Marlins Confused About Deadline Direction
The Marlins are confused about their next step, according to one source of Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. The team's strong play of late puts them in a gray area – 6.5 games back in the wild card, but trailing six teams. The Mets, Red Sox, Athletics, and Angels are in similar spots. With the Dan Haren acquisition, the Angels wisely made a move that can help them now and in the future.
Rosenthal notes that the Marlins could trade Jorge Cantu without hurting their chances in 2010, if Logan Morrison's Triple A success carries over. ESPN's Jayson Stark tweets that the Marlins aren't in sell mode, but they're still shopping Cantu to the Rangers, Rockies, and Giants. Stark's colleague Gordon Edes talked to one big league source who believes a Cantu deal will get done with the Rangers, assuming the commissioner's office signs off on the financials.
On the other hand, now might be the best time to cash in on Cody Ross if the Marlins wave the white flag. The Fish could opt to trade Ross in the offseason before the December non-tender deadline, as they did with Jeremy Hermida last year.
Rays Interested In Chad Qualls
The Rays are interested in Diamondbacks reliever Chad Qualls, tweets Jon Paul Morosi, but there's an "if." The Rays would like Qualls to show at least a little consistency first.
Qualls has a brutal 8.49 ERA in 35 innings this year, though his strikeout and groundball rates are strong. The 32-year-old righty has managed to allow 59 hits in 35 innings, which can't all be attributed to bad luck. Qualls' stock is low enough that interim GM Jerry Dipoto would do well just to free up some of the $1.59MM left on his contract.
Tommy Hanson Switches To Scott Boras
Braves righty Tommy Hanson hired Scott Boras as his agent this month, tweets David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Hanson had previously been with Beverly Hills Sports Council, an agency that was fractured when Dan Lozano left and took several big-name clients with him. O'Brien notes that Boras now represents three members of the Braves' rotation, with Jair Jurrjens and Derek Lowe already in tow. Click here to see our full list of Boras clients.
For those worried that Hanson is now less likely to sign a multiyear deal, keep in mind that that isn't really the Braves' cup of tea anyway. Hanson will have one year and 120 days of service time after this season, so he won't be arbitration-eligible yet. There is a possibility Hanson is arbitration-eligible after the 2011 season, if the Super Two rule remains unchanged by the new collective bargaining agreement and the cutoff keeps decreasing. It's much too early to worry about any of that; Braves fans can rest easy knowing the team controls Hanson through 2015.
Yankees Rumors: Soria, Dunn, Lilly
11:23am: The Yankees dangled Jesus Montero in talks for Joakim Soria, reports ESPN's Jayson Stark, but the Royals weren't interested.
7:31am: SI's Jon Heyman dished Yankees rumors in yesterday's column…
- The Yankees "made a big proposal" for Soria. With three club options, the 26-year-old righty is under team control through 2014. Had Soria not signed a team-friendly extension in May of 2008, he'd be eligible for free agency after the 2012 season. The only blemish on his record was missing most of May last year with a sore shoulder. How do the Yankees and Royals match up? You'd expect Dayton Moore to pursue Montero or Austin Romine, though the Royals already have Billy Butler and Wil Myers in the organization.
- Heyman notes that the Yankees "have been in touch" with the Nationals about Adam Dunn, but "so far found the price prohibitive." With six days until the trade deadline, will Mike Rizzo drop the price on Dunn? Heyman also links the Yankees to familiar names Ty Wigginton, Jhonny Peralta, and Cody Ross.
- Heyman doesn't see the Yankees going after Roy Oswalt, but tweets that they like Ted Lilly. Teams like the Cubs and Astros have to hope the Diamondbacks' unimpressive return for Dan Haren doesn't have a ripple effect on their available starters.
- Heyman tweets that the Yankees' offer for Haren consisted of righties Ivan Nova and Zach McAllister plus one or two prospects. Baseball America viewed Nova and McAllister as future No. 4 types heading into the season.
Odds & Ends: Sweeney, Downs, Martin
Links for Monday, as we celebrate the anniversary of the Mark DeRosa (2009), Casey Blake (2008), Xavier Nady (2008), and Ben Broussard (2006) trades. More importantly, Chris Perez, Carlos Santana, Jose Tabata, and Shin-Soo Choo were surrendered for those veteran acquisitions. The trade deadline is five days away; who will mortgage the future this year?
- MLB.com's Adam McCalvy has good quotes from Brewers GM Doug Melvin, who said, "Teams talk, but they don't give you legitimate offers. The toughest part is that teams don't want to take anybody off their Major League club. Teams will offer prospects in A-ball." In the piece, McCalvy outlines Melvin's options regarding Prince Fielder.
- Orioles owner Peter Angelos doesn't want to deal with the Yankees, tweets SI's Jon Heyman. That means one less trade partner for the Orioles as they try to move Ty Wigginton.
- The Blue Jays reached a $600K agreement with second-round pick Kellen Sweeney, reports Baseball America's Jim Callis. Sweeney, brother of A's outfielder Ryan, will move to third base to begin his pro career. News of the agreement first surfaced Friday via Jeff Johnson of The Gazette.
- WEEI's Rob Bradford looks at Boston's bullpen options, noting that it'd be dangerous to overpay for Scott Downs. The Jays continue to ask for an elite prospect for Downs, writes Bradford's colleague Alex Speier. One exec who spoke to ESPN's Jayson Stark expects Toronto to continue "stoking fires" and wait until Friday or Saturday to trade Downs.
- Will the Dodgers, possibly reluctant to give Russell Martin another raise through arbitration, trade the catcher in the early offseason? Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports examines.
- Speaking of the offseason, D'Backs CEO Derrick Hall says the team will be pursuing a closer and another reliever despite a decreasing payroll (Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reporting).
- Dave Cameron of FanGraphs explains that MLB teams may view Dan Haren as less than an ace due to his tendency to allow home runs. The Diamondbacks moved Haren at the worst possible time, says Joel Sherman of the New York Post.
Remembering The 1997 Trade Deadline
1997 was a glorious year. The Hale-Bopp comet made its closest approach to earth, which, fortunately, didn't mean that it collided with the earth. The first Harry Potter book debuted, briefly appearing in bookstores before disappearing from view. And President Clinton banned human cloning, ruining Branch Rickey's last, best idea for developing prospects.
Meanwhile, a number of teams made deals to improve their playoff chances, never realizing that with the universe expanding, it will someday break apart, leaving little need for a second lefty out of the bullpen.
One of my favorite kinds of trades took place on June 13, 1997: a six-player deal between the Padres and Cardinals, two teams going nowhere, with none of the six players having much of an impact. The Padres acquired Rich Batchelor, Danny Jackson and Mark Sweeney, and the Cardinals received Scott Livingstone, Phil Plantier and Fernando Valenzuela. The Padres hoped for the 23-8, 2.73 ERA Jackson; they settled for the 1-7, 7.53 ERA Jackson. In fact, only Mark Sweeney played in any season beyond 1997. But hey, six-player deal- what's not to like?
But the 1997 deadline was dominated like no other by the Seattle Mariners and their destructive need for mediocre arms, no matter the price in young treasure. This would be a Behind the Music episode if only Lou Piniella could carry a tune.
It started on July 18, when the Mariners traded for Felipe Lira and Omar Olivares, giving up Carlos Villalobos (minors), Dean Crow and Scott Sanders. None of the three players Seattle gave up amounted to much. Villalobos, the best of the bunch it seemed, gradually stopped hitting and never made the major leagues. Lira and Olivares pitched like, well, Lira and Olivares – the latter posted an ERA over 5 for Seattle, one of five teams for whom he turned the trick. Still, for a team that had just released Josias Manzanillo, and would shortly do the same to Mike Maddux, the search for sweet, sweet pitching would only intensify.
Meanwhile, the Marlins solidified the roster that would go on to win a championship by dealing outfield prospect Billy McMillon to the Phillies for Darren Daulton on July 21. Dutch's catching days were behind him, but he was still an effective bat, posting an OPS+ of 114 for the Marlins in his final 151 plate appearances. The Marlins weren't finished, dealing Mark Hutton to the Rockies on July 27 for Craig Counsell, who went on to hit .299/.376/.396 for Florida and touched home plate to end the 1997 World Series.
It was all a prelude to July 31, 1997, one of the busiest trade deadline days in major league history. Seven major trades covering 30 players took place. Moreover, three of them live on in infamy to this day.
The Athletics traded Mark McGwire to the Cardinals, receiving Eric Ludwick, T.J. Mathews and Blake Stein for the man who went on to hit 220 home runs over his next 2,251 plate appearances.
The Chicago White Sox made the so-called "White Flag Trade" dealing Wilson Alvarez, Danny Darwin and Roberto Hernandez to the San Francisco Giants for Brian Manning, Lorenzo Barcelo, Mike Caruso, Keith Foulke, Bob Howry and Ken Vining. The trade was widely panned by White Sox fans, since Chicago trailed Cleveland by just 3.5 games at the time. But all three pitchers Chicago traded were past their peak. Alvarez was never a dominant starter again, Darwin was about at the end of the line, and even Roberto Hernandez had a 2.84 ERA through the end of the 1997 season, 3.88 ERA from 1998 on. Meanwhile, both Foulke and Howry threw important innings for the 2000 White Sox, a team that edged the Cleveland Indians for the AL Central title.
But most memorable of all from that fateful day was Seattle's decisions. Less remembered but just as unfortunate, the Mariners traded a 23-year-old Jose Cruz Jr, to the Blue Jays for a pair of relievers: Mike Timlin and Paul Spoljaric. The former was okay for the 1997 Mariners, much better in 1998. But to deal a talented young outfielder for a pair of expendable arms merely set the table for… Heathcliff Slocumb to Seattle. Derek Lowe and Jason Varitek to Boston. Slocumb posted a 4.13 ERA in 1997, a 5.32 ERA in 1998.
For their part, the Mariners did win the AL West in 1997, finishing at 90-72, before losing in the ALDS to the Baltimore Orioles. And all the changes did allow Seattle to lower a 6.12 relief ERA in the first half to 4.76 in the second half. But to give up so many trade chips for such little value strikes me as an awfully vital cautionary tale for 2010 contenders, given the reliever market.
Rays Prefer To Use Prospects For Trades
Rays big leaguers B.J. Upton, Sean Rodriguez, Reid Brignac, and Wade Davis are drawing heavy interest, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, but the team's "preference is to use their prospect depth to land a hitter." The Rays specifically feel that they can't match Upton's defensive skills with internal options.
The Rays' farm system is among the best in the game, so they can easily make prospect-only deals. Even if you take Desmond Jennings and Jeremy Hellickson out of the mix, Tim Beckham, Matt Moore, Alex Colome, and Matt Sweeney were considered top 100 prospects heading into the season. It's quite possible the Rays go even further down their prospect list. Look at the Angels – they just acquired Dan Haren without surrendering any top 100 guys.
As usual, the Rays have kept their targets close to the vest. Few players have been connected to them in recent weeks aside from Jayson Werth, and Yahoo's Tim Brown tweeted three days ago that a Rays source seriously doubts they get the Phillies outfielder.
Elias Rankings Update
After the season the Elias Sports Bureau will take all players over the 2009-10 period, divide them into five groups for each league, and rank them based on various statistics. Then each player will be labeled a Type A, B, or none. Those designations and the possible accompanying arbitration offers determine draft pick compensation (click here for a refresher).
Eddie Bajek has reverse-engineered the Elias rankings, and he's providing that information exclusively at MLB Trade Rumors. Here's a look at how the players rank for the period beginning with the 2009 season running through July 24th, 2010. The Google spreadsheet below has separate tabs for each position group. The players have about three more months to change these rankings. You can also go directly to the Google spreadsheet here and download an Excel version here. Our last set of Elias projections is here, in case you want to see what changed.
Reactions To The Dan Haren Trade
Earlier today, the Angels came out of left field to win the Dan Haren sweepstakes. Let's see what everyone has to say about what this deal means for both sides..
- ESPN's Keith Law (Insider subscription required) has a hard time believing that this is the best deal the D'Backs could get for Haren. As for the Angels, he writes that they have set themselves up beautifully for 2011.
- "We can’t deny the volume and the depth that this brings us as an organization. The names involved in the deal on a prospect level, particularly Corbin, and the player to be named, give us extreme prospect depth, at a position, left-handed pitcher, that anybody would covet," Arizona interim GM Jerry Dipoto told Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic. Dipoto talked a lot about the pitcher win statistic in relation to Joe Saunders and Patrick Corbin while trying to justify the trade.
- Dave Cameron of U.S.S. Mariner tweets that Saunders isn't worth the $6MM or so that he will earn in arbitration next year.
- While some are saying that this move was a salary dump for the D'Backs, Jeff Passan of Yahoo (via Twitter) theorizes that Arizona may like Corbin and Tyler Skaggs more than most.
- Rangers GM Jon Daniels isn't surprised to see the Angels improve their club, writes T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com.
- Fangraphs' Matthew Carruth tried to present Arizona's side of things, but couldn't. He calls the trade "horrendous" for Arizona, even if the club's intention was to dump payroll.
- Zach Sanders of Fangraphs doesn't think that Haren will have trouble adjusting to the American League. The righty had success in the AL pitching for the A's and won't encounter great offense in his return to the AL West.
- The deal could have ramifications for other teams looking to make moves. Dan Connolly of The Baltimore Sun wonders if the deal freed things up to allow the O's to move some of their pieces.
- Acquiring Haren won't help the Angels catch up with the Rangers this season, writes CBSSports.com's Danny Knobler.
- The Halos sent a message to their fans by acquiring Haren, telling their fans that they're not ready to concede anything to Texas, tweets Lyle Spencer of MLB.com.
- "I'm obviously sad to go from here, all the guys and I had a good time here. That said, I'm really excited for the chance to go there and win," Haren told Piecoro.
- Jorge Arangure of ESPN (via Twitter) can't remember seeing a player as excited to be traded as Haren was during his introductory press conference.
- "I like the trade," said Angels outfielder Torii Hunter. "I also like Joe Saunders. But baseball doesn't operate that way; it's a business." (Lyle Spencer of MLB.com reporting).
Odds & Ends: Rangers, DeJesus, Westbrook, Happ
There's still plenty of news in the baseball world outside of today's surprising deal. Let's dive in..
- Derek Czenczelewski and Gil Bransford of ESPN took a look back at the best and worst trades in Rangers history.
- Ben Davis will take one more shot at the big leagues, this time as a pitcher, writes Tyler Kepner of the New York Times.
- The Red Sox were serious about David DeJesus before his injury, a rival executive tells Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports.
- The Indians are drawing only mild interest in pitcher Jake Westbrook, tweets Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Trade bonuses in his contract remain an obstacle, even though Cleveland would be willing to include cash in the deal, Rosenthal adds (via Twitter).
- Mets GM Omar Minaya declined to give his coaching staff a vote of confidence, writes Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com. Hitting coach Howard Johnson appears to be the most vulnerable of the bunch.
- Phillies pitcher J.A. Happ has looked good as scouts have had an eye on him leading up to the deadline, writes Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com. Happ would likely head to Houston in a deal for Roy Oswalt.
- Rangers GM Jon Daniels continues to say that the club will look internally for improvement, writes ESPN.com's Jeff Caplan.