OK, two and a half.

would be that he’d be playing for Barack Obama’s favorite team.
Now I can create some kind of Barack and Brian Superfriends show in my head to distract myself from the horrors of both the economy and the 2009 season.

But that’s not going to stop me from crying if it happens.

I think this deal is a good one.

Getting Floyd for Roberts would seem to be steal for the Orioles, let alone Floyd plus Getz. Floyd has either 3 or 4 years before hitting free agency, Roberts is going to be a FA next year and is going to make $8M this year (a good deal, but not as good as Floyd). Maybe if the Orioles pick up most of Robert’s contract, but even then, that’s a lot of service years to give up for 1 year of BRob.

If the Sox give up Floyd AND Getz, then I’m convinced that McPhail has photos of half the GM’s in baseball.

1) Everyone over at south side sox hates this deal. They keep referring to Floyd’s “17 wins” and ignoring his career ERA of nearly 5.

2) Latest from Roch:

However, I want to stress that I’m not reporting that a deal is close to being completed. I’m just saying that White Sox general manager Kenny Williams would love to acquire Roberts, the Orioles apparently brought up Gavin Floyd’s name, and the White Sox appear willing to trade him – probably figuring this would be a good time to move him, with his stock so high. And Chicago has a second baseman who could be included in the deal, one that the Orioles really like.

That sounds like a bit of backpedaling to me.

Gavin Floyd is still a minor wild card, but I don’t think that’s a huge deal. I could be wrong, of course, but Floyd was 25 last season and had a very nice year. Floyd’s 2008 (3.84/1.26, 119 ERA+, 206.3 innings, 119 ERA+) was on par with Guthrie, and those two would make a nice 1-2 punch for ’09 and beyond.

The one thing I’ll say about Floyd is something Keith Law has mentioned several times. Don Cooper’s MO is to teach a sinkerball to all his new young pitchers. I haven’t actually checked the data, but Law mentioned that the addition of this pitch worked wonders for Danks and Floyd. It’s very possible that Floyd is just a Cooper creation and will lose his stuff upon leaving. Cooper’s presence may also explain the WS’s willingness to trade Floyd because the WS feel confident that Cooper can simply teach a sinker to another young pitcher and have the same success. That said, keeping Roberts is just complete nonsense. WE WILL SUCK WITH ROBERTS BETWEEN 2009 AND 2011, just liked we sucked in 2008. We need to get younger fast if we plan to rebulld efficiently.

That I think some people (not necessarily here, just in general) overstate the importance of having a player for many years. If a player isn’t that good, it doesn’t really help even if he’s under team control for 20 years. Obviously, many years of an average player will give you an aggregate value greater than one year from a Roberts-type player, but you can replace an average player a lot easier.

Not saying that Floyd is worthless, just that the length of time we’d have him might not be that vital, especially if those projections of a high 4s or higher ERA prove true.

If we’re going to trade him I’d really prefer that it be for a bunch of prospects than a mediocre major leaguer…

…we would be crazy not to do this. Straight up. 1 for 1. If by some miracle we got more than Floyd out of it I’d be whistling Dixie.