Barfield to the Tribe

Since the Democrats look to have (thank God) gained both the House and Senate in what looks to be a serious electoral coup, maybe, just maybe, the Red Sox are serious contenders in this bidding war for Matsuzaka. The deadline to submit an offer was today at 5 PM EST, but the Seibu Lions technically have until Tuesday to decide whether or not to accept the winning bid. Life I've said before, and a number of people over at one of them fancy-schmancy message boards, Sons of Sam Horn, there's nothing to lose on Matsuzaka other than money.

In other news, the Cleveland traded away infielder Kevin Kouzmanoff and reliever Andrew Brown for National League Rookie of the Year contender Josh Barfield. A look at their stats:

BARFIELD
G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG
150 539 72 151 32 3 13 58 21 5 30 81 .280 .318 .423

KOUZMANOFF (AAA)
G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG
27 102 22 36 9 0 7 20 2 1 10 12 .353 .409 .647

BROWN (AAA)
W L ERA G GS CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB SO AVG
5 4 2.60 39 0 0 0 5 62.1 52 21 18 5 36 53 .228

Neither of the Indians prospects have seen legitimate time above AAA, though Kouzmanoff, in typical rookie fashion, had a few dramatic home runs in The Show that helped people look past his miserable stats. Still, both sets of minor league stats are impressive, if you can ignore the small sample size. Kouzmanoff seems to pop http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifwith power hitter potential, so if he can translate those to the big leagues, he would be a valuable asset for the Padres at a position where they're not too well stacked. Brown, should he be able to bring his walks down a bit, would contribute to their bullpen as well. Batters aren't putting good wood on the ball against him, and he's producing his fair share of swings and misses in the box.

Still, the Padres are giving up a legitimate player in Barfield. While he's not a serious offensive threat, he is multi-dimensional. You'll hear about his speed (21 SB and only 5 CS), but what jumps out the most to me is his low number of strikeouts (81) in almost 600 ABs. The AL will likely prove difficult for him, but put him in a lineup with the likes of Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez and he'll probably find himself challenged a bit more than in San Diego.

An interesting move here in the early going.

EARLY MORNING EDIT: The San Deigo Union-Tribune has an interesting article with a follow up thought that I hadn't even considered: Mark Loretta is a free agent, and his family is still in San Diego. Granted, given the fact that the Padres seem to be looking to bolster their offense (seen in the trade of Barfield and the letting go of Dave Roberts), Mark Loretta might not be the kind of second baseman they have in mind. Kevin Towers has explicitly mentioned a 2B of "star quality" which sounds surprisingly like "Alfonso Soriano", but should Towers fail to bring the big bat, Loretta would provide, at the very least, a stable alternative.