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Speier: Sox acquire Mike Carp for PTBNL
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Post by honkbal on Feb 20, 2013 10:08:01 GMT -5
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Post by Chris Hatfield on Feb 20, 2013 10:18:10 GMT -5
Club has confirmed with a release.
I know Carp is on the 40-man, and thus, in theory, has a leg up on Sweeney and Overbay for the last bench spot, but I don't think that's set in stone. He could aways be DFA'ed if he's clearly an inferior option to one of those two when he gets into camp.
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Post by jrffam05 on Feb 20, 2013 10:24:54 GMT -5
If it is not cash, any estimate on what we would be giving up for him?
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Post by gatortough on Feb 20, 2013 10:30:34 GMT -5
Taking a gander at Carps stats; his road splits are worse than at Safeco. Maybe 600 PA's is a bit of a SSS, but strange nonetheless. I suppose the fact that he has hit lefties better in the majors can be chalked up to the same explanation. Either way, solid zero risk decent reward acquisition.
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Post by gatortough on Feb 20, 2013 10:31:28 GMT -5
If it is not cash, any estimate on what we would be giving up for him? Alex Speier @alexspeier #redsox not expected to give up a prospect of significance in deal. Fact that Carp is out of options and requires roster spot limited market Doesn't sound like anything we would care about |
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Post by jmei on Feb 20, 2013 10:39:56 GMT -5
I think Carp can be a pretty good player for the Red Sox. His defense is decent at 1B and Fenway's dimensions should help cover up his range problems in LF. He's left-handed (I think the reverse splits are just SSS), hits with power and patience, and is young (26) and under team control through 2016. He's probably a better offensive player than Overbay and has more defensive flexibility, and given his upside, I think I'd be hard pressed to choose Overbay over Carp, at least at this juncture.
If Carp sticks, it also probably means Sweeney has a leg up on Nava for the last bench spot since Carp can be the left-handed half of the LF platoon and Sweeney's defense at all three OF positions becomes more attractive.
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Post by fenwaythehardway on Feb 20, 2013 10:57:33 GMT -5
He's left-handed (I think the reverse splits are just SSS) They almost certainly are. His BABIP splits were insane last year: .448 against lefties, .200 against righties, but he still had far batter ISO and K/BB numbers against righties. His career splits are quite similar, although the difference in ISO isn't present. Put another way, he's had less than 150 career PAs against lefties, with a .372 in that sample. That's a statistical fluke if I ever saw one. |
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Post by sibbysisti on Feb 20, 2013 10:59:10 GMT -5
Taking the rosy approach here. Carp's 2012 season was terrible. But he suffered a shoulder injury in the first week of the season diving for a ball in LF. He spent a month on the DL, tried to come back ,and hit only .157 for six weeks before returning to the DL.
He later suffered a sprained groin stretching for a ball at 1B prompting him to lose more time.
His Milb averages and power numbers are excellent. Anyone have any info on his defense?
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Post by elguapo on Feb 20, 2013 11:24:18 GMT -5
Anyone have any info on his defense? Not great. I think the key question on Carp is his health after all the problems he had last year. If he's healthy I think he's on the roster for sure. The question I have is right field coverage. If they think right field defense is very important, at least at Fenway, who's going to play when Victorino or Ellsbury is off? That points to Sweeney as 4th OF, taking the (edit: 40-man) roster spot of a reliever assuming one is traded before Opening Day. Or maybe they will use Nava & Carp & Gomes in RF and figure it can't be that bad for a few games. |
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Post by jmei on Feb 20, 2013 11:24:50 GMT -5
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Post by elguapo on Feb 20, 2013 11:36:11 GMT -5
I really like this pickup by the way - cheap salary, minimal acquisition cost, with a decent bat who should slot in nicely as backup.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Feb 20, 2013 13:23:03 GMT -5
Good pickup by the Sox. I didn't like that the Sox best two offensive players, Ortiz and Napoli are major health risks, while there are questions about Drew's ability to bounce back from his major injury and Gomes was slotted to play a lot against righties.
Carp mitigates some of these concerns. I think he's a better player than he's shown and his LH bat helps withstand an Ortiz or a Napoli injury a little better. Plus I think he can spells Gomes pretty effectvely.
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Post by mattpicard on Feb 20, 2013 13:41:06 GMT -5
Decent pickup for depth purposes, and the move seems to indicate Overbay won't make the team, and perhaps could be traded (maybe to the Brewers with the Gamel and Hart injuries). However, I really hope this doesn't significantly reduce Nava's playing time,
Carp is a mediocre but serviceable 1B defender (ie. a lot better than someone like Gomez, but he's no gold glover), but his defense in LF is pretty substandard. Not that Gomes is much/any better, but having 75% of the starts at the position go to horrible outfielders isn't ideal.
More importantly, I believe Nava, with his great OBP approach and much improved defense in the field really deserves significant playing time vs RHP's in LF. If he can learn 1B adequately, then I think we'd be best off with him and Sweeney on the bench and no Carp. Sure, that relies a lot on Napoli's ability to play regularly, but Sweeney gives us a plus defender who can easily fill in at any OF position, rather than needing to plug Nava or Gomes into RF with Carp also in the same outfield (kind of scares me). Not to mention, Sweeney can also be somewhat productive, albeit powerless, vs. RHP's, something Carp isn't guaranteed to provide.
P.S. What's the harm in getting Salty some reps at 1B? I know they want him to focus mainly on catching, but he's not great at it, nor is he likely to stay in Boston too much longer with Lavarnway progressing (hopefully) and Ross being a great part-time catcher. He seems to fit the position more than Sweeney and Ciriaco.
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Post by jioh on Feb 20, 2013 13:52:46 GMT -5
Great! Clearly he'll be just like that LHH pickup in 2003. Ah, but which one: Jeremy Giambi or David Ortiz?
Does Nava still have an option? (Poor guy!)
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Post by jioh on Feb 20, 2013 13:54:20 GMT -5
Carp has played one game in RF. One per year seems about right, preferably on the road!
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Post by Chris Hatfield on Feb 20, 2013 14:43:50 GMT -5
Great! Clearly he'll be just like that LHH pickup in 2003. Ah, but which one: Jeremy Giambi or David Ortiz? Does Nava still have an option? (Poor guy!) Yup. He didn't use one last year because he got removed from the 40-man roster in the offseason, and never went back down after he went up to Boston. |
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Post by adiospaydro2005 on Feb 20, 2013 15:07:24 GMT -5
You can't expect much from a 26 year old guy who was recently DFA'ed and out of options. He appears to be even more of a butcher in the outfield than Gomes and not much better at 1B. Don't count out Nava or Overbay as Carp just another guy with limited power and upside according to ProspectInsider... prospectinsider.com/view/m's-won't-miss-carp |
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Post by jmei on Feb 20, 2013 15:59:31 GMT -5
Noone should expect Carp to be a starting-level 1B. But as a backup 1B, emergency LF, and left-handed bat off the bench, he's better than anything the Red Sox had internally (better glove than Gomez, better offensively and more upside than Overbay, more defensive versatility than Nava).
[]
I also think Carp does have a fair bit of upside. He's only 26 and put up pretty great stats in AAA, although admittedly PCL stats are less than reliable. He hit well his first MLB year and a lot of his struggles last year were because he came back too early from a shoulder injury. He doesn't have Adam Dunn-like plus-plus raw power, but he has the pop to hit for a .180-ish ISO (maybe 18-20 home runs per 600 PAs) and he walks enough to make up for his high strikeout rate.
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Post by mattpicard on Feb 20, 2013 16:12:35 GMT -5
Noone should expect Carp to be a starting-level 1B. But as a backup 1B, emergency LF, and left-handed bat off the bench, he's better than anything the Red Sox had internally (better glove than Gomez, better offensively and more upside than Overbay, more defensive versatility than Nava). [ ] I just don't buy the idea that Carp deserves the spot over Nava because of the improved defensive versatility. Both would be expected to get their bulk of the time in LF, since Gomes is basically a platoon player, while Napoli is an everyday one assuming he maintains his health. We'd basically be giving the spot to Carp because he's a mediocre defensive 1B, where as Nava hasn't played there professionally. That may seem fairly significant, but I'm quite confident that in a 70-30 split between LF-1B, Nava would provide far superior defensive value. Of course, if Carp lights it up offensively this spring and Nava struggles, that's a different story. But Nava has shown me enough in his approach at the plate, and improved defense, that he deserves to be at least a 4th outfielder on an MLB team. |
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Post by fenwaythehardway on Feb 20, 2013 16:40:45 GMT -5
He appears to be even more of a butcher in the outfield than Gomes and not much better at 1B. He's a bench 1B/LF. His defensive contribution is a rounding error. Unless he's an absolute butcher out there, it really doesn't matter. |
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Post by adiospaydro2005 on Feb 20, 2013 17:46:22 GMT -5
Well, Gomes is a platoon LF and defensive liability, while Napoli is not exactly a nimble 1b and there are also concerns about his hip. As I stated above, I wouldnt be to quick to eliminate either Overbay or Nava from considerations at 1B/LF with the acquisition of Carp.
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Post by Oregon Norm on Feb 20, 2013 17:56:53 GMT -5
He appears to be even more of a butcher in the outfield than Gomes and not much better at 1B. He's a bench 1B/LF. His defensive contribution is a rounding error. Unless he's an absolute butcher out there, it really doesn't matter. Watched Carp play quite a bit since he came over from New York. He carried the Mariners on his back in Jul/Aug of 2011. Admittedly that's not much of a load, and it was largely driven by a ridiculous BABip of .392 and .419. Others have pointed out that such numbers are just not natural. But confounding it is the injury that happened at the end of that stretch after which the balloon rapidly deflated. So it's hard to tell exactly what we have here. We might take George Carlin's advice: Idaho's motto is "Famous potatoes.", NH's is "Live free or die." The truth is somewhere in between. Offensively, that could make for a decent player, not a star but someone deserving of a bench spot if he beats the competition. Defensively all you need to know is that the reason he got hurt in LF is because (1) he runs terrible routes and (2) he's willing to give 110% effort making up for that. The result can look good if he's got the ball once the camera finds him, all those hard landings sliding across the grass. Take a peek before that and it's uggggglllly. At first he's not bad, not so that you'd notice anyway. He made the throws, but he doesn't have the quickest feet on the dance floor. The glovework is ok however. The team was looking for a left-handed LF/1B type and they found one. Let's see how he plays out. |
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Post by sarasoxer on Feb 20, 2013 20:03:19 GMT -5
On the surface Carp would appear to be a substantial upgrade from Nava and Overbay offensively (slg %). Perhaps, he would be a slight downgrade defensively as to each. He also has apparent upside potential that the other two can't match especially given his injuries. Good pick-up at low cost. Can you spell Brain Daubach? Let the chips fall.
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Post by James Dunne on Feb 20, 2013 20:39:52 GMT -5
Carp loses any offensive advantage from his better slugging numbers with a much worse plate approach and an OBP that's 30-50 points worse than Nava's. The advantage comes in his versatility - he's able to play two positions where the Red Sox need help. When putting the roster together, sometimes a backup isn't the better player but the one who fits the roster configuration the best. If I had to choose one to be a starter in 2013, it'd be Nava, because I think his huge OBP advantage makes him slightly better than Carp. But as a backup? Carp simply fits the current roster.
A couple years ago I'd have gotten off track with a rant that the Red Sox would be better off keeping both players and only 11 pitchers, but that battle has long since been lost.
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Post by sarasoxer on Feb 20, 2013 20:52:30 GMT -5
Well, I think JD makes a good point re Nava's OBP. But if Nava could play 2B, which he has, he can play 1B quite well. He has equal versatility to Carp. He just does not have Carp's upside. Things being equal, my guess is the Sox would keep Carp over Nava and Overbay based on slg % and upside potential.
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