By John Gottlieb
The Phanatic Magazine
Finally, John has returned to the Phanatic Magazine.
The Phanatic Magazine
Finally, John has returned to the Phanatic Magazine.
And with my return comes the end of baseball's non-waiver trading deadline. After all the hype of relievers, White Sox and Pirates rumored to be changing addresses there was relative quiet leading up to the deadline.
The Braves, Red Sox and Rangers were the ultimate winners. Jarrod Saltalamacchia had no where to play so it only made sense to package him for a legitimate middle-of-the-lineup hitter in Mark Texieria, who won't be a free agent until after next season. Then the Braves went out and got Octavio Dotel to build up the back of their bullpen. This changes a recent trend of John Schuerholtz and Bobby Cox standing pat in recent years.
Everyone knew the Red Sox would be involved in a lot of trade talks but who could've imagined that Boston would get Kevin Garnett and Eric Gagne on the same day. What a coup. Theo Epstein gave up very little except pitcher Kason Gabbard, who was used in emergency duty.
Even though the Rangers sold off two of their best players they helped rebuild their farm system by getting Saltalamacchia, 18-year-old shortstop phenom Elvis Andrus, Neftali Feliz, Matt Harrison and Beau Jones, Gabbard, David Murphy, and Engel Beltre.
Teams that did well include the Phillies, Mets, Padres, Brewers, and Devil Rays. The Phillies didn't wait long to replace Utley with Tadahito Iguchi and then picked up the only major league starting pitcher dealt in Kyle Lohse.
The Mets added Luis Castillo for their second base hole, but did nothing to improve their starting pitching. Castillo was a good move since he's having one of his best offensive seasons and he's a superb defender.
The Padres did a lot of work to their bench in acquiring Scott Hairston, Rob Mackowiak, and Morgan Ensberg, but also traded reliever Scott Linebrink to an NL-plyoff contender in the Brewers.
The Devil Rays are usually all talk and no action around the deadline but not this year. They shipped out Ty Wigginton and Jorge Cantu and got back Dan Wheeler, Calvin Medlock, and Brian Shackelford. The Rays need arms and got a few in return.
The goats for the deadline are the Yankees, Reds, Pirates, White Sox, Giants, Astros, Nationals, Reds, and Angels.
The Yankees are in desperate need of relief help but never appeared to get close on Gagne and the only move they made was to get rid of a reliever (Scott Proctor) for a backup infielder hitting .230 (Wilson Betemit).
The other teams ended up on this list for their inabilities to do anything to better themselves for a playoff run or the future. The Astros (Mark Loretta, Chad Qualls, Mike Lamb), Nationals (Chad Cordero, Jon Rauch), Reds (Adam Dunn), Pirates (Jack Wilson, Damaso Marte, Shawn Chacon, Salomon Torres), White Sox (Jermaine Dye, Jon Garland, Jose Contreras, Javier Vazquez), and Giants (anyone on the miserable team) all had players to deal but remained stagnant in trying to build a better ballclub.
The deadline just doesn't pack the punch it once did, which is a casualty due to the revenue sharing. More teams stay in the race longer, while the bottom feeders ask for exorbitant prices on players they feel they don't need to get rid of.
The trading deadline used to be a day you remembered during baseball season. It was the last day of the season to make a significant upgrade to your playoff hopes. Gone are the days that Randy Johnson, Bartolo Colon, and David Cone can be obtained. Now you're lucky if you get one big player to switch teams at the deadline.
That coupled with the fact that ballclubs are more reluctant to part with prospects, especially young arms, spells for a fairly uneventful trading deadline. General managers ask for the world in return for marginal players because that's the only way it's worth shipping out a useful player.
Something needs to be done to restore the luster to baseball's trading deadline.
It's gotten a little easier to squeeze a deal through waivers, but why not just do away with it and give GMs and teams another month before the deadline.
It will only drive up more interest in the sport when the best teams can position themselves better for a World Series title with a key addition.
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