In the biggest deadline deal, the Sawks finally pull the trigger on Manny, exiling him to the Dodgers. The Dodgers don't really lose too much to get him for the final push this season. If he helps they can sign him longer term, if he doesn't, they let him walk and get the draft picks.
The Red Sox get Jason Bay, a solid hitter, but does he put the same fear in pitchers that Manny did? Will he mesh with Ortiz and vitalize the team and the offense like Manny did? I don't think so at first look and if I'm right, the Red Sox traded themselves right out of the playoffs.
The Rays stand pat, displaying confidence in the players they have and the prospects, like David Price, that they can pull up late season to augment the rotation or the bullpen. They may end up being a power bat short however.
The Yankees recover from the loss of Posada, by taking on Pudge. They may overtake the Dead Sox and squeak into the playoffs as a wild-card. Watch out for the Twinkies, though.
Locally the White Sox add Ken Griffey, three years too late, but hey better late than never. Giving up Massett might come back on them a couple of years down the road. This deal was made for this years punch alone. Like Manny and the Dodgers, if Griffey vitalizes the team in August and September, they reward him, if not they jettison him. This team could get old ad creaky very fast. Griffey, Thome and Konerko are all showing their age this year. Crede has been bothered by injuries. They need to hit on more Carlos Quentin's to augment Jermaine Dye, Nick Swisher, A.J. Persynski and Orlando Cabrera.
The Cubs saw the Brewers recent transactions adding C.C. Sabathia and Ray Durham and marched into Milwaukee with brooms in hand, sweeping the Brew-crew four straight. That could be a dagger. The Cardinals stayed pat at the deadline, hoping that adding Carpenter and revitalizing Isringhausen will be enough to overtake the Cubs. If it is, LaRussa is truly a genius. Well, he's already a genius, he'd have to be a magician, a baseball Houdini, to get the Cardinals into the playoffs as constituted.
The Dodgers should win the West now. Manny in the middle of that order, immediately makes the other seven regular players better. The message it sends to the clubhouse probably makes the entire roster better down the stretch.
And kudos to the Pirates, who probably maximized the value received for Jason Bay, by brokering the deal between and bouncing Manny to LA. They get two prospects from Boston, Craig Hansen (future closer) being the centerpiece. He was blocked in Boston by that Papelbon guy. And they get two prospect from the Dodgers, with LaRoche being the key. If those two guys both hit, it's good for the Pirates anything more is gravy.
The Giants are strangely silent on the trade front. I guess they would rather receive whatever draft picks they might get back for Randy Winn. There was supposedly some interest in Jack Taschner, maybe a later deal for the ever value PTBNL.
There wasn't much movement of pitchers this year it seems. It will be interesting to see if some pieces aren't moved later here as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment