A Definite Candidate for a Release

[love_that_reefer]

I imagine Friedman saw the diminishing skills and traded him when he could while saving a couple of million in the process. They got three players for one plus salary relief. The Rays were close to the WC but didn't they lose Longoria for a while at the time or did that come later?

[realmofotalk]

ESPNLosAngeles.com: Angels owner Arte Moreno has told general manager Tony Reagins not to spend any more of his money this year, according to a baseball source.

Go figure.

[Tobywan]

I imagine Friedman saw the diminishing skills and traded him when he could while saving a couple of million in the process. They got three players for one plus salary relief. The Rays were close to the WC but didn't they lose Longoria for a while at the time or did that come later?

I think over all Friedman has been a godsend, but I don’t think he has a crystal ball to know for sure a player is suddenly going to go down the toilet. I just remember that the whole thing didn’t feel right, it went against the pattern that they had established since taking over. One of the things was they have a policy of not blindsiding players, if they are going to bench them or trade they are the first the know, not media, fans and so on. When the news first broke the Rays denied it, at one point the news media even retracted, saying it had fallen through. The main reason for that was it was kept from Kazmir, he first learned of it from reporters and he even asked them “Is this a joke, am I being punked?” I remember watching the broadcast, it was mentioned in the pre-game show that there had been no trade. Kaz was dressed in the dugout,. The game ended, the guys probably hadn’t even gotten the showers turned on and the first thing out of Todd Kalas’ mouth on the post game show was that Kazmir had been traded to the Angels.

Trades are a part of the game, you lose one, sometimes you miss them sometimes you don’t , usually fall in fan love with the new guy just as much as the departing one. ( SRod certainly is welcomed at least in my book.) I understand that all too well, probably one of the reasons why I wasn’t overly freaking out about the huge exodus last year. People around here couldn’t believe I wasn’t screaming my head off about losing Crawford, heck I felt like we had him years longer than we probably deserved.

Obviously the thing with Scotty, is all water under the bridge now and no I don’t personally think physically losing Kaz cost them a shot, but I think the message it sent of “ throwing in the towel “ as it were (though that was also denied) just seemed to start a domino effect, especially with the fans. It’s easy for people on the outside to see “oh a move to free up money and get a little return”.

Of course the team put on a brave face, but they were different, there was a sense of the wind knocked out their sails and again I just think it was the message not so much the name as far as the players were concerned. With the fans though this wasn’t some fill in scrub at least not here. They did get Aki back which did help, but then it tumbled…it was Pena that went down not Longo (that was last year with the quad), when he broke his finger in early Sept. Yes, that in my view was the death blow at the time and they just spiraled, lost what like 10 or more games in a row and never recovered. Friedman certainly couldn’t have foreseen that, he’s not THAT good. I don’t want to sound like I am blaming Friedman, but I do think maybe still being somewhat new to the job he didn’t think ahead of the timing of such a move. To me it speaks volumes that nothing even close to that cloak and dagger type deal has been made since of course it’s only June.


Like I say It was just when and how it was done that rubbed people here the wrong way and it seems they learned the lesson.