I was really hoping that Manny was clean this entire time. I rather liked the idea of an idiot hitting savant that got by on pure talent and natural ability and that I got to see it happen. Oh well, I’ll have to put my hopes on Pujols.
nevermind, don’t want to get into a steroid debate…
MLB.com is reporting that the Dodgers just picked up relief pitcher George Sherrill from the Orioles.
It will be interesting to see what happens with Sherrill in LA. He’s been pitching really well of late, and Broxton has been having some trouble with his toe injury, so it could be that Sherrill gets an opportunity to close some games. If Broxton gets back on top of his game, though, Sherrill will probably end up as a set-up guy.
As an O’s fan, i’m disappointed to lose Sherrill. Jim Johnson has been pretty good, but Danys Baez has had some woeful outings recently. It will be interesting to see if Ray or Sarfate are brought back to the team quickly after their rehab stints.
Hey, what do you know, the Reds lost to the titanic Padres again today. That’s 3 of 4 to them. To the Padres. THE PADRES!
damn.
:mad:
Outstanding game by Derek Holland of the Rangers with a one hitter through 8 innings. Rangers take care of the Mariners 7-1
The Astros again proved they’re not in the NL Central race to stay. Another embarrassing loss to the Cubs. Oswalt to be examined on Friday.
Apparently the Jays offered Halladay to the Tigers for Rick Porcello, Ryan Perry, and their best pitching prospect. The Tigers declined, which makes me mildly upset. I think I’d have fired that trade.
Whoever is a Pads fan congrats on the win tomorrow (or near future).
Coach just said that my Brewers would start Carlos Villaneuva against them, and that is a guaranteed 5 runs. He just plain sucks and I have no idea why he is on this team.
Le Sigh…
This after they said they weren’t going to trade him anymore. And I don’t like that trade from Toronto’s perspective; again, it does nothing to address their total lack of hitters.
Honestly, what a clown J.P. Ricciardi is.
No, but Porcello grades out to be an ace or a number 2, Perry is a future closer, and the other prospect is a number 2, so if they pan out, that’s a solid start to a rotation. The Tigers don’t have a lot of hitting in their farm system right now, for if they did, they’d be playing in the majors because we need it.
Blah.
Unless something still happens today, it really looks like he blew it. As great as Halladay is, he is 32 and history indicates he’s at the tail end of his peak. The Jays were asking for an awful lot and now they either have to accept less, or they lose him for nothing next year.
I don’t doubt these are good prospects, but they’re not what Toronto needs. The smell of every offer Toronto has made is that Ricciardi is looking for a trade he can sell to the PUBLIC, not one that best helps the team. I get the distinct sense he wants a trade where he can tell people “Look, we gave away Roy Halladay, but we got the FUTURE Roy Halladay!” That’s an easier sell than “We got a first baseman and a catcher who can actually hit!” because in the latter case people think the team’s still short a pitcher.
It can’t be stressed enough that Toronto already has lots of young pitching. Really good young pitching. Even with all the pitching injuries they’ve had they’re still one of the better pitching teams in the league. In 2010 they’re going to have nine or ten guys seriously competing for 5 spots in the rotation, even without Halladay; Marcum, McGowan, Litsch, Romero, Cecil, Szepcynskycsi or however you spell it, Purcey, Mills, Richmond and possibly Ray. Most of those are young arms and can bring it with stuff and control. I mean, I totally agree Rick Porcello is an awesome young pitcher, but if you replace Halladay with Porcello the team still can’t hit, so even if Porcello pitches as well as Halladay - and he’s got a long, long way to go to get there - the team’s no better off except for the drop in salary.
You want to address your greatest weaknesses FIRST, and Toronto’s greatest weaknesses are all position players. The first baseman isn’t very good and his contract runs out in 2010. The catcher can’t hit. The shortstop’s playing over his head and his contract runs out soon. There’s no DH (or no left fielder, depending on whether you consider Adam Lind an adequate glove.) The center fielder’s a $128 million disaster. And there’s no backup plan at all; they have no ready prospects or backups who are adequate hitters. Travis Snider might fill the left field hole, but that’s it.
Well, they don’t get nothing. They get a year of Roy Halladay AND two first round draft picks. That’s part of the reason for their intransigence; there’s a very large opportunity cost in trading him. Logically, you can’t offer prospects any less valuable than two first round picks plus a year and a half of the best pitcher in the league.
The Jays got burned real bad in the Shawn Green trade prior to the 1999 season for this very reason; Gord Ash traded Green for Raul Mondesi (ouch) thinking “Well, gosh, we’ll have nothing in a year.” In retrospect, though, it’s clear that one year of Green (cheap) plus two first round picks would have been vastly more valuable than 3-4 years of an expensive Mondesi and no picks. They ended up having to pay the Yankees to take Mondesi; Green would have left for no money after a better year than Mondesi ever had for Toronto AND would have been worth the picks.
You can never get too much pitching. Good pitching shuts down hitting. How would a team like to face Verlander, Jackson and Halliday in the playoffs?
Side note, Zumaya is getting another shoulder operation and is done for the season.
http://www.seattlepi.com/scorecard/mlbnews.asp?articleID=262087 Tigers traded French and Rables for Jarrad Washburn. Two young lefties pitchers for one with a contract ending.
This explains why the Braves of the 90s were so dominant in the post-season.
Snark aside, every time I’ve seen this studied the result has been that most World Series winning teams are good at both pitching and offense, and of the ones that had weaknesses in one area or the other, there were as many mediocre pitching teams as mediocre offensive teams. (Anecdata: the 1987 Twins).
So we could have Verlander, Halladay, Jackson, Washburn, and Gallaraga and I can’t think of a reason why not, unless we’re also about to pull a trade for a third-baseman and another bat in the Matt Stairs or (retired) Sean Casey mold.
I love me some pitching, but another bat would be snazztastic.
They have to put Inge in an operating room as soon as they can. He is hurting too much to play. He may be a gamer ,but he may pay for it if he keeps playing.
They do have a couple rocket launchers in the minors. May as well bring them up.
Mike Hessman is a 3rd baseman. He is a Thames type… Looks bad but when he bumps into a pitch he can hit it a long way. Inge needs to be put on DH or shut down and operated on.
Because 6 years of Porcello for cheap is better than one and a half of Halliday for lots of money. Especially for a team that’s not in a great market.
Victor Martinez is on the radio crying about being traded to Boston.
Dude’s an Indian, for real.
The Nats just traded 1B Nick Johnson for a pitching prospect. I guess they’ll put Adam Dunn at first, which will help their defense in the outfield a lot. It’ll hurt the offense, probably not to an excessive degree, but I have terrible fear about the situation at first. Ryan Zimmerman is a great defensive third baseman, except for his tendency to make deeply shitty throws when there’s plenty of time to beat the runner. Johnson was able to save those errors much more often than Dunn will.
–Cliffy