Late Innings

The whole day there were trade winds bowing about a possible Jason Bartlett/Nolan Reimold swap between Baltimore and Tampa Bay, and my guess is that these winds were coming from Fangraphs. Yes, if this was to go down as is, this would be a heist on Andrew Freidman’s end. However this tweet from R.J. Anderson blew the lid off of this thing:

Reimold has nearly a 15% walk rate over his last 500 PA in Triple-A. Hold me.

Anderson, who writes for Fangraphs, also writes for DRaysBay, a website which is determined to raise enough money to purchase a one-page print ad in a St. Petersburg newspaper thanking Carl Crawford for his service as a Ray. Seeing any conflict of interest here? In either case, outside of Tampa, that aformentioned tweet is interpreted as the following to the rest of the nation:

Reimold FAP FAP FAP 15% walk rate FAP FAP FAP in Triple-A. FAP FAP FAP. FAP FAP FAP!!!

Thankfully ESPN’s Jayson Stark put the wooden stake through this superfulous rumor:

Trade that would have sent Jason Bartlett from #Rays to #Orioles for Nolan Reimold falling apart. “Not happening,” says one source.

The deal fell through since Freidman was clearly trying to fleece Andy MacPhail and the Orioles. A Bartlett/Reimold swamp would have been bad enough, however Friedman also requested (their one time closer) Alfredo Simon. Still not enough? How about Matt Weiters? FAP FAP FAP.

Yes the market for shortstops this winter is bleak, and the Rays do have some leverage with the negotiations here, however they do have a few things working against them:

• Bartlett is four years older than Reimold and is a free agent after the 2011 season.
• The Rays, unlike the Orioles, are under stringent payroll constraints, and Bartlett is expected to make north of $5MM in 2011.
• The Rays want to find everyday playing time for another talented shortstop, Reid Brignac.
• Bartlett’s 2009 season (a 5.0 WAR player according to FanGraphs) was fantastic, however his 2010 season was abysmal.
• Bartlett was a non-tender candidate earlier.

The evidence is pointing to the notion that Baltimore has more leverage in this situation than the circle jerk of staff writers at FanGraphs would have you believe. Tampa Bay needs to move Bartlett, and Baltimore would be right to start a trade around the least valuable (or most replacable) of parts, middle relievers. That’s what they did with yesterday’s Mark Reynolds trade (and if Arizona is smart, they’d stretch David Hernandez out so that he’d be a starter. That’s my guess as to what they’ll do, but that’s another story.)

In either case, for all the Baltimore fans out there who were disheartened with the trade winds today, and the casual baseball fans who were easily depressed as thinking a heist was going to happen, don’t believe everything that you read on FanGraphs, or from Anderson, or even Tokyo Rose for that matter. If this was pre-MacPhail Baltimore, this trade might have went down. However looking back at Baltimore’s most-recent trades, they’ve usually worked out to be fair for both parties at worst.