Keepin It Real receives:
Sergio Santos, Javy Guerra, 13th rounder
Colon No Like Salad receives:
Raul Ibanez, Carlos Carrasco, 9th rounder
In a frantic series of moves to prep his roster for the playoffs, Pierce finally has something that resembles a bullpen. Resembles is the key word. There’s still some work here to do before he’s actually got enough to win the category over some of the other playoff teams, most of which have 3-4 stud closers. While Santos is good, I traded him because Ozzie likes to switch things up and play matchups, vulturing saves from Santos even when he’s playing well (like last night, for example). But a four round upgrade is a fair price for two mediocre closers.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Trade review - Cowhide and Keepin it Real
Cowhide Joyride receives:
8th rounder
Keepin It Real receives:
Matt Joyce, Edwin Encarnacion, 11th rounder
An interesting trade in that Pierce receives a first half wonder (Joyce) and a second half wonder (Encarnacion). He didn’t have to give up a whole lot (a three round upgrade) to get them, but I still wonder how they fit on this team. With Trumbo, Wright, Sandoval, Ellsbury, Ichiro, Markakis and Werth, it seems like he gave up draft positions for a couple bench players. That said, Joyce was extremely valuable when he was hot and Edwin has been magnificent over the past three weeks, so if you can catch lightning in a bottle and both are hot at the same time, they could just ride Pierce to his firs t championship.
Dave, meanwhile, is closing a very successful few weeks of negotiations that yielded three extra picks in the 5th, one extra in the 6th and 7th, and two extras in the 8th and 9th, where he will stop drafting for the evening. He did so by not asking too much for his leftovers (he’s still got Morrison and HMatsui, by the way), settling for picks outside the top four rounds. Surely, he’ll be able to fill in nicely around BPosey, PFielder, RWeeks, EAndrus, RZimmerman, and TLincecum.
8th rounder
Keepin It Real receives:
Matt Joyce, Edwin Encarnacion, 11th rounder
An interesting trade in that Pierce receives a first half wonder (Joyce) and a second half wonder (Encarnacion). He didn’t have to give up a whole lot (a three round upgrade) to get them, but I still wonder how they fit on this team. With Trumbo, Wright, Sandoval, Ellsbury, Ichiro, Markakis and Werth, it seems like he gave up draft positions for a couple bench players. That said, Joyce was extremely valuable when he was hot and Edwin has been magnificent over the past three weeks, so if you can catch lightning in a bottle and both are hot at the same time, they could just ride Pierce to his firs t championship.
Dave, meanwhile, is closing a very successful few weeks of negotiations that yielded three extra picks in the 5th, one extra in the 6th and 7th, and two extras in the 8th and 9th, where he will stop drafting for the evening. He did so by not asking too much for his leftovers (he’s still got Morrison and HMatsui, by the way), settling for picks outside the top four rounds. Surely, he’ll be able to fill in nicely around BPosey, PFielder, RWeeks, EAndrus, RZimmerman, and TLincecum.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Trade Review - Ring of Fire and One Nut
Ring of Fire receives:
Brandon League, 18th rounder
Moose Is Loose receives:
Jon Rauch, 9th rounder
Dagan gave up an awful lot here for a closer period, nevermind one on a bad team. He’s definitely an improvement over Rauch, but I think a four-round upgrade would more than suffice – especially considering the number of closers that are available. Nine rounds is a lot and, in my opinion, more than the market called for.
Meanwhile, Brian made out well, but is going to have to work hard over the next three days to get full value out of his roster. Keepers can be traded for in the offseason, however the value of his non-keepers disappears after the trading deadline.
Brandon League, 18th rounder
Moose Is Loose receives:
Jon Rauch, 9th rounder
Dagan gave up an awful lot here for a closer period, nevermind one on a bad team. He’s definitely an improvement over Rauch, but I think a four-round upgrade would more than suffice – especially considering the number of closers that are available. Nine rounds is a lot and, in my opinion, more than the market called for.
Meanwhile, Brian made out well, but is going to have to work hard over the next three days to get full value out of his roster. Keepers can be traded for in the offseason, however the value of his non-keepers disappears after the trading deadline.
Trade Review - Angry Pirates and One Nut
Angry Pirates receive:
AJ Burnett, 4th, 10th, and 11th rounders
One Nut receives
Gio Gonzalez, Max Scherzer, Scott Baker, and 14th, 15th, and 16th rounders
It appears another team bites the dust, as Kyle sold off the heart of his pitching staff for draft picks, despite being slotted in the last playoff spot with a seven game lead on Dagan. Baker went back on the DL and appears to be having some trouble staying healthy, which is too bad considering he has had a great season. Gio’s stats have regressed to what you would normally expect and he is now solidly a non-keeper, despite some midseason discussion that suggested otherwise. Scherzer, meanwhile, is all over the place with the occasional six-run blowups mixed in with stellar performances, outings with one K then one with nine – sort of what we’ve come to expect from him. Overall, the threesome fit in well with Jason’s extremely volatile team. It could mean he trounces his way through the playoffs, or it could mean his ratings kill him. He’s certainly got Ks and Saves. It will be interesting to see how playoff teams structure their rosters going forward. So far, it seems the need for an offensive bench has gone out the window and teams are stacking up pitchers. Should be interesting.
Meanwhile, Kyle made a tough decision. He could’ve either traded picks for more pitching or traded off what he had for picks and he’s chosen the latter. He’ll have to move quickly to take full advantage before the trade deadline. Not sure if this was the right way to go so close to the trade. He made out pretty well here with one nice high pick and then some good upgrades for pitchers who are decent, but not great.
AJ Burnett, 4th, 10th, and 11th rounders
One Nut receives
Gio Gonzalez, Max Scherzer, Scott Baker, and 14th, 15th, and 16th rounders
It appears another team bites the dust, as Kyle sold off the heart of his pitching staff for draft picks, despite being slotted in the last playoff spot with a seven game lead on Dagan. Baker went back on the DL and appears to be having some trouble staying healthy, which is too bad considering he has had a great season. Gio’s stats have regressed to what you would normally expect and he is now solidly a non-keeper, despite some midseason discussion that suggested otherwise. Scherzer, meanwhile, is all over the place with the occasional six-run blowups mixed in with stellar performances, outings with one K then one with nine – sort of what we’ve come to expect from him. Overall, the threesome fit in well with Jason’s extremely volatile team. It could mean he trounces his way through the playoffs, or it could mean his ratings kill him. He’s certainly got Ks and Saves. It will be interesting to see how playoff teams structure their rosters going forward. So far, it seems the need for an offensive bench has gone out the window and teams are stacking up pitchers. Should be interesting.
Meanwhile, Kyle made a tough decision. He could’ve either traded picks for more pitching or traded off what he had for picks and he’s chosen the latter. He’ll have to move quickly to take full advantage before the trade deadline. Not sure if this was the right way to go so close to the trade. He made out pretty well here with one nice high pick and then some good upgrades for pitchers who are decent, but not great.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Trade Review - Donkey and Colon
Donkey Punchers receive:
Roy Halladay, Alexi Oganda, Jeff Niemann, 14th, 15th
Colon No Like Salad receive:
Trevor Cahill, Jeff Karstens, James McDonald, 1st rounder, 7th rounder
The second place Donkey Punchers continued to be aggressive as the deadline approaches, matching Montezuma’s trade with Russ a day prior. The trade values were similar ( I gave a 1st, 10th, and 13th) and both addressed the needs of the team, with Chris adding significant depth to his rotation while chopping off the wounded appendages. Oganda is an interesting one in that there’s been ongoing concern that his history as a reliever would eventually catch up to him and he’d regress terribly. That hasn’t happened, but he has been prone to some nasty, unexpected blowouts from time to time, as seen with his shoddy performance versus Seattle on Tuesday. Niemann, meanwhile, has been great since coming off the DL, looking similar to how he looked in the first half of 2010. If he continues that path of good halves, then this could be a nice add for Chris. Meanwhile, a keeper lineup of Bautista, Teixera, Crawford, Cruz, Halladay and Berkman (maybe Ackley) looks pretty good heading into 2012 as well.
Meanwhile, Russ gets what he sought out when he began last week and will have three first round picks to go along with Cano, Hamilton, Cargo, Felix, Kershaw, and Wainwright. Not bad and may challenge Casten for most jerkoffable roster after the 2012 draft. Considering he gave up Mike Stanton and Gio to get Felix and Hamels (freeing up Halladay to be traded), that was a nice move by Russ, even if it didn’t get him to the playoffs this year. He’s still got some pieces he could trade off too before the deadline comes up, so it may get even better. But considering the depth of talent available on the open market, Russ did well in a short period of time.
So, overall, mission accomplished for both teams. Well done, gentlemen.
Roy Halladay, Alexi Oganda, Jeff Niemann, 14th, 15th
Colon No Like Salad receive:
Trevor Cahill, Jeff Karstens, James McDonald, 1st rounder, 7th rounder
The second place Donkey Punchers continued to be aggressive as the deadline approaches, matching Montezuma’s trade with Russ a day prior. The trade values were similar ( I gave a 1st, 10th, and 13th) and both addressed the needs of the team, with Chris adding significant depth to his rotation while chopping off the wounded appendages. Oganda is an interesting one in that there’s been ongoing concern that his history as a reliever would eventually catch up to him and he’d regress terribly. That hasn’t happened, but he has been prone to some nasty, unexpected blowouts from time to time, as seen with his shoddy performance versus Seattle on Tuesday. Niemann, meanwhile, has been great since coming off the DL, looking similar to how he looked in the first half of 2010. If he continues that path of good halves, then this could be a nice add for Chris. Meanwhile, a keeper lineup of Bautista, Teixera, Crawford, Cruz, Halladay and Berkman (maybe Ackley) looks pretty good heading into 2012 as well.
Meanwhile, Russ gets what he sought out when he began last week and will have three first round picks to go along with Cano, Hamilton, Cargo, Felix, Kershaw, and Wainwright. Not bad and may challenge Casten for most jerkoffable roster after the 2012 draft. Considering he gave up Mike Stanton and Gio to get Felix and Hamels (freeing up Halladay to be traded), that was a nice move by Russ, even if it didn’t get him to the playoffs this year. He’s still got some pieces he could trade off too before the deadline comes up, so it may get even better. But considering the depth of talent available on the open market, Russ did well in a short period of time.
So, overall, mission accomplished for both teams. Well done, gentlemen.
Trade Review - Donkey and Urban
Donkey Punchers receive:
Derek Jeter, 17th rounder
Urban Achievers receive:
Erick Aybar, 7th rounder
As off as this may look on the surface, with Aybar approximately 50 spots higher in the overall Yahoo! Ranking and an impressive steals total, I like the acquisition for Chris. Jeter has turned things around since hitting number 3,000 and looks like his old self, sitting on top of that impressive Yankee lineup. Meanwhile, Aybar has slowed considerably and has been very mediocre over the last month. So, the move makes sense, though it leaves him relying almost solely on Coco to provide steals (though, one would hope Crawford gets moving soon). With that, I also think Chris gave up much more than he needed to for what was really not a huge upgrade talent-wise. At this point in the year and with so much mid-level talent available for only minor draft pick upgrades, 10 rounds is a lot to get someone who has had a pretty mediocre season overall. But if Jeter continues the level of production from the past month over the next two months, it could prove more than worth it.
On that note, Dan did a great job upgrading a pick for someone who has certainly worn out his welcome among the list of annual keepers. Surely, there wasn’t a whole lot of competition for Jeter’s services among the contenders, so however he sold it, he sold it well. The ceiling for the 7th round in 2011 was ESantana, CWilson, JGracia, which is quite good. So, while its perplexing that Dan wasn’t more aggressive in liquidating prior to the onset of fellow dumpers, considering he called it a season more than a month ago, good to see him back at it. There’s still some good pieces to move between now and Sunday.
Overall, liked the move for Chris, but the pick differential probably should’ve been smaller.
Derek Jeter, 17th rounder
Urban Achievers receive:
Erick Aybar, 7th rounder
As off as this may look on the surface, with Aybar approximately 50 spots higher in the overall Yahoo! Ranking and an impressive steals total, I like the acquisition for Chris. Jeter has turned things around since hitting number 3,000 and looks like his old self, sitting on top of that impressive Yankee lineup. Meanwhile, Aybar has slowed considerably and has been very mediocre over the last month. So, the move makes sense, though it leaves him relying almost solely on Coco to provide steals (though, one would hope Crawford gets moving soon). With that, I also think Chris gave up much more than he needed to for what was really not a huge upgrade talent-wise. At this point in the year and with so much mid-level talent available for only minor draft pick upgrades, 10 rounds is a lot to get someone who has had a pretty mediocre season overall. But if Jeter continues the level of production from the past month over the next two months, it could prove more than worth it.
On that note, Dan did a great job upgrading a pick for someone who has certainly worn out his welcome among the list of annual keepers. Surely, there wasn’t a whole lot of competition for Jeter’s services among the contenders, so however he sold it, he sold it well. The ceiling for the 7th round in 2011 was ESantana, CWilson, JGracia, which is quite good. So, while its perplexing that Dan wasn’t more aggressive in liquidating prior to the onset of fellow dumpers, considering he called it a season more than a month ago, good to see him back at it. There’s still some good pieces to move between now and Sunday.
Overall, liked the move for Chris, but the pick differential probably should’ve been smaller.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Trade Review - Montezuma and Colon
Colon No Like Salad receives:
Adam Dunn, Sergio Santos, Brandon Beachy, 1st rounder, 10th rounder, 13th rounder
Montezumas Revenge receives:
Cole Hamels, Craig Kimbrel, Gaby Sanchez, 16th, 17th, 18th picks
Every trade deadline needs a big blockbuster and this may be the first of several. Russ has officially called it a season following a bit of bad luck and some general draft disappointments, but he made quick work gobbling an additional first rounder and couple nice mid rounders while dealing off his late round picks. And he actually picked up a few nice players that could enhance the rosters of some teams in the league, namely Santos and Beachy, though Dunn would be a worthwhile speculative pick for a late rounder. And he’s still got Halladay waiting there to be scooped up for another first rounder, as well as some other nice rosterable pieces in Alexei, Weiters, Guerra, Ogando, Neimann and Zambrano. That said, its definitely a buyer’s market so it might be difficult to sell off all the pieces before the trade deadline on Sunday.
For me, well, I could’ve waited for the price to go down, but I didn’t want to chance it. Unlike past deals where I’ve enhanced my rosters through player-for-player trades, I felt a little dirty doing this one. I love the players, but I also feel like I just spent my son’s college fund on a Vegas vacation. Not having a first round pick next year will suck and you could argue that my roster was good enough as it was to win it all, but it was also a bit of a defensive move. Any numbers of playoff teams could grab one or both of these aces and suddenly my team strength of starting pitching is compromised. This gives me a rotation of Hamels, Beckett, Kennedy, Oswalt, Masterson (look at the numbers, he’s an ace), ESantana, Kuroda, Stauffer, Bedard, and Luebke – not an ERA over 3.5 or a whip over 1.23 amongst them (besides Oswalt) and they’ve all done pretty well at avoiding blowups this year. I wouldn’t have given up a first without gaining a keeper and I got a great one in Hamels, whose been just as good as Halladay and is 27. Santana, Hosmer, JUpton, Rasmus, Kinsler and Hamels is a pretty nice group of keepers I think. Meanwhile, I stay away from the whimsys of Ozzie Guillen (not to mention his crappy team) by dropping Santos, and, obviously, Gaby Sanchez is a huge upgrade over Adam Dunn, who I still don’t understand. It’s possible I make another move or two, but right now I think the roster can compete for a championship.
So, both teams got what they wanted. Whether they capitalize on it (a great draft pick for Russ, a championship for me), is another story entirely.
Adam Dunn, Sergio Santos, Brandon Beachy, 1st rounder, 10th rounder, 13th rounder
Montezumas Revenge receives:
Cole Hamels, Craig Kimbrel, Gaby Sanchez, 16th, 17th, 18th picks
Every trade deadline needs a big blockbuster and this may be the first of several. Russ has officially called it a season following a bit of bad luck and some general draft disappointments, but he made quick work gobbling an additional first rounder and couple nice mid rounders while dealing off his late round picks. And he actually picked up a few nice players that could enhance the rosters of some teams in the league, namely Santos and Beachy, though Dunn would be a worthwhile speculative pick for a late rounder. And he’s still got Halladay waiting there to be scooped up for another first rounder, as well as some other nice rosterable pieces in Alexei, Weiters, Guerra, Ogando, Neimann and Zambrano. That said, its definitely a buyer’s market so it might be difficult to sell off all the pieces before the trade deadline on Sunday.
For me, well, I could’ve waited for the price to go down, but I didn’t want to chance it. Unlike past deals where I’ve enhanced my rosters through player-for-player trades, I felt a little dirty doing this one. I love the players, but I also feel like I just spent my son’s college fund on a Vegas vacation. Not having a first round pick next year will suck and you could argue that my roster was good enough as it was to win it all, but it was also a bit of a defensive move. Any numbers of playoff teams could grab one or both of these aces and suddenly my team strength of starting pitching is compromised. This gives me a rotation of Hamels, Beckett, Kennedy, Oswalt, Masterson (look at the numbers, he’s an ace), ESantana, Kuroda, Stauffer, Bedard, and Luebke – not an ERA over 3.5 or a whip over 1.23 amongst them (besides Oswalt) and they’ve all done pretty well at avoiding blowups this year. I wouldn’t have given up a first without gaining a keeper and I got a great one in Hamels, whose been just as good as Halladay and is 27. Santana, Hosmer, JUpton, Rasmus, Kinsler and Hamels is a pretty nice group of keepers I think. Meanwhile, I stay away from the whimsys of Ozzie Guillen (not to mention his crappy team) by dropping Santos, and, obviously, Gaby Sanchez is a huge upgrade over Adam Dunn, who I still don’t understand. It’s possible I make another move or two, but right now I think the roster can compete for a championship.
So, both teams got what they wanted. Whether they capitalize on it (a great draft pick for Russ, a championship for me), is another story entirely.
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