Giants trade for Hawkins - Gives up Jerome and Aardsma
This is an exciting trade as Hawkins is one of the premier setup men in all of baseball. This should help stabilize the bullpen and clarify roles more. It also solidifies Walker's hold on the closer position. I only regret losing Jerome Williams.
Ironically, this could have been Lowry instead of Williams had circumstances been a little different. Lowry has struggled just as much as Williams this season, only Lowry was allowed to try to figure it out at the MLB level while Williams was sent down. Had Williams not had to deal with his father's health situation this spring training, he could have won the 4th spot in the rotation instead of Lowry and Lowry would have been the one to skip a turn in the rotation instead and be forced to take a turn in the bullpen instead of Williams, who admitted in a recent interview that the skip and bullpen use did irk him and play with his mind (and perhaps motivation).
I still think that Jerome Williams can become a top of the line starter but you have to give up quality to get quality and LaTroy Hawkins is as quality as you can get in terms of a set-up reliever. In addition, I suppose with Cain, Valdez, and Misch in the minors and Hennessey doing well in the majors, the Giants felt that they could deal Williams from strength.
Aardsma, I assume, is the kicker to get the Cubs to pay for Hawkins salary this season. I don't have high hopes for Aardsma future, certainly not the closer that we expected from his first pro season, plus we should have Benitez for another couple of seasons by which time we hopefully can find our next closer by. But Aardsma could still figure out the pitch he needs to become a top reliever, but after almost two seasons, if he hasn't figured it out yet, who knows how long it will take.
I guess this is a sign too that the Cubbies are looking beyond this season. They claim that Prior's injury did not precipitate this trade, that it could have been done a week ago if it wasn't for the money, but my guess is that while they may have been shopping Hawkins before the injury, the injury perhaps changed what they were looking for in trade, making them willing to give up the cash to get the prospects.
Also, from what I read in interviews with Sabean over the past couple of days, it sounds like he is not done dealing, he is looking for left handed hitting to help the Giants lineup against RHP.
Ironically, this could have been Lowry instead of Williams had circumstances been a little different. Lowry has struggled just as much as Williams this season, only Lowry was allowed to try to figure it out at the MLB level while Williams was sent down. Had Williams not had to deal with his father's health situation this spring training, he could have won the 4th spot in the rotation instead of Lowry and Lowry would have been the one to skip a turn in the rotation instead and be forced to take a turn in the bullpen instead of Williams, who admitted in a recent interview that the skip and bullpen use did irk him and play with his mind (and perhaps motivation).
I still think that Jerome Williams can become a top of the line starter but you have to give up quality to get quality and LaTroy Hawkins is as quality as you can get in terms of a set-up reliever. In addition, I suppose with Cain, Valdez, and Misch in the minors and Hennessey doing well in the majors, the Giants felt that they could deal Williams from strength.
Aardsma, I assume, is the kicker to get the Cubs to pay for Hawkins salary this season. I don't have high hopes for Aardsma future, certainly not the closer that we expected from his first pro season, plus we should have Benitez for another couple of seasons by which time we hopefully can find our next closer by. But Aardsma could still figure out the pitch he needs to become a top reliever, but after almost two seasons, if he hasn't figured it out yet, who knows how long it will take.
I guess this is a sign too that the Cubbies are looking beyond this season. They claim that Prior's injury did not precipitate this trade, that it could have been done a week ago if it wasn't for the money, but my guess is that while they may have been shopping Hawkins before the injury, the injury perhaps changed what they were looking for in trade, making them willing to give up the cash to get the prospects.
Also, from what I read in interviews with Sabean over the past couple of days, it sounds like he is not done dealing, he is looking for left handed hitting to help the Giants lineup against RHP.
posted by obsessivegiantscompulsive at 5/28/2005 01:28:00 PM
2 Comments:
Interesting comment that the releiver stint messed with Jerome's mind and motivation. To me, this says that he's lacking the mental strength to make it in adverse conditions. That would explain why he was traded.
Good angle that I did not catch, thanks for the comment. I also recall that this happened before with a young Giants pitcher, he complains openly and viola they end up not being on the team. I recall Ainsworth complaining a bit about the Giants in the spring training before he got traded. Ponson did some whining as well and, of course, was not signed (fortunately). I feel like there were others but don't recall any others off-hand.
The Chronicle mentioned something interesting too. The Giants were worried that Williams will have chronic arm problems because of his side-armed delivery which they have been unable to get him to change. This would explain his trips to the DL over the past few years.
They also mentioned something that occurred to me later as well, that Accardo's emergence made Aardsma available.
This bit of info linking Williams chronic arm problems with this delivery makes the shock of losing him not so bad. But mainly the idea that we picked up such a good reliever (which ironically came from the same team that we traded away such a good reliver, Minnesota) helped eased me over that loss.
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