Saturday, December 30, 2006

McCarthy Acquired and Danks Traded

Texas acquired right-hander Brandon McCarthy from the Chicago White Sox in a five-player deal last Saturday in which the Rangers traded John Danks, Nick Masset and Jacob Rasner to Chicago for Brandon McCarthy and outfielder David Paisano.

The Rangers traded:

Danks: Last year John split the season in AA and AAA where he went 9-9 with a 4.34 ERA. His career minor league record is 21-30 and his career era is 4.20. He averaged 0.4 walks per inning last year and is 21 years old. It is possible he will make the White Sox starting rotation sometime this year.

Masset: Nick has done OK in his minor league career (career ERA of 4.53 over 6 seasons), with a strong 2006 after a rough 2005. He made his major league debut last year, with a 4.15 ERA in 8 appearances, and might make the White Sox bullpen out of spring training next year.

Rasner: Jacob has only played for two years and is 7-21 with a 6.14 era. He’s probably just one of those throw-in guys.

The Rangers received:

McCarthy: McCarthy had the tenth most innings pitched by a relief pitcher in the AL last year. He is 7-9 with a 4.39 ERA in his career (parts of two seasons). The White Sox planned to have him start in 2007 and he will be part of the Rangers’ starting rotation.

Paisano: David Paisano is only 19 and has never played in the US. He has only played in the Venezuelan Summer league. Last year he did great when batting with two outs and also did great at the end of the season after struggling at the beginning. For more of his stats go to:
http://www.minorleaguesplits.com/pl/445/445270.html


Trade evaluation:

You won’t be able to tell if this trade is good or bad for sure for a few more years. It definitely makes the Rangers stronger for 2007. Right now, the stats of Danks aren’t too promising that he’ll be great, but he seems like a guy with great stuff that can make adjustments at different levels. He might be a good major league pitcher and possibly even great. The Rangers weren’t going to get anything out of Danks this year but they will with McCarthy. McCarthy is very home-run prone and is going to a hitters’ ballpark but is also a huge prospect. We can’t tell if Paisano is going to be good or not since he’s never played in the US. Masset probably will be a decent-to-solid bullpen guy and Rasner was just thrown in there. This is a good trade for the 2007 Rangers but whether it’s a good long-term trade depends on whether Danks and McCarthy reach their potential in the major leagues.

Grade: B

Come back next week for an interview with Rangers broadcaster and former player and GM Tom Grieve.

4 comments:

Big Mac said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Grant Schiller said...

Hi Brian,

Sorry for deleting your comment. It was a mistake but I can't undo it. You can't tell yet what any of these players will do in the majors. We'll see how it works out. Thanks for reading my blog.

Grant

Ken Pittman said...

Excellent blog Grant - I think you made more info on Paisano available than I've seen from anywhere. And, as explained below, he may be the most interesting part of the trade for me. I hate to see Danks and Masset go, but I think it's still very possible the Rangers get the better end of this trade.

One thing I haven't seen anyone say about this trade (and I'm sure someone has - I just haven't seen it) is that 5 or 10 years down the road it's possible that Daniels managing to get Paisano as an add-on becomes the key to the Rangers getting the better end of this trade. Paisano seems like a virtual unknown to everybody that I've seen write about this trade (even more so than Rasner). There is a chance McCarthy for Danks-Masset-Rasner could be a wash. It could very well end up being something like a 2nd starter for 2nd starter or a 2nd starter for a 3rd starter plus a service reliever.

But if Paisano were to become an everyday major leaguer this trade would VERY likely go the Rangers way (in my opinion at least). Am I saying that he will? No - you absolutely never know and he seems to be more unknown than most. But I trust Daniels and his scouts enough to think they thought getting him added could be a key to the trade - and it just might.

Just my 2 cents.
GO RANGERS!
Ken

Grant Schiller said...

Hi Ken - Thanks for the nice comment. It's true if both McCarthy and Paisano are major league players this trade would go our way unless Danks becomes the next Johan Santana. Paisano has dominated the late season but hasn't played well in the first half. He could be the reverse of Hank Blalock with less power.