By Jessica Melendez, AngelsWin.com Staff Writer -
This is not an unbiased article. Quite honestly, even the discussion of a Trumbo trade turns me immediately into Grumpy Cat:
The fact that I admit my blatant bias, however, doesn't negate the truth of what I am about to say.
First, some cold, hard facts.
The Angels need pitching like a drowning person needs air.
We have a few players with really stinking big contracts. Players who may or may not produce...but that’s almost irrelevant, you got money like that tied up, you gotta play it. Which leads us to...
The Angels do not have a lot of cash to go out and buy Free Agent Pitching.
The Angels also only have a few “high value” trade options.
Basically this means that the entire off season we are going to be hearing trade rumors about Bourjos, Kendrick, and Trumbo.
Especially Trumbo, because even though he’s a bit of streaky hitter, when he’s hitting, he’s really hitting. The potential of thirty or more home runs (and the ability to play multiple positions) isn't anything to be sneezed at. Spoiler alert: all of these are going to show up on my “reasons why he shouldn't be traded” list below.
I know in my heart that I should be preparing myself mentally and emotionally for Trumbo to be traded, but instead I’ll take my cue from Dylan Thomas: “Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
And on that uber dramatic note, here are my top four reasons that Trumbo shouldn't be traded.
1.He hits a lot of home runs. I know it’s not all about the long ball, but when you’re talking about hitting the seventh most in MLB, you've got to put it out there. That many HRs can seriously affect game outcomes.
And I’m kind of, just a little bit tired of the Angels trading away their home run leaders.
2. He’s young and he’s cheap. This is especially important when you have not-young, not-cheap guys playing positions that Trumbo can actually play. I realize there are others in the Angels system who can play first base and those who can play outfield. However, please reference point #1.
3. Trumbo is worth his weight in local public relations gold. Something the Angels have apparently forgotten recently is that the value of good PR cannot be underestimated. We've spent a lot of flashy money for a lot of not very awesome return on the field, and we've managed to send off fan favorite players to other teams where they do things like WIN AWARDS and/or go to the postseason. This and other shenanigans like team name changes create bad PR. The only thing that compensates for bad PR is good PR. In Trumbo you have a local player—someone who is part of the community and has a decent chance at becoming a bona fide hometown hero if you hang onto him long enough. He’s the kind of player you trot out for school visits, golf tournaments, and fund raisers. Each time a positive story runs in local media about the team and their hometown player, that’s FREE, GOOD PR for the Angels.
So how much is that PR worth? I like to back up my analogies, so I actually did the math on what Trumbo’s weight in gold is actually valued. Last week gold traded between $1,260 and $1,300 an ounce. According to baseball-reference.com, Trumbo weighs in at 235 pounds (16 ounces in a pound)...and now it is time for the math: 3760 x $1300 = $4,888,000. So basically, a solid gold Trumbo would be worth a tick under 5 million dollars. For reference, we pay him about 1/11th of his weight in gold a year. Unlike the Angels current marketing department (okay, we can’t really blame marketing for Moreno’s/Dipoto’s choices), I know the value of good PR and I’m willing to stick by my claim that Trumbo isn't just worth his weight in gold, but he’s worth more than the pitching we’d get for him. Especially if you take the long view and assume he stays with the Angels and has a few decent seasons left in him.
4. The wrath of the fangirls. Many, many people will scoff at this. They will say, “there’s more important things than how someone looks in baseball pants,” and other thinly veiled mutations of “your opinion doesn’t matter.” I’m not here to debate the validity of fangirlism. I am just here to tell you it exists. And fangirls and their rage are, much like the value of good PR, not to be underestimated. Fangirls are the kind of people with the collective power to elevate British character actors to the level of internet gods (please see Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hiddleston for examples). Baseball fangirls might be a different breed of fangirl, but they’re just as powerful, and they buy just as many t-shirts.
These are my top reasons why a Trumbo trade is a bad idea. Please note that none of them actually was “because he looks good in baseball pants.” The main reason is that Trumbo wears his pants way too baggy for me to truly make this argument. But that is another post for another day.
What say you to a Trumbo trade?
