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Altanta Gets Screwed in this Three-Way Posted by Jason Thornbury at 12/6/2006 10:08:00 AM View more posts by this author

Altanta is discussing sending Tim Hudson and Adam LaRoche to the Mariners for Rafael Soriano and, from San Francisco, Armando Benitez. The Mariners would complete the deal by sending Richie Sexson to the Giants. Is this not an absolute steal for the Mariners? Adam LaRoche is 27, hit 32 homers last year with a .915 OPS and is left-handed, which is a good fit for Safeco Field. Granted, Hudson isn't what he was a few years back, but while his K/BB has dropped the last couple years, the real problem has been the spike in his HR rate, which should drop at Safeco. LaRoche made less than $500 grand last season. Sexson is due to make $14 million this season. Hudson, set to make $6M -- a bargain these days -- definitely upgrades a rotation that is seeking two new starters. Soriano and Benitez would upgrade the Atlanta bullpen, but both have lingering injury questions. And isn't that a lot to give up for two set-up guys for Bob Wickman? Am I wrong here or is Atlanta getting hosed?

Comments....

There are also rumors of LaRoche going to Anaheim for Chone Figgins and to Pittsburgh for Mike Gonzalez. While both of those are incomplete - who knows what else the Braves have to throw in - they are better than Seattle's 3-way deal. So I doubt it happens. But if the Braves are willing to trade LaRoche for pitching, I think that should say something about him. He's only had 2 hot 3-month stretches in his 3 years as the Atlanta starter at first base. He still struggled against lefties (.241/.315 /.482). I'm not sold LaRoche is a star and the Braves probably feel so too and are seeing if anyone will overpay for him. Posted by schoenke at 12/6/2006 11:46:00 AM

They almost got the Orioles to agree to trade Brian Roberts and Hayden Penn for LaRoche and pending free agent Marcus Giles before Peter Angelos nixed any thought of that deal. I think that would have been a poor more for the O's, especially when they have almost a LaRoche clone in Jay Gibbons and probably wouldn't be able to re-sign Giles. Posted by bscwik at 12/6/2006 3:51:00 PM

...and they ended up getting Soriano for Horacio Ramirez. He's, uh, not quite Tim Hudson. Until a deal is actually consummated I refuse to take any trade rumor very seriously. Too much noise in the media's signal. As a fan or an analyst, there simply isn't enough time in the day to try and find the logic in every lopsided 'trade' that gets floated by some journalist. Posted by ESiegrist at 12/7/2006 1:41:00 AM

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