Friday, May 15, 2009
Hannan / Sports Gamel Gone: Sounds' Top Prospect Leaving Nashville...Forever?
Posted by Caleb Hannan on Fri, May 15, 2009 at 6:21 AM
Comments (9)
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From what I hear, Gamel is easily the worst defensive player in the entire major leagues. The guy has averaged one error basically every three or four games throughout his career – this year he has 8 errors in 32 games. The Brewers would be wise to trade Fielder in the next year or so to accommodate a move to first base for Gamel. Fielder is nice, but Gamel is more than just a slugger.
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Hooray for Joey! Finally someone responded to this post. So this means Pith can now be about baseball and nothing but baseball, yes? Yes.
So Joey's right: Gamel is now one of the worst defensive players in the league. At the time of his call-up, he was leading the Pacific Coast League in errors. And he committed an astounding 53 while at Huntsville (which is so hard to do he almost would have had to be trying to screw up).
The Tennessean had a pretty good story on Gamel's relationship with Sounds coach Don Money, who holds some sort of MLB record for most games without an error. It's too bad we'll be denied the Matthau-Lemmon-y element of that relationship.
But back to your original point.
Yes, the Brewers should probably trade Fielder. It'd help to find out whether or not Gamel can play first, but it does make sense for a number of reasons that people much smarter than I have already made (big guys like Prince don't age well, he'll be very expensive sometime soon and Gamel, based on his age, may oneday soon be a better hitter). On the downside: It'd mean shipping off the majors most visible vegetarian.
Caleb, do you play fantasy baseball? You better believe I do.
What do you think about Tommy Hanson, a pitcher in the Atlanta Braves' organization. When will he get called up? Hanson, by all accounts, is ridiculous.
You guys want to ship off a known power hitter before you even know if Gamel can fill his shoes? You're crazy. You guys do realize how hard it is for low-budget teams to find and keep power hitters, don't you? (See my team, the Twins.)
Pete,
True points. But the Brewers were sure willing to part ways with a soon-to-be power hitter when they let go of Matt LaPorta for three months of C.C. Sabathia. In retrospect, kind of a silly move by the Brewers front office, though not exactly relevant to this discussion.
Fielder is good - don't get me wrong. Gamel is likely to be better. My feeling is they should deal Fielder before he hits free agency to get something for him. They're going to have to do something at some point to clear the logjam because Gamel simply can't play third base on the major league level. Now if the Brewers are in playoff contention as the deadline approaches this year and next, by all means, keep Fielder. If not, trade him to some desperate team looking for a bat, and pull off the same coup the Indians did last year.
No, Pete. It's precisely because they're a low-budget team that the Brewers should trade Fielder.
He's already arbitration eligible. And in two years he enters free agency, with Scott Boras for an agent. If you don't hear the Deathstar soundtrack booming behind you right now you're not a baseball fan.
Small-market teams like the Brewers and your Twins survive by selling off assets like Fielder to the highest bidder. In the short term, he is no doubt more valuable to the team than Gamel. But the Brewers don't have the luxury of thinking strictly in the short term. They need to move him now in exchange for the cheaper, younger parts that can do the job of replacing the impact he made in the batter's box.
For an example of Milwaukee acting like a big-market team you only need to go back one year, when they gave away their best prospect (Matt LaPorta, who any day now will be starting for the Indians) in exchange for a three-month rental. That that rental ended up carrying the team to its first playoff appearance in XX years is certainly relevant. But was it worth losing a guy who would have cost them only the rookie minimum for four years or more? I have my doubts.
Joey,
Haven't seen Hanson pitch. But I've heard him compared favorable to Roy Halladay and soon-to-be #1 pick Stephen Strasburg. Looking forward to his first start with the Braves, which'll probably come sometime in July after the inevitable rotation injury.
I wouldn't have made the Sabathia trade unless they could sign him. And the Brewers will have to trade Fielder eventually, but with free agency two years off, I'd still wait to see if Gamel can hit in the majors. So many young, can't miss prospects, so few that can actually hit in the majors. The man's gotta put something on the table before you can call him a lock.
