22
2011
Nationals Acquire Gio Gonzalez
An article by Hojo's Mojo
According to Keith Law of ESPN, the Oakland Athletics will trade LHP Gio Gonzalez to the Washington Nationals for four minor leaguers; right-handers A.J. Cole and Brad Peacock, left-hander Tom Milone and catcher Derek Norris.
Three of the players the Nats gave up were on their top-ten prospects list.
Gonzalez, 25, will be under team control through the 2015 season and joins what is now a solid, young rotation brimming with talent and upside.
Meanwhile, the A’s continue to sell everything but the kitchen sink.
Original Post 12/21
Here are a couple of hot stove updates from Jon Heyman of CBS Sports…
The Nationals are pushing hard for Gio Gonzalez according to Heyman. The Red Sox, Nationals, Tigers, Blue Jays, Marlins and Yankees also are believed to be in the mix to varying degrees, while several more ave checked in.
The Nationals are believed willing to include multiple top prospects, basically almost anybody short of Stephen Strasburg or Bryce Harper. That could mean Brad Peacock, Derek Norris, Destin Hood, Eury Perez and A.J. Cole. Peacock and Norris are probably their third- and fourth-best prospects. Hood and Perez are outfielders, Oakland’s biggest need. It’s possible Washington could be enticed to include young shortstop Ian Desmond, although that is uncertain.
Also, Jair Jurrjens has drawn some interest from the Orioles, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Rockies, Tigers, Rangers and others. However, while Jurrjens is a terrific young starter, he appears to be behind Oakland’s Gio Gonzalez on the pecking order of most teams, possibly because of potential concerns about the knee injury that hampered him at the end of last year.
Baltimore has seemed especially interested in Jurrjens. However, one person connected to the teams said they wouldn’t consider trading young center fielder Adam Jones straight-up for Jurrjens. “Not even close,” the person said. There was some suggestion the Braves might need to include the versatile and available Martin Prado to make that deal work. But that duo may be too much for the Braves to part with. The Braves also have suggested that they will not trade Jurrjens within their division, thereby eliminating the active Marlins as a potential suitor.
If the Nationals do get Gio, their rotation looks like it could be very formidable if everybody stays healthy. I also find it interesting to see that the Braves won’t trade Jurrjens within the division, a stance that isn’t seen as much today as it was 10-15 years ago.
About the Author: Rob Johnson
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 23 | 18 | .561 | - |
| Nationals | 23 | 19 | .548 | 0.5 |
| Phillies | 20 | 22 | .476 | 3.5 |
| Mets | 16 | 23 | .410 | 6.0 |
| Marlins | 11 | 31 | .262 | 12.5 |
Last updated: 05/18/2013
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Bulletin: Mets ask uncle Buddy for permission to pay less than mlb minimum.
Last place is now inevitable. Cancel your tickets folks. Retribution by the fanbase is the only solution to the the hijinks of the Wilpons. It’s got nothing to do with Sandy. His hands are tied.
i will give u credit with being half wright.at least u have come a long way in two years. better late than never.geniusalderson has been a failure before the wilponzie’s. without the steriod needle he has been the brady anderson of gm’s.the steriod gm……the steriod commish and the funny money owner a triode of deceit.
the braves looking to unload Jar Jar would be a major red flag to me.
Exactly…whenever the Braves want to unload one of their young “studs”…buyer beware. This organization has been one of the best (if not the best) at scouting players for about 20 years, so if they want to move a guy who is, seemingly, entering his prime…No thank you.
Mets looking to unload Niese is a red flag to me too. Don’t be surprised if Tommy John comes calling in 2012.
Off Topic: Looks like Jason Marquis is headed to Twins.
http://twitter.com/#!/Ken_Rosenthal/status/149689987187744770
Jurrjens has shown himself to be injury prone. That may be why they want to move him.
The Braves need a power bat and instead of another one of their stud young pitchers being on the trade block they selected Jurgens to trade. He has never had arm problems. His injuries are from the waist down. I would not be worried. This guy has some real value to a contneding team.
Why can’t billy saber beane do the same thing ed wade did for the phillies and trade their best players from oakland to us for absolute crap? i am sure sandy will then keep a job for him if he gets fire as well…. our luck …. sigh…….
Houston made out pretty well all told with Philly. You couldn’t name one guy they received in any of their dealings with Ed Wade and even if you could, you don’t know the first thing about them. You don’t know what your talking about.
It’s no where even comparable to Beanne raping the Mets like he did when Phillips was here.
Agee, are you seriously telling me, that houston did well on any of the trades with philly??? seriously?????? the best player they got was traded away last year, that is ALL you need to know!!!!!!!!!!!
Logan Morrison just said on twitter that Prince is going to Seattle – done deal
That would be funny if LoMo scooped everybody. With a “mystery team” no less.
It was a hoax
LoMo had his holidays mixed up. Prob thought April Fool’s day was coming up.
I think they slightly over paid, but with Pujols and Fielder in the AL and the extra wild card, they may be in good shape for a playoff run.
They have some offense and 3 very talented starters. If they are still standing on Sept 30th, they’ll be dangerous in the playoffs.
Nice haul by the A’s. Peacock and AJ Cole are very nice young chips paired with Jarrod Parker from the Cahill deal.
AJ Cole is sneaky in this deal, lot of people will pick up on Peacock but Cole is no slouch in this deal.
Sure nice haul, a bunch of ?????????. 90% of these deals the team getting the known product wins by a landslide. But keep beleiving the crap from the loser A’s and lord sandy.
Ghost: If you’re not going to try to understand how things work, try not to mock them when they happen
unbelievable – he calls is a nice haul for A’s. But what do you expect?
Better haul for Nats. Gio is good NOW, they know he’s good IN THE MAJORS, he’s a young pitcher to go with the rest of their team which looks like it’s on the rise. They want to WIN.
But this guy naturally says it’s a nice haul for his REAL favorite team – the A’s. Maybe it would be it they had a GM who wanted to win but you know what’s going to happen to any of these alleged “prospects” either they hope they develop or if they do, and Billygoat Beans feels his A’s are not a ‘sure thing’ he’ll trade them. So just because they got these kids really doesn’t mean a whole lot.
And we know the new slogan for Saber Sandy’s Mets – “You Gotta Be Sure” same with Beans.
Bayonne if you opened your eyes you’d understand that when you get 3 solid prospects for 1 pitcher… that’s a nice haul. I understand that you don’t totally know anything about Gio Gonzalez but when you attack people for knowing more than you it just makes you look sad. And nobody wants a sad Bayonne during the holidays.
Gio is good don’t get me wrong but both teams got what they wanted but this move doesn’t change much for Washington in the grand scheme of things. They still are the 4th best team on paper in the division.
He’s good, but he has LOLiver part 2 written all over him unless th Nats can fix his walk rate.
Unreal, even the lowly Nats running circles around Alderson.
the nats haven’t been lowly for a while. Wealthy ownership group, a few years of #1 (and others close to it) draft picks, and a recently opened new park (taxpayer funded of course).
Some young talent starting to gel after some lean years win-wise (meaning they went through a building phase).
Now they see a window opening, so traded some of their accumulated MiL talent (hoarded prospects) to get an established young veteran pitcher.
They have been a well run (other than that werth deal, but most likely that was more of a “pedro to make a statement” type of signing) organization for a while. Not lowly.
I like Gio but i have to say they got robbed! They gave up what a rediculous amount of high end prospects If thats the going price for a young lefty then we MUST put Neise out there and see what we can get.
Who would you have parted with to make this deal?
Well I would want to give up as little as possible but I would say something built around say Familia and Parnell and some other lesser prospects
They didnt even give up one major leaguer to get Gio, and they kept Strasburg and Harper. I would have gladly given up Wheeler/Familia, Gee, Nieuwenhuis and Carson. Without batting an eyelash. We can only hope and of those SP’s will be half as good as Gio, and you dont have to wait 3 years for them.
They did give up a top 100 prospect who is a Catcher and probably the Nats #3 and #4 prospects based on ceiling AND minor league performance.
You have to consider Norris’ value as a young catcher, so right there you’re up against a tough sell for the Mets to match.
So you are talking Harvey+Wheeler probably based on Cole and Peacock likely being more valued than Harvey (possibly equals) and then you gotta make up for the Catcher so how do you do that? Kirk and Dillon Gee ain’t doing that.
Plus Gio is slightly over valued to tell you the truth
Wow! DC gave up a catcher…. did they need another young catcher. No…. They gave up something they didn’t need to get better. SHOCKING….. Telll us wwhen lord snady will do something to make the Mets better. Oh here comes he got one whole A ball pitcher for Beltran. Well based on jessup’s logic that was a rotten deal because jessup is telling the world that the A’s were great to get three of these maybe’s while lord snady only could get one.
Beltran for Wheeler was a great trade. Sandy got a Top 30 prospect for a few months of Beltran, who wouldnt return any picks(Thanks Omar).
This is totally different, Gio is a yound lefty starter that is cost controlled for 4 more years. Of course Gio would return a huge haul.
Would you be ok with giving up Harvey/Familia/Wheeler/Havens/Puello for Gio? I wouldnt due to the fact our upper minors is a bit thin on depth.
The Nationals and Marlins taking steps to ensure the Mets are cellar dwellars for the next five years. At least the Mets will pay tribute to the 62 Mets with a 100 loss season in their honor. They should get David Wright to run the bases backwards for old times sake before they trade him in July.
Bollocks! Welcome to last place folks. Sandy and the Wilpons is bringing this team to the ground.
Here’s a nice breakdown of the deal
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/majors/trade-central/2011/2612760.html
or
http://blog.sfgate.com/athletics/2011/12/22/gio-gonzalez-is-heading-from-as-to-nationals/
“I just spoke to a major-league scout who is familiar with all the players the A’s received and he told me, “I don’t know how Oakland could have done better.” “They got the right set of names,” he said. “Quality and depth.”
Umm who cares? This is a Mets site.
just spoke to 2 major league scouts who agreed that this was about as bad a deal as could have been made for Gio. The A’s fire sale is worse than the old Marlins. The A’s are just tying to humiliate MLB and force them to get the Giants to break on the San Jose territorial rights.
Ghost: Please don’t come here with fake sources as an attempt to make yourself look connected.
You spoke with 2 MLB scouts “who agreed that this was about as bad a deal as could have been made for Gio”
I mean who do you think you’re fooling with that?
From Boston Herald:
Another major league scout said he understands the A’s position.
“How valuable are Andrew Bailey or Gio Gonzalez with the current core they have?” the scout said. “Why not load up with the most good young players you possibly can for when this (stadium) situation is resolved?”
“If two of the four reach the level (the A’s) think they are, it’s a fair trade,” one scout told this newspaper. “If three reach the level they think they are, it’s a plus for the A’s. And if all four reach that level, they did great.”
Another major league scout said he understands the A’s position.
“How valuable are Andrew Bailey or Gio Gonzalez with the current core they have?” the scout said. “Why not load up with the most good young players you possibly can for when this (stadium) situation is resolved?”
Ghost of Omar: You should contact the major papers and provide your “two sources,” but I don’t think “Bert & Ernie” would qualify as MLB scouts
Will Carroll tweeted this and it’s been RT by most of the baseball writers on my feed
@injuryexpert Scout: “When the ____ did Gio Gonzalez become an ace?”
Donal: gio is good don’t get me wrong, but an Ace he is not. I’d put him in that 2nd tier though. His control is a big issue. You can’t be an Ace in today’s MLB in my view and walk 91 batters in 32 Games.
The other issue with Gio is his performance against top teams outside of his division. The guy was owned by Boston, NYY and Tampa.
For Gio to be a true Ace, those BB have to drop in my view. The Nats aren’t pegging him as an Ace. Strasburg is their ace, their hopes and dreams rest on Strasburg’s arm.
Oh, I agree he’s good. I like him a lot. He definitely improves the Nats (or any team he would have ended up on).
I’m just saying they did over pay for him. It seems the only question amongst the writers I follow is by how much.
But hey, if he puts them over the top and makes them legit contenders, it is not a bad trade.
The thing is, he can be an ACE. He was what? 25 last year? He could still get better, a lot better, and that’s something nobody seems to be taking into account.
No, in fact, that very idea is addressed frequently. What do you think baseball writers mean when they refer to ceiling? Hint: it is not the structural integrity of his house.
The thing is, 25 is when we should see it all come together. Can he improve? He probably will. Experience will help refine his talent into ability. But, we’ve probably seen how far his talent is going to take him.
Well, I haven’t seen it being discussed. And nobody on here seems to be talking about it, so I thought I’d bring it up.
Vinny: It’s not the worst thought in the world. Gio can become a top tier starter, I just don’t think he’s that guy. I think he’s a very solid #2 which there is nothing wrong with.
I think odds are more in Cahill’s favor “to become” an Ace simply because he’s 2.5 years younger than Gio.
The thing is, Oakland in their mind got 3 guys back who could be legit aces for 2 guys they feel will not be.
I think all 3 teams in these deals did well, I just think Washington gave up a little too much
It’s mainly guys who focus on prospects like Keith Law who mention it and only briefly. Like I said, because he’s 25 and been in a the league for about 3 full years, the idea is what we see is what we’re getting.
His pure physical talent is at it’s peak, most likely. He can refine it and focus it more, but outside of a Pedro/Dickey type transformation, don’t expect anything radically improved from what we saw this past season.
I don’t think the Nats got robbed, but they over payed.
“just spoke to 2 major league scouts who agreed that this was about as bad a deal as could have been made for Gio.”
No, you didn’t. Don’t even try that garbage.
Johan santana was dealt for 4 prospects.. gio for 3.. some idiot in here is glowing about the A’s because someone said they got a nice package, now, i tell that buffoon that he can go to the A’s blog and gleam and glow about it and leave us mets,no, REAL METS fans to mets conversation, his butt kissing for alderson and his goons is unbelievable, i hope that this FI goes away for good… at this point, where is GP with one of his racial rants….?
Alex: Sometimes I wonder why you even hit “post comment”
First of all, you calling me an idiot and buffoon, I hope that gets deleted per yesterday’s comments from Joe.
You clearly do not understand quantity versus quality. Let me explain.
When the Twins traded Santana to the Mets, they settled for what they got because the 2 teams they wanted to work with caved and they knew they had to deal Johan. Did they get some “prospects”? Yes. But they didn’t get 3 guys who were not only top prospects but top performers in the minor leagues.
The Mets farm system at the time of the Johan deal couldn’t stack up to the Nats farm system at the top if your life depended on it.
It seems every time you call me an idiot, I teach you something… whether it be about the Posting System, or Minor League Baseball. So keep it coming, maybe one day you’ll know what you’re talking about.
Have a merry christmas
you know, i like how you try to weasel your way out of things, at some point you need to come out like a man instead of looking for someone to defend you… i despise everything you comment on. seriously, are you a mets fan?? because you’re the only person in here who always defend someone other than a met and gloat about other team’s and their players.. you’re the worst person this site has, with your articles and comments i do not understand how joe D keeps you around, seriously, there’s not a single person in this site i’d like to meet in person more than you… and no, i will not wish you merry christmas.. whenever you see my name don’t even reply or anything ok… i stop commenting on your articles for the same reason..
Alex: Thanks for all of the support. Your Christmas spirit is shining through every word you type. I look forward to being called an idiot by you when I’m clearly correct about something… it makes every day feel like Christmas morning.
We got Johan for a bag of garbage. Only one that produced anything was Humber, and didnt and wont last. The only reason we got Johan at all was due to the Skanks and Sox not wanting to give up the prospects and sign him to a huge contract. The Twins were screwed and we bailed them out