MLB Trade Rumors In The Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune’s Michael Pasternak spent eight hours watching me blog trade deadline day. Click here to read the article.
Who Cleared Waivers Last Year?
You may recall that we kept a running list of players who cleared waivers last year based on published reports. It’s not publicly available information, but journalists were able to dig up a few names. I expect the same to happen this year.
A reminder of those who cleared a year ago:
Pat Burrell
Jose Contreras
Kyle Farnsworth
Troy Glaus
Jason Lane
Mike Piazza
Odalis Perez
Sammy Sosa
Josh Towers
Steve Trachsel
Jack Wilson
David Wells
Dmitri Young
As for this year, I named many candidates to clear here and here. Also, Tracy Ringolsby names ten candidates to clear in a new column today. It’s entirely subjective, but I don’t believe Aubrey Huff and Brian Giles would clear. I am on the fence about Jarrod Washburn – sometimes teams act irrationally with starting pitching in August. For example, the Dodgers’ claim of Esteban Loaiza a year ago.
MLBTR Reader Geography
I received a couple of emails asking where MLBTR readers come from. 94.9% of the traffic comes from readers in the United States, with Canada next at 2.5%.
Within the U.S., here’s the breakdown:
| State | % |
| New York | 11.8% |
| California | 10.9% |
| Illinois | 10.8% |
| Pennsylvania | 6.4% |
| New Jersey | 5.4% |
| Massachusetts | 4.6% |
| Texas | 3.9% |
| Ohio | 3.9% |
| Florida | 3.7% |
| Missouri | 3.3% |
| Georgia | 2.6% |
| Virginia | 2.3% |
| Connecticut | 2.3% |
| Wisconsin | 2.2% |
| Washington | 2.1% |
| Maryland | 1.9% |
| Minnesota | 1.9% |
| Indiana | 1.7% |
| North Carolina | 1.6% |
| Michigan | 1.3% |
| Kentucky | 1.2% |
| Arizona | 1.2% |
| Iowa | 1.1% |
| Tennessee | 1.1% |
| Kansas | 0.9% |
| Colorado | 0.9% |
| DC | 0.7% |
| South Carolina | 0.7% |
| Alabama | 0.7% |
| New Hampshire | 0.6% |
| Maine | 0.6% |
| Rhode Island | 0.6% |
| Oregon | 0.6% |
| Nevada | 0.5% |
| Oklahoma | 0.5% |
| Nebraska | 0.4% |
| Arkansas | 0.4% |
| Louisiana | 0.4% |
| Delaware | 0.3% |
| West Virginia | 0.3% |
| South Dakota | 0.2% |
| Mississippi | 0.2% |
| Vermont | 0.2% |
| Utah | 0.2% |
| North Dakota | 0.2% |
| Hawaii | 0.2% |
| Idaho | 0.2% |
| New Mexico | 0.2% |
| Montana | 0.1% |
| Alaska | 0.1% |
| Wyoming | 0.1% |
Help MLBTR Eliminate Pop-Ups
MLB Trade Rumors uses a handful of different ad networks to supply the ads you see on the site. Within each network, I’ve always kept pop-ups and other instrusive ads blocked. You should never see anything like that here – it’s just annoying.
However, it has been happening to some readers in the past few weeks. I’ve done everything I can in an attempt to figure out which network is sneaking in these pop-ups and full-page ads without my permission. So far, I’ve had no success.
That’s where you come in. I would be extremely grateful if readers can help me eliminate these annoying ads. They don’t occur very often; I haven’t been able to get them on my own computer. I believe they occur when you click Comments to read a post’s comments. If you see one, please take a screenshot and email it to me. Better yet, you could even right-click and send me the source code of the popup. Based on reader emails, I’ve learned that some of the malicious advertisers are called QuestionMarket.com and FreeWebScanner.com. But, that is not enough for me to identify the offending ad network. I am at my wit’s end so any help would be much appreciated.
Trade Deadline Reactions
Trade deadline reactions are all over the web today, as you might expect. Keep checking back to this thread – I will continually add to it.
- ESPN’s Jayson Stark provides his winners and losers. SI.com’s Jon Heyman does the same here. Seems like there’s some debate on the Red Sox. Both journalists agree on the Pirates, Marlins and Rays as losers and the Dodgers and Yankees as winners. Ken Rosenthal sees the Red Sox, Dodgers, and Pirates all as winners.
- Keith Law has been analyzing every trade for ESPN.
- Deadspin opines on Jon Heyman’s apparent scoop of the Manny trade over ESPN. To be fair, though, ESPN scooped the Mark Teixeira and Ivan Rodriguez trades. Ken Rosenthal at FOX had the Ken Griffey Jr. scoop. And all three big guys were careful about putting out bad information, which can’t be said for every outlet.
- South Side Sox doesn’t like the Ken Griffey Jr. acquisition. Sox Machine insists Griffey cannot play center field.
- Ken Davidoff’s winners and losers. You have to give him credit for standing alone and calling the Yankees losers.
- Joel Sherman brings us inside the whirlwind trade talks yesterday between the Red Sox, Pirates, Dodgers, and Marlins. The Marlins were willing to trade Jeremy Hermida and then some for a couple of months of Manny…something to keep in mind.
- David Lennon discusses the high prices being asked of the Mets for Manny Ramirez and Jason Bay.
- Every year around this time, there’s some pining for "trade rumor batting averages" for each journalist. I don’t believe this can be done. We might be able to keep track of those who jumped the gun with "done deals," or those who snagged scoops. But if a journalist says ten teams are interested in Brian Fuentes but the pitcher stays put, that journalist may have been 100% accurate. We will never have perfect information. I don’t buy the lazy line that writers make stuff up or 99% of rumors are untrue. I believe that journalists claiming inside information actually did hear it from someone inside the game. Keep in mind that execs can put bad info into circulation too.
Eight Hours To Go
Buckle up. We have eight hours to go until today’s non-waiver trade deadline. My name is Tim Dierkes; I’m the author and creator of MLB Trade Rumors. I will guide you through the madness – just keep refreshing. All the good stuff will be posted here with a link as soon as it’s available.
MLB Trade Rumors In USA Today
MLB Trade Rumors received some nice press today, as Teddy Bloch wrote an article in USA Today. Check it out here!
Chat Postponed Indefinitely
We’re going to have to postpone today’s chat indefinitely. For reasons unknown, the power went out at my home a bit ago. So I am trying to catch up a bit.
Additionally, you may have noticed that the site is loading a bit on the slow side. We are working hard to improve this. In the meantime I recommend Mozilla’s Firefox rather than Internet Explorer as your browser, if possible.
MLB Trade Rumors In The Chicago Sun-Times
Today is an exciting day for me, as MLB Trade Rumors is featured in an article by Chris De Luca in the Chicago Sun-Times. Check it out!
Olney’s Latest: Sherrill And Street
This morning, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney weighs in with some possible destinations for two likely available closers, Oakland’s Huston Street and Baltimore’s George Sherrill.
- Olney speculates the Orioles would seem to have a great potential fit with the Dodgers, who need a closer.
- He says the Angels will need a closer next season if Francisco Rodriguez leaves and could use a lefty now.
- The Red Sox, Olney says, would probably love to land Sherrill and have prospects to offer, but isn’t sure the O’s would trade with a division rival.
- He says Brewers could be a match for either Street or Sherrill. Yesterday, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported that the Brewers might be scouting Street.
Coley Ward writes for Umpbump.com and can be reached here.