I'd trade Lowry for Teahen straight up. It's a fair deal on the surface for both teams, with a slight edge going to the Royals. If Teahen maintained around his 2005-2006 AVG,OBP and hit 7-10 HR's he would fill a much needed spot on the roster. As long as he didn't give up +25 with his defense. He has played nine MLB games at 1B, if his defense is awful at 3B.

The Royals home park, Kauffman Stadium, ranked 27th in HR's averaged per game during 2007 at 1.58 per game. The only parks with lower numbers were in order: 28th RFK @ 1.56 pg,29th The Phone Booth @ 1.46 pg, 30th Petco @1.44 pg. Lowry could be a serviceable pitcher there,IMO.

  Yes he could crash and burn like the Hindenburg at Lakehurst. He could  easily be a legit MLB player in 2010 and beyond. We know Teahan can play the field a large amount of time  ( over 3K innings in 3 seasons) at age 26.   It's not like the Giants have anyone better lined up for either 1st  or 3rd  already at any time over the  next 3 seasons. And unlike a lot of possible pieces to trade for him Lowry/Sanchez should be near  replicateable from inside the Giant System.Cain, Lincecume & Rowand might have a team mate they can count on for the bulk of their contracts?  So what exactly is the huge down side here?

Two, I take issue with Grant's statement "Teahen's only 26, so what you see isn't necessarily what you get." A month ago everyone, myself included, was screaming that because Alex Rios was already 26 going on 27, he was unlikely to make the leap to superstardom from his current status as a Very Good Player, whereas Lincecum might. That's why we didn't want the trade going down, all the other issues notwithstanding. If Teahan is (at best) mediocre defensively and isn't currently a power hitter, why beyond wishful thinking should we expect this to change by, say, 2010?

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=6988

Since it is a subscriber piece, I won't post the whole thing, but a summary is below.  Basically, Teahen wants to be a "use the whole field" type hitter even though it saps his power, while his coaches have tried to make him more of a "pull for power" guy.

"What can we take from this? Teahen is a hitter better served by trying to get loft under pitches in order to drive them deep into the outfield, as he just doesn't do enough with the ball when he tries to poke it with a line-drive swing. If he were still in the infield and getting on base while hitting for a decent average, you might be able to put up with the lack of power to some degree.

His defense helps his cause, but only to a point. The Davenport Translations love him defensively in right field, and John Dewan's Revised Zone Rating sees him as a bit above-average, but that doesn't change the fact that he can't out-slug Yuniesky Betancourt while playing an offensive position. The most frustrating thing about Teahen is that after seeing his 2006 season and noting the apparent changes in his style during 2007, we know he can perform better than he did in '07, but unless he sticks with what works for him offensively--and not what he prefers to do--we won't see that production again."

Lowry has been a good pitcher for us, not mediocre at all.  Overall, he has kept his ERA below 4.00 for much of his career, except for the month of September 2006 when he clearly tried to pitch with the elbow problem he eventually was shelved on the DL with.

While his ERA is a product of his home park, in 2007, his road ERA was 3.97, which is good, any pitcher who can get his ERA under 4.00 in this era is good.  And if you look at his career road numbers, and if you eliminate the 3 horrible road games that Sept 2006 when he pitched while injured, his ERA on the road for his career is only 4.36, which is still good, but edging towards average.  Mediocrity are pitchers who have ERA in the high 4's and above, like Brett Tomko, who has been lucky to have pitched at pitcher's park, his road ERA is over 5.

People see his declining K/BB ratio and K/9 and just assume the worse.  While they are good indicators in general, they clearly don't hold for a select group of lefties who are able to defy DIPS theory.  If Lowry has been able to pitch well now for basically 3.5 seasons now, I would say that he has proved that he's a good pitcher.  

If other teams don't believe it, that's fine with me, that means we get to keep a good pitcher on our pitching staff, he's good as our #3 starter, great as our #4 starter, he could probably win close to 20 games pitching regularly against other team's #4 starter, who average giving up nearly 5 runs per game (RS=5, RA=4, Wins = 18 with 30 starts).

Dood, we can paint these fools up to look like Christopher Reeve in red briefs and blue tights, but they are still unwatchable. I am semi-curious as to exactly what the date will be when the sea gulls and  tourists from Iowa outnumber fans.

Appreciate the effort though.

Here's notes on his progress over time:

4/22/04 On DeckBaseball Prospects
3B Mark Teahen went 2-for-5 with a double, a run scored, and 2 RBIs, SS Mark Kiger was 2-for-5 with a run scored and 3 RBIs, and C Jeremy Brown went 2-for-3 with a run scored to lead the Midland attack. Teahen continues to hit. He currently ranks 2nd in the TL in RBIs (14) and is 3rd in batting (.389).

5/4/04 On Deck
3B Mark Teahen went 3-for-4 with a double, a run scored, and an RBI in Midland's (OAK) 5-2 conquest of Frisco (TEX). Teahen is tied for 4th in the TL in doubles (9) and is 8th in batting (.337). He's drawn 16 walks in 25 games and he leads the RockHounds in RBIs with 17.

5/7/04  On Deck
3B Mark Teahen went 2-for-4 with a dinger (2) and 2 RBIs for Midland in defeat. Teahen has had no problem with Double-A thus far, ranking 7th in the TL in batting (.344). He's drawn 16 walks in 26 games. Teahen did make an error in the game, giving him all of one error this season. Impressive.

5/14/04 On Deck
3B Mark Teahen went 2-for-5 with an RBI  in Midland's (OAK) 4-3 road victory over Frisco (TEX). Teahen's reign of terror continues. He has now hit in 9 straight games, going 18-for-39 (.462) with 9 runs scored and 12 RBIs. He ranks 3rd in the TL in RBIs (28) and 4th in batting (.363).

6/22/04 John Sickels, ESPN Down on the Farm
Although he hasn't quite lived up to the Jason Giambi comparisons made when Oakland picked him out of St. Mary's in the Moneyball draft, Teahen has taken a big step forward this year refining his bat, pulling the ball more often for power will maintaining his plate discipline. Recently promoted to Triple-A, he's 14-for-58 (.241) with a .353 OBP so far. He was hitting .335/.419/.543 for Midland before moving up from Double-A. Teahen is also a sound defensive player at third base. His name is cropping up in trade rumors, like Blanton's, and if he continues to hit well he will get an opportunity shortly, for Oakland or someone else.

7/15/04  Rotoworld top 100 prospects
71. Mark Teahen - 3B Royals - Age 22 - ETA: Sept. 2004
Previous rankings: None

.335/.419/.543, 6 HR, 36 RBI, 44/29 K/BB, 0 SB in 197 AB for Double-A Midland
.275/.383/.391, 0 HR, 10 RBI, 22/11 K/BB, 0 SB in 69 AB for Triple-A Sacramento
.254/.313/.424, 2 HR, 7 RBI, 17/4 K/BB, 0 SB in 59 AB for Triple-A Omaha

Teahen's breakthrough season allowed the A's to get Octavio Dotel in the three-team Carlos Beltran deal.  A 2002 first-round pick, Teahen didn't show much besides decent on-base skills and solid defense at third base until this year.  The sudden increase in power was in part a Midland creation, but Teahen has the line-drive swing to hit 15 homers per year.  He likely will be a regular for the Royals next year, and he should have a Joe Randa-type career.

8/15/04  On Deck
3B Mark Teahen smacked 2 doubles, homered, and drove in 2 runs in Omaha's (KCR) 8-6 loss at Edmonton (MTL) on Thursday. Teahen has a hit in 11 out of the last 12 games, going 15-for-46 (.326). He's hitting .282 with 33 RBIs in 62 Triple-A games.

9/7/04 On Deck
3B Mark Teahen went 2-for-4 with a dinger (8) and 2 runs scored in Omaha's (KCR) 8-4 loss at Iowa (CHC) on Sunday. Teahen could be the Royals' starting third baseman at the start of next season. He played solid ball in the PCL this year, hitting .279 with 23 doubles, 42 runs scored, and 41 RBIs in 86 games.

9/11/06  Hardball Times
Great summary of career so far:
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/mark-teahen-steps-up/

I wonder what the Giants' scouts think of Teahen's defense.

In a free agent vacuum, Teahen over Feliz might give me pause.  I believe in building a pitching team around strong defense, so Teahen takes a major, major hit there.  He's not just not good, he's bad.  But I'd take Teahen offensively over Feliz...though maybe not by as much as a long shot.

But trading for Teahen?  Trading Lowry???  Geeze, with two months left in the season, Grant was making the case for Lowry netting us four top prospects, but a very minor injury later, and now he's only worth the Royals' table scraps?  (And no, he was never going to get us four top prospects)

If it's trading Lowry for Teahen or keeping Lowry and signing Feliz for two years, I'll take Feliz.  Lowry should be worth a lot more now, and he will be worth a lot more next season.

I wonder how much of this opinion is being fueled by the 'anything but Pedro' emotion out there.  I mean, hurting the team to get rid of him?  This is a guy who just got openly admitted as being the lesser to minor league free agents at another position.  Frankly, I'd rather have Leone  than trade for Teahen at third.  And I'd definitely have Frandsen.  But if the only two choices were signing Feliz or trading for Teahen, I'd take Feliz any day of the week.

Change for change's sake does not equal imagination.  It does, however, equal desperation (and usually turns into a downward spiral).

The power will come, but it won't be Konerko power... it will be Durham power.  Only, he'll actually have above league average BA's.

No one wants Teahen on the Gyros more than me?  He's on like every franchise I do on EA Sports games.  He was a teammate of my best friend at Saint Mary's.  He's super sarcastic, and really competitive.  Where do we sign?

He had Shoulder surgery in `06.
http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20061018&content_id=1716797&vkey=news_ kc&fext=.jsp&c_id=kc

And the move to the OF was not only done  because of the emergence of Gordon.( which I had assumed was the reason)
http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20061017&content_id=1715403&vkey=news_ kc&fext=.jsp&c_id=kc

With 17 assists from RF it seems reasonable that his shoulder has healed.  This kind of puts him the potentional to recover some of his power category  to me.