Deadline Trade Reviews

One Nut (4 trades) received:

Melky Cabrera, Ryan Dempster, John Axford, Andre Ethier, 1st (CNLS), 5th,
11th, 14th,16th, and 17th rounders

Gave up:

Jason Bartlett, Scott Baker, Josh Johnson, Dexter Fowler, Jake Peavy, 1st (UA), 3rd , 3rd, 11th 13th, 14th rounders

Jason no doubt took a difficult, yet successful week 19 to heart as he went 9-0-1 on the week, but only because Urban Achievers did anything but achieve. It moved him up to second place in the standings, a mere 4.5 games out of first with two weeks to go, but he has a tough remaining schedule (Keepin It, Prestige). In total, the one-day splurge cost him a 19-round downgrade and the chance to trade Josh Johnson for more before next season. The moves could possibly push him over the top this year, though Ethier hasn’t done much since his hit streak and Jason obviously has more faith in Melky than I do. He really needs Hanley to be back and productive and for Lind to get back on track. Axford is a nice addition, while Cahill isn’t as bad as his overall numbers indicate and he didn’t have to give up much (just because Urban Achievers has the worst record does not mean it will automatically be the first pick; in fact, there’s a chance the Colon NLS pick could be better). Dempster has pitched better since an atrocious start and is a good add, creating quite the strikeout-focused staff.

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Angry Pirates (4 trades) received:

Josh Johnson, 3rd, 9th, 11th, 14th rounders

Gave up:

Andre Ethier, Jordan Walden, John Axford, Joel Hanrahan, 11th, 11th, 14th, 18th rounders

Overall, Kyle did a good job aggressively selling his closers and gaining 17 rounds in the process, while landing Josh Johnson, who will be risky, but certainly keeper-worthy going into next year (providing he doesn’t need surgery). When some douchebag (myself) wouldn’t just accept Hanrahan for a two-round upgrade (I didn’t think Joel was much of an upgrade over Nathan), he went out and found someone who’d give him three. Most just cave, but his approach helped him get situated nicely for next season, despite the relatively late call to end his playoff run.

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Ring of Fire (2 trades) receives:

Joel Hanrahan, Brandon Beachy 15th, 18th rounders

Gave up:

Garrett Jones, 11th,14th rounders

A couple of nice additions after a motivated Dagan got on track with a much-needed 10-0 thrashing of the Pirates, which vaulted him from outside the playoff picture to #7. And he’s got the juice to make even more noise before the end of the season with the beleaguered Colon NLS this week, then a matchup with Anal before the playoffs. Still, even with the additions, it really only provides a dominant bullpen and yet another useful, but not quite great starter. The pitching will really dictate how far Dagan’s team can go. As far as what he gave up, seems appropriate and worthwhile given who he was replacing (Venters, Jones).

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Colon No like Salad (2 trades) receive

Garrett Jones, Scott Baker, UA’s 1st, 11th rounder

Gave up:

Brandon Beachy, Trevor Cahill, CNL’s 1st , (UA),15th

I really liked the Beachy move for Russ, especially considering I basically gave him away in the Hamels trade – nice way for Russ to capitalize on the assets he had. I don’t really understand the 1st rounder swap in the Cahill deal, though. Sure, it’ll be nice if it turns into the number one pick, but he could’ve easily traded away the number one pick with the lottery system we have in place. Baker has been a better pitcher than Cahill this year, but he’s injured and that value doesn’t help Russ anymore. I just felt he could’ve got something more definite for Cahill.

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Keepin It Real (1 trade) receives:

Jordan Walden, 11th rounder

Gave up:

Aaron Harang, 9th rounder

A great addition for Pierce, who was probably more low-key than he could’ve been during the bevy of trades over the past two months. That said, his team is good. Walden finalizes a makeshift bullpen built on the fly, which now includes Walden, Santos and Guerra – a threesome that could easily sneak the category away from those with deeper pens. If he gets A-Rod back at a reasonable level of production, Pierce could do some serious damage. My only complaint about his roster is he really could’ve used another pitcher or two (Danks and Billingsley would’ve made sense) with Hanson hurt. A trade with Moose where he sent Pineda and picks for MYoung, Danks, and Billinglsey would’ve made a lot of sense, as the starts for the young Seattle hurler are becoming less and less reliable.

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Urban Achievers (1 trade) receives:

Blake Beavan, 14th rounder

Anal Hershiser (1 trade) receives:

Mariano Rivera, 18th rounder

Nice move on both parts. For someone who was supposedly thinking about keeping Mo, Dan didn’t really seem to be convinced of the idea, settling for a four-round upgrade for the best closer in the game – not really the going rate for a keeper. Perhaps he concluded, as most have, that closers are not keeper-worthy. There were a lot of silly trades in terms of pick compensation and I think four rounds is a fair rate for an upper-echelon closer. There’s a lot of teams with impressive bullpens, but a closer only does so much. A great one can contribute to Ks and most provide some rate protection, but really it’s all about the saves--and the amount they can accumulate is directly related to the team as a whole, making it difficult to know just who will dominate the category. In the end, if you’ve got three or four closers with full time gigs, you should feel pretty comfortable with that part of your team.

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Moose is Loose receive:

Dexter Fowler, Jake Peavy, 3rd, 13th, 14th rounder

Gave up:

Melky Cabrera, Ryan Dempster, 5th, 16th, 17th rounders

Although it sounded like he was going to get aggressive, Brian didn’t maximize the value of his roster if he was indeed giving up. Frankly, his menu of prices was like putting a high-end steakhouse in the ghetto. There just wasn’t the appetite for that price. Now it looks like his keepers are decent/mediocre with McCann, Uggla, MYoung, Tulo, BUpton, and Greinke and he had at least a dozen rounds of upgrades available had he traded guys like THunter, JDanks, CBillingsley, DFister, RWolf, JPierre, APagan, and Kubel. The best thing I think he could’ve done is improved keepers like Young, who is tremendously valuable this season due to his versatility and place in the powerful Texas lineup. But he’s going to be 36 next year. Upton was another one he could’ve improved. He did make some trades prior to the deadline that improved his draft for next year, including this one with Jason, which I believe he did quite well on. But, in the end, he had a lot of mid-level, useful talent and I see this as a missed opportunity.