Trade Value of Micah Owings

Here’s the thing with Micah—he is a great hitting PITCHER -

But I disagree that he is a great HITTER – sure his avg, OPS, etc are way up there, but he’s only picking up the bat once a week with a few pinch hitting appearances sprinkled in.

On his merits as a pitcher, right now he is a good 3 or 4 starter, nothing more.

Micah gives a distinct advantage in the NL because it is another bat in the line-up – but I don’t think he has enough history as a Major League hitter to even be considered in a DH role in the AL.

Why would we want to trade a young, cost-controlled pitcher with a 2008 ERA+ of 119 and OPS+ of 96? We’re not the A’s, in perpetual trade seller mode, constantly trying to get younger and younger until the average age of our 40-man roster is 17.

I do find your DH idea interesting, though; except that so far, IIRC, BoMel has restricted Micah’s PH appearances to the second and third offdays between his starts. I don’t know what effect DHing for 4 straight days between starts might have on his pitching ability—and, as has been hammered home, his greatest value is as a starter.

Why would we be looking to dump young talent already? didn’t we learn anything from Voldemonts departure?

Bay is signed through 2009. Pretty reasonable cost too. 5.75 for O8, so owed less than 4 million for remainder of this year. 7.5 Million for next year.

Of course that would leave you with two left fielders, but they can force Byrnes to accept a trade. The problem is finding a taker without having to eat too much salary. They’d probably have to eat at least 10 million to find a taker. Maybe a good deal more.

As mentioned above, he’s a (very) good hitting pitcher, rather than a good hitter. By going to the American League, he would go from being the best at his position [pitcher] in the entire league, to being an average at best DH. Plus, even if you avoid the wear and tear of fielding, you still have to run the bases as a DH – Hudson and Johnson will tell you the perils involved in that!

However, the concept of trading him for a second-baseman to replace Hudson does appeal [is Owings that much better on the mound than alternatives like the Petit Unit?]. Maybe someone like Kelly Johnson of Atlanta? Owings certainly seemed to enjoy hitting there last season. :-) Just a thought.

Over on Baseball Prospectus, in the free content section, Nate Silver discusses the best-hitting pitchers.

Would be high to teams like the Tigers, who have big problems with their rotation and could do with a fillin DH from time to time as Sheffield seems hurt so often. Sadly I can’t think of anyone on that Detroit team they would part with other then Inge, but he plays the positions we already have sorted.