A Trade Target Leaderboard
Since I write most everyday here at FanGraphs, I keep a running list of things to do that serves as a queue for future post topics. One of the things on my to-do list has been to build a custom leaderboard of all the potential trade targets as we head towards the July 31st deadline, so that you guys could easily compare and sort various players who might fit needs for the teams you root (or work) for.
Well, in a pretty happy coincidence, that was apparently also on Tim Dierkes’ to-do list, and he’s more motivated than I, so he beat me to the punch. Not that I’m complaining, as now I get to write about the custom leaderboard he made without having to do any of the work.
Note that this list is just position players, and as Dierkes noted, it is a highly subjective list of who might be available. There are probably players listed who aren’t as available as they might seem from the outside, and players not listed who will end up getting moved over the summer. Dierkes, though, definitely knows the pulse of the rumor mill, given that he runs MLB Trade Rumors, the baseball news behemoth of the internet.
For the purposes of this post, I’ve reproduced the list of top 30 players by past 365 day WAR, but you should click through to the entire leaderboard to look at the 63 names he came up with. From there, you can sort them however you’d like, including using multiple years of data, isolating positions, splits versus pitcher types, and all the other goodies you can find on the leaderboards here on FanGraphs.
| Name | Team | PA | BB% | K% | ISO | BABIP | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | wRC+ | Fld | BsR | WAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alex Rios | White Sox | 673 | 6% | 16% | 0.214 | 0.326 | 0.302 | 0.341 | 0.516 | 0.366 | 128 | 7.3 | 6.4 | 5.3 |
| Jimmy Rollins | Phillies | 705 | 10% | 14% | 0.171 | 0.265 | 0.251 | 0.323 | 0.422 | 0.324 | 103 | 6.6 | 5.6 | 4.7 |
| Chase Utley | Phillies | 552 | 11% | 13% | 0.180 | 0.266 | 0.258 | 0.351 | 0.439 | 0.341 | 114 | 11.0 | 4.2 | 4.6 |
| Aramis Ramirez | Brewers | 526 | 7% | 14% | 0.223 | 0.326 | 0.309 | 0.369 | 0.532 | 0.386 | 145 | -1.8 | -6.3 | 3.9 |
| Justin Ruggiano | Marlins | 513 | 8% | 27% | 0.193 | 0.340 | 0.273 | 0.335 | 0.466 | 0.348 | 119 | 4.6 | 1.1 | 3.5 |
| Alexei Ramirez | White Sox | 649 | 3% | 12% | 0.103 | 0.311 | 0.284 | 0.308 | 0.388 | 0.301 | 84 | 10.0 | 5.0 | 3.3 |
| Giancarlo Stanton | Marlins | 363 | 9% | 30% | 0.322 | 0.340 | 0.285 | 0.361 | 0.607 | 0.404 | 157 | -0.4 | -0.8 | 3.3 |
| Norichika Aoki | Brewers | 711 | 8% | 7% | 0.120 | 0.305 | 0.295 | 0.366 | 0.415 | 0.344 | 117 | 1.7 | -1.6 | 3.2 |
| Luis Valbuena | Cubs | 487 | 13% | 18% | 0.132 | 0.268 | 0.228 | 0.331 | 0.360 | 0.307 | 89 | 18.4 | -2.0 | 2.9 |
| Daniel Murphy | Mets | 641 | 5% | 14% | 0.137 | 0.323 | 0.290 | 0.329 | 0.427 | 0.327 | 109 | -2.3 | 1.4 | 2.9 |
| Alfonso Soriano | Cubs | 637 | 6% | 25% | 0.205 | 0.305 | 0.254 | 0.305 | 0.459 | 0.328 | 103 | 10.7 | -1.4 | 2.6 |
| Hanley Ramirez | Dodgers | 421 | 7% | 20% | 0.197 | 0.304 | 0.269 | 0.325 | 0.466 | 0.339 | 116 | -4.8 | 1.6 | 2.3 |
| Kevin Frandsen | Phillies | 299 | 5% | 9% | 0.133 | 0.345 | 0.322 | 0.384 | 0.456 | 0.367 | 132 | -0.1 | -0.4 | 2.2 |
| Kendrys Morales | Mariners | 614 | 6% | 19% | 0.190 | 0.308 | 0.273 | 0.327 | 0.464 | 0.341 | 121 | 1.5 | -1.9 | 2.1 |
| Peter Bourjos | Angels | 222 | 7% | 20% | 0.135 | 0.356 | 0.295 | 0.361 | 0.430 | 0.347 | 123 | 3.4 | 2.4 | 2.1 |
| Alberto Callaspo | Angels | 554 | 11% | 10% | 0.113 | 0.268 | 0.258 | 0.336 | 0.371 | 0.312 | 99 | -0.4 | -0.6 | 2.0 |
| Andre Ethier | Dodgers | 601 | 9% | 17% | 0.142 | 0.306 | 0.268 | 0.344 | 0.410 | 0.328 | 110 | -0.7 | -1.6 | 1.9 |
| Josh Willingham | Twins | 614 | 13% | 24% | 0.227 | 0.263 | 0.234 | 0.352 | 0.461 | 0.352 | 124 | -10.1 | -1.0 | 1.9 |
| David DeJesus | Cubs | 526 | 9% | 15% | 0.165 | 0.292 | 0.264 | 0.333 | 0.428 | 0.332 | 106 | -3.4 | 2.4 | 1.9 |
| Mark Ellis | Dodgers | 495 | 6% | 16% | 0.100 | 0.296 | 0.258 | 0.315 | 0.359 | 0.299 | 90 | 6.9 | -1.4 | 1.8 |
| Cody Ransom | Cubs | 245 | 10% | 37% | 0.255 | 0.330 | 0.236 | 0.315 | 0.491 | 0.348 | 119 | 2.4 | 0.5 | 1.8 |
| Nate Schierholtz | Cubs | 354 | 8% | 14% | 0.215 | 0.301 | 0.283 | 0.341 | 0.498 | 0.357 | 126 | -1.2 | -0.1 | 1.8 |
| John Buck | Mets | 456 | 8% | 26% | 0.183 | 0.250 | 0.215 | 0.286 | 0.398 | 0.297 | 87 | -0.1 | 0.4 | 1.7 |
| Darwin Barney | Cubs | 568 | 6% | 11% | 0.101 | 0.255 | 0.239 | 0.290 | 0.340 | 0.276 | 68 | 13.7 | 2.1 | 1.5 |
| Rickie Weeks | Brewers | 631 | 10% | 24% | 0.179 | 0.300 | 0.245 | 0.331 | 0.424 | 0.332 | 108 | -14.5 | 0.5 | 1.5 |
| Carlos Corporan | Astros | 190 | 5% | 26% | 0.187 | 0.342 | 0.281 | 0.340 | 0.468 | 0.352 | 123 | -0.6 | -1.4 | 1.3 |
| Marlon Byrd | Mets | 220 | 7% | 30% | 0.232 | 0.325 | 0.263 | 0.315 | 0.495 | 0.344 | 123 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 1.2 |
| Juan Uribe | Dodgers | 221 | 13% | 20% | 0.122 | 0.262 | 0.222 | 0.318 | 0.344 | 0.291 | 87 | 6.2 | 0.6 | 1.2 |
| Ryan Doumit | Twins | 572 | 6% | 18% | 0.187 | 0.288 | 0.261 | 0.311 | 0.448 | 0.328 | 107 | -6.4 | -3.7 | 1.2 |
| Alejandro De Aza | White Sox | 591 | 7% | 22% | 0.157 | 0.316 | 0.261 | 0.316 | 0.418 | 0.318 | 95 | -6.3 | 0.8 | 1.1 |
And, because he’s awesome, he also made a similar custom leaderboard for starting pitchers. As with the position players, here are the top available options by past 365 day WAR, though we’ll just do 15 instead of 30 this time.
| Name | Team | IP | BB/9 | K/9 | HR/9 | BABIP | LOB% | HR/FB | ERA | FIP | xFIP | WAR | RA9WAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cliff Lee | Phillies | 243.2 | 1.15 | 8.42 | 0.89 | 29% | 78% | 9% | 2.77 | 2.88 | 3.14 | 6.2 | 6.4 |
| Ricky Nolasco | Marlins | 207.2 | 2.08 | 6.59 | 0.74 | 30% | 72% | 8% | 3.81 | 3.50 | 3.90 | 3.4 | 2.8 |
| Jake Peavy | White Sox | 187.1 | 1.97 | 8.50 | 1.39 | 30% | 75% | 12% | 4.04 | 3.97 | 3.77 | 3.2 | 3.1 |
| Scott Feldman | Cubs | 166.2 | 2.32 | 6.91 | 0.97 | 29% | 69% | 11% | 4.00 | 3.79 | 3.77 | 2.9 | 2.0 |
| Kyle Lohse | Brewer | 202.0 | 1.69 | 6.37 | 1.07 | 27% | 78% | 11% | 3.21 | 3.78 | 3.88 | 2.7 | 4.1 |
| Yovani Gallardo | Brewers | 209.0 | 3.23 | 8.14 | 0.99 | 29% | 76% | 15% | 3.62 | 3.82 | 3.47 | 2.4 | 3.3 |
| Joe Blanton | Angels | 190.2 | 1.79 | 7.88 | 1.32 | 34% | 70% | 15% | 4.81 | 3.88 | 3.41 | 2.2 | 0.2 |
| Bud Norris | Astros | 190.1 | 3.26 | 7.09 | 0.95 | 30% | 73% | 9% | 4.07 | 4.03 | 4.37 | 2.2 | 2.0 |
| Jason Vargas | Angels | 206.1 | 2.53 | 6.06 | 1.05 | 27% | 80% | 10% | 3.36 | 4.14 | 4.38 | 2.1 | 4.6 |
| Lucas Harrell | Astros | 194.2 | 4.07 | 6.61 | 0.74 | 30% | 77% | 11% | 3.56 | 4.11 | 4.10 | 1.9 | 3.4 |
| Joe Saunders | Mariners | 186.0 | 2.27 | 5.18 | 1.06 | 30% | 69% | 11% | 4.55 | 4.25 | 4.25 | 1.7 | 1.3 |
| Shaun Marcum | Mets | 101.0 | 2.67 | 7.57 | 0.98 | 32% | 63% | 8% | 5.17 | 3.81 | 4.29 | 1.6 | -0.5 |
| Kevin Correia | Twins | 185.0 | 1.80 | 5.35 | 1.12 | 30% | 72% | 13% | 4.09 | 4.15 | 3.96 | 1.5 | 1.7 |
| Ivan Nova | Yankees | 114.1 | 3.62 | 8.90 | 1.18 | 36% | 68% | 15% | 5.51 | 4.28 | 3.84 | 1.3 | -0.2 |
| Aaron Harang | Mariners | 163.0 | 3.26 | 6.63 | 1.05 | 28% | 69% | 8% | 4.36 | 4.30 | 4.84 | 1.2 | 0.5 |
He did relief pitchers too, but I have to go pick my wife up from work, so you don’t get a table of those names. Just click the link!
Dave is the Managing Editor of FanGraphs.
Where does Brendan Ryan fit on this? Why are his defensive numbers so low this year? He still looks excellent.
Errors and small sample noise, and I’m not sure present-day Brendan Ryan profiles as a worthwhile upgrade for any contender at this point.
Speaking of the Mariners, stabilizing their crumbling 40-man roster via trades would be ideal but they have no options of interest. I think Ulysses Everett McGill sums it up best: “Damn! We’re in a tight spot!”
Dealing relievers is the only possibility that comes to mind.
Brendan Ryan would prolly be an upgrade for the Cards actually, and one could even make an argument that once he left Saefco, he might even be an upgrade for the Red Sox, As(move Lowrie to 2B), and Dodgers(move Hanley to 3B). I understand he’s an absolutely awful hitter, but on a team like the Cards or Dodgers, he doesn’t have to do much at the plate.
If the Red Sox wanted to solely upgrade their defense at SS they would just move Iglesias over from 3B and trade Drew, not acquire a guy that can’t hit.
Fun Fact: Defense in baseball is the most overrated thing in existence. Every single major league baseball player can make routine plays. And 99% of batted balls are either routine plays or clean hits. If a guy sucks that bad at hitting, there is absolutely no reason to play him. Also, remember before last season started how everyone was saying what a disaster the tigers infield was going to be with Miggy at 3rd and Prince at 1st? It meant absolutely nothing.
One case is enough proof for me!
To an extent, I agree. The fact that the Tigers made it work is an excellent example. That said, as an O’s can who had to endure seasons of Mark Reynolds at 3rd, I assure you that there are players that are bad at certain positions. He’s not so bad at first (amazing I know) but the man was the second coming of the human vacuum cleaner… Except his was always set on “blow”
I’ll be back when the Well Beered Englishman sorts by name. My fingers are crossed for Gorjous Peter Bourjous.
MLB Trade Rumors, the baseball news behemoth of the internet.
How big of a behemoth are they? For example, how does Fangraphs traffic compare to MLBTR? I guess I’m curious because these are probably the two most common baseball sites that I access.
Super simple info from google trends: http://bit.ly/10gKaSB (link shortened due to otherwise not being clickable).
Looks like MLBTR has anywhere from 4-10x the search queries.
Poor world outside of the US and Canada. They don’t know what they’re missing.
Well, we probably have other things in mind… http://goo.gl/tD3PC
MLB trades sometimes are fun for 2 weeks a year, but generally there is greater fuss than anything else.
I remember back when you had to wait for squibbles about trades and signings to post on MLBTR. Sadly, Twitter has basically made that site unnecessary. I rarely visit it anymore. But it was the bee’s knees back in the day (like 4 years ago).
Do they not take comments anymore?
maybe it is my browser but it always appears like there are 0 comments on every article now days
They get plenty of comments. Something is wrong with your browser.
As a Red Sox fan, I remember the Dice-K and Johan Santana pursuits exclusively through incessantly refreshing MLBTR.
I wonder how expensive Alexi Ramirez would be for the Pirates. Maybe Mercer and Barnes can continue filling that space the rest of the year without the team crumbling, but Pittsburgh’s shortstop position has been sickening for too long. Alexi stays healthy, plays solid defense, and has a couple more contract years of control…
Too much to be worth trading for since you have two players capable of playing the position. Honestly right field is a more reasonable upgrade, Andre Eithier is an interesting solution as LA is dying to get rid of him. Although I will say that if they could swing a trade for BOTH Rios and Ramirez (say.. Hansen, Kingham, Mercer and Snider/Tabata, in spitballing here as I have no idea what the sox would want) that might be intriguing.
Ethier might be an intriguing option in a vacuum, but there’s simply no way the Pirates take on that contract. With Ethier’s recent performance level, the Dodgers would literally have to kick in about $60 million.
I know you are spitballing, but I think Hanson, Kingham + two major league players (not necessarily elite ones, but both guys in that trade could man a bench spot fine and perhaps a bit more) is pretty substantial overpay, even for Rios and Ramirez.
Not to mention, Hanson is the only SS in the pipe. They have tons of OF depth. I’d imagine Kingham + Josh Bell + one of those two guys might be closer.
I’m a little confused. Is Tim using Fangraphs’ ROS projections (like ZIPS) to come up with his WAR calls for instance.
Example: ZIPS ROS on Giancarlo Stanton right now is 2.4 WAR the rest of the way. Tim’s Stanton projection is down at 0.4 WAR. I know it may be a month later at the deadline, but that’s a pretty big delta.
Any thoughts on what he’s using?
The custom leaderboards display past performance, not future projections.
I would think a more interesting one for mid-season trade pickups would be projected performance ROS (using ZIPS or whatever).
Well, looks like it’s time to play around with Leaderboards! 🙂
Hey, Dave – was gonna make my own with ROS projections – but they ‘re not a datapoint choice in the custom Leaderboards section. Any chance that maybe limited projection data could be added as choice (maybe WAR, wOBA, etc.)?
(In your spare time 🙂
I always forget that Alex Rios is pretty good.
You mean you always forget that Alex Rios is sometimes pretty good, because he’s also sometimes pretty awful.
09: 0.0 WAR
10: 3.4 WAR
11: -1.2 WAR
12: 4.1 WAR
13: 2.1 WAR
As of May 3rd, when I wrote about it, Alex Rios was the player with the most PA who also had exactly 100 wRC+ over the last ten years. He is extremely average, unfortunately, he is not consistently average. Buyer beware!
http://newenglishd.com/2013/05/04/the-nine-most-average-hitters-of-the-last-decade/
Yeah that makes sense if you completely ignore the trend of recency. Rios made a substantial change to his batting stance, had the best year of his career (his only higher WAR year was thanks to inflated UZR), and is now on pace to match that year almost exactly. No team cares about his average career, they care about what they are buying right now.
Yeah, I mean just look at the Pujols contract! Wait, whoops…
I’m having this bronzed! Or maybe framed. Or how about framed and bronzed….I’m at a loss to explain my emotional state right now.
I’m having it encased in Carbonite.
Thanks for the meeting of the minds on this post, Dave, with MLBTR covering the personnel and y’all having the deep stats to resolve perspective.
There seem some natural fits there. Alexi Ramierz and Schierholtz to the Pirates; or as a cheap out, Brendan Ryan and Marlon Byrd. All of them are good enough to help, and this is a year where Pittsburgh needs to go for it—without kicking away their top prospects, which are still needed due to lack of 25-man depth. The first pair are useful enough to keep; the second are use-and-dispose, with the pricing hopefully to match. Valbuena to the Nationals has long seemed like a logical match, and he, too, would be useful going forward. I could see the Yankers trying to get Callaspo, not that they have much to give beyond hype . . . as usual. Nova? Ha. Nolasco to the Orioles seems like a natural fit also. The Os really need a reliable workhorse who keeps the ball in the park. I can’t see them paying the price to get Gallardo or Lohse even if they have it, and both have enough downside risk going forward they’re harder to justify. There’s always Harang for them too, though that’s _real_ desperation. Time for those who play to show up to beef up . . . .
Jesse Crain or F-Rod to the Tiges, unless they want to go all in for a bigger name. And Jerome Williams as a starter for someone has more appeal than some on the starter board, though he has been used mostly out of the pen so he’s listed where he belongs.
no d’backs (shouldn’t they be considering trading kennedy–or another starter–given what they have on the farm)? this is kevin towers we’re talking about (a chronic rosterbater if there ever was one).
are they going to add to pen?
If he is indeed available, I’d love to see Jimmy Rollins in green and gold to help stabilize SS. Make Jed Lowrie a permanent 2B and end the awful Rosales/Sogard platoon. Added bonus — Rollins grew up in Oakland.
Not sure if they can add all that payroll though ($11M prorated salary this season, $11M in 2014, and a reachable vesting option in 2015 for $11M). They have room to add some payroll, but they’d probably have to find a taker for Chris Young’s $8.7M.
Looking at that whole leaderboard, one thing that really stands out is how many middle infield options there are.
FWIW Rosales/Sogard somewhat work as a platoon at below to average combined when in the right match-up, but whenever they both play it’s pretty ugly.
Sure seems like with Rollins, Utley, Ramirex the White Sox, Ramirez the Dodger, and Soriano all up there that if the A’s wanted an established veteran, well they’d have more options than a kid at Baskin Robbins (no, not literally).
The fact that Lowrie could go at either SS or 2B really is a plus, and it’d be great to see Jed entrenched at one or the other and see if that helps his defense out.
Then again, the A’s still have a slew of intriguing prospects in Grant Green, Scott Moore, Hiro Nakajima, and whatever’s left of Jemile Weeks.
I could see Jemile Weeks + another prospect get flipped for Rollins.
As a Phillies fan I wouldn’t be mad about that. Rollins has been so shaky with the bat at times his only real asset is the glove. I don’t think Jemile weeks is done yet either.
Any guesses on where Willingham could land?
He seems like the perfect mix ISO/OBP and affordability. I mean Stanton’s going to cost you a boatload, and I don’t think anyone believes Aramis Ramirez or Schierholtz will hit more HR than the Hammer from here out.
makes sense in Baltimore.
McLouth’s 2013 WAR: 1.8
Willingham’s: 0.4
(PA’s almost identical and wRC+ actually identical)
so I’m thinking not so much in Baltimore….
DH?
Pittsburgh please, perfect fit indeed.
Bobby Parnell should be on the list. Considering contract status he could be the best value of any RP that could be available. Controllable for two more years makes giving up a good prospect that much easier. Avisail Garcia for Parnell makes sense both ways.
The Mets have made it pretty clear they won’t trade Parnell. There are very few reasons for Mets fans to go to 60% of the games right now, given the ticket prices. And, with the All-Star game coming up, they don’t want the bad PR of having an empty stadium every night (it’s already pretty bad).
I think it’s almost certain that Harvey, Wheeler, Wright, Murphy, Parnell, and probably Niese will not be traded (just talking about guys from the major league team), you can only alienate the fanbase so much. Even trading Byrd, one of the team’s 3 productive position players, will probably make fans pretty unhappy, but trading Murphy or Parnell would drive people insane, even if it’s the right move.
The only place Niese might get moved to is the surgeon’s table, unfortunately.
if they were simply motivated by fan discontent they wouldn’t have taken the course they’re on now. They can say they aren’t moving Parnell all they want (I only heard that one time) but it’s nothing more than posturing. If you think they won’t move Parnell if the right offer comes around you are kidding yourself. and they will move Byrd in a heartbeat. This season is about the progress of Harvey and the entry of Wheeler and D’Arnaud and possibly Flores and Puello by September. That’s about it.
Im sure there is a portion of Mike francesa devotees who will be driven insane by a deal of MLB regulars but Byrd should be flipped for anything they can get, I’d move Murph too and see what you got in Flores at 2b for a few months, 21 year old raking in AAA, doesnt get enough credit, I’d even give Flores 2014 to see if he can learn to play a passable 2b, no one thought Mrphy could either and most didnt think Carpenter would be able to handle it….I’d also deal parnell too although Im not sold on A. Garcia as a MLB regular…but if Det was desperate and over paid, sure Parnell can be had, but all the bullpen problem the mets have had last few yrs, young arms hurt, olf arms highly paid and highly unsuccessful, I can see them reluctant to just give him up for some prospects 3 or 4 years away
Soooo… Robinson Cano, come on down. You’re the next contestant on “are the Yankees made of smoke and mirrors or not?” He’s not on this list, but should he be?
Zero chance yanks trade cano, even if they lose every game from here til the trading deadline.
Seconded; they’re not going to let the best 2B in baseball walk. (Like they did with Russ Martin, who they could sorely use; but Russ Martin is no Robby Cano, even on his best day.)
How Alfonso Soriano gets a 10.7 in fielding and Peter Bourjos gets a 3.4, I’ll never know. Defense metrics are REALLY rough atm.
1) He has three times as much playing time to accumulate that value;
2) Small sample weirdness on Bourjos
3) Bourjos is getting compared to other CFs whereas Soriano gets compared to the rest of the LF slowpokes.