Sunday, July 5, 2009

Scott Hairston to Oakland

Today we traded OF Scott Hairston to the Oakland A's for RHP's Ryan Webb and Craig Italiano as well as a player to be named later.

Ryan Webb is a 6'6" 23 year old pitcher currently with AAA Sacramento. Originally a 4th round pick by the A's out of Clearwater Central Catholic HS in Florida, Ryan has been a starter throughout his minor league career until this season in AAA (though he has made two starts). Ryan has always been a good strike thrower with an above average arm (fastball that runs 90-94) who generated plenty of ground balls. His already plus velocity has jumped even higher this summer in the pen, touching as high as 99 mph. We really like Ryan's upside.

A 2nd round pick in 2005, Craig Italiano is a 6'4" 22 year old pitcher currently with high A Stockton in the Cal League. Like Webb, he also has a power arm, pitching as a starter between 91 and 95 mph. Having missed most of 2006 (shoulder tendinitis) and 2007 (skull fracture), Craig hasn't had the same pro experience as most 2005 draftees. He split the 2008 season between the Midwest League the Cal League, posting a 3.78 ERA with 112 strikeouts in 100 innings. His walks have been on the high side, but that's not unusual for a young power arm.

Unfortunately, I can't divulge any information on the player to be named later, but when the time comes, I'll write a breakdown of him as well.

While trading Scott is difficult and not without risk, especially given his excellent production this season, this move provides us with some young power arms with big upside - a real need for us - while also allowing for other young players to continue to amass Major League at-bats in our outfield.

53 comments:

Unknown said...

absolutely atrocious.

David Spencer said...

I disagree with Ian. Way to sell at a high ebb on Hairston (not to say he won't get better, but you can't time the market, right?).

I changed my screen name here on blogger to coincide with my twitter one. Used to submit under the name Spunky... and I posted my last response under the wrong post (under the Manny thread, rather than the Player of the Month thread).

Schlom said...

Does this mean that you view Gwynn as the CF for not only the rest of this season but the starter for next season as well?

I assume that this trade means that you don't think that Hairston was unable to cut it as a CF (although his UZR is about the same as Gwynn's).

Anonymous said...

Makes sense. Scottie was not part of the future, and if you aren't part of the future you are destined to be traded for pieces that may be.
Interested in the PTBNL. In reviewing the situation, I would guess the more valued of the pool of players to choose from is probably injured and the team wants to ensure he is healthy, or they will take the back-up option (probably a high-A reliever similar to Italiano).

joe in rancho said...

Wow, one of the few guys we've been able to find who can hit at Petco traded for a couple of erratic project arms. Hope this one turns out better than the Linebrink, Maddux and Wolf deals.

Unknown said...

I am tired of seeing The Padres trading their players for "arms"

Nate said...

I will withold judgement until the PTBNL is announced but Hairston has hit 35 HR's in 600 or so AB's in Petco. We need power arms and I hope the PTBNL is a legitimate prospect.

Unknown said...

I hate it because I love Hairston, and the guy was clutch close and late... but if there is something the KT administration knows is bullpen arms, yet these guys don't have any stats to prove that they have upside, I was thinking I was going to look a high k per inning, or low batting averages. The PTBNL must really be the key to trade.

Paul, I always wondered why wasn't Hairston converted back into a 2B

Bryan Nelle said...

Okay, so we get young guys more at-bats. Beyond this, I do not see any positives here. We just got a lot worse offensively and especially defensively. Not to mention, we don't add major league ready starting pitching. Do we really have a lack of power arms in the bullpen??? I thought we have some live bullpen arms. Our starting pitching is another story. Hairston seems like the type of player you want in Petco working the corner outfield spots, not first or third basemen. I always thought that our logjam in the outfield was a problem of the out of position young players and not because of Hairston. Please explain your thinking.

Sakei said...

Agreed with Ian. This just looks awful.

Hairston was the 2nd biggest bat on this team and cost controlled for a number of years. I have to believe no matter who the PTBNL is this comes out as net loss overall.

I really can't understand what you guys hoped to achieve with this trade; short or long-term, finanicially or talentwise.

OldSaltUSN said...

Paul,

Will definitely miss Scotty. Not only was he turning the corner from 4th outfielder to a solid starter with pop, but he is just a guy of great character - the kind of guy (along with Adrian, and some others) to build a team around, and that fans love to come watch. Will wish him great success with the "A's".

On the other hand, it's obviously the time of the season where the team needs to make some moves looking towards salary and the future. I'm remembering the trade that sent Ben Johnson to the Mets for Heath Bell (and others). Johnson was definitely a prospect that Padre fans were looking forward to seeing regularly in a Padres uniform, and fans were disappointed. It's a little trade that's paid big dividends for the Pads. In fact, MLB.com has an old article on that trade with a very relevant quote from the Met's GM's perspective.

"It may not be a sexy trade," Minaya said in Florida. "You have to remember, the little ones are what count sometimes. Those are the ones."

We'll see how these prospects (2nd rounder, 4th rounder) and the PTBNL work out for the long term. We (fans) need to look at the longer view on this trade.

Nice move. I assume the Pads will make a few more soon if fair returns can be worked. (As an aside, it's also kind of interesting for us non-professionals to see how these deals are worked, i.e. the Pad's exec's have existing personal relationships with GM's and seem to work better with certain teams, e.g. Boston, Oakland, Seattle, etc., than others.)

Scott
Oceanside, CA

Paul Reams said...

I'm really intrigued by the player to be named. Obviously you want any player that you acquire in a trade, but would you say that the PTBNL is a key component of this deal?

AvengingJM said...

Baseball America Prospect Handbook from 2008 says that Italiano had Labrum surgery in 2006 not tendinitis. Can you clarify? There's a pretty big difference between the two.

Your Padres said...

didn't we trade away a AAA reliever with a broken arm for Hairston?

Nice return ..

The PTBNL could be Sean Burroughs, and we would still come out ahead.

go padres!

Unknown said...

Yes, they're not great prospects but the team needs to get Venable and Blanks time in the Big Show. They have little to prove in the minors.

The Padres aren't making the playoffs this year so as hard as it is to admit, the team has to look to the future already.

JEB said...

Well, the Giants are breathing a sigh of relief. I saw Scott hit some incredibly timely homers but he's not really an RBI guy, just king of the dramatic solo. Let's face it, he's not the guy and this is not the season. We need to see how Venable, Macias, Blanks, Huffman will do with regular playing time.

BTW, nice job on Everth Cabrera. One sorely needed bright spot.

Bigworm78 said...

Seems like a salary dump (I know, he's only making $1.25 million. . .but how else do you explain this?). We just gave up one of our only two legitimate major league hitters for a guy with a 5+ ERA at single A and a AAA reliever. Yikes.

AztecAlum said...

Hmmm...very surprised about this one. I like Hariston and thought he could be a RH platoon / 4th OF type that could be here for a while.

I wouldn't think he makes so much money that this is a cost savings move. It must be to clear room in the OF for Banks to develop (which isn't a bad idea as he has proven himself in AAA) and Venable as well as not take away playing from Gywnn and Headley.

I will be interested to see what happens to Giles when he comes off the DL. Will they continue to start him at the expense of the 4 young OFs.

Paul DePodesta said...

Nate,

That's an excellent response for two reasons: 1) the 3rd player does matter, and 2) Hairston does have legit Petco power. This wasn't an easy deal to make by any stretch. We traded a player that we really liked.

Paul DePodesta said...

This is more of a general comment... it's not set in stone that Webb will remain in the bullpen long-term. He will for now, because that's what he's been built to do this year, but that doesn't mean he can't return to the rotation at some point. He could certainly make a quicker impact on the ML in the pen, but we don't know yet what his final role will be.

Paul DePodesta said...

By the way, I can't publish any comments speculating on the PTBNL. It's not fair to Oakland or any of the named players.

obsessivegiantscompulsive said...

As a Giants fan, I hate the trade, though I don't mind you losing Giant-killer Hairston (though I hate him going to the A's).

He's a 29 year old career bench player. As nice as his numbers look this year, it was built off a great April but he has been back to his average self in May and June. Even last year, great two months, poor three months. You can't have a starter who disappears for 3-4 months in the season.

For him, I didn't know who the two guys were, but Paul's description sound great. And if the PTBNL is as good as the Padres think, and that to me means he could be at least a back of the rotation starter, then it's a great deal all around for the Padres.

They get arms who can help out now in PTBNL and later in the other two, plus open up AB in the OF for Gwynn in CF and Blanks in LF (Headley would sit or move to 3B and make Kouz sit).

Webb isn't highly rated, but here is what Baseball America said about him in 2007: "Despite two mediocre seasons, the A's consider Webb in the same group as the trio of high school pitchers they selected high in the 2005 draft and just a shade behind 2006 top pick Trevor Cahill." He obviously hasn't developed the past two years with the A's, but he's still young and maybe the Padres can do something with him.

Amy Cima said...

I think what hasn't been explicitly said is that the ideal situation would have been to trade Kouz, move Headley to 3B and let Hairston play one of the corner OF spots with Blanks playing the other. Unfortunately, the bottom line is that Kouz has miniscule trade value right now. We have too many corner outfielders, so we traded the one that we were willing to part with and that could get the best return.

Eric said...

I almost spit out my coffee at my computer screen this morning when I read the news. I've been hoping that something would happen to alleviate the overcrowding in the OF, however, I would have felt much better about it had Towers moved Kouz (notwithstanding the fact that I don't really want to see him gone either). I agree with Geoff Young at Ducksnorts in that Chase Headley would likely realize his potential if he were playing at his natural position instead of focusing on not trying to hurt anyone running around left field. Overall, really bummed about Hairston, and the anticipation of a PTBNL isn't going to alleviate that.

AztecAlum said...

Here's a comment from ESPN's Keith Law from Twitter...I think its a compliment

keithlaw#Padres pick up rhp Craig Italiano in the Hairston trade. Great arm, bad delivery. Stick him in the pen and watch him go.

Unknown said...

How about getting a decent/serviceable catcher or second baseman.
KT has done very well on past trades, but although he likes to get arms, what good arm has he gotten lately on his trades?
Heath Bell is a good one
I am not piling on. It is a honest question.
Who do we have in the system for the Linebrink trade?

Duke Street Kings said...

Well KT kinda possibly hinted at this move a couple of weeks ago in an interview with the local radio station. He mentioned that when Scotty got off the DL he would probably move to CF even though Gwynn is our best CF, defensively. Hairston was uncomfortable playing RF and his best position was CF. I guess Gwynn was the preferred Centerfielder since its so spacious out there and he's been hitting a pretty good stick since we got him. The A's thinking about putting him in RF would be a mistake.

I dont like the deal but understand the deal. Clearly this was a move to make room for some of our younger players to come up here and play. Unfortunately we dont have position players in the minors, just a bunch of outfielders that are "ready" to get a chance. This actually gives us a chance to evaluate them and see if they can really play here, if not then the offseason would be a time to find some players that can play. I do like the way our front office evaluates other teams minor league pitchers so I wont judge this as a bad trade just 24 hrs. Geeeez louise!

zino said...

Paul,
I am not going to sugar coat this... I have about had it with the Padres. This move is idiotic, there is no other way to put it. For whatever reasons, maybe its in the water, Padres organizations cannot deal with hitters, unless its Tony Gwin I. Any other hitter, they seem to mess with his head or ship him out. At some point, enough is enough and some folks have to look in the mirror. Baseball is a lot about pitching, but hitting does matter.
zino

swish said...

I am w/ DSCooper. I think we made an outstanding trade. We let a GM who has an unbelievable track record of plucking other systems young players to build a bullpen work his magic. We also got huge value out of a player who within just a matter of time will no longer hit. Watch the swing it is very pull oriented and has alot of trouble w/ offspeed. Sure he has had success late in the game w/ some throwers trying to blow it by him, but he isn't a true hitter. I am glad we sold while he was hot.. GREAt move!!!!!

Unknown said...

After tonights pitching performance in aaa is there any reason why stauffer won't make silvas next start for the pads

Eric said...

I just like how the night after the trade Will Venable started over Kyle Blanks. Makes all kinds of sense...

Unknown said...

The Padres need to make more deals like this. Take a shot on some unproven guys with the hope of helping the Padres in the future. Let’s be honest, they aren’t going to win the World Series in 2009, so let’s take some steps towards buillding a team that provides some hope of that happening in the future. I’d rather lose 110 in 2009 or 2010 and turn into the Tampa Bay Rays of 2011 or 2012, than “compete” for the NL west title and never win another playoff series.

Paul DePodesta said...

As many of you know by now, we brought Ryan Webb straight to the ML team. So, he's in uniform right now in Arizona.

Craig Italiano made his debut last night for High A Lake Elsinore. We put him in the pen for now, largely because he already has almost 80 innings and threw just 100 (a career high) last year. Basically, we want to be careful with him.

In any event, he retired all four batters he faced on a total of 12 pitches. His "slowest" fastball was 94 mph and he topped out at 96. Small sample, for sure, but a good start nonetheless.

Anonymous said...

I'd rather see us make a deal like this then dump Peavy, Gonzalez, or Young. Two serviceable arms and it looks like the ptbnl might be interesting. As long as they spend aggressively on the draft picks and farm and don't give away all star pitchers for Aaron Poreda and Clayton Richard, I am willing to give leeway.

jay in SF said...

I leave the trades (and drafting) to the professionals, so am going to give you the benefit of the doubt.

Maybe Scott turns into another Cust, one that got away. Or maybe this turns into another Adrian trade. Given I hated the Adrian trade initially, I just have to wait.

What I can reflect on, and this is distressing, but not the fault of anyone in the FO (which I think is a very, very good one and hopefully will stay intact for a long time), is this who "rebuilding" process.

Lots of people, especially the authors over at BP, just kind of assume that spending power differences between clubs are just part of the landscape and have to be accepted by the fans of the less powerful franchises should somehow be happy with the idea of competing a few years, then rebuilding while top franchises can compete every year.

So, I remain very confident that the FO is doing what it can with what it has just about as well as anyone could ask.

But I envision a few years of continued poor performance. Let's say we look like we have a squad in 2012 that can compete. So, we we have to suffer 2008-2011, four years of not really having much shot at the playoffs? No top 10 payroll team has to go through such a rut, so why should we? This angers me, and has lead me to cancel all of baseball subscriptions (except BP). I keep following, but it just makes me sad and angry. Not at the FO, but with the lame spending patterns we have in this sport.

Unknown said...

... but Hairston had Petco power, the guy was slugging more than .500, wasn't he the guy you build around with? The guy has speed and defense. And why wasn't he returned to 2B?

On the other hand, Italiano sounds good with that live arm.

Question, Do you take into consideration next year's rule V draft, it seems now that the Padres will need to protect more players because of the successful drafting. Do you make multi-prospect trades or look for prospects that don't need to be protected?

Ballgirl said...

Mr. DePodesta,

As you are the expert and I'm just an average citizen, I'll wait to hear what you have to say when all things are said and done regarding the Hariston trade.

However, can you answer some questions for me? What does a "Player to be Named Later" trade mean? Are you able to choose any player, major or minor league, you wish or are you required to choose from a list of players? Do you have to name the player within a given amount of time? If a player is on the “list” can that player be traded or allowed to go to free-agency without the Padres being given the "right of first refusal"? I’m not asking for specifics on the Hariston trade, only to understand more about how this PTBNL thing works.

Thank you,
Tara

Phillips said...

Paul,
This is totally off topic and you don't have to approve the comment but I was just wondering if you're planning to do an update on our signings and draftees. Obviously you can't comment on ongoing negotiations but an update on how things are going, like how many guys we've signed, etc. would be great.

Thanks.

obsessivegiantscompulsive said...

I agree with Jay that the majors is screwed up totally with their revenue sharing. The NFL should be the ideal that MLB should emulate, no way should a team keep so much local revenues to themselves.

I'm hoping that because the teams are splitting their internet venture evenly, eventually everything will be internet based and thus split evenly across the majors. This is my dream...

However, I will say this: money can buy you the playoffs, but I haven't seen it happen yet (or frequently) for the World Series.

Sure, the Yankees won all those World Series, but it was won with a core that was developed internally: Pettite, Posada, Jeter, Williams, Riviera. Once the core got past 30, they have added a million high priced free agents but haven't won one since.

And all that money didn't help the Yankees win after their run in the 70's with Reggie. They won in the late 90's when they finally let their team lose, while King George was out of baseball, and those drafts helped seed the World Series teams of the late 90's.

Examine any team's history, and I think you will find this to be true. Losing, particularly by a lot, getting into the Top 5-10 picks overall, is one key to rebuilding quickly. Having good management is another key, or your franchise goes in a death spiral.

But buying players to be competitive just robs you of the draft talent that the Top 5-10 gets, and keeps you mediocre, like the Giants were from 1974-1987. Ceding to badness is good for the franchise's soul and for rebuilding.

Still, I don't know that the Padres should do that yet. With Peavy and Young, assuming they return to health and performance, that's a great top of the rotation, plus a good bullpen, and you got Gonzalez plus a number of good young players who should be figuring things out this year and next.

If I were the Padres, I would go with young guys all around, and be in the hunt for the #1 pick next year so that you can select Bryce Harper, the best catching prospect in a generation. Unfortunately, the Nats have a 10 game "lead" for him that will be hard to overtake without concerned efforts to be lousy on the part of the Padres.

And Hairston is not a cornerstone player. He's been a bit player, very old to be finally figuring things out, but apparently well-loved. As I noted, he's hot for a month or two but cold the rest of the season, you can't win with a player that is so strongly hot and cold, and worse, mostly cold.

Unknown said...

Can you update on on the negotiations with Tate, Williams, Sampson, Needy and Madrigal? Are they going to come down to the last minute? Where do you see them headed if they sign? Who stands out amongst the players already signed?

Anonymous said...

When you have a bad team and a trade does not involve dumping one of the few assets, it cant be looked at as bad. Its like playing the lottery.

Hairston is a nice bench player for a good team, but we have a few other players who can do what he does and might be able to do more so lets roll the dice even if it is for arms that end up being worthless. Lets hope we get a recent top pick as the PTBNL.

This type of trade wont have any effect on the ball club at all unless one of the new players we got turns into a great pitcher. Otherwise we are just interchanging spare parts with another team. Ultimately the Pads have to spend money on talent in the draft or by taking players other teams want to dump. Otherwise, the team is still lower tier.

No need to even worry about this trade. It likely means nothing and its a lottery play. You never know.

Unknown said...

I don't know about you guys, but I'm done watching Geer and Silva. I'm ready to watch us field some major league baseball players...this is totally embarrassing. Every time I see one of these guys out there I just assume we've gone into tankapalooza mode. Let's hope we don't screw it up like this year and actually end up wining the Bryce Harper sweepstakes.

Howard Lynch said...

Hmmm, I wonder who was "Pitcher of the Month" ...

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/prospect-hot-sheet/2009/268509.html

(See #12 on this week's BA PHS)

... and he's obviously got a leg up on the July award also :-)

field39 said...

You guys trade Scotty to open up playing time for younger players, yet Kyle Blanks continues to rot on the bench. What is the point in promoting a prospect onto a 100 loss team and sitting him on the bench?

Sean said...

Re: Futures Game
Latos' delivery looks a bit scary, but he's getting results. When you guys see unorthodox deliveries (inman, latos), do you prefer to leave them alone (that's just how they throw, muscle memory), or try to clean them up?

zach LW said...

Paul,

I know this is a little off topic but I was curious. As you know, the Padres spent a lot of money on a beautiful Dominican Facility and last year spent a ton of money (i think we spent the most or second most in all of baseball) on international players. This year we were in the bottom 5 teams in spending internationally and did not sign a top 25 international prospect. Is this because you guys didn't see as much talent this year? Or did we simply not have enough money this year? I really hope that since we spent nothing internationally we can sign Tate, Williams, Sampson, Etc.

Also, I would love to see a post on draft strategy. The Pads are all over the place, one year its "pitchability" guys and the next year its really tall guys. One year its college bats, then the next its high schoolers. It just doesn't seem like we have a plan. For example the Phillies have guys like Utley, Howard, Hamels etc that they draft and they all arent first rd (Howard was 5th i think). They are a championship team so you think we would look at what they do in the draft and try to emulate them.

SPORTS PICK FROM A PROVEN WINNER! said...

Great move. Allows some of that talent to come up and sharpen their skills, as well as stocking up for the future

Unknown said...

Meredith for Salazar and a breakfast to be named later?

field39 said...

Fix my team.......

JEB said...

See you on 8/1?

Unknown said...

Paul,

Now that the M.A. Sano investigation on his age is finished, how come we have not heard that the Padres signed him to a contract?

We don't expect the Padres to sign top free agents, but there is no excuse for the Padres to not sign the top amateurs.

I really don't mind 2009, at least the kids are playing and we can hope for their ceilings to become a reality. As a fan, I willing to put up with that if we see a plan, and that plan should include signing the top amateur talent, not just the average...

field39 said...

Paul,

There was an article in today's UT where Fuson said you had not intention of signing your top four picks.

" Fuson said. “Williams or Sampson, one is probably in jeopardy if the other signs.” "

I understand that you will never be able to sign all of your pick, but to pick guys high in the draft, with no intention of signing them, has a very sleazy feel it.

Anonymous said...

speaking of the dominican, watch Jonathan Galvez, the next ARod is on our AZ league team now. That was some great scouting to get that guy.