From: rickc@wrigley.corp.sgi.com (Richard Casares)
Subject: Re: Jose Canseco Re: Traded
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Distribution: ba ca
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 18:29:54 GMT

Holy Smokes!  What a trade.  The Best thing about the Canseco trade
was winning a pitcher of beer off some guy who didn't believe me
when I broke the news before the conference. =)

Here's the Trade.

RANGERS get:
A premiere power hitter at the relatively cheap cost of $4 million/year.
Someone to complement Juan Gonzales and provide the one-two punch
like the Bash Brothers of old.
They also get his personality and injuries on top of average fielding.

A's get:
Witt - a pretty decent arm to boster the starting pitching.  Face it,
the A's of old were anchored by excellent starting pitching. The first
two starters, Stewart and Welch, can't be counted on to stifle opposing
bats.
They needed this guy.
Russell - Texas's big closer.  True, the A's don't need a relief pitcher,
but they could certainly use the set-up man for Eckersley.  This will
fill the hole the Honeycutt left, a bridge between starters and Eck.
Sierra - Pretty much a perennial all-star.  The A's get better fielding
and a better batting average, but at the cost of power.  That's OK.

The A's also now have the burden of having to resign Sierra at the
end of the year. He won a $5 million arbitration case last year,
so he won't be interested in taking a pay cut to continue playing with
the A's.  I don't know what the A's are thinking here.  They'll be
paying a premium for a player of fairly equal value to Canseco.  They must
think they can get him, though.

Russell also is a free agent after this year and I don't think 
the A's will be eager to sign him.  But at least he gets
his chance to win a wolrd series.  He certainly wanst doing anything
in Texas for the remainder of the season.

In all this is a big win for the A's.
And you've probably heard it here first.
Yes, even the big Canseco wannabe, Rick Casares, agrees with the A's.

This was my reasoning last night before Sandy Alderson consulted
me before the trade.
The A's had the best team in baseball for three years in a row and
only came away with one ring.  In each case they were stumped by one
or two good starters and Canseco himself was the big disappointment.
And the one year they DID win was when decent pitching shut down
the lackluster giants while pummeling their excuse for starting pitchers.

The A's have to win this year and this move might do it.  
Stewart and Welch are on their legs, so Witt might make them
competitive next year contingent upon the offseason signing of
Andre Dawson to replace Sierra.

However, I couldn't lie to Sandy.  I said, "Sandy, I really don't
think anyone is going to beat the Atlanta Braves this year, but
we've seen in the past (like 1988, 1990, 1991), the best team doesn't
always win it all.  And you wouldn't play at all if that was enough
to discourage you."

So I hereby modify my earlier prediction of "Braves over A's in 5."
It's now Braves over A's in 6.

-- 
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