Slugger Shavings 2058.4 - Checking in with Alfredo Garcia (unfortunately not Yoshii Takuda)

[RT60]

In 2055, GM BP made a tough decision to trade Yoshii Takuda. It looked like Takuda was a stubbed toe away from early retirement after so much promise and had recently told GM BP that his arm was dead. Twin Cities astutely took advantage and traded two former first round picks to Louisville for Takuda. These prospects were Alfredo Garcia and Winston Farthing. You don't have to be a genius to see who won that trade.

Farthing had a brief taste in Louisville, but remains mired in AAA. His ceiling is a possible bench piece. Garcia, on the other hand, has shown more promise. He had a fantastic first year in AAA last season hitting .313/15/87 earning a call up this season as a supplemental outfielder. So far he has done well, starting 33 games and hitting .271 with 0.5 WAR. He has the potential to be a serviceable starting right-fielder with a fantastic arm. In fact, that might happen sooner than later given Khayyat Isa's likely departure after this season.

"Just keeping my head down and working hard," said Garcia. "I hope that gets me a bigger place on the team. I know we are rebuilding right now, so at least I likely won't be competing with some free agent veteran coming in."

[BaseClogger]

Corner outfielders have always been plentiful but you couldn’t have predicted that the 2057 draft would be littered with dozens of guys who look like starting corner OFs.

[ae37jr]

I kinda feel bad that this trade went south for you. At the time, Takuda was someone that wasn't putting it all together and was only signed for a season and a half. I really had no clue that he'd play this well or that he would sign a dirt cheap 3 year extension.

Going the other way was Farthing, who I know I had pegged as someone capable of starting in CF. So to see his current 8/7/8 defensive means he must have at least lost some range.

And like Kurt said, that deep draft last season really hurt Garcia. At the time it looked like he might be a servicable starter. But with that crop of corner outfielders recently, it has pushed him down the list a lot.

I really never want to fleece anyone because it will hurt future deals. For example. I had considered making an attempt at Fountain at the deadline. He would have been more of a luxury than a need. So I was looking at him as a two month rental. I came up with a package that I was going to offer and thought about the Takuda trade. I was like... this guy is going to think I'm trying to rip home off again.

[BaseClogger]

The random ups and downs of defensive ratings is so much more difficult to swallow than the offense. I’m probably wrong but I just don’t feel like that fluctuates much (at least range and arm) in real life. So it stinks to have somebody drop from 9 to 8 range (essentially CFer to not CFer) and then see the opposite happen for other teams.

[RT60]

I kinda feel bad that this trade went south for you. At the time, Takuda was someone that wasn't putting it all together and was only signed for a season and a half. I really had no clue that he'd play this well or that he would sign a dirt cheap 3 year extension.

Going the other way was Farthing, who I know I had pegged as someone capable of starting in CF. So to see his current 8/7/8 defensive means he must have at least lost some range.

And like Kurt said, that deep draft last season really hurt Garcia. At the time it looked like he might be a servicable starter. But with that crop of corner outfielders recently, it has pushed him down the list a lot.

I really never want to fleece anyone because it will hurt future deals. For example. I had considered making an attempt at Fountain at the deadline. He would have been more of a luxury than a need. So I was looking at him as a two month rental. I came up with a package that I was going to offer and thought about the Takuda trade. I was like... this guy is going to think I'm trying to rip home off again.

You shouldn't feel bad at all. We both went into the trade with open eyes. I now know that pitchers in this league can appear dead, but they are only sleeping. And I am convinced there is a setting somewhere in my farm system called "destroy prospects? Y or N" and I have Y checked.