16 thoughts on “Deadline Deals: Buy, Sell or Stand Pat”

1. Hartvig August 2, 2016 at 4:41 pm

   While I have to admit that there are a great many of the minor leaguers and even several major leaguers involved that I’m not all that familiar with I still feel compelled as a baseball fan to weigh in with my opinion.

   In the AL I think Texas did the best among the buyers with Toronto coming in second (largely because I don’t think they gave up a lot)

   Among the sellers, it looks like New York did quite well for themselves.

   And I have no idea what the Twins were trying to do but whatever it was I don’t think it worked.

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   1. Hartvig August 2, 2016 at 4:48 pm

      The NL is harder to categorize but it does look like some of the teams at the top- Chicago, San Francisco & Los Angeles- did make some moves to strengthen themselves.

      I don’t know what to make of Pittsburg & San Diego but the Phillies seem to have missed the boat entirely.

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      1. Doug August 2, 2016 at 5:18 pm

         I think San Diego did some addition by subtraction in unloading Kemp, Upton and Cashner. The first two are expensive, not contributing a lot and on the wrong side of 30. A couple of years ago, Cashner looked like he might develop into a decent pitcher but he’s regressed this year and last. Still, he’ll be a UFA next year and only 30 so likely some teams will pay for the chance that he could recover his form of a couple years ago.

         OTOH, to get rid of Cashner, the Friars had to part with two youngish arms (Guerrero and Rea, the latter now returned to the Padres as “damaged goods” after exiting his Marlins debut with an injury). But, at 25 and 26, and not having established any ML pedigree to date, the upside on their careers is likely limited.

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2. no statistician but August 2, 2016 at 4:48 pm

   Most of the young players—mostly pitchers—whom the Yankees acquired don’t seem that promising, and none are starters, unless I overlooked something. I think part of the strategy was to unload payroll, freeing up $$$ for the free agent market later. So the build-through-youth approach may not really be what they had in mind. I haven’t looked at their current stable of contracted prospects, though, so there may be some potential stars already in the system.

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   1. Doug August 2, 2016 at 5:02 pm

      ESPN in their Mets/Yankees broadcast yesterday indicated that the Yankees now had 6 of the top 50 rated prospects, albeit most of the six in the bottom half of that bracket. Still, that’s a decent complement for a single organization.

      But, you’re right that the Yankees will still be buyers on the FA market. Brian Cashman, guesting on the ESPN telecast, was very open that Edwin Encarnacion is in his sights.

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      1. David P August 2, 2016 at 5:34 pm

         Here’s Baseball America’s top 100 list, updated after the trade deadline. Yankees and Brewers each have 7 of the top 100. And nice to see that my Indians still have 5 of the top 100, even after trading two top 100 prospects to the Yankees.

         http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/updated-midseason-top-100-trades/#gK1AyGBYkfXtX7bk.97

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   2. David P August 2, 2016 at 5:20 pm

      Justus Sheffield (acquired in the Andrew Miller trade) is a starter. And Dillon Tate (acquired in the Carlos Beltran trade) is also a starter though I read he’s going to be shifted to the bullpen in an attempt to get him back on track.

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3. Doug Post authorAugust 2, 2016 at 5:53 pm

   On a completely separate topic, the Astros beat the Blue Jays 2-1 in 14 innings yesterday as the two teams combined for 40 strikeouts. It’s the 5th time (twice this year, twice in 2013 and once in 2001) both teams have struck out 18 times in a game, all of them 14+ inning affairs. Houston had two pitchers with 7+ strikeouts, just the 23rd team since 1913 with that accomplishment, with only 6 of the 23 since the 2000 season.

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4. Dr. Doom August 2, 2016 at 7:44 pm

   I loved what Milwaukee did – and I’m sure the Rangers did, too. I love win-win trades – especially when they involve my team!

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5. oneblankspace August 2, 2016 at 9:19 pm

   Tilson made his Major League début for the ChiSox tonight, collected his first MLB hit, and left with an injury.

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6. Kahuna Tuna August 3, 2016 at 11:57 am

   It felt so strange to the Padres not to have an albatross Braves contract on their books that they could wait only four days before taking on another one.

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7. David P August 3, 2016 at 12:13 pm

   BTW, I’m curious what others thought about the “clusterfuck” surrounding the non-trade of Lucroy to the Indians. Dave Cameron had an article on Fangraphs saying that no one was to blame for what happened. But that strikes me as wrong.

   Everyone knew that Lucroy had a no-trade clause in his contract that included the Indians. Why didn’t either team insist on finding out whether or not (or under what circumstances) Lucroy would accept the trade, before announcing the trade to the world? Shouldn’t that have been worked into the trade negotiations?

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   1. Mike L August 3, 2016 at 12:58 pm

      David P, I wondered about that as well, because there was no reason for Lucroy to give up a no-trade without compensation. You wonder if there wasn’t more to the negotiation we aren’t hearing about. Lucroy asked for the club option for 17 to be waived, which Cleveland obviously wasn’t going to go for. But there had to be something short of that he would have accepted but presumably wasn’t offered. I read a couple of places that Lucroy was worried about what position he would play–given his age, his next contract would have highest value if he were still seen as a viable catcher.

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      1. David P August 3, 2016 at 5:09 pm

         Mike L –

         Thanks for your thoughts. The more I think about this, the more a Lucroy deal seems impossible between the Indians and Brewers. And the fact that neither organization could figure this out is a bit shocking.

         Seems like there are 5 possibilities:

         1) Lucroy says flat out no (I read that he wanted to be closer to his home state of Louisiana).

         2) Lucroy says yes (as you pointed out, there was little reason for Lucroy to do this).

         3) Lucroy asks the Indians to drop the ’17 option. In this scenario, the Brewers walk away because it dramatically reduces what they can get from the Indians relative to other teams.

         4) Lucroy asks for guaranteed playing time at catcher in ’17. I’d be shocked if any team ever agreed to this.

         5) Lucroy asks the Indians to give him a long-term contract extension. Theoretically possible but there are a few problems. First, I doubt the Indians would be willing to do this, given Lucroy’s age and their limited budget. Secondly, there wasn’t enough time to negotiate contract extension so the best the Indians could do in a situation like this is offer a vague promise.

         BTW, the Indians are claiming that they never had any contact with Lucroy. So maybe he just flat out rejected the Indians.

         http://www.letsgotribe.com/2016/8/3/12369388/mike-chernoff-claims-cleveland-indians-front-office-never-talked-to

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8. David P August 7, 2016 at 9:52 am

   Indians prospect Francisco Mejia – who was part of the aborted Lucroy trade – has a 47 game hitting streak. It’s the longest major or minor league hit streak in 62 years.

   The last player with a longer hit streak? Oddly, his name was Roman Mejias. Roman had a 55 game hit streak in 1954 and later had a 9 year major league career with the Pirates, Astros, and Red Sox.

   Francisco’s hit streak is still going. He had the night off last night but will presumably go for #48 today.

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   1. Voomo Zanzibar August 7, 2016 at 10:11 am

      The streak started on 5.27.
      The first 24 games were at A ball, slashing:

      .430 / .465 / .710 / 1.174

      Then a promotion to A+, and 23 more games with modest numbers (considering the streak):

      .333 / .353 / .479 / .832
      _________________________

      Overall, over the 47 games:

      .381 / .408 / .593 / 1.001

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