Back when the A’s made this move I hated it.  Back in April when I graded the A’s offseason moves I still hated this trade (a little less though), grading it a C.   At some point, I believe I even said we just trade Ryan Sweeney for Ryan Sweeney.  I am now eating crow.

This is the trade that brought us (OF) Josh Reddick, (IF) Miles Head and (RHP) Raul Alcantara and sent (RHP) Andrew Bailey and (OF) Ryan Sweeney to the Boston Red Sox.

Josh Reddick is not Ryan Sweeney.  In fact, Josh Reddick is the anti-Ryan Sweeney.  Coming in to today, Reddick has played in 71 games for the A’s, he has a .266/.344/.522 slash line with a .866 OPS.  Last season over 87 games he had 7 HR, this season he leads the team with 17.  Most impressively, he has a 2.9 rWAR, which ranks 5th among position players in the AL.

Coming into the season, one of the biggest concerns for Reddick was his patience, or lack of, at the plate.  His walk rate is up, taking walks 10% of the time, where last season he was only walking 6.8% of the time.  Now that he is hitting for power more, his strikeouts went up from 18% to 22.7%.

Miles Head was the player I was originally most intrigued by.  Originally drafted as a 3rd baseman by the Red Sox they converted him to 1st and the A’s have now converted him back to 3rd.  Head’s biggest concern has always been his strikeouts, collecting 109 over 129 games in the minors last season.

Head started off the season in High-A Stockton and over 67 games he had a very impressive .382/.433/.715 slash line with an 1.149 OPS and 18 HR.  Having started the season off so strongly, he was promoted to Double-A Midland on June, 21st.  He has only started in 5 games for the RockHounds and currently has 4 hits in 18 AB with a double and a triple.

Raul Alcantara has started in 13 games for Single-A Burlington, he has a 4-6 record with a 5.05 ERA and 4.84 FIP.  At the age of 19, he is still very young.  So far this season he has a 4.77 SO/9 rate with a 3.41 BB/9 rate.

Andrew Bailey started the season on the DL for the Red Sox after having right thumb surgery in April.  Bailey was not expected to return until after the All-Star break, but recently experienced a setback due to tightness in his arm.

Ryan Sweeney has started in 52 games for the Red Sox this season, during that time he has put up a .292/.330/.404 slash line with a .733 OPS and 0 HR with 13 RBI.

Sweeney was also placed on the DL on June 17th due to toe discomfort.

All I can really say is, I was really wrong about this trade.  My grade is now an A+ and it’s not just because Bailey hasn’t played a game in the majors this season.

The Gio Gonzalez trade is one of the A's best off season moves

The A’s made plenty of moves this offseason, along with trading away Travor Cahill and Gio Gonzalez they also acquired 8,903,247 outfielders, a veteran pitcher and Manny Ramirez.  I am here to give my grade on each move, I can’t say I would do better than Billy Beane, but I can say I have my own opinions on things.

(RHP) Jarrod Parker, (RHP) Ryan Cook and (OF) Collin Cowgill for (RHP) Trevor Cahill, (LHP) Craig Breslow:  Jarrod Parker was the center of this trade, the A’s essentially received a pitcher the same age as Cahill, but with Jarrod Parker having only played 1 game in the majors, he has a lot less service time and the potential to be the future ace for this club.  Although Jarrod Parker had some control issues this spring, we should not be alarmed, Parker has been ranked the number 1 prospect in the organization by several experts including Baseball America, John Sickels and MLB.com (Baseball Prospectus has him listed as number 2).  B+

(RHP) Brad Peacock, (LHP) Tom Milone, (C) Derek Norris and (RHP) A.J. Cole for (LHP) Gio Gonzalez:  I think most agree that the A’s got the better end of this deal.  The package was built around Brad Peacock, who has the potential to be a middle of the rotation guy.  He has a live fastball that sits around 92-94 MPH, but can reach as high as 95-97 MPH, his downfall being his control issues.  While Gio Gonzalez had put up decent numbers for the A’s, they were able to obtain three of the Nationals top prospects in return in Peacock, Norris and Cole.   Tom Milone was not a top prospect, but Bob Melvin liked what they saw from him this spring and has named him as the third starter.  A-

(OF) Josh Reddick, (IF) Miles Head and (RHP) Raul Alcantara for (RHP) Andrew Bailey and (OF) Ryan Sweeney: I never really gave this trade a fair chance from the beginning since Billy Beane had said he was going to be asking for a high return on Bailey, but received an “okay” return instead.  I don’t think very highly of closers, but I would have liked to seen Beane maybe get a little more in return.  Josh Reddick was the center piece of this trade and I do think he will be a decent addition to the lineup, I was just hoping for someone with more of a power swing.

Miles Head is the most interesting piece of this trade in my opinion, John Sickels describes him as a “Grade C+ type who has major league potential but still has things to prove. He could develop into a very productive slugger, but could also fizzle out as a Quadruple-A bat without a real position.”  C

» Continue reading “Grading The A’s Offseason Moves”

Andrew Bailey and Ryan Sweeney have been traded to Boston for OF Josh Reddick, 1B Miles Head and RHP Raul Alcantara.  I feel like I have been saying that a lot this off season?  Anyway, here’s a quick look at the guys we got in return:

Josh Reddick:  Reddick Played in 87 games with Boston last season where he posted a .280/.327/.457 line, he also had 7 HR and 28 RBI with a .968 FLD %.  Along with Cowgill, Reddick should be starting in the outfield on opening day, he played in all three outfield spots for the Red Sox last season, but says he feels most comfortable in center. Reddick is under team control through the 2016 season.

Miles Head: In the low minors last season Head hit .299/.372/.515 with 22 HR and 82 RBI in 129 games.

Raul Alcantara: Alcantara started in 13 games in the low minors last season, he posted a 2.20 ERA with a .92 WHIP over 65 innings.

I am pretty underwhelmed by this trade, while I am happy we finally traded for a bat, Josh Reddick seems like a healthier version of Ryan Sweeney with a little bit more pop to his bat.  I don’t see what the rush was in trading Bailey so quickly because we probably could have gotten a bigger return on him closer to Spring Training.

I don’t know if there will be any more moves at this point, but if there is, it will probably be someone like Kurt Suzuki or Grant Balfour.  As far as Bailey’s replacement, I am assuming the job goes to Fautino De Los Santos.

With Trevor Cahill going to the Diamondbacks we can probably expect more trades to happen in the near future.  According to David Forst, the A’s are still listening on everyone except Jemile Weeks and they will continue to try to move forward in any conversations they were having before the Cahill trade.