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Tuesday, July 07, 2009Pena to White SoxPosted by Paul Singman at 8:14pmAbout an hour ago the White Sox announced their acquisition of reliever Tony Pena from the D'backs in exchange for Brandon Allen, a minor league infielder. Allen was ranked the ChiSox fourth best prospect by John Sickles so it shows a serious commitment from the White Sox side to bolster their bullpen (although the White Sox farm system is one of the worst in baseball). Hurt by this trade is Matt Thornton who, before the Pena acquisition, was the next-in-line to become closer in the event of a Jenks trade or injury. We will have to see whether Thornton or Pena become the set-up man. My thought is Thornton will keep his set-up role. Through this deal Arizona labels itself as a seller and that puts Chad Qualls in a precarious situation. Pena was the obvious replacement for Qualls, but now that Pena is gone I am not sure if Qualls is still available to be traded. My feeling is that if given the right price, the D'backs will part with Qualls and the semi-effective Jon Rauch would become the new Arizona closer. Paul has been managing fantasy baseball teams for many seasons and writing for THT Fantasy over the past three years. He is currently a student at UPenn welcomes readers' thoughts at his email here or in the comments below.
Paul Singman said...
Between Rauch and Pena I would definitely pick up Rauch. Pena can be dropped in basically all leagues now. Posted 07/08 at 01:28 PM
DDT said...
Is this an indication that Qualls’ forearm problems are hurting his trade value? Posted 07/08 at 01:30 PM
Paul Singman said...
Yes and it appears the D’backs are going to be hesitant to trade Qualls since he is not a free agent until after next year. If there was not much of a market for quality relievers, a contending team might pony up enough to pry him away. However since the market is flooded with quality arms like Huston Street, Capps, Sherrill, etc. there is no reason for a team to overpay and force the D’backs to send Qualls packing. So most likely Qualls is not going anywhere and there are better players like John Grabow or LaTroy Hawkins that make better adds for speculative closers. Posted 07/08 at 02:06 PM
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So, if I’m in a really intense league and I have Thornton already while I’m prospecting for saves…should I get Pena, just in case? Or would Rauch be the better pick-up?