2013 Free Agent and Trade Ideas Thread

[ReJo]

What is so great about Andrus? Is his glove THAT good because his offensive numbers look pretty pedestrian. OK obp, terrible slg, near 30% cs last year, 96 k's. Am I missing something because I'm seeing 08,09 Theriot with a great glove

[NEILarado]

To the poster above: Andrus is only 23 years old and is probably the best defensive SS in the AL. However, I agree that his bat is very pedestrian and isnt going to get much better.

IMO, he is disgustingly overrated and Shark is a FAR more valuable asset for the Cubs. Not to mention, Andrus is going to need a contract soon and theres talks of him getting 16-18MM per year. PUKE!!!

[Bluefire]

Andrus is Barney with a slightly better bat. Best part....Barney isn't represent by Boras. To me Andrus/Barney is a wash and you don't see the Cubs offering up Andrus for Upton. Which means people are either overrating Andrus' value or underrating Barney's value.

[KyleJRM]

I think the more likely possibility is that you are wrong about the relative abilities of Andrus and Barney.

[northsider]

Andrus is Barney with a slightly better bat. Best part....Barney isn't represent by Boras. To me Andrus/Barney is a wash and you don't see the Cubs offering up Andrus for Upton. Which means people are either overrating Andrus' value or underrating Barney's value.

Well on the flip side Barney would prob. be a decent SS where as Andrus is prob. the best in the league at this point.

However yes I completely agree I do not see the over whelming love for him. I'll take Castro all day and twice on sundays.

[ReJo]

Has anybody signed Kelly Johnson?
He was awful last year but he still has some power and some speed and could be useful off the bench. As a 2b it shouldn't be too hard for him to learn 1b, 3b or corner outfield and possibly reinvent himself into a DeRosa type

[Yagyu+]

Gordon Wittenmyer:

Source: Cubs one of several teams interested in Cuban defector/SS Aldemis Diaz. Turns 23 Tuesday, exempting him from signing $$$ limits.

*Aledmys* Diaz

[OldStyleCubbies]

Andrus is Barney with a slightly better bat. Best part....Barney isn't represent by Boras. To me Andrus/Barney is a wash and you don't see the Cubs offering up Andrus for Upton. Which means people are either overrating Andrus' value or underrating Barney's value.

[CubbieKid17]

Maybe a 3-way deal where the Cubs get Upton, Skaggs, and Olt (I'm probably dreaming), Rangers get Garza and Samardzija, and the Diamondbacks get Andrus and prospects (maybe someone with better knowledge of the farm systems can help me out here).

Losing our top 2 starters would suck, but we'd be gaining back a 24-year old RF, a potential TORP starter, and a potential 3B for the next 10 years.

Edit: this wouldn't be the exact deal. There'd have to be prospects added to each side most likely. Obviously you'd have to figure out what else the Diamondbacks would get and work from there.

[SenorGato]

Andrus was 6th and 3rd amongst SSs in BA and OBP last year. I think it's a little underrated that:

1. That position doesn't hit.

2. It's not the early 2000's or 90's anymore offensively.

Also was middle of the pack as far as grounding into double plays, led all of them in sacrifice hits, 10th in doubles...

All this and the only guy on these lists younger than him is Starlin Castro. The Rangers have every reason to hold out for premium talent for him. The reality is that amongst SSs the list of guys you take ahead of him right now and for the next 5+ years is maybe 3-4 players deep (Tulo, Castro, Reyes maybe, Demond maybe) right now.

[deltaclown]

Andrus is Barney with a slightly better bat. Best part....Barney isn't represent by Boras. To me Andrus/Barney is a wash and you don't see the Cubs offering up Andrus for Upton. Which means people are either overrating Andrus' value or underrating Barney's value.

This is easily the most wildly misinformed opinion I've read on this board. And I've read a good majority of sbrownies' posts.

[bulldog312]

It's not really that wrong though. The huge difference between the 2 offensively this past year was BABIP. After a .310 BABIP last year Barney's dropped to .273 this year. Andrus posted .305, .317, .312 his first 3 years before jumping to .332 this past year. There is no trends in their batted ball types that would explain this, which suggests it was simply variance.

I would project Andrus to have a little better BABIP, but it shouldn't be near that significant. If you neutralize those the difference between them shrinks quite a bit. Barney actually improved all of his peripherals quite a bit from '11 to '12, but the drastic drop in BABIP hurt his numbers. His K%, BB%, and power are significantly increased.

Andrus is no doubt the better player, but there is certainly an argument that the difference isn't really that great if Barney is capable of playing SS at the advertised level. Also, remember that Barney has 2 additional years of control as well. Factor in that and I don't think it's crazy at all to argue that he should have just as much trade value.

[TooL D/R/T]

What does everyone think of the baseball america top 10?

[northsider]

It also helps that Andrus is like 4 years younger as well.

Still I think he is quite overrated IMO. I guess that just comes with the times and lack of good SS class.

[Bluefire]

I don't want to derailed this thread, and I certainly do not want a pissing contest about the value and "greatness" of Andrus, so let's agree to disagree on Andrus, people. I don't like him much as a player, end of story.