Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Trade Deadline: Winners and Losers

Now time to give out cheers, jeers, and "meh" to teams based on how they did before this season's non-waiver trade deadline:

Cheers to:

Braves, acquried 1B slugger Mark Teixeira, plus bullpen help in RHP Octavio Dotel and LHP's Ron Mahay and Royce Ring. Tex is obviously the biggest trade this year, and with the bullpen help, the Braves are now legitimate contenders in the NL. (Of course I'd still like to see a post-waiver Bronson Arroyo deal, too.)

Red Sox, acquired RHP Eric Gagne. He joins an already very deep bullpen with the likes of Papelbon, Okajima, and Delcarmen. Really the only question is can he avoid the geriatric-like hip injuries. Boston starters pretty much only have to go 6 innings now. If they don't win that division Francona should be put in prison.

Rangers, acquiring lots of young talent in return for Gagne, Teixeira, and Lofton. They had little chance to re-sign the first two guys anyway and the third one is about a year away from dinosaurdom (jr).

Jeers to:

Padres. First they trade away Linebrink, which granted, he's not as good as he used to be, but he was a big clubhouse presence. Then, if there's one thing the Padres really needed, it's a bat (or 2, or 3), and they went out and got...uh, Rob Mackoviak? Morgan Ensberg? I think they already have those guys, they're named Geoff Blum and Kevin Kouzmanoff. If the Pads end up winning the World Series then I'll shut my mouth but honestly, in my opinion, these were very questionable and lame (lame) moves.

Yankees. All they got was reserve infielder Wilson Betemit. I'm not sure that really qualifies as any sort of an upgrade over Andy Phillips at 1B (where the Yankees will reportedly play Betemit on occasion). He sucked in Atlanta and L.A., I see no reason to expect different in NY. Buster Olney actually said that this move may be in preparation for if A-Rod leaves in the off-season. Olney's a very smart person, so I'll give him a mulligan on that one.

Mets. They really could've used another bat, especially with Beltran now on the DL. Their offense is much worse than people think. The one-dimensional and aging Luis Castillo isn't really going to help that much.

Pirates. Why would they want Matt Morris and his inflated salary? I can't even come up with a single logical answer to this question. Pirates fan, rejoice that Littlefield's days are numbered.

"Meh" to:

Cubs. I think they would've done well to up their offer for Gagne, or maybe they could've found a taker for Jacque Jones. Then again they are playing really well right now so maybe the philosophy was don't rock the boat.

Dodgers. The Proctorologist will help the bullpen, not that it really needed that much though. They really could've used another bat, but at least they did something, and they should hang close with the Padres down the stretch.

Royals. Having seen Kyle Davies plenty-o-times, I think it's a toss-up whether he gets on track in KC. But giving up Dotel was not too big a price, honestly, and it saves them plenty of cash.

1 comment:

Minda said...

I'm unsure of Kyle Davies too, but I agree that trading Dotel will not hurt the Royals too badly. Joakim Soria had plenty of chances to show his ability as a closer earlier this season, and he was awesome there. With the help of Zack Greinke, David Riske, John Bale, and Brandon Duckworth (when he gets off the DL) the KC bullpen will be just fine.

I've been scratching my head at the Mets too. But it's pretty easy to assume that Castillo will not be with them more than half a season or so.

Lastly, is it just me or were the Braves the ONLY team that did anything interesting? I guess Boston acquiring Gagne was at least better than boring, but it seemed like the only last-minute drama was whether Atlanta would finish the Teixeira deal in time to grab Dotel as well. Meh.