bigfan wrote:
BD wrote:
I'm failing to understand how signing (and then trading) Frasor was a bad move. Are the White Sox paying any of his salary in Toronto? They probably won't get much help from the prospects they got from the trade, but what do they lose here?
There are plenty of reasons to not like Williams. This is not one of them.
So at the end of the day, you got nothing? Yet, for a cash strapped team you took the risk of having to pay $3.75 Mill.
How about not picking up the option, then just finding 2 kids you just drafted to pitch in Class A? You are talking about Class 17th and 20th round picks. 20 years old.
One of them was projected to be a 2nd rounder...is about the best you can say.
Wanna search all of the minor leagues for everyone else's ex projected stars and go get them, fine, but please dont tell me that you had a plan to sign a guy for $3.75 M to trade for them...and say thats is a good baseball move!
If you're suggesting that the White Sox need to better develop their own prospects, I don't think anyone would disagree with you. They have the worst farm system in the majors. That doesn't mean that they can't acquire prospects from other teams to help improve their own minor league teams (although I wouldn't point to the Frasor trade as prove that they improved it).
What did you think the White Sox were going to get for Frasor? Why type of prospect? They got two guys who are unlikely to help much, but that's about what you're going to get for an aging middle inning pitcher on the last year of a contract that is probably overpaying him.
Could the Sox have potentially been stuck with him? I guess, but that didn't happen, and I am suggesting, as I did when the Sox picked up the Frasor option (and as they did with giving Santos a new contract and then moving him) that trading him was always a possibility. Perhaps some team (like the Blue Jays) would rather have him for 1 year than have to give a middle reliever two or three years? It's arguable that this is significantly less risky for the Blue Jays.
Was this a good baseball move? It was primarily a payroll dump. Picking up his contract did not hurt the White Sox, and this move can only help in the future, although it's doubtful it will. What it does do is clear a small amount of money off the payroll for next season.