UCB Debate Day: Trade Ankiel

I know I've been away from the blog the last few days.  Work and other things have conspired against me, and it may be this weekend before I get a chance to catch up.  Rest assured that Heroes and Goats will return soon.  Until then, I hope this will help tide you over!

Today is another United Cardinal Bloggers project day. This time, the UCB takes up different issues in Cardinal Nation and debates them across blogs. You can find the list of all the questions and debate matchups here.

The statement up for debate between me and Kathy of Redbird Chatter is that the Cardinals should try to trade Chris Duncan instead of Rick Ankiel. I will be taking the con side of this, stating that Ankiel should be the one traded.

This is a hard one for me. I've never been a huge Duncan supporter and I've been an Ankiel fan since before he came up in '99. If given a choice, I'd love to see Rick stay in Cardinal red for a long time to come. However, the four-outfielders-for-three-slots merry-go-round is starting to get old and the best way to relieve that situation is a trade.

There are two reasons why Ankiel is the better player to trade. One, he should bring back a higher return and two, he's a free agent at the end of the year.

While Ankiel has not had as strong of a 2009 as Duncan, he still would be an attractive target for a team, especially one with deep enough pockets to tempt Scott Boras out of his "must hit free agency" mindset. Ankiel is a center fielder with much more range and fielding ability than Duncan, he has a stronger offensive pedigree, and arguably has more upside than Duncan.

Teams get excited about athletic center fielders. Teams have limited first base/DH types somewhere in their system, though perhaps not to the level that Duncan is. Still, you have to think that, even with his impending free agency, Ankiel would bring more in return, especially if he is moved well before the trading deadline.

Wouldn't you rather have Duncan plus, say, Philip Hughes* versus Ankiel and a Double-A prospect? Which helps the team more this year?

*Note, all trade possibilities are constructs of my imagination and therefore are not necessarily realistic. Still, the principle holds.

Of course, while his pending free agency is a detriment to what the Cardinals might receive back in a trade, the fact that in a few months, he could walk away from the team with nothing to show for it is probably the biggest reason you move him now.

While it's possible that Ankiel might wind up as a Type A or B free agent, there are no guarantees of that. The extra draft picks would be nice, but getting tangible returns, something that could help you this year, would be nicer. To eliminate the risk and to maximize their asset, the team should trade Ankiel sooner rather than later.

All of this assumes that Ankiel will not sign an extension in the middle of the season, something Boras has said won't happen. If that fact changes, of course, then many of the calculations above would change as well. As it stands right now, though, Rick Ankiel is the most attractive trade bait John Mozeliak could dangle.

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