Big Lead Sports Bar

7/20/2010

Dodgers Interested in Maholm



It's that magical time of year when the Pirates start to shed some veterans, and to that point, Dejan Kovacevic of the PG is reporting that the Los Angeles Dodgers are interested in a trade for pitcher Paul Maholm.

Maholm's salary of $4.5 million is the highest on the team's active roster, and second-highest in the organization behind only the immortal Aki Iwamura at $4.85 million. Maholm is 6-7 with a 4.03 ERA thus far in 2010. 

Kovacevic cited a Yahoo! Sports report from yesterday mentioning the Dodgers' desire to add pitching in advance of some difficult divisional games. They've recently made inquiries on hurlers such as Houston's Roy Oswalt and the Cubs' Ted Lilly.

The Dodgers have a number of financial constraints due to their owner's ongoing divorce, so Maholm's relatively affordable contract should be looked at as a positive for Los Angeles. I have not seen any scenarios mentioning the Pirates' demands in return, but I would expect them to be lofty if they're going to weaken an already-awful rotation. 

As you know, there is a recent history between the two teams, with the 2008 Jason Bay-Manny Ramirez-prospects deal and the 2009 Delwyn Young trade, in which the Dodgers received prospects Eric Krebs and Harvey Garcia from the Pirates. So if you're tossing around potential trade scenarios, I'd call this one extremely viable.

9 comments:

Nate said...

While affordability might be seen as a positive, I have to think that if the team can get Roy Oswalt or Ted Lilly, Paul Maholm wouldn't be much of a priority.

Unknown said...

My knee jerk, irrational reaction is no freaking way. I am tired of seeing the Pirates trade away their highest paid players. I don't care how good or bad Maholm is - I want to see Nutting demonstrate the ability to keep highly paid players (and he is not even that highly paid).

Scott said...

I wouldn't call this viable at all. I'd be stunned if it happened. This pitching staff is historically bad, and they're going to trade away their ace (I use the term loosely) for prospects? No way.

All this talk about how the Pirates have to trade Maholm & Doumit before next year is silly. Nutting must raise the payroll next year substantially or he'll have MLB on his back. I'm betting it'll go from $36 to about $46 million.

Instead of signing hit or miss free agents, the easiest way to raise payroll is to just keep these guys. Plus, it's a good PR move because it shows the fans the team will keep high-paid (I use the term loosely) players.

frank said...

this guy sucks they should just trade there hole team thats y im a phillies fan they r the only good team in pa sort of how penn state is the only good team in pa haha same fags who root 4 spitt r the 1s rooting 4 these trash queers lol
WE ARE PENN STATE!!!!!!!!!

Unknown said...

If we can get this guy in return, I'm all for it:

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=P&sid=t342&t=p_pbp&pid=457428

HomeRunFromBehindTheMeatballs said...

Initially, i'm not in favor of trading Maholm (please dont jump/restart the chuckie morton experiment!). That being said, if the Dodgers are willing to give up a king's ransom of prospects... Including SEVERAL close-to-the-majors pitching prospects, who are we to say no?

I say, if they're gonna trade Maholm, they better clean up on AAA talent!

Unknown said...

That was the point I was trying to make. I would want a cheaper quality AAA pitcher who we could possibly use for the remainder of the season. Maholm is a decent pitcher, but eventually he won't be worth his salary.

frank said...

haha gay ass pirate fans and spitt fans cant think comback 2 me so they just pretend 2 igore me lol thats pretty funny u guys must get it in the as 247 probly from spitt football players hahahaha
WE ARE PENN STATE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nate said...

I wouldn't expect much in a deal for Maholm. He's a #4 or #5 starter on a team like the Dodgers. Much more valuable to us than he would be to them, and I doubt they'd give up anything of significance for him. Then again, Ned Colletti isn't high on prospects not named Matt Kemp, so maybe I'm wrong.

If a deal goes through, anyone expecting a king's ransom is probably going to be pretty disappointed. I would expect maybe a major-league ready AAA pitcher and a mid-ceiling A-ball prospect. If we could somehow pry John Ely from the Dodgers, though, I'd make that trade for Maholm straight up.