Matt Holliday Traded From A’s to Cardinals
Baseball July 24th. 2009, 12:43pm
Wonder if the recent tear by Matt Holliday saved Billy Beane from a real embarrassment?
The Athletics and Cardinals have completed a trade that sends outfielder Matt Holliday to St. Louis in exchange for third baseman Brett Wallace, outfielder Shane Peterson and right-handed pitcher Clayton Mortensen, sources told ESPN The Magazine’s Buster Olney.
And we’re off to read about the kids the A’s got. Cubs fans, of course, can’t be pleased with this development. St. Louis has a significant edge over Chicago at the plate, and if Zambrano doesn’t turn it around, the Cardinals will have the edge in the pitching department as well. [ESPN]
42 Responses to “Matt Holliday Traded From A’s to Cardinals”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
July 24th, 2009 at 12:49 PM
So, this division is only a two-horse race?
July 24th, 2009 at 12:50 PM
Real men also cry. REAL… MEN… ALSO… CRY…
July 24th, 2009 at 12:52 PM
Crown their asses.
/for an NLDS loss
July 24th, 2009 at 12:54 PM
I hate this trade for the Cardinals. Two months of Holliday (outside of Denver) for our #1 prospect and a solid pitching prospect (TINSTAAP notwithstanding) is horrible. Holliday is good, but not great and there’s no way Boras lets him resign without testing the free agent waters.
July 24th, 2009 at 12:55 PM
not sure about peterson and mortenson, but brett wallace is supposed to be a stud. he was the 13th overall pick last year out of arizona state and jumped up through the cards minor league system. if they can hold on too holliday after this year i kind of like it. if they get 3 months out of him and then he bolts, not a good move.
July 24th, 2009 at 12:56 PM
So, this division is only a two-horse race?
Astros were a game back after completing the sweep against the Cardinals Wednesday. But we’re not the Cubs, so we won’t get the slurp job their underachieving asses will.
/yes I know the Cubs have had injuries. Don’t care though. I hate the Cubs.
July 24th, 2009 at 12:56 PM
What makes a man, Mr. Lebowski?
July 24th, 2009 at 12:58 PM
The playoffs are a crapshoot, Holliday or no Holliday, they were likely to win the division anyway. Baseball Prospectus had them at 51.86454% to make the playoffs, which sounds low until you see that that’s almost double the likeliehood they have of anyone else in our division. I cannot believe how stupid this was. The only good thing, the ONLY good thing, is that this might convince Albert to sign an extension even though it’s very likely this is going to be a worse team because of this trade over the next 5 years, not a better one. Even if they resign Holliday it’s gonna be for an insane amount of money that will cripple the franchises ability to put anyone around him and pujols when Wallace would likely be that bat on the cheap the next five years. I don’t understand. I don’t understand. I don’t understand.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:00 PM
Prospectus had Astros at 14 percent, Cubs at 27%, Brewers at 13% before this trade.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:02 PM
Three teams within 2.5 games. This obviously makes them the favorite (if they weren’t already), but we’ll see what if the Brewers/Astros make any moves. The Brewers have to go after some sort of pitching in response to this.
Cubs suck.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:03 PM
Mortensen is a sinkerball pitcher that has done well in the system, although he was rushed a bit to AAA last year and has been inconsistent since then. Peterson was an ‘08 draftee that has done pretty well in the lower levels of the minors this year, but isn’t seen as a top prospect.
Wallace is blocked by Pujols for the Cards (he’s really not a very good defensive 3B), so his future was limited, but his bat was pretty stout.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:05 PM
MLB.com has Wallace as the number 42 prospect. One scout saying “A good athlete stuck in a bad body.” Reminds me a lot of Prince Fielder as a hitter and body type. Especially watching the video
link: http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/minorleagues/prospects/y2009/profile.jsp?t=p_top&pid=477165
July 24th, 2009 at 1:06 PM
Derrik Goold’s (cardinals second beat guy) twitter:
July 24th, 2009 at 1:07 PM
but we’ll see what if the Brewers/Astros make any moves
I really doubt that we will. Ed Wade was brought in to rebuild the farm system which was mortgaged by Tim Purpura. We only have a few solid prospects in Bud Norris, Trinidad, and Paulino. We don’t have much to trade away and doing so for us would be even worse than what the Cardinals gave away for Holliday.
Fernando Vina advocated the Astros going after Roy Halladay, but Toronto is going to want major prospects and we just don’t have enough. Vina’s view is not rooted in reality. We’re likely going to try to make it through the season with what we have and hope that not selling away out future to teams like Tampa Bay (who got Ben Zobrist among others from us) pays off down the road.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:08 PM
thing i hate about holliday is his high rate of whiffs.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:10 PM
Keith Law recent chat:
Keith Law’s top 100 prospect from JANUARY, where he had Wallace 19:
Wallace was the best pure hitter in this year’s draft, but fell to the Cardinals due to questions about his ultimate position. He’s playing third base right now, and the Cardinals intend to keep him there until he plays himself off it; he has plenty of arm and is fine on balls in front of him, but lacks lateral range … severely. Still, his bat is so special that if he can improve to just a win below average at third, he’ll be a star. He makes hitting look easy — he hits lefties (.387/.479/.484 in 62 at bats last year) and righties, all pitches, all areas of the zone, whatever’s thrown at him — and has pull power to right and doubles power the other way. Sure, his body type is unusual for a pro baseball player — he has enormous thighs, but it’s muscle, not fat, and emphasizing that only detracts attention from what really matters: Brett Wallace will hit.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:14 PM
Right now St. Louis would face Phillies in the opening round. This may help the Phillies decide to grab Roy Halladay.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:14 PM
well, wallace was a first baseman. we know he wasn’t going to play first base in st. louis. he was trade bait from the moment they drafted him.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:17 PM
but they have pedro now!!1!!!!!!11!!!
July 24th, 2009 at 1:17 PM
THE CARDINALS WERE WILLING TO PLAY CHRIS DUNCAN EVERY DAY! THEY HAD ALBERT GIVE THE BALL TO EDMONDS WHEN HIS ARM WAS HURT AND ALBERT WAS AN OUTFIELDER TO MAKE THROWS!!! THEY WERE ABOUT TO DO THE SAME THING WITH GLAUS!!! HE COULD HAVE PLAYED SOMEWHERE.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:18 PM
wallace was a first baseman
Brett Wallace is 3B
July 24th, 2009 at 1:22 PM
From Goold’s Post-Dispatch Blog:
em>
kill me.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:24 PM
RHP Calero
1B Barton
RHP Haren
Oakland then dealt Haren and pitcher Connor Robertson to Arizona for …
LHP Brett Anderson
RHP Dana Eveland
OF Aaron Cunningham
1B Chris Carter
LHP Greg Smith
OF Carlos Gonzalez
The A’s have now dealt Smith, Gonzalez and RHP Huston Street to Colorado for …
(drumroll)
Matt Holliday. Q.E.D.
The Mark Mulder Deal is the gift that keeps on giving … to Oakland.
kill me.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:24 PM
in theory.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:28 PM
well, that’s why i am not a larussa kinda guy. that’s downright stupid to move the best fielding first baseman in baseball to another position where, at best, he is average thereby weakening two positions.
if duncan’s old man wasn’t larussa’s pet orangutan he wouldn’t have been on the roster.
i’m not really a big holliday fan (strikouts are too much for me) but wallace was trade bait the minute he was drafted unless he agreed to be a left fielder.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:31 PM
so:
here’s why i never cried about trading haren. sure i would like to have him, bbbbuuuttt. look at duncan’s history with young pitcher. it’s horrible. terrible. had the cardinals kept haren there is nothing to suggest he would have developed the way he did.
wainwright is the only young pitcher i can think of that duncan has developed which, given his long history, is beyond pathetic.
until mulder got hurt, he pitched pretty well with the redbirds. so i can’t fault the birds for trading haren; not at all.
last i checked, the birds won a series title after he was traded. so it all worked out.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:31 PM
Confused. If you mean Albert Albert used to be an outfielder. Well, he used to be a ss then a third baseman then an outfielder, but you get it. If you mean glaus glaus is/was moving to the outfield because his shoulder won’t allow him to play third.
I haven’t read anything anywhere where he refused to move positions. He was playing third because that’s where they wanted him to play.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:32 PM
Another reason for Phillies to now grab Halladay…RH hitters have a .306 avg. vs Hamels for his career while LH hitters have a .231 avg vs. Hamels. St Louis is a heavy RH hitting team especially with Pujols now having protection in Holliday.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:35 PM
The fact things work out when poor decisions are made does not excuse poor decisions. I wasn’t suggesting moving Albert, though Albert made himself a great first baseman, I’m sure he could be a very good third baseman, wouldn’t want to do it just because it could hurt his arm. First by far the least important defensive position, it’s likely a wallace 1st Pujols 3rd would actually be a better alignment than Wallace 3rd/Pujols 1st.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:36 PM
Cardinals can’t hit left handers to save their lives.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:37 PM
so:
is glaus’s shoulder any worse than rolen’s was?
July 24th, 2009 at 1:39 PM
Dunno medically, they say he literally can’t throw. Rolen was definitely gutting out some mad pain there for a good long while. I dunno if this is a pain tolerance issue or no.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:40 PM
What a fucking garbage trade for the Cardinals. Holy shit. Wallace alone would have been too much, but to include Mortensen too? WTF
July 24th, 2009 at 1:43 PM
btw Taguchi: Todd is probably going to be the PTBNL in the DeRosa trade. WHo was their highest draft pick this year? He’s probably their top prospect now.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:45 PM
Shelby Miller, really good pitching prospect, fell because of signability issues, their have been rumblings that they aren’t going to get it done.
kill me.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:45 PM
this todd kid any good?
July 24th, 2009 at 1:47 PM
Shelby Miller was our #1 pick this year, but he’s still unsigned. I think it will be Daryl Jones, even if we do sign Miller (Jones is like a poor man’s Carl Crawford), but that’s a pretty far drop from last year when we had Rasmus, Wallace and Chris Perez at the top of our prospect list.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:48 PM
Todd is pretty good – they converted him to a reliever this year (a little too soon if you ask me) and he has done well as our AAA closer.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:50 PM
cool…thx.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:53 PM
poor, sad spencer
July 24th, 2009 at 1:56 PM
holy shit…$1.2 billion in weed siezed? dayum.
July 24th, 2009 at 5:14 PM
It seems that DeWitt(team owner) may be reverting back, temporarily at least, to the Walt Jocketty “trade prospects and try to win now” philosophy. He knows Albert will walk after ‘11 if the FO doesn’t show him that they have a commitment to being more than just competitive(whether they will be or not is a whole differrent ball of wax). He may walk anyway, who knows. But now, DeWitt and Mozeliak have a real dilemna; how can they sign Pujols to an extention(DeWitt has said that’s a priority this off-season) and re-sign both De Rosa and Holliday? Glaus is outta there at the end of the year, so De Rosa might be willing to stay if he’s the everyday 3B(providing he’s healthy next year). But I don’t see DeWitt doing a 180 degree switch, and open up the payroll purse. It’s not in his nature. As much as I hate to say it, this is going to be nothing more than a 2.5 month rental.