Bourjos traded to the Cards, presumably for David Freese

[Moonlight J]

https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/403965882185285632

Great move for STL to get a premium defender for multiple controllable years

[revo]

So I assume the fallout here is:
for STL - Carpenter moves to 3B, Wong becomes the starter at 2B, and Jon Jay rides the pine or is trade bait
for LAA - Gary Green returns to the minors or a bench role, JB Shuck is now the full-time starter in LF

EDIT -- reading Kole Calhoun will be the RFer, with Hamilton in LF.

[james33]

So I assume the fallout here is:
for STL - Carpenter moves to 3B, Wong becomes the starter at 2B, and Jon Jay rides the pine or is trade bait

re: 3B/2B, absolutely correct.

Not sure how much Jay would fetch; I'd assume he'd ride the pine. But I'm an NL guy, so don't know much about Bourjos. Not too many at bats the last two years, and his OPS is lower than Jay.

[Controller Jacobs]

They could just go Jay/Bourjos lefty/righty split. Then they'd always have one for pinch hit/pinch run/defensive sub. If one of the two displays every-day talent, all the better.

[Stephen]

I still think Peter Bourjos has a great season in him. He's my "Fool me once" player.

[Controller Jacobs]

Yeah, Grichuk's progressed pretty well. He hasn't drawn walks like an elite prospect, but he's had a decent K rate (and 1/6 PA) and solid isoPower (about .200) while being among the younger players at each level (21 last year in AA).

[james33]

One thing that swings this trade well over to the Cardinals side, and it hasn't been mentioned here, is that the Cards also get prospect Randal Grichuk while the Angels get Fernando Salas. Salas is a decent enough reliever but Grichuk is a relatively highly regarded, power-hitting prospect.

Good point. I don't know anything about Grichuk, but from his stats, I'd think most teams would rather have him, even-up, than Salas, who I'm pretty certain didn't make the Cardinals' 2013 postseason roster.

Another factor that makes me like this from the Cardinals' side is the money. Freese due to make probably $3 million more in 2014 after arbitration than Bourjos will.

[mjl]

What does this do to Taveras' timeline? Are they still planning to put Craig in RF and Adams at 1B?

[Bodhizefa]

Man, has Dave Cameron ever been right about anything? Reading his stuff is absolute torture.

Cameron often has strong opinions and has a national platform with which to voice them. He's right/wrong about as often as the other interesting writers out there (Keith Law, Collette, Shandler, etc.) Heck, I feel the same sometimes when I read your own opinions on this board! Everyone's got an opinion -- at least his are fairly well informed and have thoughtful reasoning behind them most of the time.

As for the deal, how many years of team control does Freese still have? 1 or 2?

Regardless, I think this is a win for St. Louis. They deal from a position of strength and end up with possibly the best defensive outfielder in baseball. Oh, and Bourjos also has just as much power as Freese -- Bourjos is quite the underrated hitter in most circles. Not to mention the fact that Freese has been excruciatingly injury prone over his entire career while Bourjos has only had injury issues just this past season. I'm not sure how this isn't a pretty huge win for St. Louis in the long run.

[Bodhizefa]

Are they still planning to put Craig in RF and Adams at 1B?

That seems like the only plausible scenario they could pull off in-house. And then they could throw in Jon Jay as a defensive replacement late in games (assuming Taveras wins the LF job in Spring Training) and move Craig to 1st. All of this is contingent on Craig's health, though. Otherwise, Adams or Craig seem rife to be dealt in an attempt to upgrade shortstop (but I find this less likely than just moving Craig to RF).

EDIT: Oops. Forgot about Holliday. Looks like Taveras starts off in Triple-A again.

[mjl]

That seems like the only plausible scenario they could pull off in-house. And then they could throw in Jon Jay as a defensive replacement late in games (assuming Taveras wins the LF job in Spring Training) and move Craig to 1st. All of this is contingent on Craig's health, though. Otherwise, Adams or Craig seem rife to be dealt in an attempt to upgrade shortstop (but I find this less likely than just moving Craig to RF).

Isn't Holliday still playing LF?

[Moonlight J]

Let Texas trade Profar & Moreland to TB for Price & a piece, Rays send Escobar to STL for Adams, & everyone is happy

[Bodhizefa]

Isn't Holliday still playing LF?

Absolutely. I blanked (and edited my post as you were asking that very question). Looks like Taveras begins the year in Triple-A.

[Bodhizefa]

Let Texas trade Profar & Moreland to TB for Price & a piece, Rays send Escobar to STL for Adams, & everyone is happy

I'd call that a pipe dream... but Andrew Friedman seems to be a pipe smoker extraordinaire, lol. (But it's still a pipe dream )

[Moonlight J]

Bourjos has had a ton of wrist issues. He's far from a model of health. Ditto Freese.

But let's stop pretending that Bourjos is a good hitter. He's below average. Freese is above average. Yes, Bourjos is a fantastic defender but if the deal was straight up, I'd take Freese. It certainly depends on what a team needs, at a minimum, and a light hitting outfielder seems like pretty close to the last thing the Cards need. They already had a logjam in the outfield.

As for Dave Cameron, here's what he said about the deal: "It’s hard to see any area where Freese is better than Bourjos."

Really? Can you see OPS+? OPS? BA? OBP? K rate? BB rate?

I mean, that's just lazy or something.

from 2009 to 2013 -- Freese lower K% by 1.1 pts
Freese puts fewer balls in play
Freese swings and misses more frequently
Bourjos chases more frequently

I read the comment as moving forward, not looking back. Trade evaluations are mainly about what is to come, not what already was. It is very likely Bourjos will be the better player over the next three seasons when you factor in his defense and baserunning now that he'll finally be 100% recovered from the lower half issues.