Guardado Traded and August Awards

This week I will evaluate the Eddie Guardado trade and give my August Awards.

Eddie Guardado Trade Evaluation:
Eddie Guardado was traded to the Minnesota Twins for Short-season A pitcher Mark Hamburger:

Mark Hamburger was 1-2 with a 4.17 ERA and 13 saves in 14 opportunities for Elizabethton. He struck out 40 batters in 36.2 innings and only walked 13. He held righties to a .221 average. In 2007 he signed with the Twins as an undrafted free agent. He went to Mesabi Range Community College. Eddie Guardado had a 3.65 ERA for the Rangers in 49.1 innings and was the Rangers’ dominant 8th inning pitcher before being named the closer recently.
Grade: B- – Eddie Guardado would have been a free agent at the end of the year so the main question is whether Hamburger is better than what we could have gotten for Eddie as draft pick compensation for losing him as a free agent. Hamburger seems like a marginal prospect.

Rangers Awards:

Rangers MVP: Josh Hamilton, TEX: .295 AVG, 29 HR, 116 RBI: Josh is what kept the Rangers in the playoff chase for a while and without him the Rangers wouldn’t have been anywhere as good this year.
Runner-up: Ian Kinsler, TEX

Rangers Cy Young: Vicente Padilla, TEX: 12-7, 4.98 ERA, 105 K: Vicente has gotten 12 wins this year, but has struggled mightily of late.
Runner-up: Scott Feldman, TEX

Rangers ROY: David Murphy, TEX: .275 AVG, 15 HR, 75 RBI: Even though Chris Davis has done so well, David Murphy still has 35 more RBI’s than him, so David is still my ROY, although that might change in a month.
Runner-up: Chris Davis, TEX

AL Awards:

AL MVP: Carlos Quentin, CWS: .290 AVG, 36 HR, 100 RBI: Carlos is leading baseball in homers, has 100 RBI’s after August and has a pretty good batting average.
Runner-up: Josh Hamilton, TEX

AL Cy Young: Cliff Lee, CLE: 19-2, 2.43 ERA, 145 K: He’s leading the league in wins, and has a great ERA and has only lost two games.
Runner-up: Roy Halladay, TOR

AL ROY: Evan Longoria, TB: .278 AVG, 22 HR, 71 RBI: Evan is having a great year and is putting up all these stats after being in the minors the first month of the season.
Runner-up: David Murphy, TEX

AL Manager of the Year: Joe Maddon, TB: He’s taken a last place team and made them a first place team in just one year.
Runner-up: Ron Gardenheier, MIN

NL Awards:

NL MVP: Albert Pujols, STL: .356 AVG, 28 HR, 87 RBI: Albert is having a good year when you just look at the regular stats, but when you look at his .464 OBP he becomes the MVP, in my opinion.
Runner-up: Ryan Braun, MIL

NL Cy Young: Brandon Webb, ARI: 19-5, 2.96 ERA, 157 K: Brandon is leading the league in wins by three wins, has an ERA under three, and has over 150 strikeouts already.
Runner-up: Ryan Dempster, CHC

NL ROY: Geovany Soto, CHC: .285 AVG, 20 HR, 78 RBI: When you’re a rookie and you hit 20 home runs and 75 RBI’s with a .280 or above batting average through August, you’ve got to be considered Rookie of the Year.
Runner-up: James Loney, LAD

NL Manager of the Year: Tony La Russa, STL: He has taken a team that really didn’t have much talent and made them a playoff contending team.
Runner-up: Jerry Manuel, NYM

Results of last week’s poll:
Who do you think is the best player that the Rangers traded for in 1991 and 1992?
Jose Canseco – 83%
Charlie Leibrandt – 17%
All others – 0%

Come back next week for Part 8 of the Tom Grieve Trade Analysis.