Fare thee well, Mr. Capps

Yesterday Mike Rizzo traded away Matt Capps and $500K to Minnesota for catcher Wilson Ramos and LHP Joe Testa. Now, who Joe Testa is doesn't really matter (cough:24 years old in high A ball:cough), but who Wilson Ramos is does. He was ranked the 42nd prospect in all of baseball coming into this year by Keith Law. That link may be for ESPN Insiders only, so here's a snippet of what Law said.

...when he plays he hits, and he plays a premium position at which bats like his are hard to find. ... he throws extremely well (he's nailed 43 percent of would-be base stealers in the past two years) and his receiving is adequate. ... At the plate, he has strong hands and very good hand-eye coordination, with a hard, line-drive-oriented swing

Now, Derek Norris came into this year ranked ahead of Ramos at #31, but his season so far has been nothing short of disappointing. Derek's power has vanished, but he's still getting on base at an incredible clip (.408). That really doesn't do too much to make his other numbers look good, though (.231 batting average and a .374 slugging percentage). The power loss can hopefully (PLEASE, JESUS PLEASE!) be attributed to the hamate bone surgery he had at the end of last year, as 99% of the players that have surgery there take a full year to regain their power. (Even the Non-Human Zim had his power drop. Those 14 HR in 2008? Yup, the year of his hamate surgery. His HR total the year before was 24, and went up to a career high 33 the year after).
So, Ramos goes to the #1 overall position in the Nats prospects list, and becomes the next catcher. Ramos is better defensively than Norris, as well, so that even frees the Nats up to move Derek if his bat demands he play in the big leagues.
And... Matty Capps? God love him. He throws strikes, and is so damn friendly. He will give the Twins a true closer (a position the Wookie - Jon Rauch - had been trying to fill) and a great shot to win their division. He was our All-Star rep, and leads the league in games finished (43) and is 4th in the league in saves (26). What does that mean? It means that he was due an extremely large raise after this season, and I'm not sure the Nats needed to pay it. He signed a 1 year $3.5MM contract to come here, and my guess is he'll see ~$6MM for next year after arbitration. Why pay Capps that much when we have Drew Storen here to take over the closer role next year? Drew had (and still has) this year to learn in a MLB bullpen, and will even get his feet wet with save opportunities now that Capps is gone. There is no doubt in my mind Storen will come into next year as the closer out of spring training.

Jesus. So sorry for the super duper long serious baseball talk. I had quite a few friends ask me how I felt about the deal and when I told them that I loved the trade, they asked why. So - I wrote this post. Now, let's bid a fond farewell to Matt Capps for his two greatest achievements here in DC - His fucking incredible entrance music (Europe's The Final Countdown) and his fucking incredibly awkward celebration photos. Ladies and Gentlemen... the least photogenic high-fiver of all time...

Mr. Matthew Capps.

Update on the Bonifacio, Dean, Smolinski for Olsen, Willingham trade.

Okay. I had overnight to think about it, and I crunched a couple numbers. First, the players coming to Washington:

• Joshua David Willingham. Born 2/17/79 (That makes him 29.) Goes by Josh, and has somewhere along the line been given the nickname "The Hammer." (Allrighty, then.) He was drafted in the 17th round of the 2000 draft out of the renowned baseball institution of...... the University of North Alabama. He is one of four former UNA Lions to play in the bigs, and the first since 2001. No, you haven't heard of any of the other three. His first taste of the Big Leagues came in 2004 and 2005 when he played in a combined 28 games. He grabbed the starting left field gig in 2006 and had a decent season, going .277/.356/.496 with 26 HR and 74 RBI in 132 games. He received one third place vote for the RoY, finishing tied for 9th. He seems to have been plagued by nagging injuries, based on the different bios out there on him. It might have something to do with the fact that he stands right on top of the fricking plate, though, since he's ranked 3rd in hit by pitches in the last two years. Anyway, he seems to be an okay fielder at fielding balls (0 errors in 08, 3 in 07), but might not be the fastest cat out there getting to balls, as he ranked 12th out of the 16 starting NL left fielders in range factor, with a 1.82. The league avg was 1.90. (OH! Who was number one in range factor? Wee-Willie Harris.) He's projected at 20-25 HR per year, and is arbitration eligible. He will certainly see an increase from his $405K 08 salary. Avg 162 game stats: .266/.361/.472 68BB, 127K, 32 2B, 25 HR, and 85 RBI. That strikeout to walk ratio kinda sucks (1.86 K's per BB), but it sure as hell beats Wily Mo's (4.83 K's per BB.)

• Scott Matthew Olsen. Born 1/12/84, which puts him at 24. He was drafted in the 6th round of the 2002 draft out of Crystal Lake South High School in Michigan. He goes by a few names, such as "Don't tase me bro", "butt-head", and "stoopid butt-head". There's not enough room on blogger for me to list all of his...."problems", but here are some: Punched in the eye by a teammate in 2006; Neck grabbed by his manager in 2006; Accused a teammate of not giving his full effort on a fielding play, threw a tantrum in the dugout over it, and almost got his ass whooped; Made an obscene gesture to the fans in 2007 (Hmm..Dooksie might like this guy, actually.); Received a 2 game suspension in 2007 for insubordination (He threw another tantrum, ripped of his jersey, and threw it at someone on the ball club. He was pinned against the wall by a teammate for this.); And finally, he has no problem giving the Police the finger. See, in July of 2007, he was clocked for speeding, and an officer tried to pull him over. "Not so fast!", said Scottie. He led the police on a little journey as he continued to drive to his house a little ways away. He pulled up into his driveway, got out of his car, and sat in a plastic lawn chair on his lawn, taunting the police. They finally tased him, as he tried to kick them on their attempts to grab him. He was arrested for DUI, resiting arrest with violence, fleeing and eluding a police officer, and childish buffoonery. He does have one good conduct report on his record, however. In 2006 he said he hated the Phillies. In 2007 he and Chase "I love to say fuck" Utley got in a shouting match, and Scott encouraged him to engage in fisticuffs. Chase declined because, well, he only likes to hit players that are not able to defend themselves. Chalk one up for Scottie, and I think he might help out the other Utley haters on the club. I didn't leave much room for stats, did I? Whoopsie! Here's the brief rundown of his avg season: 33 starts, 194 IP (5.8 IP/start), 85 BB 166 K's, 10 W 12 L, 4.04 ERA, and a 1.30 whip. The kid can be an innings eater, has strikeout potential, is a lefty, and projects to a number 3 starter. If he can harness his control, and mature a bit, he might be a solid number two. Like Willingham, he is also arbitration eligible, and finished with 1 RoY vote in 06 to finish tied for 9th.

Overall, I'm feeling a little better about the deal than I did last night. Anderson Hernandez looks to have the lock on 2nd base going into spring training, and I'm okay with that. Willingham either joins the stockpile of left fielders, or first baseman. If we can move Kearns, I would feel more positive, but let's see what else happens. I'm gonna miss Emilio and his speed and run production, and I was real high on him. I wish him the best, and hope for his sake the Marlins move Dan Uggla this off season. For details on P.J. Dean, and Jake Smolinski, I'm going to refer you over to Brian at NFA. Also, maybe one regular reader, the Doctor, could chime in. I know he was real high on Dean.

Bonifacio, Smolinski, and PJ Dean traded?

Word from Peter Gammons is that The Nats and the Fish just made a deal.

The Nats get:

• Scott "Don't taze me bro" Olsen (24)
• Josh Willingham (29)

The Marlins get:

• Emilio Bonifacio (23)
• PJ Dean (19)
• Jake Smolinski (19)

I don't have time to give all my feelings on this, but my gut response is I'm not happy. I would've rather held onto the kids, and signed Dunn for Left Field. Did you realize Dunn is only 28? Maybe the Nats didn't think they had a chance at him. I dunno. I'm gonna miss Boney's speed. It's no secret I was a huge fan of his. His ratio of runs scored vs. times on base was nice.

I'll chime in more later. Later, Boney!

Let the transactions begin!

HUGE news from the Nats front office. The first of many trades has gone down.

Nationals trade Ryan Buchter to the Cubs for Matt Avery.

HOT DAMN! That's one exciting trade. My penis might jump out my pants!