Jeff Samardzija, who shut out the Blue Jays yesterday, will almost certainly be available in a couple of weeks.
I think quite a few starting pitchers could be available. I’m most interested to see what happens with Johnny Cueto.
The Phillies have already pissed away a large part of whatever they could have gotten for Cole Hamels. It will take firing Amaro to get it done.
Papelbon doesn’t have the value he thinks he does anymore, either.
To follow up on a little bit of discussion from last month’s thread regarding Luis Valbuena…
…here’s an interesting article about just how weird Valbuena’s season has been.
If I follow your logic correctly (and I fully admit that I may not be), the GM should be fired if the Jays don’t make a splash with a big-name pitcher. But if they DO trade for a pitcher, it sounds like you’re saying that the GM should be off of the hot seat, and not be fired. It sounds like you’re saying that whether the GM stays in Toronto is entirely dependent upon whether he makes one trade, for a pitcher.
Am I parsing that correctly?
More or less, yup. If they don’t win this year this gang isn’t going to win. The existing core is not going to get better, so better win now.
The Reds…oof, they suck. But hey, the All-Star game is in the 'Nati, so…yay?
And Hamels gave up 9 earned runs in 3 1/3 innings to the Giants tonight.
Tigers blow a 6-1 lead, giving up 7 runs in the bottom of the ninth. Put a fork in them. Sell, sell, sell.
Trade: Price, Avila, Yoenis, Kinsler, Verlander (maybe last night’s stellar performance will perk some interest?), Simon, Soria and Rajai
Keep: Miggy, JD Martinez and Iglesias
Fire: Manager Brad Ausmus, pitching coach Jeff Jones
See you in '16.
What a win by the Bucs against the Cardinals last night. McCutcheon in a clutch role hitting a home run. Coming back from 3-0, 4-1, 4-3 in the 10th, and 5-4 in the 14th. Huge effort. These guys are for real.
I think the Jays are the only team this year to lose a game in which they had an eight run inning. I think they may also be the only team to lose a game in which they had a seven run inning, and they also lost a game in which they had a six run inning. God help us.
I’d trade every prospect in the system for two honest to God pitchers. The team needs to just win something, anything. A division title would be fine. The division will never be weaker.
I kind of wish the Red Sox would be sellers, especially for Buchholz, but I think at 6 gb from the wildcard and the offense starting to click, they’re going to hold fast and see how it plays out.
The kitties then proceeded to lose the next two games, and finish the first half squarely at .500 and 9 games behind KC. Sell, sell, sell.
There are only a few teams out of it, and that’s just the norm now with so many October slots available. Pickings are slim and overpriced, and that’s true every year. A club is probably as likely to get help internally, from a hotshot rookie callup (e.g. Eduardo Rodriguez) or a returnee from the DL. On the positive side, in the AL East anyway, a team doesn’t *have *to get much better.
Can you say “competitive parity”? I knew you could!
The Home Run Derby format is a huge improvement.
No baseball for 4 days. What will I do with the time? (sob)
You just made my day. I thought everything started back up on Monday and was trying to figure out how to deal with a week without baseball.
There’s baseball tomorrow.
Think of it as practice for November.
Something roughly resembling it, anyway.
You mean you’re not riveted by the CONCACAF Gold Cup? U!S!A!, baby!