Mayberry Trade Evaluation

This week, the Rangers traded OF John Mayberry Jr. to the Philadelphia Phillies for OF Greg Golson.

John Mayberry, Jr.: John was the Rangers 1st round pick in 2005. He has struggled very much in the minors, with just a .255 batting average in four years. He has 82 HR’s and 257 RBI’s spread throughout those years. John has struck out 243 more times than he has walked in his minor league career and his fielding percentage has had ups and downs, too. In 2006, he had a .979 fielding percentage in 114 games on the field at Clinton while in Frisco in ’08 he had a .964 fielding percentage in 20 games on the field.

Greg Golson: Greg was a first round pick out of high school in 2004. In the offseason before 2008 he was ranked the Phillies #7 prospect along with the Phillies best power hitter, fastest base runner, best athlete, best defensive outfielder and best defensive arm. Golson was playing very well at the beginning of the ’08 season as he hit .329 through May, but then it went downhill from there as he went through a major slump, got injured and then hit only .257 after the injury. He only had 13 HR’s and 60 RBI’s. In six major league at-bats in September he went 0-for-6, but stole a base and scored two runs. But after the Futures Game, Baseball Prospectus’ Joe Sheehan said that “You could actually see his trade value collapsing during the game. Golson has had the best season of his professional life, fooling some people into seeing him as a prospect. He’s not. He swings at everything, he’s an awkward outfielder and he doesn’t do anything else well enough to make up for those traits. The Phillies have about nine minutes to turn him into something of value, because by the end of the season, he’ll have been exposed again.” He is a risk.

Evaluation:
I don’t think that Mayberry was going anywhere, or if he was it was going to take years to develop. Golson seems like a guy who has talent and potential, but needs good coaching and probably a couple years to put it all together. He will probably be in major league camp and that should tell us a lot about him.
Grade: B- - it might turn out much better, though.

Roster Moves:
John Bannister, Omar Poveda, Willie Eyre, and Jose Vallejo were all placed on the 40-man roster. Wes Littleton and Kameron Loe were designated for assignment. Kameron Loe signed a 2-year, $2 million contract to go to Japan.

I think that Willie Eyre played well enough a couple years ago to get himself a spot, so I like him getting on. Jose Vallejo was a no-brainer, and I like that Poveda made it. I do wish someone other than Littleton was DFA’d, though. I still think that he should be able to fight for a job in Spring Training, though.

I’m very sorry to see Kameron Loe go. He is one of the nicest people on the team. He always took time for the fans. He let me interview him for my blog one time. He gave me his cell phone number and let me call him while the team was in Oakland. He talked to me for 30 minutes while riding on the subway to the game. If you want to read the interview, you can see the link to it on the left side of my blog. I hope Kameron does well in Japan.

Summary of MLB Awards – actual winners compared to who I picked at the end of the season:

AL MVP:
Actual: Dustin Pedroia, BOS
Mine: Kevin Youkilis, BOS

AL Cy Young:
Actual: Cliff Lee, CLE
Mine: Cliff Lee, CLE

AL Rookie of the Year:
Actual: Evan Longoria, TB
Mine: Evan Longoria, TB

AL Manager of the Year:
Actual: Joe Maddon, TB
Mine: Joe Maddon, TB

NL MVP:
Actual: Albert Pujols, STL
Mine: Ryan Braun, MIL (Pujols was my runner-up)

NL Cy Young:
Actual: Tim Lincecum, SF
Mine: Tim Lincecum, SF

NL Rookie of the Year:
Actual: Geovany Soto, CHC
Mine: Ricky Nolasco, FLA

NL Manager of the Year:
Actual: Lou Piniella, CHC
Mine: Charlie Manuel, PHI

Results of last week’s poll:
Where do you think Derek Lowe will go?
Angels – 25%
Yankees – 25%
Other – 25%
Cubs – 12%
Red Sox – 12%

Come back next week for a continuation of the Tom Grieve trade analysis.