Monday, August 07, 2006

Livan Hernandez Traded

Wow. I'm not quite sure what to make of it -- other than to never trust ESPN!

He's off to Arizona for two starting pitcher prospects, Garret Mock and Matt Chico.

I'm sort of reeling now. I really liked Livan. And I don't know what this means in terms of going forward. But Mike Rizzo, the Nats Scouting Director certainly knows these guys inside and out. You've gotta trust his judgement with them.

Still, wow.

I'm going to miss Livan.

Thanks to Basil at Federal Baseball for sharing the release.

More later....

  • Here's John Sickles latest on them. It's a recap of his pre-season top 20.
    9) Garrett Mock, RHP, B
    3-7, 4.55 in 17 starts for Double-A Tennessee, 94/39 K/BB in 99 innings, 103 hits allowed. Not really breaking through as I thought he might, but the K/IP remains promising.

    20) Matt Chico, LHP, C
    A rebounding process, combined numbers are 5-6, 3.14 in 17 starts between Lancaster and Tennessee, with an 86/24 K/BB in 95 innings, 75 hits allowed. Is finally adapting to Double-A competition after failing to do so in '04 and '05.

  • Here's The WaPo story.

    NFA listened in on the press conference and spits back Bowden's quotes.

    Banks gives a thumbs up and rounds up some other scouting reports of the kids from around teh internets.

    • posted by Chris Needham at 1:07 PM

    9 Comments:

    • Not to be too cynical (what reason do I have for that!) but are we now going to be doing trades for ex-Rizzo draftees ala Bowden w/Cincy?

      It looks like they will improve our minors wherever they end up but that's not saying much.

      By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8/07/2006 2:15 PM  

    • Yes, but they need to find another starter, and the price for a Livan-style innings-eater is about $7 million anyway.

      By Blogger Chris Needham, at 8/07/2006 3:08 PM  

    • bristownats - I'll take ex-Rizzo draft picks when you look at what he has done with the D-Backs farm system in a short period of time. He spearheaded the resurgence.

      traderkirk - Bowden ranked them at the top of the organization's pitching prospects with Colton Willems. He ranked Collin Balester and Craig Stammen after them

      By Blogger Brian, at 8/07/2006 3:39 PM  

    • Make that $6 million. ESPN's reporting that we had to ship off $2 million with Livan.

      By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8/07/2006 3:40 PM  

    • Actually, $5 million. Livan only makes $7 next year.

      By Blogger Chris Needham, at 8/07/2006 3:42 PM  

    • I know he had the knee problems, but it's kinda weird that Livan "deserves to be in a pennant race at this time in his career" (per Bowden) at 31 and, apparently Soriano, 30, doesn't.

      By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8/07/2006 3:51 PM  

    • The $7M that we would have spent on Livan will likely buy 2 starters that will produce similar numbers. Think Jeff Suppan and Gil Meche.

      By Blogger JammingEcono, at 8/07/2006 4:32 PM  

    • What are the odds tha Livan is ACTUALLY only 31?

      By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8/07/2006 6:38 PM  

    • To me it makes no sense to trade Livan, when you have NO ONE, NO ONE, waiting to pick up the slack for quite some time. Our pitching is really, really, terrible. Any free agent for 2006 thats any good will cost just as much as Hernandez. I blogged about it already, so I won't repeat, but I really feel that Livo was alot more valuable to the Nationals future, near and down the line, than the 2 prospects they picked up today. Although, I am intrigued by Matt Chico, he can really bring it and is a lefty. My best case scenario is that both prospects make the BIG CLUB and are good, and We RESIGN Livan for 2008 so he can rightfully throw out the first pitch in the Nats new stadium.

      By Blogger Screech's Best Friend, at 8/07/2006 8:05 PM  

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