Aaron Miles and Jake Fox Traded To A's

that is such bullshit.

we give away mike weurtz to the A's cuz lou won't play him and now we give away jake fox in order to lure the A's to take a couple million of our payroll.

just cuz the manager won't play the guys doesn't mean we gotta give them away...yeesh.

So let me see if I have this straight. To free up $1.7MM in payroll that he utterly wasted on Miles last winter, Hendry has to give Oakland a player better than the three "prospects" combined that he's getting in return? Nice gig if you can get it, huh? Remind me again how this fat fuck keeps his job.

Prediction: Jake Fox has 11 big league homers. I predict that these three prospects will never combine for as much as 11 big league innings played.

Aaron Miles follows Macias and Ne!f! and the rest down the path of Hendry MI Shame.

Fox has the better minor league track record and is slightly younger, but Hendry did in fact acquire the player who had the higher MLB value in 2009 according to FanGraphs. Yes, stats can lie, but so can your eyes. Maybe we'll get lucky for once.

Jake Fox is viewed as a hitter without a position. In truth, he can play several positions, but none of them very well. Hitting is his strength and he probably is better suited for the AL.

Trading Miles was a good move on Hendry's part. I didn't think anyone would take him, so getting anything for him is good.

The problem I have with the trade is that it uses up two trade chips that could better be used in a more important trade (i.e. for a player the Cubs actually need).

According to comments in this blog, Moria only has one more year before the Rule 5 and he was in A ball in 2009. Sounds like a waste of a body for the organization.

I'm fine with the deal. Fox really didn't have a role here, and considering his age, along with the probability that we may have to take Pat Burrell, plus the 1.7 million savings (which might really be the key, considering how tight things are financially), we got a usable pen arm in Jeff Gray (I don't buy him as a late inning type), an upper level positional piece (granted, I don't think Spencer is more than a Quad-A type, although there is some pop that if he improves on things, maybe his bat develops into Jake Fox-ish), and Ronny Morla.

Morla's the intriguing one to me. Big, lanky guy who likely will physically mature some more. Low 90's fastball, throws strikes, and a decent change so far. There's a lot to like.

Considering what we gave up, and where things stand for the organization now and in the near future, I'm fine with this deal.

It does free up a little money for Rob's snowball chance in hell (aka Figgins) or Hudson or a 4th starter.

I like the deal. Even organization soldiers, which is the worst that Morla and Spencer are going to be have some value, and Hendry frees up $1.7 million to spend in a market that looks like it will yield better values than last year's did.

Jacques Jones wants to come back and play in 2010. The Cubs outfield problems are solved.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/12/odds-en...

Red Sox sign Scutaro.

http://twitter.com/ed_price/status/6325775066

"Let's remember who Fox is...a nice guy but a guy that can't play the field and can't hit a breaking ball."

Jake Fox is Matt Stairs but younger, and he cannot hit a breaking ball as he did not "adjust back" to the league.

As we said all last year, Jim Hendry is just out of it. Half of me wants the team to fail miserably in 2010 (which they look like they are working on already), so that Ricketts just has to let the knucklehead go.

Jake had no position on the team, is an AL DH (where he should get some AB's) and Miles, like Bradley were TOTAL fuck-ups by the aforementioned GM. Its the usual "our crap for yours". Jake was a cut above crap, but the NL does not have a DH.

2010 is going to suck

As for the trade, I dont really know what value Fox had. He is a horrible defensive player who cant layoff sliders so I think it a fool's errand to say he was a good trade chip. I think Gray and the 1.5 mil we save on payroll by dumping Miles is a decent return.

This off season will be about clearing $$$$ so big Jim can eat more of bradleys salary i guess he just ate about 2 million more.
This sounds like last two years lets focus on one move publicize it so all teams know what we need to do.
Somehow i think some rather good teams are more gaurded
in press statements.

Dave Kaplan is doing some more harding hitting journalism involving hot baseball wives and girlfriends...

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/david-kaplan-...

Interesting notes from Levine on his blog:
http://espn.go.com/chicago/columns/blog/_/pos...

Hendry compares Gray to Guzman and sounds excited about him. Also says that this deal had nothing to do with Milton. Yeah, sure.

Submitted by Rob G. on Thu, 12/03/2009 - 5:53pm.
don't have time to do dossiers on these guys at the moment, but Gray's one of those great stuff, can't control it guys. Can never have enough bullpen arms and I assume he has some option years left.

the other 2 from their numbers look like a 22-yr old kid that K's a lot of hitters and a corner outfielder/1b type with a lot of power and not much else but from the left side...Jake Fox's mirror image in other words.

==================================

ROB G: Jeff Gray has one minor league option left.

Submitted by John Beasley on Thu, 12/03/2009 - 6:33pm.
According to comments in this blog, Moria only has one more year before the Rule 5 and he was in A ball in 2009. Sounds like a waste of a body for the organization.

===========================

JOHN B: Ronny Morla and Matt Spencer will be eligible for the Rule 5 Draft for the first time post-2010.

I have seen quite a bit of Morla out here over the past three years (he was at Extended Spring Training 2007-09), because the Cubs play mostly the A's, Giants, and Angels in Minor League Spring Training, EXST, and Instructs. He is somewhat comparable to Robert Hernandez, a bit raw but with some upside.

And I saw Spencer play quite a bit in his college days at Arizona State and then a little bit in Minor League Camp (ST), and I would compare him to Micah Hoffpauir (1B-LF-RF). While Hoffpauir is the better defender at 1B, Spencer has a stronger arm and is a better corner OF, although he can play 1B, too.

The Cubs had to throw in Jake Fox just to unload Aaron Miles. Real smooth, Hendry.

I'm not all for Jake Fox or anything... I like him, but he's not an impact player (nor future impact player for that matter), so whatever. My biggest problem is how shitty Hendry was at his job last off season and how it is still affecting the team, even in December '09.

The silver lining to all this: Aaron Miles is gone. Fuck him. Kind of wish he was stuck in Kansas City, Canada, or Minnesota or somewhere besides warm, sunny Oakland, but oh well... he's someone else's problem now.

Now that Fox and Miles are off the roster, I've been thinking about what the cubs should do with the rest of the lineup this offseason.

1. Offer Orlando Hudson a 1 year deal in the 3 to 3.5 range. Make the offer with a must sign date of 12/12 because he will effect the next chain of events.

2. Assuming Hudson agrees, Non-Tender Fontenot. The 1.7 from the Miles/Fox Deal plus Fontenot's likely 1 million will be almost enough money to pay Hudson.

3. Get Lou,Milton Bradley and Hendry in a room together to see if the relationship can be salvaged. The more I hear, the more I don't see a way to improve from Milton's production in 2010. Better to keep him and hope he builds value at this point.

4. Target Rocco Baldelli as a 4th Outfielder, 3 outfield postion defensive, Kfuk platoon mate. Figure 1 Million plus some small incentives would be enough. He should be in line for 250-400 At bats with a Soriano-Bradley-Fukudome Outfield.

5. Target a AAAA corner OF slugger to stash in Iowa. (Mike Restovich?). Cubs organizational Outfield depth is thin.

6. Offer Koyie Hill his old job back for 750K max. If he doesn't agree then replace him. Surely he would accept.

Looking at a Lineup of

Cf Kfuk
2b Hudson
3b Rammy
1b DLee
LF Soriano
Rf Bradley
C Soto
SS Theriot

Bench of

Koyie Hill: Backup catcher

Blanco: SS backup, late inning defensive wiz

Hoffpauir: 1b, corner OF backup. Primary LH Pinch Hitter

Baker: 2b,3b primary backup

Baldelli: All 3 OF position backup, Fukudome platoon mate

I would have liked to have seen what Rudy Jaramillo could do with Fox and Hoffpauir. Now, I guess that's just Hoffpauir.

I'm not particularly angry by the trade, just confused that the Cubs don't want to put any more organizational effort behind Jake Fox when it seems he's been game to try anything to add value to the team.

Although it looks like 90% of Cubs fans like the trade, an awful lot of people are looking at it from a Chicago-centric point of view. Basically they see it as a hat-in-hand Hendry knocking on doors and begging GM's to take Aaron Miles off his hands and asking them what it would take to make that happen. "Jake Fox and a million bucks? You got it. He's yours! Thanks man."

Which would have been pathetic if it had gone down that way.

More likely though, it was a case of the A's approaching the Cubs because they wanted Jake Fox. They sure seem happy to have gotten him, as opposed to Miles who is getting second billing.

With Fox as the centerpiece, the deal looks a lot better. Having fallen out of favor with Lou, Jake didn't have a role with the Cubs next year. But he helped us unload Aaron Miles, freed up a couple million bucks, opened some roster spots and restocked the farm (at least for one year) in preparation for some losses there when the inevitable Bradley trade goes down.

The Bay Area media are looking at this trade the same way I am. John Shea of the S.F. Chronicle posted:

To help convince the Cubs to part with Fox, the A's agreed to take on most of Miles' 2010 salary, $1.7 million of $2.7 million.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/...

FWIW, Fangraphs says Miles has on average been worth $1.6 million per year.