Saturday, July 30, 2011

Red Sox Acquire Mike Aviles

Link.

Hmm, not exactly the trade I thought that the team would make nearing the July 31 trade deadline. I do not understand this trade at all. Boston sent Yamaico Navarro and Kendal Volz to Kansas City for Mike Aviles.

Aviles finished fourth in the AL ROY vote in 2008 when he hit .325/.354/.480/.833 with ten home runs. He had a decent season last year, but this year he has been pretty terrible while playing backup in the infield. His defense is not terribly impressive so if this is a depth move, I just do not get it.

Navarro was in the Red Sox Top 20 prospects at the beginning of the year. He has not hit particularly well with the big league club, nor has he been terribly great defensively, but then neither is Aviles. I just don't understand trading a 23 year old cost-effective backup infielder for a 30 year old backup infielder. I doubt Boston is getting anything terribly great out of Aviles that Navarro can't provide. Boston also has Drew Sutton around who has been a productive backup infielder. So did they really need Aviles?

Still, if it was just a one for one trade, it might not be so head-scratching, but Boston included Kendal Volz in the trade. Volz is a reliever in high-A with some pretty good peripheral numbers. Sure there's lots of these players out there, but that doesn't explain why Boston packaged a pretty good one with a cheap backup infielder for another backup infielder.

The only thing I can think of is that Boston has another move in the works and needed Aviles because Marco Scutaro is going to be traded, or something like that. If this is the only move made, it's confusing and thoroughly unnecessary.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

2011 All Star Game and Festivities

I wanted to get back to posting regularly here, but just have not really had the opportunity to do so. As such, I have missed a ton of stuff with the All Star Game, once one of my favorite events in baseball.

I am not as huge a fan of the All Star Game anymore, but do still watch it. This year the Red Sox had six players selected: Adrian Gonzalez (who is having an MVP season), Kevin Youkilis, Jacoby Ellsbury, David Ortiz, Josh Beckett, and Jon Lester. Beckett and Lester were both hurt, so they did not play, but the other four did. Gonzalez hit a home run and Youkilis had a single, but that's it for good performances.

Gonzalez and Ortiz each participated in Monday's Home Run Derby with Gonzalez losing to Robinson Cano by one home run. Cano just looked unstoppable on Monday.

The big news of the Game was the players not present. I do not recall another year when such a big deal was made out of players choosing not to attend the All Star Game. Manny Ramirez and Pedro Martinez refused to attend several times while with the Red Sox, but all of a sudden, this year it was a big deal. The reason: Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, and Alex Rodriguez. Those three players along with C.C. Sabathia all from the Yankees were no-shows at the Game. Rodriguez I kind of understand. After all, he did just have surgery. I don't really care if the players show up or not in the end, but I'm surprised that it has suddenly become a hot button issue. If it were not for Derek Jeter, I am sure it wouldn't be.