Brian Fuentes

[bighurt4life]

Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune notes that the Rockies asked for '07 first-rounder Aaron Poreda for Brian Fuentes. Instead, Rogers believes he could get a big-league look.

 

saw this on mlbtraderumors.com

 

If we aren't willing to give up Poreda for a big name like Fuentes then KW and the organization must be pretty high on him. Good to see that we aren't willing to dump all of out top prospects in a win-now attempt

[jackie hayes]

Wasn't the rumor that they asked for Clay Buchholz for Fuentes, as well? The Rockies are high.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SO intended.

[R.J.]

I think Poreda is going to turn out to be a poor man's Matt Thornton, but seeing how he's the last chip in a pretty barren farm system, probably best not to waste him on Fuentes.

[witesoxfan]

I don't know that I'd call Fuentes a big name. Good pitcher but not worth a pitcher who could very realistically put up similar numbers to him this season out of the pen with youth and the ability to start on his side.

[bighurt4life]

i've just seen kw dump our top prospects over and over trying to win now and i'm glad that we hung on to poreda, i want to see what he can do for us

[Heads22]

If we would have traded Poreda for Fuentes, well, that would have been stupid to put in bluntly.

[Jimbo's Drinker]

I have friends who in denver who say the Rockies are the dumbest organization in baseball.

[Kenny Hates Prospects]

If we would have traded Poreda for Fuentes, well, that would have been stupid to put in bluntly.

If all it cost was Poreda straight up I would have loved that move in theory. Fuentes helps us in the pen this year and makes Thornton into the #2 lefty option instead of the #1 and then we collect on draft picks and select a pitcher who has a better chance of reaching his ceiling than Poreda. Basically we could deal a guy who could be a LOOGY right now and a set-up man next year or maybe a starter in a couple of years for relief help now and a 1st round draft pick on top of that. Of course this would all depend on whether or not the Sox would spend the money on the picks, but I would have loved it if they did.

 

Just think about going into the '09 draft with our own 1st rounder, plus 1st and supplemental 1st picks for Fuentes, Griffey, Cabrera, and possibly Thome (although unlikely) plus maybe a second rounder for Crede. If the Sox did that and spent the money necessary, the Sox could have an amazing draft like the Red Sox had in 2005 and the A's had in 2002. I mean, if we do that Fuentes deal and don't sign a big name FA, and we use Fields and a couple of other pieces to make a couple improvements over the offseason via trade, we could end up 11 picks in the top 80 or so. If the Sox spent the money there, they could improve the farm system by leaps and bounds and all of the sudden when the 2010 trade deadline comes we've got some real trade chips and some optimism for the future of our farm.

[Kenny Hates Prospects]

I have friends who in denver who say the Rockies are the dumbest organization in baseball.

Why? They've made some really big mistakes in the past contractually for which they are still paying for (Helton's contract as an example) but what else is so wrong about them? They've got a lot of talent on the field and in the farm. Maybe the Rockies played over their heads last year and suck this year, but they should have a formidable offense in the future. They still will need pitching, but they'll always need pitching so long as they stay in Denver.

[Kenny Hates Prospects]

I don't know that I'd call Fuentes a big name. Good pitcher but not worth a pitcher who could very realistically put up similar numbers to him this season out of the pen with youth and the ability to start on his side.

Very realistically?

 

How the hell is Poreda with his no secondary stuff going to come in and put up numbers similar to a 3.07 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 9.88 K/9, 2.63 BB/9, 7.46 H/9, 0.22 HR/9 in 41 innings of Major League Baseball mostly played in Colorado?

 

1-pitch Poreda is not all that special. Maybe he'll be something more than a set-up man at some point in the future, but to say he's anywhere near a pitcher the caliber of Fuentes is ridiculous. Yeah he's got an explosive FB with sink, but that alone is not enough in the big leagues.

[DABearSoX]

I have friends who in denver who say the Rockies are the dumbest organization in baseball.

 

 

I wouldn't quite say that...but this year, especially with the s*** division they play in, they wre not going to be sellers b/c of what they accomplised last year...

 

I don't want them going and gettin all good anyway, I can still see a baseball game for 4 dollars, even after a World Series birth. Damn field beatings/world series wins took my 6 dollar third baseline seats away. (If you are too young to remember, half price monday and tuesdays when they didn't check stubs on the main level was a sox fans dream, I went to lifetimes share of games in high school.)

[witesoxfan]

Very realistically?

 

How the hell is Poreda with his no secondary stuff going to come in and put up numbers similar to a 3.07 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 9.88 K/9, 2.63 BB/9, 7.46 H/9, 0.22 HR/9 in 41 innings of Major League Baseball mostly played in Colorado?

 

1-pitch Poreda is not all that special. Maybe he'll be something more than a set-up man at some point in the future, but to say he's anywhere near a pitcher the caliber of Fuentes is ridiculous. Yeah he's got an explosive FB with sink, but that alone is not enough in the big leagues.

 

I take it you've seen him pitch.

[Kenny Hates Prospects]

I take it you've seen him pitch.

Poreda? No, but everything I've read says he doesn't have anything to keep hitters off his fastball. There's even an article today about that where Coop says he still needs a lot of work on his secondary stuff, even though he's making some progress. Everyone admits it, even Poreda himself admits he's not ready. I highly doubt that we'd have seen guys like Broadway, Richard, Carrasco, Russell, Horacio Ramirez, and Ehren Wassermann come up over Poreda if he had anything even close to an average change-up to go along with his fastball. The Sox are notorious for rushing pitchers, and the fact that Poreda isn't even an option right now (despite a media article that says it's possible, but also while admitting it was the media to begin with that has caused the speculation) says he doesn't have anything to offer other than maybe a spot as a LOOGY. Poreda would get killed at the Major League level.

[witesoxfan]

Poreda? No, but everything I've read says he doesn't have anything to keep hitters off his fastball. There's even an article today about that where Coop says he still needs a lot of work on his secondary stuff, even though he's making some progress. Everyone admits it, even Poreda himself admits he's not ready. I highly doubt that we'd have seen guys like Broadway, Richard, Carrasco, Russell, Horacio Ramirez, and Ehren Wassermann come up over Poreda if he had anything even close to an average change-up to go along with his fastball. The Sox are notorious for rushing pitchers, and the fact that Poreda isn't even an option right now (despite a media article that says it's possible, but also while admitting it was the media to begin with that has caused the speculation) says he doesn't have anything to offer other than maybe a spot as a LOOGY. Poreda would get killed at the Major League level.

 

If you have a 97 MPH fastball that sinks, you can get major league hitters out, so long as you locate it. On top of that, even bad secondary stuff will catch hitters off balance when you can throw a fastball by them at 97.

 

I strongly doubt he'd get killed; I sense the reason the organization hasn't called him up is because they don't believe he would be phenomenal, ala Jenks, upon getting the call up, and they don't want to start his clock this early in his career when there are other options that they can use in the meantime. Not even the baseball side of baseball is strictly "baseball"...there are financial and business concerns that are to be taken into consideration as well. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if the organization felt Poreda was the best option right now but that the other options are similar to Poreda and said clocks have either been started already or they don't mind starting them.

 

I have not seen Poreda, so scouting reports only do so much for me; however, he's in AA and he's pitching well and while the ballpark helps that, so does his natural stuff, and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he would be able to help the Sox this season.