decide whether or not they're for real--I'm looking at you, San Diego! The Padres are really in a catch-22, because frankly, they have no business playing the kind of baseball they've been playing. Going into the 2010 season the question wasn't whether or not they could win the division, but rather when was the right time to ship 1st baseman Adrian Gonzalez off for a slew a hot prospects to rebuild around. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you view things, The Padres started the season hot, and have remained relatively hot all season. The obvious reason for their success is their pitching, which has been other worldly good. They are first in team ERA at 3.29 and second in FIP at 3.74.

Hitting, on the other hand, hasn't come easy for the Pads. They're toward the bottom third of the league in on-base percentage, are fourth worst in slugging and sixth worse in team average. On top of that, their team BABIP of .298, when viewed through the prism of a team that only really has one stud hitter (Gonzalez) indicates their performance thus far is probably about as good as they're going to be this season.

So what do you do if you're GM Jed Hoyer? The answer, probably, is ride the wave. Yes, Gonzalez will never have as much value as he has right now (he's making 4.75 Mil. this year with a club option of 5.5 Mil. for 2011). But past the midway point in the season, with the pitching doing extraordinarily well in a relatively weak division, Hoyer will most likely stick with what he has and make a run for the playoffs. If the Padres do fade, Gonzalez will still be an extremely attractive option for a team next season at 5.5 Mil, but the one-less year of player control probably means a more modest bounty for the Padres.

Stat Spotlight- ISO

Here is a relatively simple one that has been around for quite some time, but is often overlooked by everyone. ISO, or isolated power, is a measure of a player's raw power in terms of extra base hits. It is calculated by subtracting a player's batting average from his slugging percentage, which ultimately, leaves you with a numeric value for the extra-base hits (power hits).

So what does ISO do that slugging percentage doesn't? The key, as noted above, is removing singles from the equation. By doing so, you have a better measure of a players "bang for buck." So if a player has a relatively low batting average, but still puts up an impressive slugging percentage, we know that he is bringing some value to the table. ISO makes seeing that value a bit easier.

Let's take, for instance, ISO favorite Adam Dunn. Dunn, a career .252 hitter, would be of little major league value as a 1st baseman if he didn't exhibit any power. In 2005 with the Reds, Dunn hit an unimpressive .247, but his .293 ISO showed that when he was making contact, it was often for extra-base hits. The flip side to an Adam Dunn is a player like Juan Pierre. Pierre for his career has consistently put up good or better batting averages (made evident by his .304 career BA) but his career ISO of .069 makes my little sister look like Dave Kingman. So although Pierre hits, his value needs to be adjusted based on his complete lack of power. That's the power and ease of ISO.