JABO: Contender Positions Most in Need of a Trade Upgrade

We’re all moving forward on the baseball calendar. Pitchers and catchers? Way back there. Spring training games? Opening Day? Well behind us. And we’ve just recently seen the completion of the amateur draft, so now we look ahead again. The next specific date is that of the All-Star Game, followed by the non-waiver trade deadline. However, while the trade deadline comes after the exhibition, we’ve just entered trading season. Unofficially, it kicked off with the Mark Trumbo deal. More officially, it always lurks on this side of the draft.

Trading season is relevant to everyone. If your favorite team is sitting pretty, maybe this is where it makes the move that puts it over the top. If your favorite team is stuck in the middle, maybe this is where it makes the move that makes all the difference. And if your favorite team blows, maybe this is where it makes the move that sheds salary or directly benefits the future. For everyone, trade talk fills the time between games. For some, trade talk is also a welcome distraction.

This time of year, there’s always chatter about who’s most in need of what. I thought, for purposes of this post, I might try to make it mathematical. I looked at every certain and fringe contender, position by position, and tried to identify the positions of greatest need as trade season heats up. I wound up selecting five positions, because I think five is a good number, and a better number than four or six. Why do I think that? That would be a different article.

Read the rest on Just a Bit Outside.





Jeff made Lookout Landing a thing, but he does not still write there about the Mariners. He does write here, sometimes about the Mariners, but usually not.

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Vlad
8 years ago

Jeff – as a percentage, what percent of your soul dies every time you read through the comments section on a JABO article? I’ll guess 1.5% and then you go backpacking to restore half of that loss.

joser
8 years ago
Reply to  Vlad

I would hope he doesn’t read them at all. For that very reason I never follow the JABO link over to the Fox site (well, that’s a slight exaggeration: I followed it the first time and discovered how bad it got over there, and I think I followed one other just because I was compelled to read the entire piece, only to have the experience ruined by the comments). So I have no idea what he says in the rest of this article, but that’s a small price to pay to avoid those commenters.

Peter R
8 years ago
Reply to  Vlad

Hah. I came back here to ask a similar question of Jeff. It’s really terrible over there. I hope the Fangraphs folks just post and then run hoping only the intelligence inclined follow them back home to Fangraphs.

vivalajeter
8 years ago
Reply to  Vlad

It’s funny because I thought nobody ever replied to the Fox Sports articles. Whenever I click on the link and read the article, it says “0 comments” on the bottom. Today I realized it’s because the comments are through facebook, and my company (where I read virtually all fangraphs articles) blocks facebook.

I just went on my phone and realized there were over 70 comments. I guess I was better off before I made that realization.