The San Diego Padres have a huge hole in left field. Yes, there are some little pieces of armor they can plug in there, but none of them are optimal for this year. That's why the Padres should look north and the excess that is the Angels outfield and get Reggie Willits, who would be a great agitator atop the line-up.
27-year-old Scott Hairston went on a tear last year after being acquired from Arizona, posting .287/.337/.644, good for an OPS+ of 156. But I see him long-term as a bench player and a fill in. Up-and-coming converted third baseman Chase Headley is hitting pretty well in the first week of Spring Training, but he's had just 18 at bats above AA. Can we trust him now? I suppose you could throw Paul McAnulty in the mix - but I'd rather not. At age 27, McAnulty has based prospect stage, and in 77 career major league at bats he's produced at a clip of .208/.291/.312, good for an OPS+ of 63.
So back to the Angels, and their glut of outfielders. They have six outfielders: two center fielders in Torii Hunter and Gary Matthews Jr., big daddy Vladdy Guerrero in right, and three left fielders in Garret Anderson, Reggie Willits and Juan Rivera. Willits seems expendable, and let's assume Angels GM Tony Reagins agrees with me. What is it going to take for the Padres to get him?
We know the Angels are short as shortstop (no pun intended) and have a question mark at first base. But in no way does Padres GM Kevin Towers get rid of Adrian Gonzalez or Khalil Greene, who should be good for a combined 60 home runs in 2008. Without a fit at first or shortstop, I'll offer two trade scenarios which could give the Angels the necessary ammo to make another deal to get a bigger bat - the one they had hoped to get in the offseason but instead had to settle for the nice-but-not-big bat of Hunter.
First, the Padres could send Matt Antonelli and Clay Hensley or Cla Meredith to the Angels. Antonelli is a 22-year-old second base prospect who hit .307/.404/.491 with 28 steals in 37 attempts between high A and AA last year. These acquisitions could enable the Angels to package Howie Kendrick, Scott Shields and something else for that big bat (Paul Konerko?).
Second, the Padres could send Kevin Kouzmanoff to the Angels for Willits and a lower level prospect. The Pads could then move Chase Headley back to his natural position of third. The Angels could then trade Chone Figgins or be ultra-offensively oriented and move Figgins to short.
What do you think?
By Kyle Bungay of www.DugoutCentral.com
Irina Shayk
Taylor Walker
Tweets of the Week
Did You See That?
Comments (0) Add A Comment
Comment
Remember to keep your posts clean. Profanity will get filtered, and offensive comments will be removed.