Phatferd wrote:thedude wrote:Phatferd wrote:You just said it yourself. You need pitching. This trade did not get you a single arm. You lose production between Wilkerson and Soriano. Wilkerson may be a solid player (I agree), but he is not Soriano. You are still short at least 2 arms on that team.
You lost Kenny Rogers, so you are already in a hole. I see no reason why you would not even take a pitcher with Soriano. Mench or Nix won't land you a better pitcher than Soriano would. They will probably only land you a prospect too. Soriano would have gotten at least a teams top prospect or number 2-3, if not a number 1.
The Rangers have already gotten more calls for Wilkerson and Sledge than they ever did for Soriano. It will be easier to turn one or both into pitchers than to trade soriano for a good pitcher most GMs are smart (but apprently not Jim Bowden) they foresaw the potenial problem of trading for Soriano (the problem the Nats are having right now with him). By getting cheap good outfielders, the Rangers improve their chances of getting pitching.
If this is true, then I will take back everything I said. I don't think they have plans to trade Wilkerson. If they trade anyone it will be Sledge, but he will not get you an arm that will really help this team.
The only players on the big league roster they could swing for a top pitcher is Young, Tex, and Blalock (Soriano was the other) and none of these guys are going anywhere, except maybe Blalock. I don't see them trading Blalock now since they lost Soriano's bat. If they lose Blalock too (even though he wasn't as productive last year) their offense is not better than the Angel's and their pitching is probably battling Seattle as the worst staff in the AL West. It won't get it done.
It's what everyone has been trying to tell you in this thread.
No one would give up any reasonable pitching for a 1 year, $10 million dollar rental of Soriano.
By making this trade, the Rangers can (and will) move players for pitching. Blalock, Mench, Wilkerson, Adrain Gonzalez, Nix, Dellucci, Sledge, are all on the block, and will land better pitching than what Soriano would have, simply because no one wanted a one year, $10 million dollar rental of Soriano. That's not really news, it was all over the news, websites, and papers, that no one wanted to give up someone solid for a one year, $10 million dollar rental of Soriano. Any of the other guys are much cheaper and better deals than Soriano is. Believe me, if the Rangers could have landed any decent pitching for Soriano, they would have done the deal in a heartbeat. The only offer that was serious in the least was the Benson deal, but that would have been horrid for the Rangers, so they made the best deal they could to put themselves in position to deal for pitching (which I'm sure they will do now that they have the trading chips several teams are interested in).