Today I learned Mike Trout (.338 BA, .930 OPS, 102 SB in three minor league seasons) could’ve been a Brave. Instead we got Casey Kotchman.
Blame Borasbot (and, to a lesser degree, Frank Wren).
The O.C. Angels drafted Trout, the #2 prospect in baseball, according to Baseball America, with the first of two picks received as compensation for Tex signing with the Yanks. With the other pick the Angels drafted highly regarded southpaw Tyler Skaggs, who they later flipped to Arizona as part of the Dan Haren trade. Skaggs has 313 strikeouts in 266 minor league IP, good for a 3.04 ERA and 1.132 WHIP. The 20-year-old, coming off a dominant half-season in Double-A ball, is likely to make his big league debut next season.
But hey, we still have Stephen Marek. Check that — Marek was dropped from the 40-man roster Wednesday.
I think I read today that they did that because Marek is coming back from Tommy John surgery and probably won’t be pitching until late next year. That said, both the Teixeira trades sucked.
That’s what I read about Marek, too.
More and more, I’m thinking that the draft pick is the way to go in these situations.
There’s no way to know if the Braves would have picked Trout or Skaggs, even less likely considering our disdain for spending money. And if you look at the other options picked around Trout, most were junk. No guarantee we’d have gotten anything better than a year of Kotchman. (although Casey was a turd) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Major_League_Baseball_Draft