madmarlin Posted July 31, 2004 Share Posted July 31, 2004 Guillermo Mota is unquestionably one of the best set up men in baseball. To this point in the season, once we lost Chad Fox our bullpen has been extremely below average and we have probably over-worked Benitez. Bringing in Mota makes us a 7 inning team and gives us the possibility of occasionally resting Benitez in a save situation from time to time. LoDuca will bring us MUCH NEEDED CONSISTENCY from behind the plate both offensively and defensively. Redmond and Treanor are nothing more than career backups. Encarnacion brings back a top notch glove to right field and allows us to move Cabrera back to the easier LF spot. Conine will move to first where he is very adequate defensively and even more importantly since he doesnt have to expend as much energy playing defense (remember he is 38 years old) playing 1B full-time might actually improve his offense. Remember that he played 1B almost exclusively in Baltimore for the two years prior to his trade back to the Marlins. We moved him to LF last year out of necessity. Penny is good, but he was expendable. Choi was developing nicely and could be a star down the road however he wasnt producing runs and let's face it. The name of the game is to win NOW!!!! and while this trade doesnt shoot us up to the level of the New York Yankees, it definitely makes us a better team for the rest of the season. Considering that we are only three games back from Atlanta and we face them head to head a good amount from here on out. We have a very good shot at returning to the post-season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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