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Good article
With Aaron Poreda Released, Who is Winning the Jake Peavy Trade?
Jake Peavy hasn't been able to do very much of this while in a White Sox uniform
By Marc Normandin - Contributor
Aaron Poreda has been designated for assignment, possibly ending his Padre career, but that doesn't mean San Diego lost the Jake Peavy trade.
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Jun 13, 2011 - Monday, Aaron Poreda was designated for assignment in order to clear room on the Padres' 40-man roster for Anthony Bass, who is starting Monday night in place of the injured Aaron Harang. While this doesn't mark the end of Poreda's Padres career (unless another team claims him), it does dampen the spirits of those who felt he could turn things around and end up in the majors once again (as few of those people that there may be remaining), and makes one wonder just who is winning the trade that sent him to San Diego back in 2009.
Poreda was Baseball America's #63 prospect heading into 2009. He was one of the White Sox's brightest farmhands, and with success at three levels heading into the year at the age of 22, he was on track to make an impact in the majors soon.
Not soon enough for the White Sox, though, as they made Poreda the centerpiece in the 2009 trade for San Diego ace Jake Peavy. This seemed like a win-win deal, with the financially conscious Padres shipping Peavy and his three-year, $52 million contract extension that would start in 2010 to the White Sox in exchange for not just Poreda, but Clayton Richard, Adam Russell, and Dexter Carter. Richard had just started his major-league career, but for all intents and purposes, the Padres were getting four prospects of varying quality - three of them young arms - in exchange for a contract they couldn't afford with the team going up for sale.
While in theory that trade made sense for both teams, it hasn't quite worked out that way yet. Richard hasn't been worth as many wins as Peavy, but he has thrown well over twice as many innings as Peavy and made 59 starts in the same stretch, which has value of its own. Richard, as a league-average pitcher who pitches each time it's his turn in the rotation, has been the brightest spot on the field for the Padres in the deal. Russell was productive enough in the little time he pitched in the majors, and was moved in the trade to bring Jason Bartlett to San Diego; this makes him door prize #2 for the Padres in the trade.
Poreda has been an absolute mess since heading to San Diego. He threw 2-2/3 innings for the big league club in 2009, walking five and striking out zero after walking 37 and striking out 30 in his 32-2/3 frames for Triple-A Portland. This was enough for the organization to decide that Poreda was now going to be a full-time reliever in the minors, but that role didn't work out any better for him. He even moved back a level to Double-A, and still could not find success.
For the year, Poreda struck out 47 batters in 54 innings in relief, while walking 64, hitting eight batters, and throwing three wild pitches. With those kinds of control problems, the strikeouts almost seem accidental, despite their volume. That continued in 2011, with the lefty whiffing over a batter per inning, but matching each K with a free pass-his current 1.03 K/BB ratio with Tucson is his very best with the organization.
While Poreda's problems have made another lost former prospect, Andrew Miller, look comparatively like Jon Lester, it isn't just the Padres who didn't get everything they had hoped for out of this swap.
Peavy was dealt while on the disabled list with a right ankle strain, and didn't make an appearance with the White Sox until mid-September of 2009. We are now nearly halfway through the 2011 season, and Peavy has all of 25 starts and 156 innings in a Chicago uniform to his credit - in addition to the ankle injury, he also detached the latissimus dorsi from his shoulder, and has dealt with rotator cuff tendinitis twice already in 2011. He hasn't been the Jake Peavy that earned that extension when he has made it the mound, either, posting a Run Average of 4.21 with a very un-Peavy like 7.6 strikeouts per nine and 2.5 walks per nine. With the White Sox picking up about half of the tab in 2009, they have paid the righty somewhere in the neighborhood of $27 million for less than a full season of production, and they still have at least $29 million to go (assuming they buy out his 2013 option).
The Padres' claim to winning this deal comes from Richard's decent and durable performance combined with Russell's ability to attract a trade partner. The White Sox can claim that, regardless of injury, they ended up with the top player in the trade. There is something to be said for that, but, given the cost of getting Peavy -- four minor leaguers and roughly $60 million spread out over three-and-a-half seasons -- Chicago can't be considered on top in this deal, either.
You can consider the possibility that Kevin Towers and the Padres wanted to unload Jake Peavy before the injuries that had started to slow him down stopped him entirely, and that Kenny Williams and the White Sox wanted to bring in someone of quality in exchange for Aaron Poreda, who they had decided had more value in a deal than in their uniform. It's easy to picture both general managers scheming away, in the hopes that they were able to pull off a major coup with a prized trade chip that they knew was potentially busted. In the end, both teams ended up with damaged goods, but only one of them paid out the nose in both prospects and dollars for that right.
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