Rotoprofessor

The World Series is over (congratulations Yankees), so let the Hot Stove Season begin (which we will be following closely at Rotoprofessor)!  It hasn’t taken long for things to seemingly get into high gear, as the Chicago Sun-Times (click here for the article) is reporting that the White Sox have traded Josh Fields & Chris Getz to the Kansas City Royals for Mark Teahen.

It’s a tough trade to weigh in on, as it clearly is just a small portion of what the Royals will be trying to do as they shape their ball club for 2010.

Does the acquisition of Getz show that they are not confident Mike Aviles will be able to fully recover from his surgery?  Will he be the starter over Alberto Callaspo?

Getz is a nice player who adds some speed to a line-up that was definitely lacking.  He hit .261 last season (courtesy of a .301 BABIP), but has some potential there to hit at least .280 with everyday at bats.  He makes good contact (14.4% strikeout rate in 2009) and should prove to be a solid, albeit unspectacular, table setter for the Royals.

Does the trade make him a player that you definitely want to target?  No, it doesn’t.  Even if he does emerge as the starting 2B, he’s not going to hit for any power (just two home runs last season) and who knows how many runs he is going to score at this point.  I would think he’d be in the 80-90 range, but the development of the young middle of the line-up and health of Jose Guillen (if he is back), will play a huge role.

Leave him as more of a middle infield option at this point.

As for Fields, it is way too early to see how he’s going to fit into the line-up.  He’s not going to be at 3B (Alex Gordon) and was terrible in the OF.  It is a foregone conclusion that Mike Jacobs will not be with the Royals next season, so he could slot in at 1B (or as DH with Billy Butler playing 1B).

Will the security of being in the line-up help him?  I’m not sure.  He struck out a ton in 2009, at 31.8%, a number that is actually lower than his career mark (34.0%).  Those types of numbers make it nearly impossible for him to hit for a usable average, meaning he had better hit a ton of home runs to compensate.

In 2009 he had just seven, courtesy of a HR/FB of 10.8%.  He had proven to have the ability to hit for more power in the past, but I’m not necessarily sold on the 22.3% HR/FB he posted in 2007 when he hit 23 home runs, considering it was in a better hitter’s park.

To me, it would appear that he will be the replacement to Jacobs, but is that necessarily a good thing?  I just don’t know that the Royals improved themselves here, though they clearly got two players who have plenty of upside (and at this point I am higher on Getz getting bumped up as opposed to Fields).

For the White Sox, they pick up a solid, though unspectacular, player who adds a little bit of versatility.  He can play 3B or the OF, though with Gordon Beckham in place it would appear that this was their solution to potentially losing Jermaine Dye via free agency.

Teahen has been around long enough that we know exactly what he is, a hitter who is .270-.280 with modest power (say around 15 HR) and a little speed (maybe 10 SB).  While the power could increase slightly going to a hitter’s park, he has a flyball rate of 29.6% for his career.  The upside just isn’t really there.

He does move to a better line-up, so maybe he moves up a few slots for owners in deeper formats, but his value still lies solely for five-outfielder formats and even then, he’s more of a short-term fill-in.

I do like what the Royals did, as they got two players with upside for a modest outfielder, so I’m going to give them the win at this point, though none of the players necessarily excite me from a fantasy perspective.  Getz gets the biggest boost, but even that is just for owners in formats that require a 2B/SS.

What are your thoughts?  Who won this deal?  Which player gets the biggest boost in power?

To read the previous article, click here.