According to mlbtraderumors.com, the Dodgers are opened to the idea of trading Andre Ethier and his 5 yr/ 85 million dollar contract. Would anybody call the dodgers and offer Ian Kinsler and his 5 yr/ 75 million dollar contract? And for a kicker, they must take (THE) Face in the deal, with another player from the dodgers coming over to offset costs

lol ethier is so overrated...Kins, in his worst year, has almost the same WAR as in ethier's best year...awful trade.

A very good second baseman is worth more then an above average OF. Pass.

But we get rid of Kinsler

So there's two negatives to the trade. We're getting rid of one of our better player and down grading him in the process.

Scott Boras has got guys terrified. That's what this comes down to, right? Let's trade away our young, gold glove, all star, chemistry generating SS because Boras is too scary.

After all, we'd get a good pitcher. Never mind the fact that your Ranger's defense (with an aging 3B, declining 2B and revolving door 1B) will be a leaking sieve that null and voids your pitching advantage.

Ever notice how teams win the World Series?

drseuss: are you on the right thread????

Hi trickydick.

I know what you're saying. But that's what the thread is getting at. The Rangers would be swapping Kinsler's contract so Profar can man the Ranger middle infield w/Andrus. Eithier's value in WAR is less material to what is gained through subtraction of Kinsler.

So, what's the problem? Andrus' contract status (Boras). Any discussion of Kinsler, Profar, Price or the Upton brothers, comes back to one player. That is Andrus. He's our most desireble property outside of Profar. That's what this off season will be about, IMHO.

Peace

i'd trade Cruz for him right now. might regret it later... but right now....

Ethier costs too much. Not gonna happen.

Trading problems is NEVER good. Let the Dodgers chase Kinsler so we can get more than he is worth or just keep him and hope he learns to NOT POP UP SO MUCH.

The Dodgers are one Josh Hamilton away from the most fearsome offensive outfield in the majors. I see no reason they'd want to trade Ethier for Kinsler. I have nothing against Ethier, but I'd rather have Ian. Definitely.

Andy, I agree, but I think the Dodgers have bigger issues than talent alone. Obviously if we were talking about a lineup featuring Kemp, Hamilton, Ramirez, Gonzalez and Crawford we should be talking about a world-class caliber roster. But their problem is pitching. Pitching and chemistry. It's dope to have a dope roster on paper; it's another to actually practice it on the field.

Behind Clayton Kershaw and Chad Billingsly (whom I covet, but wonder if he'll ever live up to his talent level), they have no one. They need at least one more starter with projectable stuff, and if it's not Zach Greinke, it's not out there. They have no farm system to speak of, so making a trade would cause them to send off one of their studs, and for them to eat a significant portion of said contract, because all those goons are making a gang of money.

I root for the Dodgers to win, because it's good for baseball as a whole to have the Dodgers and Yankees playing well, but they have quite a bit of things to iron out. And right now, they seem more focused on spending money than they are on building something sustainable.

"I root for the Dodgers to win, because it's good for baseball as a whole to have the Dodgers and Yankees playing well"

I root for Eric to be more prolific with his posting as it makes us all look smarter.

"A very good second baseman is worth more then an above average " JKolar

We're not talking about a very good 2b, we are talking about Kins with an albatross of a contract.

@Tex Baseball

I do a lot of reading on BBTiA's forums and very little posting, and it is easy to notice you have absolutely no insight whatsoever into the game of baseball, and instead your only contributions are to make hollow attacks on anything eric has to say. Did he bang your mom? Did he run over your cat? Or are you just that god-damned hollow headed?

What about Alex Gordon? KC needs to make room for Will Myers, and they need near-ready starting pitching prospects in a big way which we can offer and they could also use a 2B'man. Gordon's not really a power-hitter though.

Carlos Gonzalez? COL could replace him with Colvin, and he's a LH-bat which we need if we lose Hammy. His numbers away from Coors are pretty horrible though, plus he's getting paid a lot the last few years of his contract. COL could use pitching prospects/a 2B'man too.

Dexter Fowler? COL could stick Colvin in CF too. Fowler added some power last season and he's a switch-hitter with decent #'s against both RH'ers and LH'ers. Could stick him at leadoff, #2 or maybe #3.

What Eric said in another thread was right though - not really many decent young OF'ers available.

@Kristen W.

I personally love all 3 of those ideas. I just have a hard time believing that they will be moved. Granted, the Rangers have the pieces to go out and get one of these guys if they offered the right guys. But I just don't think the Royals or Rockies are going to willing to part with any of them without a hefty price tag.

It's definitely worth exploring though. I'd love to have Alex Gordon or CarGo on the Rangers, but I fear their price tag is going to be a bit too hefty. And the Royals I would think would let Myers take Frenchy's spot in the OF rather than Gordon's. Fowler is intriguing. If we could get him in our outfield without giving up Profar/Olt/Perez/Martin/Buckel, I'd pull the trigger.

Kristin, I like the ingenuity of your ideas, but the most important factor here is money. In a vacuum, I think the Rangers would have a ton of interest in Gordon or Gonzalez, but no matter how far away those teams are from competing (whether it be one year or three), each of those two guys is their best player, and they are exceptionally affordable.

Cargo is making $71M over the next 5 years. Gordon is making $54M over the next 4. That's two of the game's superstars making roughly $14M AAV. Unfortunately, to make up for their hypothetical losses, they would command packages that wouldn't even be worth it to the Rangers.

@ Eric and Notorious

Any other OF'ers that might be available (aside from the Uptons)? Those are the only ones I could think of offhand. Can't remember where but I read that Nats might dangle Morse for starting pitching. He's strong like bull.

@ Kristen

I read that the Indians might dangle Shin-Soo Choo. And it wouldn't surprise me to see the names of Jacoby Ellsbury and Andre Ethier being floated out there on the trade market either. Maybe even a guy like Michael Cuddyer becomes available. We'll just have to wait and see.

Other OFs. Melky Cabrera is out there. Some of the other OFs of note are Bourn, BJ Upton, Victorino, Angel Pagan, and Cody Ross. Not a lot of excitement or solutions are present in this list. Bourn doesn't hit the HR and most are on the downhill side of 30.

A week ago I put together a list of all the players in pitchers' ballparks based on OPS, the idea being these players would be worth more to Texas than their existing clubs. I need to look at it again but I recall Cabrera was high on the list.

I'm sure he won't get much love from most people around here, but I'd like to see Cabrera brought in and see what he can do in the Ballpark for a couple of years.

Cabrera wouldn't be the 1st Ranger to have used PEDs. Bring him in. People really don't care about that stuff. Hell, Canseco said Bush watched take a hypo to his ass.. And I gotta tell ya, Canseco has been spot on.

I agree with those above who think Alex Gordon would be a good target. It would probably cost Derek Holland and a second base prospect like Leury Garcia, but I think it would be worth it. If you compare him to Josh Hamilton, you can see he would be a great replacement.

1. As a leftfielder, Gordon has posted a 13.3 WAR over the last two years. Hamilton has posted 7.8.

2. Gordon will be 29 next year and cost-controlled for a total of $44 million over four of his career prime years. We won't be paying for decline years.

3. Both are lefties and Gordon hits in Kaufman field with a HR park factor of 71 for LH Hitters while TBIA has a park factor of 119 for LH hitters. That is a factor of 1.67. Gordon's power numbers should really get a boost at our ballpark even more so than the other options.

http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/index.php/kicking-big-rocks-extreme-park-factors-and-batted-ball-data/

4. The other outfield options like Justin Upton and Carlos Gonzalez have dramatic variability in home/road splits and from year to year. Gordon numbers from the last two years have been almost identical.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gordoal01.shtml

We would need to sign a free agent pitcher before dealing Holland, but I really hope this is the direction our front office goes. They do read this message board, right?