Links for Friday, before Jim Thome makes his return to Cleveland as the Indians host the Royals…
- Athletics pitcher Rich Harden thought he was Boston-bound on the night of July 30th, writes Brian MacPherson of The Providence Journal.
- Jim Bowden of ESPN.com breaks down Cleveland's trade for Thome, calling it a "tremendous acquisition by [Indians GM Chris] Antonetti."
- Paul Swydan of FanGraphs says Thome's arrival in Cleveland may be just what the Indians need, since he’ll provide some much-needed pop.
- ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick says Jered Weaver's extension with the Angels is mostly unrelated to the contracts similar pitchers will sign. Weaver is simply a terrific pitcher who decided to stay close to home, not a trailblazer or a benchmark, Crasnick writes.
- Tom Verducci of SI.com points out that the cases of Carlos Zambrano and Brandon Webb can help us understand Weaver's deal.
- Steve Dilbeck of the LA Times argues that the Dodgers should trade Jamey Carroll to a contender to give him another shot at the postseason.
- Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports says he favors expanded playoffs, two 15-team leagues and balanced interleague schedules for teams in the same division. However, MLB owners don't appear to be ready to go to two 15-team leagues by next year.
Braves should be all over Carroll and then promptly DFA Lugo.
Yea that’s what the Braves need is another Brooks Conrad
Conrad does not play SS or have 1.6 WAR so far this season. Not really sure how Conrad got brought up considering I said DFA Lugo. Basically we would be replacing a -1.6 WAR player in Lugo with a postive player in Carroll.
I’m so sick of hearing this idea that a team should trade a player as a favor to him. As if teams ever do this.
The A’s did with Mark Ellis
They got nothing in return?
The Thome move was nothing but a favor to him
The Twins have no further use for Thome. They are way out of it and saved some money.
The Thome move was nothing but a favor to him
As a Dodger fan, I’m glad Pad’s let that Greg Maddux guy come back… Yeah, it really does happen.
Oh, and same goes for Jim Thome on his 2009 trip from the ChiSox (bust as it was with his bad wheel).
The out-of-contention Padres dumped the balance of his salary and got two minor league players in return. So no, I think it really doesn’t happen. Teams don’t do deals that are unfavorable to them just to be nice to a player. The only exception might be if they hope to re-sign him the following year, but even so, they are looking after the team’s interests, first, last and always. So let’s talk reality: if the Dodgers really did trade Carroll “as favor to him” (read: for virtually nothing), do we seriously believe that fans would not be crawling all over each other to be the first to call it another one of Colletti’s dumb moves?
nah, it’s already a washout; gives them more playing time for Sellers and DeJesus at 2nd when Gordon comes back…. I don’t think too many people would complain if all LAD got back was a bag of cool ranch doritos.
You reading the same boards as me? Sure, they’d complain. The roster expands to 40 in a few days so we don’t need to open a spot for Sellers or De Jesus. I’ve been saying for a month at least that the Dodgers don’t get much of anything for Carroll in trade, so any deal they do for him is salary relief, at best. Are we now voting for giving Frank some folding money? I’m not. Then again, I’ve been bringing sandwiches and bottled water to games. I figure Frank doesn’t deserve an extra nickel of mine and I’m not for any deal that does nothing more than help him pay his lawyers or his hair stylist. YMMV…
The best part about trading Carroll would be to see how long Eugeni0-for-Dodgers can keep his streak alive as the starting second baseman.
Velez will demoted the moment Gordon is reactivated, probably over the weekend. He had his audition.
Is Sellers taking over the 2B job?
Carroll will continue to play the position, don’t you think?
Well with the way Sellers has been playing, I thought Don would try to get him more at bats. I mean, it’s not like playing Carroll everyday is going to get us to the playoffs.
See above response to Gumby65….
Is Sellers taking over the 2B job?
So happy the harden trade fell through, i doubt that lars anderson would be doing what allen’s doing (SSS i know)