The Blue Jays are the only team in the AL East with a losing record and they're only one game under .500. The Yankees have a healthy eight-game lead but the Orioles, Rays, Red Sox, and Jays are all within three games of a Wild Card spot. With ten days until the trade deadline, here's the latest from baseball's deepest division…
- "We're still looking around … I'm not really interested in making a trade just to make a trade, but I'll try to do what I can to add to the ballclub," said Orioles GM Dan Duquette to Roch Kubatko of MASNSports.com. The O's acquired Omar Quintanilla yesterday to add depth following Brian Roberts' injury.
- Dan Connolly of The Baltimore Sun expects the Orioles to make another trade or two prior to the deadline. He doubts they'll sell low on Jake Arrieta or Brian Matusz and says Duquette could target a hitter over a pitcher in a significant deal.
- The Yankees remain in contact with teams dangling bullpen pieces according to George A. King III of The New York Post, though Joba Chamberlain could be activated off the DL before the end of the month.
- Kevin Kernan of The New York Post makes a case for the Yankees to acquire Shane Victorino following the news of Brett Gardner's likely season-ending elbow surgery.
- WEEI.com's Alex Speier looked at the Red Sox's rotation and Josh Beckett in particular leading up to the trade deadline.
I hope that Yanks don’t break the bank for a reliever. Joba has looked good in rehab and if healthy is a good or better than any of the relievers available for trade. Shane Victorino is a nice fit, but again the Yanks shouldn’t over pay. Ibanez and Jones have been more than adequate and Dewayne Wise has been solid.
I hope the Jays can make a nice push for the WC once Morrow and Hutch come back…
Hey, if the Phillies aren’t sellers after last night’s devasting home loss to Lincecum, I don’t know when they will be. I would trade them all if I could. I just hope they don’t try and help those dreaded Yankees! =P
Omar Quintanilla, hahahaha, the only thing I can say about him is: He makes Cesar Izturius look like a “Silver Slugger!” Or if you want to kick it even more “Old School” make Buddy Biancalana look like a “Triple Crown” threat.
For now though Betemit looks ok at the plate and in the field (3rd), but you know at some point the O’s really need to resolve the situation at third base.
Betemit looks the opposite of Ok in the field.
Remind me what The Duke saw in him please? Not one of the buy low guys or anything he has targeted in the past.
I was very against the signing at the time. At least Betemit can hit, but man he’s just a butcher in the field.
Eh, Shane Victorino would be great in the outfield. Especially with Swisher now re-injured(only day to day right now). Though, we might have to overpay, and I do not like that. Especially to a guy who’s hitting free agency after this season and having a 189M restriction by 2014. Shane will probably want a nice salary with at least 4 years on the table. Unless Cashman is going to get rid of Nick Swisher and Granderson when their contracts end then there is no real point in overpaying for Victorino.
Ah…the Red Sox potential of adding Garza who appears to be Josh Beckett like in performance. A sidewards move. NY is doing fine without going nuts in the trade mart.
I feel obligated to point again once again that Alex Speier is really going out of his way to be the next Peter Gammons. I want to vomit.
Next – I’m so tired of the Beckett apologists. If he is actually hurt, he’d be out of the lineup (the guy complains the minute he feels a tweak, let’s be real).
Beckett has what we call “Overrated”. He clearly has no drive. He shows up for games that don’t matter and completely blows up when the team needs him to pitch well (they had just started to build momentum this last week). His pitches are flat and over the plate – which oddly is an “injury” that Beckett has had quite often the last couple of years.
I expect Jonathan Schoop will be up at some point next year to take over for Roberts for good. He’s a solid looking 2B prospect who’s currently in AA.
schoop’s obp is .302 in double A. That is pretty awful. I don’t see him being a major league regular. If we can get anything in return for him in trade we should do it. Hopefully we can convince the Padres to take him in a Chase Headley deal.
Maybe Schoop wouldn’t rank very high on the “Best OBPs by 20-year-olds through 340 AA at bats” list, but Baseball America ranked him 82nd overall on their 2012 Top 100 list.
The guy is widely regarded as a very good prospect and he’s put up at least a decent OBP at every stop along the way. I would imagine that most talent evaluators give him a bit of a break because he’s always been one of the youngest players in his league and he’s been learning a new position since the O’s already have Machado at short.
But go ahead and continue to judge him on a half season of one stat. You’ll be more pleasantly surprised when he gets called up at some point in 2014.