Jamie Mottram's Sports Blog - www.misterirrelevant.com

Last week, John over at Only Baseball Matters (a Giants blog) wrote:

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Is it the right time to trade Jason Schmidt? After last night's dominant performance his trade value may never be higher to a franchise desperate to get younger and, more importantly, better. The best possible scenario for the Giants is to hope that Sabean looks across the diamond at the two young pitchers the D'backs have run out there against the Giants the last two nights (Vazquez and Halsey, obtained from the Yankees in the Randy Johnson deal) and wonders, "why not us?"

The Giants either have to pay him $10 million to pitch next season, or $3.5 million to go away. He's 32 years old, the age when most players are entering the decline phase of their careers, and Schmidt will be entering that phase looking to make his last big contract. Which means that even if he's able to pitch this well for the rest of this season and next season, he's still gonna leave. And Schmidt's no Roger Clemens, for those of you wondering why he can't follow in the Rocket's footsteps and have another 8 or 10 years of dominance ahead of him.

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John's right -- Schmidt is not Clemens. But he is Curt Schilling. Or at least, he may be. Upon turning 32 this offseason, Schmidt was 104-74 with a 3.90 ERA, 1,383 K,  two All-Star Games, two top-five Cy Young finishes and one ERA title to his credit. Upon turning 32 after the '97 season, Schilling was 69-63 with a 3.39 ERA, 1,119 K, one All-Star, one top-five CY finish and one K title.

Since Schilling turned 32, he has averaged 16 wins, a 3.28 ERA and 238 K per year over the course of seven seasons while being chosen for five All-Star Games and being voted to three top-five CY finishes. And it warrants mentioning that both Schmidt and Schilling are fastball, slider, changeup pitchers with high-90s heat.

GMs should be calling Sabean day and night for Schmidt. Especially the Orioles GMs (Mike Flanagan and Jim Beattie), as their team is in the hunt -- but fading fast -- for the first time since '97 despite a starting staff with a 4.88 ERA.

We hope to have John on Tuesday night's SBL (special time due to the 4th) to discuss this further. If you have fodder for the conversation, please post it here.

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