Uncategorized

As deals take place this summer we'll keep track of them in this post, which will sit under "MLBTR Features" on the side.  Here's what we've got so far:

• The Orioles dealt Ryan Freel to the Cubs for Joey Gathright on May 8th.
• The A's acquired Adam Kennedy from the Rays for Joe Dillon on May 8th.
• The Brewers traded Tony Gwynn Jr. to the Padres for Jody Gerut  on May 21st.  
• The White Sox acquired Ramon Castro, dealing Lance Broadway to the Mets on May 29th.
• The Braves acquired Nate McLouth from the Pirates for Charlie Morton, Jeff Locke, and Gorkys Hernandez on June 3rd.
• The Indians acquired Jose Veras from the Yankees for cash considerations on June 24th.
• The Reds acquired Corky Miller, sending Norris Hopper to the White Sox on June 26th.
• The Cardinals acquired Mark DeRosa for Chris Perez and a PTBNL on June 27th. 
• The Mariners acquired Ryan Langerhans in exchange for Mike Morse on June 28th. 
• The Yankees acquired Eric Hinske from the Pirates for two minor leaguers on June 30th.
• The Pirates acquired Lastings Milledge and Joel Hanrahan for Nyjer Morgan and Sean Burnett on June 30th.
• The Cubs acquired Jeff Baker from the Rockies for Alberto Alburquerque on July 2nd.
• The Indians acquired Winston Abreu from the Rays for minor leaguer John Meloan on July 2nd.
• The A's acquired Scott Hairston from the Padres on July 5th.
• The Royals acquired Ryan Freel and cash from the Cubs for a PTBNL on July 6th.  
• The White Sox acquired Tony Pena from the D'Backs for Brandon Allen on July 7th.
• The Royals acquired Yuniesky Betancourt from the Mariners for two minor league pitchers on July 10th.  
• The Braves acquired Ryan Church from the Mets for Jeff Francoeur on July 10th.
• The Mariners acquired Jack Hannahan from the A's for a minor league righty on July 11th.
• The Orioles acquired Cla Meredith from the Padres for Oscar Salazar on July 19th.
• The Brewers acquired Felipe Lopez from the D'Backs for a pair of minor leaguers on July 19th.
• The Red Sox acquired Adam LaRoche for two minor leaguers on July 22nd.  
• The Red Sox sent Julio Lugo to the Cardinals for Chris Duncan on July 22nd.  
• The Rockies acquired Rafael Betancourt from the Indians for a minor leaguer on July 23rd.  
• The Cardinals acquired Matt Holliday from the A's for top prospect Brett Wallace and two other minor leaguers on July 24th.  
• The Giants acquired Ryan Garko from the Indians for a minor league pitcher on July 27th.
• The White Sox acquired outfielder Mark Kotsay and cash from the Red Sox for outfielder Brian Anderson on July 28th.
• The Mariners acquired Ian Snell, Jack Wilson and cash from the Pirates for five players including Ronny Cedeno and Jeff Clement on July 29th.
• The Reds acquired Wladimir Balentien from the Mariners for a minor leaguer on July 29th. 
• The Phillies acquired Cliff Lee and Ben Francisco from the Indians for Jason Knapp, Carlos Carrasco, Jason Donald and Lou Marson on July 29th. 
• The Giants acquired Freddy Sanchez from the Pirates for minor league pitcher Tim Alderson on July 29th.  
• The Yankees acquired Jason Hirsh from the Rockies on July 29th.  
• The Royals acquired outfielder Josh Anderson from the Tigers for cash considerations on July 30th.
• The Dodgers acquired reliever George Sherrill from the Orioles for minor leaguers Josh Bell and Steve Johnson.
• The Cubs acquired pitchers John Grabow and Tom Gorzelanny for Kevin Hart, Jose Ascanio, and Josh Harrison.
• The Tigers acquired pitcher Jarrod Washburn from the Mariners for pitchers Luke French and Mauricio Robles.
• The Twins acquired shortstop Orlando Cabrera from the A's for shortstop Tyler Ladendorf.
• The Brewers acquired pitcher Claudio Vargas from the Dodgers for catcher Vinny Rottino.
• The Red Sox acquired catcher Victor Martinez from the Indians for pitchers Nick Hagadone and Justin Masterson.
• The Yankees acquired Jerry Hairston Jr. from the Reds.
• The Rockies acquired Joe Beimel from the Nationals.
• The Braves acquired Adam LaRoche from the Red Sox for Casey Kotchman.
• The Marlins acquired Nick Johnson for minor league lefty Aaron Thompson.
• The Reds acquired Scott Rolen for Edwin Encarnacion, Josh Roenicke and Zach Stewart.
• The White Sox acquired Jake Peavy for Aaron Poreda, Clayton Richard, Adam Russell and Dexter Carter.
• The Mets re-acquired Anderson Hernandez from the Nats for minor league second baseman Greg Veloz on August 6th. 
• The Yankees acquired Chad Gaudin from the Padres for a player to be named later on August 6th. 
• The Twins acquired Carl Pavano from the Indians for a player to be named later on August 7th. 
• The Rays acquired Gregg Zaun from the Orioles for a player to be named later or cash on August 7th. 
• The White Sox acquired Alex Rios from the Blue Jays on August 10th.  
• The Red Sox acquired Alex Gonzalez from the Reds on August 14th.  
• The Tigers acquired Aubrey Huff from the Orioles for a minor leaguer on August 17th.
• The Rangers acquired Ivan Rodriguez from the Astros for minor leaguers Jose Vallejo and Matt Nevarez on August 18th. 
• The Mariners acquired Bill Hall and cash from the Brewers for minor leaguer Ruben Flores on August 19th.  
• The Red Sox acquired Billy Wagner from the Mets for two minor leaguers on August 25th.
• The Twins acquired Ron Mahay from the Royals on August 28th.
• The Twins acquired Jon Rauch from the D'Backs for a PTBNL on August 28th.
• The Angels acquired Scott Kazmir for two minor leaguers and a PTBNL on August 28th.
• The Red Sox acquired Joey Gathright from the Orioles on August 29th.
• The Dodgers acquired Ronnie Belliard from the Nationals for minor leaguer Luis Garcia on August 30th.
• The Nationals acquired Jamie Burke from the Mariners for cash on September 17th.

I've got great news…my wife and I are having a baby!  She is due in late June/early July, and we couldn't be more excited.  Ben Nicholson-Smith will be stepping in here at MLBTR for a while, as I'll be focusing on baby-related things.

It's time to think about June ad campaigns.  If you're looking to reach 18-34 year-old (mostly) male diehard baseball fans, email me at dierkes@gmail.com.

Which teams are most likely to become sellers in the next few months leading up to the July 31st trade deadline?  To help determine that, let's take a look at Baseball Prospectus' Playoff Odds report.  The report gives the following eleven teams less than a 10% chance of making the playoffs:

• Pirates – 9.46%
• Giants – 8.78%
• Mariners – 6.14%
• Rockies: 4.84%
• Athletics: 4.36%
• White Sox: 4.33%
• Marlins: 3.20%
• Orioles: 2.77%
• Diamondbacks: 2.58%
• Astros: 2.25%
• Nationals: 0.52%

The report likes the 20-28 Indians more than the 21-25 White Sox, because Cleveland has a better run differential.  The report gives the Tribe a 14.4% playoff chance.  The Padres have pushed themselves up to 11.94%.

As far as pure offensive production this year, your trade candidate leaders from these eleven are Adam Dunn, Russell Branyan, Brad Hawpe, and Nick Johnson.  This year's top pitchers from these non-contenders include Mark Buehrle, Matt Cain, Wandy Rodriguez, Erik Bedard, Jarrod Washburn, and Doug Davis.  I'm not sure whether Buehrle, Cain, and Rodriguez will actually hit the market.

Back on May 18th we discussed the NL's most underrated players, and uncovered a lot of good names.  What about the AL?  A few names that come to mind for me are Curtis Granderson, James Shields, Mark Buehrle, and Nick Markakis.  I would've mentioned Adrian Beltre, prior to his work this year.  Who are your picks?

We've added three new writers to the staff: Howard Megdal, Mike Axisa, and Eddie Schmid.  Thanks to all those who applied.  We are all filled up now.  I apologize if I was not able to reply to you.  It was painful to have to turn down so many quality writers.  I am keeping the applications on hand in case something opens up down the road.

Aside from visiting MLBTradeRumors.com, there are several ways to get your MLBTR fix.

• Become a fan of MLB Trade Rumors on Facebook.
• Follow @mlbtraderumors on Twitter.
• Sign up for the RSS feed.
• Check MLBTR on your cell phone.

A look at a few of the best minor league free agent deals signed during the offseason, despite the small samples:

• Andruw Jones, Rangers.  The Dodgers must love to see Jones hitting .297/.439/.594 for pennies for the Rangers.
• Kiko Calero, Marlins.  He has a 2.84 ERA and huge 12.79 K/9 in 19 innings for the Fish.
• Matt Palmer, Angels. The 30 year-old rookie stepped into the Angels' rotation and provided four starts with a 3.37 ERA.
• Jamey Wright, Royals.  Wright has a 1.66 ERA in 21.6 innings, with a 60.7% groundball rate.
• Laynce Nix, Reds.  An unexpected source of left field power, Nix is hitting .294/.338/.603 in 74 plate appearances.
• Nick Green, Red Sox.  The Sox have weathered injuries at shortstop with Green, who's hitting .302/.368/.430 in 95 plate appearances.
• Brandon Medders, Justin Miller, Giants.  Maybe they don't deserve their sub-4.00 ERAs, but both scrap heap pickups have helped the Giants' pen.
• Omar Vizquel, Rangers.  He's hitting .378/.425/.541 in 42 PAs while logging 61 innings at shortstop and even chipping in at third base.
• Jeff Weaver, Dodgers.  Weaver's posted a 3.38 ERA in 16 innings, including two acceptable starts.
• Jason Jennings, Rangers.  Working out of the pen, Jennings has a 3.24 ERA in 16.6 innings.
• Honorable mentions: Bobby Scales, Omir Santos, Craig Monroe.  Who are we missing?

MLB.com's Corey Brock polled MLB managers and executives on the NL's most underrated players.  Jayson Werth and Adrian Gonzalez won the vote.  Others receiving multiple votes: Ryan Theriot, Corey Hart, Shane Victorino, Ryan Doumit, and Garrett Atkins.

Joey Votto and Ted Lilly are a few others who come to mind, and Wandy Rodriguez isn't getting enough notice for what he's done this year.  Carlos Beltran also seems somewhat unappreciated.  Who do you consider to be the most underrated players in the National League?

Would you like to join the MLB Trade Rumors team?  We are looking to add a couple of writers.  The position pays on an hourly basis.  The criteria:

• Strong evening availability – typically 5-10pm CST shifts. 
• Knowledge of all 30 baseball teams, no discernible bias toward your favorite.  Knowledge of basic hot stove concepts, arbitration for example.
• Ability to analyze articles and craft intelligent, well-written posts summing up the news in a few paragraphs.  I want the best of both worlds, as you have to be able to do this very quickly after the source article is published.  It's preferred that you add value to the article with your own insight, numbers, or links to other relevant articles.
• Attention to detail – absolutely no spelling errors, especially for player and journalist names.  Ability to follow the MLBTR style and tone.  Also it is important to avoid duplicating content previously covered on the site and avoid posting about topics MLBTR does not cover.
• Ability to use an RSS feed reader such as Google Reader.  This is crucial.
• Blogging experience is preferred.  We use TypePad, which is easy to use if you have blogged before.
• You have to be able to put up with me, responding to constructive criticism and digesting the MLBTR instruction document quickly.
• If you're interested, email mlbtrhelp@gmail.com and explain your qualifications.  Also, within the body of your email (not as an attachment) write one sample, fictional MLBTR post using real players.  For this sample post, come up with something that could actually happen.
• Please don't send anything to my other email address.  Usually we receive a few hundred inquiries, so unfortunately I cannot reply to all or even most.  Thanks.