The 2008 trading frenzy has reached its deadline in historical fashion. I say historical, because no other season in the history of baseball have more sure fire hall of famers been traded in the same year. Ken Griffey Jr goes to the White Sox to the Reds, Manny Ramirez goes to the Dodgers from the Red Sox and Ivan Rodriguez goes to the Yankees from the Tigers. I believe I heard that never has more than 2 hall of famers been traded in the same season. If the futures of C. C. Sabathia and Mark Texiera are as bright as their pasts, there could be as many as 5 Hall of Famers traded this season. A number of prospects were also involved in the trading, but it doesn't appear that any club parted with their very best prospect. So what teams did the best to improve their chance this year or the upcoming years and which clubs went backward? I'd like to know what you all think. Also, let me know your assessment of how YOUR team helped or hurt themselves over the past couple of weeks on the trading front. Of course, I'll render my opinions.
Biggest winners. New York Yankees, Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates and Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Yankees took immediate action to make up for the loss of Jorge Posada by acquiring Ivan Rodriguez from the Tigers. Although Pudge's power numbers are down this year, he doesn't need to hit for a whole lot of power in a line-up that already features Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi. They also picked up Xavier Nady and Marte from the Pirates. Nady is a solid bat which covers them with the injury to Hideki Matsui and they needed Marte due to trading away Kyle Farnsworth and LaTroy Hawkins. The Yankees being aggressive at the trading deadline with the Rays standing pat and the Red Sox being losers in the trading game, really boosted their chances for making the playoffs.
The Milwaukee Brewers got C C Sabathia from the Indians for prospects. C C is the reigning Cy Young award winner in the AL and has already hurled 3 complete games for the Brewers. No need to explain this any further.
Rich Harden has been phenominal in his 4 starts for the Cubs. Tough to fathom that he's only won one of those four games, yet he hasn't allowed more than 1 earned run in any of those games yet.
The Pittsburgh Pirates traded away two outfielders and a 33 year old relief pitcher. They still have a solid outfield remaining on the club and have picked up 8 prospects, 3 or 4 of which will probably see major league action this season. For a rebuilding team that can't spend much on payroll, they did what they had to do. Jason Bay was a popular player in Pittsburg, but getting 4 prospects for him will soften the blow for his loss.
The Dodgers got Casey Blake in a trade with the Indians. Blake's having a very good season and maybe the Dodgers bought a bit high on him, however, picking up Manny for a two month rental was a bargain for a pennant run where the Diamondbacks stood pat at the expense of 2 prospects. Expect Manny to give good effort in August and September since he'll be a free agent at the end of the season. If you havn't figured it out by now, Manny's a bit selfish.
Biggest Losers....Boston Red Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks.
You can't blame the Red Sox management for this.... mainly Manny Ramirez. Over the past couple of weeks, Manny showed the Red Sox that he'd show up if he wanted to and he'ld hurt the team if he wanted to and he created enough doubt within the organization that he cared enough about the Red Sox winning, that they felt it necessary to trade him. A number of Red Sox veterans told the general manager to get rid of Manny, so he felt he had too. They spent Brandon Moss and another key prospect plus the remainder of money owed Manny for the rest of the season to trade him to the Dodgers to get Jason Bay. Because of this they didn't have good enough prospects available as trade bait to address other needs such as relief pitching.
The Arizona Diamondbacks are currently only 2 games in front of the Dodgers. The Dodgers made 2 sweet trades to upgrade their offense and the offensively challenged Diamondbacks sat on their hands. Arizona probably has the best 1-3 starters in baseball with Brandon Webb, Dan Haren and Randy Johnson, but if one of those three gets injured in the next 2 months, its my humble opinion that they'll regret not making a deal to enhance their offense.
As far as my Kansas City Royals go, we made no trades at the deadline. Of all the trade rumors I heard concerning Royals players, the only one that sounded fair was Ron Mahay for Brandon Ross of the Red Sox, however, with Ross being traded away so that the Red Sox could trade Manny away, that never happened. Since I didn't see a real good trade offer to benefit the Royals, I'm happy we stood pat.
Okay, now discuss your opinions on the trades everyone!