On July 29th 2010, Roy Oswalt was traded from the Houston Astros to the Philadelphia Phillies for minor league prospects. One of those prospects, Anthony Gose, was immediately shipped to Toronto in exchange for first baseman Brett Wallace. I, like many others, had a perplexed reaction to news of the trade. Lyle Overbay, the current starting first baseman, was in the last year of his contract, and Cito Gaston had shown no interest in playing Adam Lind at first base. In other words, we were counting on Wallace to step in to start the 2011 season, but as quickly and shockingly as we had acquired him, he was gone.
The explanation that Alex Anthopolous gave to the general public was that, while Brett Wallace will likely be a good hitter, Anthony Gose has the potential to be a great all-around baseball player. This was a viewpoint I could understand. In a division that has lineups filled with perennial All-Stars, "good" just isn't good enough, particularly when speaking of first base. Look no further than Mark Teixeira and now, Adrian Gonzalez, to understand the standards set for an AL East first baseman on a contender. Anthopolous acknowledged the risk but felt it necessary to shoot for high ceiling players and not settle for safety, and the latter might best describe the J.P. Ricciardi era.
Post trade, the 2010 season ended on a rather mediocre note for both players. Anthony Gose, after being assigned to the Blue Jays High-A affiliate in Dunedin, hit .255/.360/.426 in 94 at bats. While the 13 walks and 3 HR were nice to see, the 29 strikeouts and poor SB% (9/14 = 64%) said he still had a ways to go. For Brett Wallace, he finally reached the major leagues, and even saw regular playing time. The results were poor, however, as he posted a .222/.296/.319 slash line, with only 2 HR in 144 AB.
Entering 2011, Anthony Gose was named as the starting center fielder for Toronto's Double-A affiliate, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, while Brett Wallace was named as the Opening Day first baseman for the Houston Astros. Clearly, both the Blue Jays and Astros organizations had lofty expectations of their players, and so far both players have performed quite admirably.
Gose has posted a slash line of .280/.366/.319 (161 AB) with 2 HR, 17 RBI, and 18 SB while playing an exceptional center field. Perhaps most promising about Gose's start is his BB/K ratio, which is currently 19/35, much improved from his previous few seasons. The biggest concern I have with Gose so far is his sub .100 ISO, which is the difference between his slugging percentage and batting average, and is used to measure extra base power. Gose has only hit 4 doubles, 3 triples, and 2 home runs. At 6'1" and 190 lbs, I want to see more. I can live with the low home run totals, but with his wheels he needs to have some solid double and triple totals.
Brett Wallace has hit .318/.391/.459 (148 AB) with 12 doubles, 3 HR, and 15 RBI. Similar to Anthony Gose, Wallace is posting a much better BB/K ratio this year at 17/32, a dramatic improvement over his combined 35/133 between Triple-A and the majors last season. His poor plate discipline was one of the main reasons I, and many other Blue Jays fans, were ok with the trade, so his performance has been a little bittersweet.
I got my first look at Brett Wallace this weekend as Houston made a trip to Toronto for an interleague series. After sitting for the 1st game against the left handed Reyes, Wallace started both the 2nd and 3rd games of the series. I was impressed with his performance, and not just because he managed to smack our pitching staff around. He does have a very nice, smooth swing, and whatever alteration he made to his approach during the offseason to improve his plate discipline was nice, as he showed a lot of patience on some tough pitches. My biggest concern was when I saw Brett Wallace field and run the bases. Wow. I couldn't stop thinking to myself how huge the guy's lower half is, and he's only 24. Wallace clearly needs to make changes in his lifestyle if he wants to have a long baseball career. Secondly, I'm not sure how high of a power ceiling Wallace has. He looks like he could be a consistent .300 hitter, but he seems to have more of a slap approach at the plate, as opposed to the uppercut swing you often see in 30+ HR hitting players. I heard the term "white Ichiro" used over the weekend and, while a mildly amusing joke about Wallace's slap single approach, is hardly accurate.
At the time of the trade, I was puzzled yet accepting, and 10 months later, the feeling is much the same. Gose has established himself in Double-A, while Wallace has established himself as a competent major league hitter. I still believe the Blue Jays will win this trade in the long run, however, as I'm not sure if Wallace will ever hit much more than 20-25 HR with mediocre defense, and numbers like those aren't particularly difficult to acquire for cheap from a veteran through free agency. Anthony Gose still has more inherent risk, but if he reaches the majors and hits, he'll could be one of the most dynamic players the Blue Jays organization has ever had.
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