Nice to see the A’s also got Sam Fuld from the Twins for Tommy Malone (who promptly got sent down to the minors). Fuld is a nice ball player. He’ll be playing center field with Crisp out with a neck injury. He’s a Superman in the outfield.
Lucky for you guys, the Braves are in the midst of their “let’s waste a good pitching performance by not ever, ever, ever scoring a freaking run” thing that they do. Now with two key starters dinged up (Heyward-back, Simmons-shoulder) it’s looking even less likely that the Braves can generate much of a threat right now.
Emilio Bonifacio is a nice ballplayer they just got from the Cubs Thursday. Good lead-off man. Provides spark and can play any infield position. Not sure how he fits in with the Braves 'cause I don’t get to watch the team very much being on the West Coast and all. But I’d take Bonifacio, yeah.
There, there. They scored a run last night!
I didn’t think he was going to be an opposite-field hitter in Fenway, but we’ll see. I’m a little more concerned about Home Run Derby hangover, combined with the LF wall looking so close. Both have trapped many a power hitter.
So who’s gonna be Oakland’s cleanup hitter now?
So I had this unfortunate situation where I had to actually do work yesterday, which was probably good because I would have been freaking out all day otherwise.
I think the big issue with the Red Sox is that they needed a very specific type of prospect: 1B/OF withpower, or potential ace. I mean, I know that this stuff is all about acquiring assets, but there’s a point at which you *can *have too many projected #3-5 starters, and the Sox are there. As in, they have more guys who need to be starting in MLB and AAA than they have rotation spots at those levels. They’ve also got a ton of well-regarded guys at the up-the-middle positions, again to the point where adding high level prospects makes it difficult to get everyone playing time at the right levels in the minors to develop.
Teams were clearly willing to deal the mid-back end starter types: the Sox got a couple for Peavy and Miller. But when you look at which contenders have OF or ace-pitching prospects, you focus on Pittsburgh (apparently reluctant enough to deal out of their OF surplus that they did nothing yesterday), the Dodgers (again, unwilling to move their top guys, did nothing major), the Cardinals (unwilling to move Taveras, and their next best OF prospect, Piscotty, doesn’t project as anything too special; filled their needs in more creative ways), and Baltimore (where a Lester deal was reportedly being constructed around Hunter Harvey before the words “out for the season with an elbow injury” came up on Wednesday; probably the thing I’m most disappointed about, since I’d have loved to get Harvey and I’d have loved to root for Lester on the O’s).
At that point, the question is whether you can trade Lester for more than the draft pick you’d get if he leaves, and whether you can trade Lackey for more than the value of his league-minimum option for next season (along with your evaluation of how likely he is to honor it). I think with the Lester deal they pretty clearly did that: the pick they got back from Oakland is worth almost as much as the expected value of the comp pick - the comp pick would be a round higher, but there’s a chance you re-sign Lester and get no pick, whereas this one is guaranteed. Cespedes at $10m or so next year clearly has some value to the major league team. He’s not a superstar, but I think with the park switch he’s going to settle in at something like .270/.320/.490, which with his defense is an above-average corner outfielder. So I’m not jumping for joy, but I think Cherington did well enough on the Lester deal.
I’m much less enthused about the Lackey deal. It’s not as good a short term, 2015 value play: you’re giving up Lackey, probably a 3 WAR projection, for Craig (wide variance, could be .5 WAR, could be 3 WAR) and Kelly (similar: might not make the rotation depending on who they sign, could be 2 WAR). It causes some roster construction issues as well (they’re going to play Craig in LF for now, but he should really be a 1B/DH, and the Sox already have those two spots locked next year; as mentioned earlier, the Sox have about 10 young potential #3-5 starters, and Kelly probably goes into that bucket). The upside is that there’s several more years of control for each at reasonable costs, and from a strict value perspective you can argue the Sox did okay there, but to win next year I might just rather have Lackey.
Other quick hits: Loved the Andrew Miller trade to Baltimore, as did everyone I think: likely #4 starter with #2 upside for probably 12-15 innings of Miller. Even if you have a lot of those guys you take that. No idea what a bunch of the inactive teams (especially the two in Pennsylvania) were thinking. Return for Price was way too low IMO, quantity over quality, basically a big gamble that they can ‘fix’ Smyly’s issues vs RHH. Liked the Asdrubal Cabrera trade for WAS, the Bonifacio/Russell trade for ATL, and the arms race in general between OAK and DET. Slightly confused by the HOU/FLA deal, though I guess I prefer the HOU side.
Also looking forward to Anthony Ranaudo’s ML debut vs the Yankees tonight!
I was thinking that it is funny that the Majors have their own version of the rich man/poor man crazy double standard (ie, poor people are crazy, rich people are eccentric). Rich teams “rebuild quickly”, poor teams have “fire sales” 
Probably the guy who has been the cleanup hitter all season long? 
Brandon Moss.
Be quiet, Dodgers fan!! No gloating!! 
Braves pitchers could almost use Tom Glavine’s quote from back in 1995.
Glavine comes back into the dugout after a 1-2-3 5th inning against Cleveland in Game 6 of the World Series. The game is tied at 0-0. Glavine is dealing that night, and that confidence leads to this quote:
*** “Somebody in here better get us some fucking runs, ’cause they aren’t getting any tonight."***
Cleveland indeed got no runs, the Braves got enough to win, and got their only World Series win in Atlanta. Glavine’s line that night was 8 innings, no runs, 1 hit, 3 walks, and eight strikeouts in a World Series clinching game.
Love stuff like that. That quote deserves to be more famous than it is.
Since Oakland hasn’t traded either of the two hitters who usually bat cleanup, Josh Donaldson and Brandon Moss, it’s a pretty good bet it’ll be one of those guys.
ETA: Ninja’d.
Anyway, Blue Jay players are openly carping about how the team did nothing at the deadline (though, of course, immediately afterwards, the two guys they picked up as midseason acquisitions were huge contributors to a comeback win.) If they don’t make the playoffs, expect many of the key players to demand trades. One can hardly blame Jose Bautista for wanting a chance at a ring.
Yes, but he had to move in that direction to actually catch the ball. If he didn’t move from where he was, the ball could have gone right by him. I’m not saying the ruling was incorrect under the new rules, but i believe that the new rules need modifying, so that in cases like this, where the catcher has the ball that far ahead of the runner, and an out was an absolute certainty, the runner should be out. And i say all that as someone who supported the efforts to reduce the number and severity of collisions at home plate.
They just released the lineup for tonight’s game against KC, and it’s Brandon Moss.
Just like it was before.
On the radio today some old doofus they’d brought in to talk baseball was saying “well, who’s going to hit cleanup for Oakland now?” The other commentator noted, well, probably their cleanup hitter, Brandon Moss. “Cespedes had all the power there,” said the old doofus, only to have it pointed out that Cespedes was Oakland’s third-leading home run hitter.
I guess there really is something to the East Coast bias. Maybe it’s East Coast blindness.
Speaking of Oakland, does anyone else think Sam Fuld wasn’t a huge return on Tommy Milone? I know Milone’s not been as good as before but he’s 27 and sure has proven a few points in the major leagues. Fuld’s an AAAA player, the kind of guy you could pick up on waivers if you waited a week. As a matter of fact that’s how Minnesota got him in the first place. Milone, it seems to me, would be very appealing to a team with a bad starting rotation. I’d give you four Sam Fulds for Tommy Milone. I don’t get it.
I’m with you there. Very surprised to hear about this trade.