WWJDD,

I think at this point, any role is going to be a reduced role. There aren't many AL teams left that need a DH. Having Vlad would be a nice bench bat bring in late in games,

Here is the Jon Heyman remark I talked about.
http://twitter.com/si_jonheyman

Martin,

If we sign Vlad you would be right . The Rangers should try to trade Mike Young and Julio Borbon for a centerfielder. Matt Kemp or Colby Rasmus come to mind. Kemp coiming off a bad year could be had and so could Rasmus as he is in LaRussa dog house. The Dodgers and Cardinals are both on Young's ok to trade list!

Kemp and Rasmus would both represent major, everyday upgrades for this lineup, and a lineup with Vlad and Kemp or Vlad and Rasmus instead of Young and Borbon would be be a major, overall upgrade.

I feel like a broken record, but WHY on EARTH would LA exchange Kemp for Young, especially since rumors are they are "cash-strapped"?

You can't just go through each team's roster and say "I'd like that guy on the Rangers!" It doesn't work that way.

What I would worry about is how Vlad would hit on a part time basis or PH. The way vlad bats, he may not be able to hit the bad pitch that he does when he is getting regular ABs.

@WWJDD?:

I'd give them Young, Borbon, and $8.5m/yr for 3 years to make THAT deal happen. Kemp made $4m last year. Let's assume his arb would be $6m this year. THat makes the money pretty close to a wash, and it replaces their CF hole (created by trading Kemp), and their 3B hole, which is gaping. Casey Blake will be 38 this season, and he's not nearly the hitter Mike Young is. If (as is rumored) Matt Kemp is in the doghouse there, that's a decent return for him.

Bringing Matt Kemp in would totally nullify any defensive upgrade you would get from replacing Young with Beltre and then some.

But WHY would LA do that? Young isn't a spring chicken, either, and he's terrible defensively. Why would they do that? Why on earth would they sell low on a guy like Kemp?

Kemp is making close to 7 Mill next year and would probably make 10 Mill plus soon after.
@ Ranger513 I think kemp is closer to the plus 3 UZR he had in 09 then the negative 24 he put up in 10 and if u look how he started his career you can see the strides he has made in the OF and i think he would have improved but something happened not sure wat tho. im not saying he would be better then borboun in CF but his bat sure is better so i think that more then levels out in kemps favor i personaly would prefer Rasmus but i just dont see that happening at least not this year.

Not going to predict a -24 again but every year has been negative except 09 so that would seem to be an anomaly. MY was only -5.4 and Kemp averages -9 for basically 4 years played (3 full and parts of 2). You are just shuffling the defensive problem from the corner to up the middle which probably isn't a good idea.

I saw that but notice that before 10 he was improving every year and MY is on the decline

@WWJDD ok how about this MY Borbon plus 9 Mill in 3 years plus a ptbnl depending on Kemps performence and theres three lists for the dodgers to choose from. One is if Kemps falls on his face the Dodgers would choose from the lower level list and as Kemps performance improves they can choose from the higher list like if Kemp finishes in the top 10 in the MVP voting the dodgers would have their choice of any prospect in the rangers system or something like that

I'm with WWJD, all this Young plus Borbon talk for Rasmus is CRAZY. There is literally no chance the Cardinals accept a trade like this. If we want Rasmus, you are looking at Borbon plus Holland. I might just do that.

@ aggie
I would do that.

The Rangers could legitimately offer 115 games to Guerrero if they wanted to without sacrificing any playing time to the other starters. Young would play 62 games at DH, 38 at 1B, 15 at 2B and 15 at 3B. Guerrero would start 100 at DH and 15 in RF. That would translate to around 450 at bats, maybe more since he would be available to pinch hit the other times. That would give Young a total of 130 games to start. Moreland around 124 games at 1B and if he is producing at a high level he could give a day off to one of the corner outfielders. If its to give a day off to Hamilton, Cruz could move to left and Moreland would play right field.
If Washington really wants to protect Hamilton, Cruz, Beltre and Kinsler from injuries then he should give them around 15 games off. Like every ten days should be realistic. He will have the personnel to substitute any one in the lineup.
Young 130 games, Hamilton 145, Cruz 145, Beltre 145, Kinsler 145 would be perfect. Murphy maybe 70 games and Guerrero around 115 would be reasonable.
If Guerrero could be had for $5M plus $3M in incentives in case he plays more time would be a nice contract for him and the Rangers as he would provide big time insurance at the plate in case of injury to ANY of the corner outfielders and 1B, 2B and 3B. You might ask your self how could he provide insurance to an infielder and even an outfielder? Hmmm...well in case Beltre, Kinsler, or Moreland gets hurt, Young could take over and Guerrero becomes the full time DH until further notice. What if Hamilton gets hurt? Cruz can move to left, Moreland to right, Young to 1B and Guerrero to full time DH. Having Young AND Guerrero proves to be too VALUABLE. If the Rangers offer Thome $4M then they should offer another million plus incentives and I think we have a better chance of re-signing him.

Everything you just said makes sense, except for 70 games for Murphy. If Josh/Nellie are playing 145 each (and, by your numbers, none at DH, since that's 100 Vlad/62 Young), and Vlad is playing 15 games in RF, that leaves about 15-20 games for Murphy. Unless, of course, Hamilton is playing CF for an additional 50 or so games, with Murphy in LF.

Also, there are 156 DH games (6 road interleague games).

@scooby- I would think that injuries quickly make up for lost game for Murphy/Borbon. And, I would think 100 games for Vlad is about right. The guy just lost all bat speed by the end of the season.

All in,

I had the same reaction as Scooby, not sure where you are getting Murph's playing time. I assume that you are assuming that Borbon will only play about 90 games then in your scenario?

Other than that I think your rundown was good. However, I think giving 15 games to Vlad in Right is probably unrelistic and won't happen. Also taking more than 22 games away from MY is probably unrealstic as well. Realistically though, in your scenario in the absence of injury while taking 22 games from MY I think we could offer Vlad 20 less games than you estimated maxing out at about 95 and around 400 PA's and maybe 25-50 more with PHitting.

If the Orioles are only going to give him 500 PA's for playing on a 4th place team then why would he not take 400 PA's and the glory of possibly winning the World Series?

I like your thinking All in, very nice scenario you weaved together there. The only obstacle is the need to get Murhpy playing time, and if we only had one or two more years of control I would say its an easy decision to tade him. But since we do have three years of control left on him, and he is an above average hitter, I feel like we need to get something pretty decent for him to trade him away. Maybe he could be included in a Rasmus trade, Borbon and Murphy for Rasmus and at least a pitching prospect if not more? That is probably more realistic than Young and Borbon for Rasmus or Kemp and cash.

Would you do it? For me I would want to see whether Moreland can produce at least an .850 OPS before I made that trade. My only other concern is Rasmus' defense. Can anyone provide feedback there?

Joe

I meant Murphy and Borbon for Rasmus and AT LEAST a good pitching prospect, not at least any old pitching prospect.

I don't know, maybe the Cards would want a lot more for Rasmus. Any thoughts?

Joe,
The Cardinals are hurting for a third basman. Mike Young is locked up for the next three years and Julio Borbon makes league minimum and has a national league style game. Rasmus is in La Russa dog house, so they might be willing to part with him. If i had to put a low level prospect in the deal to get it done i would not hesitate. I think Rasmus has the tools to be a star in the future, but he has not got along with La Russa so he could be available. .

Ric,

I know and I believe we've been through this. There is no way that the Cards are going to give up Rasmus for Young and Borbon. The likelihood that Young will be traded is also extremely low especially considering the FO has already told him that he won't be traded.

Now that we have taken the reality pill. What would you think of Julio and Murph for Rasmus and a pitching prospect?

Joe

IF YOU HAVEN"T ALREADY GO VOTE ON THE SIDE BAR POLL AND SAY YOU WANT TO SIGN VLAD INSTEAD OF STANDING PAT.

TAKE THE RED FREAKING PILL PEOPLE!

THE CARDS WOULD NEVER TAKE MY AND JB FOR RASMUS.