Boston Red Sox – The Red Sox (70-43) weren’t feeling the
love in a recent series against the pesky Rays and jumped at the chance to add
an arm, trading none of their big prospects and landing Jake Peavy in
return. This was the most impactful move
at the deadline. The Red Sox deserve a
ton of credit for leaving the joke of a season in 2012 in the rear view. Shortstop Jose Iglesias was a nice Red Sox
story and the Tigers probably overpaid for him.
Chicago Cubs- The
Cubs (50-63) are an irregular Cubs bunch; they’ve played better on the road and
have struggled to score runs in such a hitter friendly environment. They wanted
quantity arms to add for a quietly decent staff (3rd in QS in the
MLB). They traded the he-is-what-he-is Matt Garza to the Rangers for a pitcher
C.J Edwards, another workhorse pitcher in Justin Grimm and got rid of Alfonso
Soriano for righthander Corey Black. If
Jake Arrieta can get his act together they could be looking at a Samardzija –
Wood- Jackson – Edwards – Arrieta rotation in 2014. That’s a lot of missed bats.
Houston Astros- At 37-76 anything is probably an upgrade but
we may remember this time as Houston rebuilt smartly instead of clinging on to
a 70-wins-at-best roster. Addition by subtraction remains the H-Town plan for
the future and they continued to burn old wood for fresh saplings. Bud Norris, easily the most identifiable
Astro pitcher (at least) was shipped to Baltimore for L.J Hoes, Josh Hader and
a draft pick. They traded average guys
like Jose Veras, Justin Maxwell for more draft picks and prospects. They need as many prospects as they can
get—it now looks like their farm system is among the league’s deepest. Now the kids need to pan out.
Losers
Texas Rangers – These
aren’t the same Rangers of the earlier part of the decade. At 65-50 they’ll have to continue to play
small ball with the likes of Leonys Martin to keep pace in a very good American
League. They bagged pitcher Matt Garza from the Cubs which was a minor win but
did nothing in the face of losing a major part of an already questionable
offense when the MLB suspended outfielder Nelson Cruz. They’ll sorely miss his 27 homers and 76 RBI;
they inquired about Blue Jay sluggers Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista as
well as perused the availability of Carlos Gonzalez and Matt Kemp. In the end they are hoping that their bats
can still match up well against an Oakland or Tampa Bay in the playoffs—they’ll
have issues against Detroit or Boston.
Philadelphia Phillies – The aging-est team in baseball
(51-62) seems to be in serious denial. They’re in serious rebuilding mode with
a beyond-aging core. Teams kicked the
tires on Cliff Lee, Michael Young and Chase Utley and nothing ended up
happening. They thought they could be
competitive this year and apparently Michael Young still thinks so (invoking a
no-trade clause pretty late in the process).
Maybe someone should tell Young that the Phillies have a worse run
differential than the Marlins and could feasibly be caught by them. Sad.
Pittsburgh Pirates – Are those green, efficient Pirates
(69-44) going to sustainable down the stretch?
They own one of the best records in baseball but they still needed a
gas-guzzling bat or two in the worse way and were unable to get any offensive
help. Only the Giants, Nationals,
Phillies have scored fewer in the NL and they will be hard pressed to match
Cadillac offenses (and division foes) Cincinnati and St. Louis in those
inevitable summer slugouts in Busch and Great American. Their fans were screaming for an upgrade;
guys like Justin Morneau, Alex Rios or heck even Nate Schierholtz would have
made sense. A backend starter like Bud
Norris could’ve made sense for a team that seems destined to play in
October. It seems the Pirates were
content keep relying on their efficient, run preventing style (381 runs allowed
– 1st in MLB) hopefully they don’t run out of hybrid electricity
like in 2011.
Seattle Mariners- The Mariners (53-61) have tinkered with their
ballpark and offensively have some pieces but big, about-to-be-free-agent-bats
(Michael Morse, Raul Ibanez and Kendrys Morales) weren’t moved. They’re 11.5 out of first and their pitching
has let them down strangely (only the Angels, Blue Jays and lowly Astros have
surrendered more runs). They wanted top
prospects and commanded a premium for those expiring bats. In the end, no one was willing to pay price
for their middling veterans.
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