Much as I love the idea of Boston detonating their team and rebuilding, I’m not sure I understand why L.A. is trading for a 31-year-old outfielder who has stunk for two years, just had major arm surgery, and is going to make around $105 million over the next five years. Did the Nationals refuse to take their calls about Jayson Werth? That being said, Crawford was not a guy I would’ve been rooting against if not for the Red Sox thing, so I hope he can recover. Still, I find it hard to explain.
The Giants have won five straight, and eight of their last ten. Hunter Pence still needs to step it up with his bat, but so far their run production is okay in the post-Melke home stretch of the season.
I was listening to a pop music station while driving home and the host broke in to say that the Dodgers had traded for Adrian Gonzalez (I’m in LA). I was so startled I almost went straight through a red light. After further consideration, I decided it was some moron who’d seen the waiver claim report and misunderstood what the waiver trade deadline actually entails. Then I got home and found that not only was he right, the actual trade was even crazier than he’d reported.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled that the Dodgers seem to want to save the Red Sox from these albatross contracts. I just don’t get WHY. Crawford is utterly useless for a playoff run this year and we are talking like $300 million in contracts. Who does that? I won’t believe it until it’s official on MLB.com.
D-backs announcer and former Cub/Dback player Mark Grace arrested again for DUI. This is his second one in just over a year.
Looks like the penalty is at least a month in jail, although I wonder if he’ll be eligible for the house arrest option after part of that. Goalie Nikolai Khabibulin was in a similar situation and he got about ten days in the outdoor tent city jail and then house arrest.
I’m a disinterested party here, but I checked out MLB.com, just for the halibut:
The byline was Ian Browne, a MLB.com reporter, and the timestamp was 12:49am today.
There are more details at the link. Apparently they don’t expect Beckett’s 10-5 status to be a dealbreaker.
Reports came in over the wee hours that both Beckett and Crawford approved the trade. Along with Beckett’s 10-5 rights, the Dodgers were apparently on Crawford’s 3 team no-trade list.
If true, that leaves only De La Rosa’s failure to clear waivers as the hold-up. That would make him either To Be Named Later, or in a separate deal in the off-season. Or maybe a different player in the deal who *has *cleared.
Beckett is still listed as tonight’s starting pitcher for Boston. Most likely they’ll activate Matsuzaka instead, or bring up whoever the hell was going to start for Pawtucket instead.
FTR, Jacoby Ellsbury and Jon Lester are also on the waiver wire. Ellsbury makes sense, since Boras is taking him to FA after next year, and they could get more for him now, in time for the stretch drive, than this winter, and Jackie Bradley looks like the real thing. But Lester, though? I understand the need to get the last bit of fried chicken smell out of the clubhouse, but he’s rehabilitated himself.
I assume the Dodgers are banking on the fact that Crawford is going to return to form after his surgery. If you’re willing to take that leap of faith, it actually makes some sense. Shane Victorino is just a rental for the rest of this season. The Dodgers would wind up having multi-year control over a pretty powerful (again, assuming a post-surgery recovery) outfield in Crawford, Kemp and Ethier.
Now, I’m not going to predict how likely all of that is. But I’m starting to really get the impression that the Dodgers are saying, in a very Yankee-esque manner, that they are able and willing to eat some bad contracts for the chance to do some great things.
Man, I know it’s unlikely but I really hope that De La Rosa ends up not being part of the deal. He is more valuable than either Webster or Lee, and I would much rather have him stay in LA.
I like Crawford. When he wasn’t hurt he has been pretty good and he finally solves the OF problem (assuming he finally get’s healthy after TJ surgery), and of course the first base problem getting solved is a good thing too. I am concerned about Beckett, but he might be able to turn into something good in the better pitchers park/league without the media pressure of Boston.
As much as I am not even remotely geared up to cheer for Beckett, seeing Billingsley go down last night made me think Beckett could have an immediate impact.
If it is done - it isn’t confirmed yet, but obviously it looks like it will be - it’s one of the most bizarre trades I’ve ever seen. Los Angeles is taking on hundreds of millions of dollars in salary and getitng basically one good player for it, and two guys who USED to be good and maybe will be again but we don’t know for sure because one of them is hurt and the other trains by power-lifting KFC into his pie-hole.
From Boston’s perspective, the only thing about this that definitively hurts them is losing A-Gon. And he’s good but he isn’t worth $272 million. And they get a solid prospect, too. It’s a wonderful trade from them, IMHO, exactly what they needed.
LA now has a good chance of winning it all, and winning it now, and maybe for a few years more too. That’s why.
What’s the value in being pretty good for a long time but never quite good enough? Why do so many teams fall into that hopeless mindset, and why do so many fans approve of it? What’s the fucking point of having the highest number of regular season wins per payroll dollar? Why would anyone care? You don’t get a parade for that.
The thing that kills me is that Boston is only taking on $10 of the contract money. But the new owners keep saying that money is no object, which is crazy pants but…they know what they are doing?
A lineup with Victorino, Ethier, Kemp, Gonzalez, Ramirez at the top is a hell of a thing though.
Even though it’s been Ellis, Ellis and Cruz who have been coming up with the hits lately.
I semi-approve of this trade. I’m sure the owners were just waiting for my ok to make it public. If Billingsley is headed back to the DL, this could have an immediate (as in “this week”) impact.
I think too many people are counting out the value of Crawford too. Yes, he’s been hurt, and yes, he hasn’t been producing the numbers to justify his salary, but he’s still hitting considerably better this year than any other third outfielder that the Dodgers might put out there with Kemp and Ethier.
Beckett might have declined considerably, but he’s at least as good as the fifth starters used by LA this year, with a much bigger upside if he gets some form back. To be honest, it’s Victorino that’s the weak link there; his numbers since arriving in LA are .236/.292/.337, which is only a little bit worse than how he was hitting with Philly.
On a sort of related note, it’s trades like this where, despite my 12 years in the United States and as a baseball fan, i betray my non-Americanness (or non-baseballness) in the world of sports, because such a huge trade, for such big stars, just about a month before the end of the season, seems like a joke to me. It makes clear, more than at any other time, just how much we’re cheering for nothing but a bunch of uniforms.
I’ve got nothing against the Dodgers, and i have no real stake in who wins the NL West (given that the Padres are rather unlikely to do it), but if they win the division on the backs of decent performances down the stretch by Victorino, Ramirez, Gonzalez, Crawford, and Beckett, it will be bullshit, IMO.
I understand why they have a fairly late trade deadline and then waiver deadline in baseball. I understand that it allows mediocre teams to sell of talent and rebuild, and allows borderline good teams to make a playoff run. Still doesn’t mean i have to like it, though.
People are counting Crawford out for this season for a very good reason - he just had major elbow surgery, and may or may not be ready for Opening Day *next *year.
Don’t pout, clarify. Is your objection to the concept of in-season trades in general, or to the modern reality that the regular season means *nothing *other than qualifying and preparing for the playoffs? Or maybe to the peculiarly American reality that a pro sports franchise is a business first, and a team somewhere down the list?
Sorry, i forgot about Crawford’s surgery.
I wasn’t pouting, i was simply expressing an opinion. I’d would have been happy to expand on it if you hadn’t asked in such a douchey manner.
I believe that you are already aware of the reasoning here, but since you asked:
The value is that pretty good teams win the World Series all the time. It happened last year, and the year before, and in 2008 and 2006. You get a parade for that. Nobody plans to be “never quite good enough,” because that isn’t a real thing, because “good enough” isn’t a real thing. There’s like nine or ten teams every year that are good enough, if. And good enough, if, is the best you can do unless there’s something extremely special about your franchise, like billions of dollars or a farm system full of all the best young players in the game or both. If there’s nothing extremely special about your franchise, then you have to make yourself as good as possible so you can be in the best possible position to take advantage of all the ifs. To do that, you have to spend your money as wisely as possible, and the team that has the most regular season wins per dollar is the team that’s doing the best or luckiest job at that.