Cubs trade Barrett for all that they possibly could get
Posted by: Richie Rich in Baseball Business, Charity, News
The Chicago Cubs have traded catcher Michael Barrett to the San Diego Padres.
The Cubs will get Padres backup catcher Rob Bowen, minor league outfielder Kyler Burke, and possibly some cash.
A lot of people are saying the Cubs didn’t get enough for Barrett. I don’t think so. The Cubs tried to make a lateral move here to remove a catcher who’s become a distraction in their clubhouse.
I’m surprised at what they got in return. They got a decent replacement for Barrett and got a early 2006 2nd Round pick (albeit a project) in return.
| 2007 stats | BA | OBA | SPct | AB/HR | C-ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rob Bowen | .268 | .371 | .439 | 41.00 | 3.46 |
| Michael Barrett | .256 | .307 | .427 | 23.44 | 4.17 |
This season, Rob Bowen has better offensive stats (except for Home Runs) than Barrett while playing at pitcher-friendly Petco Park. He has a career .273 AVG and .442 SLG at Petco, which rank him 12th best for hitters with at least 75 At-Bats at Petco. Playing full-time at Wrigley Field could improve those numbers - just as they did when Barrett came to the Cubs from Montreal (.253 AVG / .388 SLG with Montreal and .284 /.484 with the Cubs).
Bowen also sports a better Catchers’ ERA in 2007 than Barrett. As a disclaimer, keep in mind a lot of that was earned at pitcher-friendly Petco while catching for the best pitching staff (by ERA) in the National League while Barrett caught the 5th best ERA in the NL.
As another plus, Bowen is 26 while Barrett is 30.
Plus, as far as I’ve read, Bowen hasn’t been punched by one of their pitching stars (Zambrano) in the dugout. Or made a point to jaw at an opposing pitcher (Roy Oswalt) after getting hit a few days prior. Or thrown at punch at AJ Pierzynski after cleanly getting his clock cleaned at home plate.
This is more addition by subtraction for the Cubs than anything else.
Trade throw-in Kyler Burke was heralded as the best high school baseball talent from Tennessee since Todd Helton was drafted by the Colorado Rockies.
The Padres selected him with the 35th overall pick a year ago in the 2006 Draft.
However, he’s failed to bat .250 in two seasons in low-A league ball.
Here’s the real questions regarding this trade …
- Does this give the Cubs a better chance to sign a resurgent free-agent-to-be Carlos Zambrano?
- Will Barrett continue his $10,000 per Home Run pledge to Derrek Lee’s charitable foundation for LCA?
- What do the Cubs do with the Michael Barrett Home Jersey giveaways for June 26th?
- What do the Cubs do with the Michael Barrett Bobblehead giveaways for July 1st?
- What will Barrett do on days Greg Maddux pitches? Because Barrett didn’t catch Maddux when he was with the Cubs.
Entries (RSS)
June 20th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
Thank Goodness, he was a black on on the organization.
thank you, shows here all week.
June 20th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
I still do not think the Cubs have a chance at signing Zambrano after shelling out all the gauranteed dollars this offseason then going up on the auction block.
Is Zambrano a Yankee next year, or do the Yanks take the chance and get Buehrle from the White Sox now and think about Carlos during September after they fail to make the playoffs this year? How will it all go down????
June 20th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
Offensively, Barrett is far superior, but it looks like Bowen has done a good job defensively behind the dish.
My biggest question in all of this: will Barrett try to take a shot at Chris Young in response to Young’s recent dustup with Derek Lee? (Just kidding, if you couldn’t tell.)
June 20th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
At least Bowen has all of his parts….
June 20th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
Gee, after the Pierzynski brawl, Cub Nation cheered for Michael Barrett as the face of the organization. Now it is used as a bullet point in a list of why he was garbage and a candidate for “addition by subtraction”.
And Richie, you have to stop cherry picking your numbers to justify this as an even trade of offense. Bowen has a grand total of 82 at bats this year, and 213 for his career (over 4 seasons). That’s not big enough of a sample to compare against Barrett who had over 1700 at bats in six seasons with Montreal before he came to the cubs. Bowen is a back up catcher at best. Let the people know that Bowen has a career .230 average and a stellar .376 slugging percentage and a whopping 6 career dingers in those 213 career at bats. Oh, and you also forgot to mention that in 8 season in the minors, Rob also had 1655 at bats, hit .238, slugged .391, and had 54 round trippers (stats courtesy of http://www.thebaseballcube.com). I see a lot of potential there.
He does have one thing going for him, he is probably a better hitter than Koyie Hill (although hitting .218 over 53 career at bats doesn’t not give us a good idea of what he can do). I bet you wish you had AJ now.
June 21st, 2007 at 10:04 am
Actually, Nick, I’d say 100% of Cubdom believes punching out Pierzynsky is the one really good thing Barrett’s contributed.
Between Zambrano and Barrett, Zambrano’s probably the bigger asshol/headcase, but replacing a catcher’s easier than replacing pitching these days.
June 21st, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Bring back Barry Foote.
June 21st, 2007 at 1:17 pm
Or Mark Salas