Reposted because a) it was buried in the middle of some uninteresting jibberish yesterday, and b) I'm kind of fascinated by this....
If the Giants and Pirates do consummate a Freddy Sanchez trade, the Pirates would do well to demand Kevin Frandsen as a throw-in. If Frandsen came up with the Red Sox, he would have been Freddy Sanchez. That is, Frandsen would have been hyped enough to be a significant trade chip in his own right. Sanchez was 25 when he was the main piece in a deal that sent Jeff Suppan to the Red Sox, and his career minor league line was .318/.381/.440. Frandsen is 27 and his career minor league line is .322/.385/.457. Without league and park context, those numbers aren't perfect matches, of course, but it isn't hard to see Sanchez/Frandsen parallels.
I guess my point is this: Kevin Frandsen will hit .344 with 53 doubles in two years, just like Sanchez did in 2006. It's just science. My other point is this: Even though I'm obviously kidding about the first point, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea for another team to see how cheaply the Giants would part with Frandsen. Maybe there's a 20% chance he turns into a Sanchez-type player, and I don't think the Giants are going to give him that chance.
Is the lesson...
a. The Giants don't value Frandsen properly
b. Players with Sanchez-like careers are outliers -- most players don't just translate their minor league numbers over to the majors like that, so expecting Frandsen to do the same is silly
c. Folks might be overvaluing Sanchez just a bit. He's basically Frandsen if everything worked out perfectly
d. Defense makes this whole point moot, as Sanchez is the better defender
e. The comparison is invalid because of Frandsen's two extra birthdays. That makes a substantial difference
f. Sanchez is good. Frandsen is not. I didn't need to read all of those words up there to figure that out.
Just curious. I was stunned by how close the minor league numbers were for the two.