Hanrahan To Boston

[Illinest]

"Grade B: I think his bat is for real, should be a very productive power hitter." - Sickels

"question the hit tool against better pitchers and don't like the swing" -Law

From what I can tell he has spent the last two years revising the swing. First (2011) he lowered his hands and opened up a little. That was relatively successful at the time and he started raking, raked in September of 2011 in the bigs too.
Then he came back in 2012 with about the same swing and struggled this time. About halfway through the season he returned to something more like his old swing while - paraphrasing him - "keeping some of the things he'd been working on"

None of this means that he's ready to hit in the majors but I wanted to set the record straight.

I do not think that a comparison to Clement is fair though. Clement can only dream to have Jerry Sands' power.
Bill James predicts 289 ABs, 13 HRs, a .262 BA, .329 OBP, .483 SLG and .812 OPS btw.

 

[Illinest]

I had a thought. I can't see why Jones wouldn't have been mentioned already if he were involved. He's a big enough name I think. Why would Melancon and Hanrahan and Sands be mentioned but not Jones.
Call me crazy if you want but I think there are probably plenty of baseball people who would call Jones the most valuable piece of this trade if he were actually in it. Depends on what you think about Hanrahan.

 

[Etrius24]

"Grade B: I think his bat is for real, should be a very productive power hitter." - Sickels

"question the hit tool against better pitchers and don't like the swing" -Law

From what I can tell he has spent the last two years revising the swing. First (2011) he lowered his hands and opened up a little. That was relatively successful at the time and he started raking, raked in September of 2011 in the bigs too.
Then he came back in 2012 with about the same swing and struggled this time. About halfway through the season he returned to something more like his old swing while - paraphrasing him - "keeping some of the things he'd been working on"

None of this means that he's ready to hit in the majors but I wanted to set the record straight.

I do not think that a comparison to Clement is fair though. Clement can only dream to have Jerry Sands' power.
Bill James predicts 289 ABs, 13 HRs, a .262 BA, .329 OBP, .483 SLG and .812 OPS btw.

If it is good enough for Bill James it is good enough for me...LOL... I can live with the numbers suggested there... Nice work to include that.

 

[Etrius24]

and Sands has parking lot power... He has hit a lot of homeruns everywhere he has ever played...The power is for real.

 

[Etrius24]

From what I have read, Sands has a very long swing that he uses to generate his power. That works in the minors but not at the major league level. He was however the top rated first baseman in the PCL the year before last defensively.

Sands will probably go the way of Jeff Clement, with better defense at whatever position he plays.

Lets be real guys we are getting hopes and dreams as a return for Hammer which is precisely why we should have kept him, the check with his salary. When you trade 1 guy for a group of guys, the team that gets the one guy usually wins the trade.

Crow

I really like stolmy... I think he is a lot more than a

:ss:

 

[stillmatic32]

Final deal.


The Pirates will send Hanrahan and infielder Brock Holt to the Red Sox for outfielder/first baseman Jerry Sands, right-handed pitchers Stolmy Pimentel and Mark Melancon and infielder Ivan DeJesus Jr., the Pirates announced this afternoon.



Read more: Pirates complete Hanrahan trade to Red Sox - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

 

[Illinest]

Im glad it was holt. He had very little value to us and almost no trade value. I think the sox got the better of the holt/dejesus part of the swap by a little bit but i think theres a decent chance that we will be the ones who came out ahead in the other swap. We got a lot of melancon for one year of hanrahan, and a guy in sands who is a better bet than clement or most of the other guys we've tried.

 

[element1286]

It's a pretty meh return, I don't hate the deal, but it feels like throwing crap at the wall and seeing what sticks. It might work a la the Nady/Marte deal and it might not a la the Bay trade.

 

[thecrow124]

This deal is crap. There is no positive spin I can see on it. Melancon is nothing like Hanrahan and does not have his value. DeJesus is not Holt and the other two clowns have little to no value. A little secret about Sands, if he ins't good enough to play in Boston, which is why he was traded, then he ins't good enough to play in Pittsburgh. Pimentel can't throw the ball across homeplate, so there is no upside there.

I don't know how anyone can defend this trade, it is horrible, we trade an established, useful member of a major league roster for scrap. Don't give me any advanced metrics crap about this one either, or the years of control argument, I'm not going to buy it. I also won't buy the theory that a small market team can't pay a closer $7 million dollars or 1/10 of their total salary, that is just an easy excuse. In real life, they have the money and they have the ability to pay that price, they just don't want to. I am actually fine with that, but then tell us that, don't give me the younger and years of control rhetoric.

The trade is done so I will get over it, but I do not like it.

 

[thecrow124]

and Sands has parking lot power... He has hit a lot of homeruns everywhere he has ever played...The power is for real.

The whole in his swing is a huge detractor. If he could't play in Boston where they need OF help how is he going to play in Pittsburgh where we really don't? He is garbage, heck this is his 3rd team in 4 months, that should tell you all you need to know about his ability.

 

[thecrow124]

"Grade B: I think his bat is for real, should be a very productive power hitter." - Sickels

"question the hit tool against better pitchers and don't like the swing" -Law

From what I can tell he has spent the last two years revising the swing. First (2011) he lowered his hands and opened up a little. That was relatively successful at the time and he started raking, raked in September of 2011 in the bigs too.
Then he came back in 2012 with about the same swing and struggled this time. About halfway through the season he returned to something more like his old swing while - paraphrasing him - "keeping some of the things he'd been working on"

None of this means that he's ready to hit in the majors but I wanted to set the record straight.

I do not think that a comparison to Clement is fair though. Clement can only dream to have Jerry Sands' power.
Bill James predicts 289 ABs, 13 HRs, a .262 BA, .329 OBP, .483 SLG and .812 OPS btw.

I was't comparing him to Clement, just believe they will have the same career path. Hit well throughout the minors but fail miserably at the major league level. I don't like doing comparisons because I feel everyone is a little different and therefore would have to compare one person to a bevy of two or more other players.

If Sands pans out then you can tell me you told me so.

 

[Illinest]

Id rather save my "told you so" for after melancon is a good reliever for us for a few years in a row.
Also holt sucks. The only way a hanrahan trade wouldnt suck is if we made it back when people were saying we "couldnt". As it is we've only lost one significant contributor to the 2012 bullpen which wasn't exactly stellar to begin with but we're adding melancon and morris who seems ready and is out of options. Between the two of them i think we're upgrading our bullpen.

 

[magnumo]

Id rather save my "told you so" for after melancon is a good reliever for us for a few years in a row.
Also holt sucks. The only way a hanrahan trade wouldnt suck is if we made it back when people were saying we "couldnt". As it is we've only lost one significant contributor to the 2012 bullpen which wasn't exactly stellar to begin with but we're adding melancon and morris who seems ready and is out of options. Between the two of them i think we're upgrading our bullpen.

Sounds like you've changed your mind in regard to your original prediction that the Pirates would trade Hanrahan for crap. I've read quite a few analyses all over the media..... some feel pretty strongly that the Pirates did indeed trade Hanrahan for crap, while others seem optimistic, especially about the possibilities inherent in Melancon and Sands. (Consensus seems to be that neither Pimentel nor DeJesus will amount to much.)

Guess I'm in the wait-and-see camp. In my view, this trade could swing anywhere from very good to very bad. In hindsight, it's a damn shame that Huntington didn't trade Hanrahan at the 2012 trade deadline, when he had significantly more trade value.

Clearly, the trade was motivated primarily by money. See the 4th paragraph from the bottom in this article.....

Pirates acquire four players in deal with Boston | pirates.com: News

 

[Illinest]

Sounds like you've changed your mind in regard to your original prediction that the Pirates would trade Hanrahan for crap. I've read quite a few analyses all over the media..... some feel pretty strongly that the Pirates did indeed trade Hanrahan for crap, while others seem optimistic, especially about the possibilities inherent in Melancon and Sands. (Consensus seems to be that neither Pimentel nor DeJesus will amount to much.)

Guess I'm in the wait-and-see camp. In my view, this trade could swing anywhere from very good to very bad. In hindsight, it's a damn shame that Huntington didn't trade Hanrahan at the 2012 trade deadline, when he had significantly more trade value.

Clearly, the trade was motivated primarily by money. See the 4th paragraph from the bottom in this article.....

Pirates acquire four players in deal with Boston | pirates.com: News

It was better than I expected. It's still pretty crappy but you should remember that I was the one who kept harping on the fact that there was no way we'd keep him in 2013. I might've said it a hundred times. We can't afford to pay 7 million to a closer.
He had very little trade value. The fact that we got a guy who will fill a spot in the bullpen and might replace his production is enough for me. The other guys are long shots and roster filler. I don't care about that stuff.

If we had traded him 2 trade deadlines ago when I first suggested it then we might've gotten a real prospect out of it.

 

[Etrius24]

Why does it seem that the team we trade with the most is the Red Sox?...

 

[Darkstone42]

I'm fine with the deal. I just hope we put some of Hammer's salary to some other good use, as opposed to just calling this an even-out with the signings we've already made. I think there's a chance that both Melancon and Sands could make positive contributions. Of course, there's also the chance that neither will, and everything in between, but every move is a risk.

 

[magnumo]

It was better than I expected. It's still pretty crappy but you should remember that I was the one who kept harping on the fact that there was no way we'd keep him in 2013. I might've said it a hundred times. We can't afford to pay 7 million to a closer.He had very little trade value. The fact that we got a guy who will fill a spot in the bullpen and might replace his production is enough for me. The other guys are long shots and roster filler. I don't care about that stuff.

If we had traded him 2 trade deadlines ago when I first suggested it then we might've gotten a real prospect out of it.

I DO remember you taking that position. While I agreed with you intellectually, I shared the view (emotionally-based) of most Pirate fans..... that I would have been grossly disappointed if they had dealt Hanrahan when they should have, whlie clinging to the hope that the Pirates had turned the corner.

At this point, I'm surprised that Huntington was able to get as much apparent value as he did from the Hanrahan trade. I will hope that Melancon proves his peripherals right..... and that Sands is the second coming of Josh Reddick..... and that Pimentel and DeJesus amount to more than expected. At the same time, while I'm not one to wish bad things on "departed Pirates," I hope that Brock Holt DOESN'T prove to be the second coming of Joe Morgan..... and that Hanrahan pitches well against everyone but the Pirates.