4 PM today, July 31 concluded MLB's done waiver trade deadline. Players can still be traded after today, and are eligible for the playoffs as long as they are on a roster by August 31, and lately there are a lot of big trades that happen after today. The biggest in recent memory occurred just 2 seasons ago, when the Boston Red Sox started there run to the 2013 World Series by sending Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett & Adrian Gonzalez to the Los Angeles Dodgers. That freed up money they had allowed the Sox to get high energy reserve players like Johnny Gomes and Shane Victorino which were a big part of the worst to first run the Red Sox in 2013 had. After today it is harder to trade players because each player has to pass through waivers. If a team puts in a waiver claim for that player you can ONLY negotiate with the team that claimed him. The reason this makes trading after July 31 is harder is that sometimes a contending or rival team will put a block on a player to avoid that player going to the team that needs him. If a player clears waivers (unclaimed) that player can be traded to any team in the league without restrictions. August will probably heat up with waiver wire deals especially when middle of the pack teams (New York Mets, New York Yankees, Kansas City Royals) either go on a hot streak and get in the race or go on a cold streak and play themselves out. With that said, I'm just going to grade on what's happened in July and not predict what may or may not happen in August.
Winners:
Oakland Athletics. They have made the playoffs the last 2 seasons. They have taken the Detroit Tigers to 5 games in the ALDS each of the last 2 seasons, however they lost each time to the Tigers, mainly because their starters couldn't quite match up to the front line Tigers sent out. So, what did the A's do to counter the Tigers rotation? In early July, they traded top prospect Addison Russel to the Chicago Cubs for 2 starters Jeff Samardjiza and Jason Hammel. Neither are doing that well in Oakland however. Samardjiza has a 3 era through 5 starts, but has given up 5 home runs already even though Oakland is a pitchers park while Hammel has been dreadful so far. Yesterday's loss sent him to 0-4 in 4 starts with an era around 9. That reason, and the fact this is Jesse Chavez's first full season might have put more pressure on Oakland to get a top of the rotation guy, and that's actually what they got in Boston ace Jon Lester. They had to sacrifice offense and cleanup hitter Yoenis Cespedes to grab him, but they now have 4 proven starters in the playoffs: Lester who has 2 World Series rings to his credit, Samardjiza, has pitched in no big games in baseball, but was a WR @ Notre Dame, so he has plenty of big game expierence, Sonny Gray, the pitcher Oakland used in games 1 and game 5 vs. Detroit last year and finally the rejuvinated Scott Kazmir.
Detroit Tigers: The Tigers countered the A's move by pulling off a move of their own: after Lester, the next best starting pitcher on the market, also out of the AL East like Jon Lester, Tampa Bay Rays pitcher David Price. What separates this deal from the Lester deal is that the Tigers still have Price through 2015 while Lester is a free agent after this season and likely won't resign in Oakland no matter how well he does or how much he likes the city, team, fans, mainly because the team won't be able to match what Lester wants. Price likely takes the rotation spot of 2013 Cy Young winner Max Scherzer next year, but at least there's still the chance (albeit small) that Scherzer re-ups with Detroit in the off season. Like Oakland, had to give up a regular every day player (leadoff hitter Austin Jackson went to Seattle while pitching prospect Drew Smyly went to the Rays in this 3 team trade). They also shored up a suspect bullpen with the acquisition of Rangers closer Joakim Soria, though that hasn't planned out as the Rangers have planned.
Seattle Mariners: Like Oakland & Detroit have a great starting staff with Felix Hernandez, Hishashi Iwakuma & Chris Young, but with the worst offense of the 3. The Mariners are sitting on a 12 year playoff drought and currently hold down the second Wildcard spot, but also have good prospects that they didn't want to surrender even though they needed the offensive help. So, they were part of that 3 team deal with the Rays & Tigers and ended up with Tigers lead off man Austin Jackson, and only had to give up middle infielder prospect Nick Franklin who wasn't even with the major league team or had much of a future with them anyway this year. Earlier in the day they acquired Padres OF for marginal prospects and last week picked up Minnesota DH Kendrys Morales. All 3 of these acqusistions will shore up a suspect lineup, and hopefully having the Mariners play meaningful games in late September this season.
Washington Nationals: Only made one trade, but that trade was much needed. With the hamstring injury to Ryan Zimmerman, they had a hole to fill at 2b. Fill-in Danny Espinosa plays great defense, but just cannot hit RHP, so the team went out and got Asdrubal Cabrera from the Cleveland Indians. Even though Cabrera is much worse on defense than Espinosa is, at least he is a power bat and can hit RHP.
The NL Playoffs: Currently, the largest division lead in the NL is 3 games (Giants lead the Dodger by 3 games in the West). There were talks of Lester or Price ending up with an NL Central team which would have easily shifted the balance of power to whichever team picked him up (3 teams are within 2.5 games of each other in the division: Brewers lead, Pirates are 2 back and Cardinals are 2.5 back. A 4th team Reds are only 6 back as well) or the Dodgers which would have made them the team to beat in the NL. As it stands, the 2 impact players ended up in the AL with minor moves in the NL which'll make the NL races and the NL playoffs more exciting to watch then the AL counterparts.
Losers:
Philadelphia Phillies: This is an old team, with a lot of money and a lot of bad and questionable contracts. A lot of their players will be able to clear waivers in August because of these bloated salaries, but there were some teams that were questioning Marlon Byrd an guy that is 36 years old, makes $8 million this year & next and has a ridiculous vesting option for 2016. SP Cliff Lee making about $20 million were getting offers as well. It doesn't seem like much but for a team that seriously needs to rebuild from it's core that made back to back World Series in 2008-09 and has seen all 4 teams in the division completely blow past them in the fast line $30 million would've been a lot. As I said they will likely be the busiest team in August, but they could have and should have easily expediated the process beginning with a couple players in July.
Los Angeles Dodgers: They are owned by Magic Johnson. They have their own TV deal, and a Spanish TV deal coming in the next few seasons. They have a plethora of outfielders on their major league roster and 3 great prospects in the minor leagues. They lead MLB in total payroll. They refused to include any of their top 3 prospects (Henry Urias, Corey Seager, Joc Pederson) in any deal for Lester or Price. Either one would have instantly catapulted the Dodgers to favorites out of the NL. They may still be the best team in the NL with Clayton Kershaw & Zach Grenike leading the rotation and with Matt Kemp heating up, but they'll be in a dog fight now with the Giants, Nationals, Pirates, Brewers, Cardinals & Braves.
St. Louis Cardinals: Another team that needed starting pitching help, that refused to include any of their big prospects (Randall Gruichek, Oscar Tavarez, Shelby Miller) in exchange for Lester or Price that would have easily changed the balance of power in the NL Central. They picked up 2 good innings easters in Justin Masterson and John Lackey giving up minimal in return, however neither one is a game-changer like Price would have been.
The American League Division Series: The Oakland Athletics are playing to win a World Series this year and traded for Lester. Their biggest challenger the Tigers matched them and acquired Price. The Los Angeles Angels have a good back end of the bullpen with Joe Smith & newly acquired Houston Street, have a good 1-3 with Jared Weaver, Tyler Skaggz, and Garrett Richards and have a good offense with Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, and Josh Hamilton. However, the rest of the rotation & bullpen is subpar. Seattle made themselves a tad better. The Baltimore Orioles lead a watered-down AL East, and the Toronto Blue Jays, once they get injured starters Edwin Encarnacion, Adam Lind & Brett Lawrie back from injury (all could be by the end of August) they'll turn it around. However, the rest of the league is mediocre to bad. The AL Wildcard game (Likely the Angels playing the Mariners or Orioles/Blue Jays (whichever team doesn't win the East will challenge the Mariners for second Wildcard). However, the winner of that game has virtually no match for the A's & Tigers. The A's/Tigers ALCS will be awesome, but unfortunately each team will have their ALDS opponent for dinner!
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Washington Nationals game 96 recap
Overview: Nats survived a sluggish outing from Gio Gonzalez (3 runs, 5 strikeouts and only 4 hits in 3 1/3 innings) but finished with 3 walks and needed 88 pitches to record a total of 10 outs, and the 3rd blown save from closer Rafael Soriano who gave up the tying run on a single by Rickie Weeks, but got out of the inning without any further damage due to Weeks getting caught stealing second and Ryan Braun ended the threat with a deep flyout to Denard Span in CF.
In the bottom half of the inning, after a Nate McClouth strikeout (pinch hitting for Soriano), Span, playing on his bobble head day singled, All Star snub Anthony Rendon reached on a force out, and scored the winning run on a Jayson Werth double to LF to give the Nats a 5-4 walk off win.
Nats got on the board first with a single by SS Ian Desmond, but had the inning flushed out after Brewers pitcher Yovanni Gallardo made a great snag on a come backer off the bat of catcher Jose Lobaton and doubled Bryce Harper off the bat. Brewers scored the next 3 runs; 2 in the top of the 3rd, 1 in the 4th and the Nats came back in the bottom half with 3 runs of their own in the bottom half of the 4th inning, and it stayed that way until the 9th.
What it means: The walk off victory gives the Nats an overall record of 53-43 (.552); percentage points over the Atlanta Braves (54-44; .551) for top spot in the National League East division, and as of this moment, the top spot in the NL, once again percentage points over the LA Dodgers (54-45; .545), San Francisco Giants (54-44; .551), St. Louis Cardinals (54-44; .551), Milwaukee Brewers (54-45; .545) and of course the Atlanta Braves. However, the winner of ESPN's Sunday night baseball game between the Cardinals & Dodgers will leapfrog the Nats for best record at the end of the night (assuming no rainout), so the Nationals will end the day with the NL's second best record and the 4th/5th best record in all of baseball at the end of the day (4th/5th depending on what the Baltimore Orioles do in their game vs. the Oakland A's).
Rally thwarted: After 3 singles in the second gave the Nats a 1-0 lead, they were looking to add more with only 1 out and runners on the corners. However, Jose Lobaton's comebacker was stabbed by Brewers pitcher Yovanni Gallardo, and he doubled up Bryce Harper at 3rd to end the threat and the inning.
That was weird: With Ryan Braun on second base and running on the pitch, Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy hit a come backer to Gio Gonzalez. Gonzalez lobbed the ball over to 1st, and Braun, never slowing down scored from second just ahead of Adam LaRoche's throw home.
Brewers aggressive base running: Brewers had 2 stolen bases on the afternoon, and took many extra bases. Brewers added to their lead with another aggressive baserunning in the 4th. With Jean Segura on 3rd, Carlos Gomez hit a grounder to Desmond who was playing in. Desmond made a good play and looked Segura back to 3rd, but Segura broke home as Desmond threw to first to get the out, and slid just ahead of the throw from LaRoche to give the Brewers an insurance run. However, the aggressive baserunning came back to haunt them in the 9th when it counted: after tying the game off of Soriano, the Brewers tried to pull off a double steal. Carlos Gomez was able to get to 3rd, but Weeks, the trailing runner was thrown out at second for the second out. That would loom large as 2 pitches later Braun would fly out ti deep center which would've easily scored Gomez to give the Brewers the lead had that only been the second out. However, it was the 3rd, and it ended the inning.
Nats rally back: After a walk to LaRoche, Ryan Zimmerman connected on a 2 run homer to right center to tie the score at 3 in the 4th. Later in the inning, Lobaton would motor home from 3rd on a wild pitch in another weird play as even though Gallardo was covering the plate, catcher Johnathan Lucroy didn't throw the ball to at least attempt the out on Lobaton.
3rd times the charm: This was only the 3rd save closer Rafael Soriano has blown this year. In the first 2 instances this year (May 10 @ Oakland & June 7 @ San Diego) the team lost the game. Nice of them to take him off the hook this time.
Game MVP: A lot of good choices here. We could have Ryan Zimmerman (2-4, 1 home run, 2 RBI's, 1 run scored), walk off hero Jayson Werth (2-5, 1 RBI, game-winning hit), or all star Tyler Clippard (20th hold of the season, struck out the side in the 8th on 19 pitches) but I'm going to give it long reliever Craig Stammen. Relieved an ineffective Gio Gonzalez and pitched a scoreless 2 and 2/3's innings allowing 0 hits, walking none and striking out two. Also chipped in with the bat which helped set up the Nats 3rd run of the 4th inning. After Lobaton reached second with a double he reached first on a swinging bunt which went about 50 feet and sent Lobaton to 3rd where he scored on the wild pitch.
Up next: Nats go on the road for 9 straight games and won't be back home at Nats park until the final day of July; July 31. They start the road trip with 3 games in Colorado vs. the floundering Rockies, then go onto Cincinnati for 3 games vs. the Reds, and finish up the trip in Miami with 3 vs. the Marlins. Monday's scheduled pitching matchup has Doug Fister (9-2, 2.90) who was pushed back from Sunday to Monday due to travel problems Gio Gonzalez had for the Nats vs. Franklin Morales (5-4, 5.26) for the Rockies. Game start is scheduled for 8:40 PM Eastern.
In the bottom half of the inning, after a Nate McClouth strikeout (pinch hitting for Soriano), Span, playing on his bobble head day singled, All Star snub Anthony Rendon reached on a force out, and scored the winning run on a Jayson Werth double to LF to give the Nats a 5-4 walk off win.
Nats got on the board first with a single by SS Ian Desmond, but had the inning flushed out after Brewers pitcher Yovanni Gallardo made a great snag on a come backer off the bat of catcher Jose Lobaton and doubled Bryce Harper off the bat. Brewers scored the next 3 runs; 2 in the top of the 3rd, 1 in the 4th and the Nats came back in the bottom half with 3 runs of their own in the bottom half of the 4th inning, and it stayed that way until the 9th.
What it means: The walk off victory gives the Nats an overall record of 53-43 (.552); percentage points over the Atlanta Braves (54-44; .551) for top spot in the National League East division, and as of this moment, the top spot in the NL, once again percentage points over the LA Dodgers (54-45; .545), San Francisco Giants (54-44; .551), St. Louis Cardinals (54-44; .551), Milwaukee Brewers (54-45; .545) and of course the Atlanta Braves. However, the winner of ESPN's Sunday night baseball game between the Cardinals & Dodgers will leapfrog the Nats for best record at the end of the night (assuming no rainout), so the Nationals will end the day with the NL's second best record and the 4th/5th best record in all of baseball at the end of the day (4th/5th depending on what the Baltimore Orioles do in their game vs. the Oakland A's).
Rally thwarted: After 3 singles in the second gave the Nats a 1-0 lead, they were looking to add more with only 1 out and runners on the corners. However, Jose Lobaton's comebacker was stabbed by Brewers pitcher Yovanni Gallardo, and he doubled up Bryce Harper at 3rd to end the threat and the inning.
That was weird: With Ryan Braun on second base and running on the pitch, Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy hit a come backer to Gio Gonzalez. Gonzalez lobbed the ball over to 1st, and Braun, never slowing down scored from second just ahead of Adam LaRoche's throw home.
Brewers aggressive base running: Brewers had 2 stolen bases on the afternoon, and took many extra bases. Brewers added to their lead with another aggressive baserunning in the 4th. With Jean Segura on 3rd, Carlos Gomez hit a grounder to Desmond who was playing in. Desmond made a good play and looked Segura back to 3rd, but Segura broke home as Desmond threw to first to get the out, and slid just ahead of the throw from LaRoche to give the Brewers an insurance run. However, the aggressive baserunning came back to haunt them in the 9th when it counted: after tying the game off of Soriano, the Brewers tried to pull off a double steal. Carlos Gomez was able to get to 3rd, but Weeks, the trailing runner was thrown out at second for the second out. That would loom large as 2 pitches later Braun would fly out ti deep center which would've easily scored Gomez to give the Brewers the lead had that only been the second out. However, it was the 3rd, and it ended the inning.
Nats rally back: After a walk to LaRoche, Ryan Zimmerman connected on a 2 run homer to right center to tie the score at 3 in the 4th. Later in the inning, Lobaton would motor home from 3rd on a wild pitch in another weird play as even though Gallardo was covering the plate, catcher Johnathan Lucroy didn't throw the ball to at least attempt the out on Lobaton.
3rd times the charm: This was only the 3rd save closer Rafael Soriano has blown this year. In the first 2 instances this year (May 10 @ Oakland & June 7 @ San Diego) the team lost the game. Nice of them to take him off the hook this time.
Game MVP: A lot of good choices here. We could have Ryan Zimmerman (2-4, 1 home run, 2 RBI's, 1 run scored), walk off hero Jayson Werth (2-5, 1 RBI, game-winning hit), or all star Tyler Clippard (20th hold of the season, struck out the side in the 8th on 19 pitches) but I'm going to give it long reliever Craig Stammen. Relieved an ineffective Gio Gonzalez and pitched a scoreless 2 and 2/3's innings allowing 0 hits, walking none and striking out two. Also chipped in with the bat which helped set up the Nats 3rd run of the 4th inning. After Lobaton reached second with a double he reached first on a swinging bunt which went about 50 feet and sent Lobaton to 3rd where he scored on the wild pitch.
Up next: Nats go on the road for 9 straight games and won't be back home at Nats park until the final day of July; July 31. They start the road trip with 3 games in Colorado vs. the floundering Rockies, then go onto Cincinnati for 3 games vs. the Reds, and finish up the trip in Miami with 3 vs. the Marlins. Monday's scheduled pitching matchup has Doug Fister (9-2, 2.90) who was pushed back from Sunday to Monday due to travel problems Gio Gonzalez had for the Nats vs. Franklin Morales (5-4, 5.26) for the Rockies. Game start is scheduled for 8:40 PM Eastern.
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