OT- MLB Trade Deadline Open Thread
Well the deadline is at 4pm but the A's and Red Sox probably just had the biggest deal of the day, and the biggest deal of the year too I suppose. It's a bit of a head scratcher as Cespedes was leading the A's in hits this year and also was their best postseason hitter the past 2 seasons, and they gave him up for a rental (albeit a good one) of Jon Lester. That said that rotation in the postseason is incredibly formidable, but can they hit enough?
Now I certainly don't want the Tigers to panic and mortgage everything for David Price, but it would be nice to get a platoon catcher or another bullpen arm. I'll be checking on the thread every now and then at work and update trades into the OP as they come in.
EDIT: Tommy Milone traded from the A's for Sam Fuld from the Twins. Platoon of Gomes and Fuld in LF now for Oakland.
EDIT #2: John Lackey to the Cardinals for Joe Kelly, and Allen Craig. The Red Sox could be scary good next year.
EDIT #3 could be massive:
Source: #Tigers get Price.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 31, 2014
The A's already had good pitching before they started dealing, and now they've added two more top line starters.
Objectively I would have to commend Billy Beane for identifying this as a year to really go for it; subjectively I hate it, because I worry that the Tigers' window may be closing. And our rotation is sliding more toward good than great, still with bullpen problems.
tigers feast on lefties, especially lester.
I'm suprised they gave up Cespedes for Lester, since the A's already had a formidable rotation to begin with.
They also have/had the most potent offense in baseball so they could afford to sacrifice some offense to make their rotation absolutely dominant.
caused these moves. The A's have seen first hand how a dominate set of starters can carry you through a series. Hats off to them. The ball is now in DD's court.
I don't understand giving up Cespedes.
That's where I sit in this whole thing, totally understand getting Lester, but they just took a giant everyday bat out of a lineup that's already platoon heavy.
this one confuses me. The As already had 5 solid starters (Hammel perhaps excluded based on a small sampling), plus Milone in the minors--plus Parker and Griffin coming back next year. Now their outfield is Fuld/Gomes (speaks for itself) , Reddick (hitting under 240 the past year and one-half) and Crisp (who is battling injuries). Plus no real DH--mostly one of their extra catchers. This looks like the Go-Go Sox of 1959.
Milone is gone now too. I guess the whole thing comes down to pitching > hitting in the playoffs. BB is going for it all right now with this rotation.
makes sense. For as much as everybody lauds Cespedes' bat, he OPS'd .737 last year and is at something like .768 this year. That's good (this year, not last) and all, but I think Lester is a better player and they can bilk enough out of the Gomes/Fuld platoon to make the deal worth it. Their rotation is better than Detroit's by a large amount now unless JV rebounds.
I am no baseball exec but this seems super dumb for a rental player like Lester...wow.
They are only 2.5 games up on my Halos. If they get caught by Anaheim, they are looking at potentially a 1-game wild card play-in against King Felix. Winning the West is extremely important to Oakland or Anaheim if Seattle is able to move ahead of Toronto.
Seattle is 3 games back in the Wild Card at the moment, the Blue Jays hold the final playoff spot as we speak.
I think it will be interesting to see how DD responds. I think we'll see him add another bullpen arm. He usually seems to pull a surprise move every year too, so he might find a way to get Price or someone else we're not currently linked to.
Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but today is just the end of the non-waiver trade deadline, right? So trades can still happen after today, players would just have to clear waivers before the deal is finalized.
You are correct today is the non-waiver deadline, the Tigers could still make a trade after today like when they acquired Delmon Young a few years ago.
In additon to bullpen help the Tigers need another bat, in my opinion. While they are decent at times in the hitting dept., I'm afraid that this lineup won't have enough in the playoffs when decent to really good pitchers are facing them in every game.
Cespedes is only signed through next year and his reputation outstrips his production. They have so many platoon toys now, they're going to be a real pain in the ass. Start a righty and they send in their righty mashers. Start a lefty and you see the bulk of the lineup turn over. Even more so in the playoffs, when you can easily drop a pitcher or two from the roster given the days off that are involved and add some other specialists to the bench.
Lester/Spellcheck/Kazmir/Gray is a pretty solid playoff rotation.
what about Jeff however you spell it.
Hah I think that's what the, "Spellcheck" above was referencing too.
We don't need to worry about smard.....ju...something or other.
Almost got tricked by a fake Twitter account. Phew.
Sad we gave up Cespy. Can't get attached to players as an A's fan though.
Playoff rotation is going to be disgusting: Gray, Lester, Shark, Kazmir
Dombrowski could hop in Doc Brown's Delorean and bring back late 90's Mariano Rivera, and it wouldn't matter one bit. For some reason our bullpen is a freaking talent vampire that sucks all the ability out of every player who enters. It is bizarre and beyond frustrating. Hard to really have any serious hope for a good playoff run, which luckily the Tigers should get a shot at since the AL Central is the worst division in baseball.
All that seems to be on Twitter regarding Detroit right now are loos rumblings that they've spent perhaps the last week or so scouting bullpens, so if that has any meat to it, it seems likely that whoever we would get - if anyone - would be for that purpose. MLB Trade Rumors also posted a brief snippet on how the Tigers are impressed enough with Eugenio Suarez that Jose Iglesias might be a sell-low sort of option, if you will, but nothing firm on that front either. If DD has something in mind, it is certainly being played close to the vest right now.
I just picked up Jumbo Diaz in my fantasy league (we track Holds) because he's Jumbo Diaz. He's also a career minor leaguer who dropped 70 pounds to get down to 270 and now he's got a sub 1 WHIP, ~1 ERA, 1K/IP. Seriously, Dombrowski, go get us Jumbo Diaz.
price and zobrist coming to D-town!!! make it happen DD.
That rumor originated from a fake account. Probably not happening. Actually, not going to happen.
by ken rosenthal. nothing done but working on it.
It's looking like MLB Network ran the fake account info. on air.
that's a big oopsie. not uncommon these days of wanting to be the first to report things.
Yup, it sucks because that would have been a killer deal.
Yeah I saw that. MLB network picked up the story from a fake Ken Rosenthal account. Espn did the same thing and then apologized.
EDIT: Royals asking Rockies about De La Rosa, I read the tweet wrong, sorry.
Wow, I don't understand the A's trading away Cespedes. Losing your best hitter reverberates up and down the lineup. I think this makes them worse now and in the future. Very poor decision, if you ask me.
He was only under team control for one more year, so this was a sell high move. All eggs are in the 2014 basket.
Yep. I don't get the head scratching. He's not even that good at the plate. He's the classic overvalued player. Hits home runs, no plate discipline, mediocre-bad OBP and the A's won't be able to afford him going forward. They get in return a pitcher who is having a phenomenal year and a lesser, but more consistent guy at the plate. I think it's a brilliant deal. (I also hate the A's so I'm not a fan here justifying it).
Their best hitter might be the Norris/Jaso platoon, or Brandon Moss (his OPS is 75 points higher than Cespedes.) Donaldson's OPS is 30 points higher than Cespedes. I get it that he's the biggest name, but by OWAR he's their 6th best hitter.
And now Lackey is going to the Cards. Red Sox in fire sale mode.
I don't know much about Kelly or Craig, but a quick scan of their stats didn't blow me away (Craig in particular). Are they guys with upside?
Kelly is a Ho-hum 5th starter, but a guy who can eat innings as well, but Craig is a solid 1B/RF. He's hit over .300 the past 2 seasons while also driving in 90+ runs, it's a solid haul for the Red Sox considering Lackey is a 3rd starter at best and a 4th starter on a good team.
http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=3433&position=1B/OF
You could have got him for a bag of rocks last year. Craig was an all star and perfect for boston. Kelly has good upside.
Dumb move for OAkland. A rental that only pitches once every 5 days over a young hitter with the best OF arm in baseball
Sounds like Andrew Miller may be coming back to Detroit.
Tigers and Red Sox "getting close" to deal for Andrew Miller per Jon Morosi on Twitter
thats good but. i still say no big bat no playoffs for the tigers
Miller deal is off. Something else may be going down soon. I wonder if it's Price.
Has been traded to Baltimore...hopefully dd is working on something else
Price destination between Tigers, Mariners and Cardinals. Buster Olney retweeted.
Are currently team to beat for price, via twitter.