Baseball Trade Deadline: Analysis of Ryan Garko and Freddy Sanchez Trades

Before the 2009 baseball trade deadline, the San Francisco Giants made two trades. They obtained major league first baseman Ryan Garko from the Cleveland Indians for Single A pitcher, Scott Barnes. Then, Giants GM Brian Sabean grabbed all-star second baseman Freddy Sanchez from the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for AA pitcher, Tim Alderson, as the trade deadline was approaching.

How did the Giants do in their trade deadline deals?

If you take both of this week's Giant trade deadline deals together, they gave up the #4 prospect (Alderson) and the # 9 prospect (Barnes) to get two competent major leaguers to slot in at #2 and #5 in an otherwise weak lineup. No question in my mind that these are good moves by GM Brian Sabean, though he has been roasted unmercifully by fans on local talk radio and Giant fan sites. It is always difficult to part with a prospect as strong as AA pitcher Tim Alderson.

Cliff Corcoran of fannation.com claims the Giants didn't get enough for the two prospects in these trades.

However, if you put the Giants situation in perspective, there are several things that make this trade deadline deal advantageous to the Giants:

1. No prospect is ever a sure thing. The Giants had a chance to trade Solomon Torres for Randy Johnson at the trade deadline in 1993 and refused...We all know how that came out. Johnson was superb for another decade and Torres, well, was Torres.

2.The Giants shouldn't mind giving up Barnes at all. Alderson is more troubling, but they still have a potential rotation 2010 + of Lincecum, Cain, No Hit Sanchez, top prospect Madison Bumgarner and Kevin Pucetas who is 10-2 for AAA Fresno and may make his first start for the Giants on Wednesday.

3. The Giants fell 2 games behind the Rockies in the NL wild card race and absolutely were desperate to add offense and had to pay the price for these two upgrades.

Garko's per 162 games played, averages 21 HR and 93 RBI with .282 .354 .449. That is more production than the Giants have gotten out of a 1B in a long time, probably since Will Clark.

Sanchez is a huge upgrade over the Juan Uribe, Kevin Frandsen, Matt Downs, Eugenio Velez revolving door which was hitting .229/.285/.318. By comparison, Freddy Sanchez has .300 .336 .421 career numbers.

Alderson could turn out to be a good #4 or #5 major league starter. Losing him is worth the improvement made to the club that still has two excellent pitching prospects ahead of him.

Source: Cliff Corcoran, "Giants Didn't Get Enough for Barnes, Alderson," fannation.COM.