Uncategorized News & Rumors

Pick one player from each of eight tiers and you've got a shot at part of the $400 prize pool in DraftStreet's latest MLBTR freeroll!  You've got nothing to lose by signing up and making your picks, as this game has no entry fee.  You'll be competing based on the stats your eight players accumulate in Friday's games. This is the last baseball freeroll of the year!

I've created another well-rounded team, with power/speed combo players like Mike Trout, Andrew McCutchen, and Carlos Gonzalez.  Check out the scoring categories in the rules section.  A screenshot of my roster:

Take five minutes to make your picks for Friday's games, and you've got a shot at the $400 prize pool!  Please note that this post is a paid advertisement by DraftStreet.

An explanation of the many ways to enjoy MLB Trade Rumors:

• If the main site doesn't load perfectly on your cell phone, try the more mobile-friendly mlbtraderumors.mobi.  It's a simple page that shows you just the headlines and lets you click through to what you want to read.
• If you're an iPhone user, be sure to pick up our app for the latest news and rumors. MLBTR just introduced an Android app as well.
• If you want only the hard news in the form of transactions, our transactions page is the ticket.  You can also get only the transactions via Twitter or RSS. 
• To return to the main page at any time, just click on the title or the Home button on the navigation bar below the title. 
• The navigation bar will cover many of your needs.  Use the About dropdown to learn about this site or any of its writers. 
• The Contact button takes you to a page where you can write an email message to the MLBTR writers.  If you have a link to a rumor we've missed, please send it in through the Contact page!  Also use the Contact page to inquire about advertising on MLBTR.
• The Archives dropdown shows you 15 months worth.  If you need to go back further, click on Site Map at the very bottom of the page.  Site Map also lists out every MLBTR post category, including players, teams, and features.
• The Tools dropdown takes you to a number of different places. The MLBTR Widget allows website owners to easily add a constantly updated box with all of MLBTR's headlines to their sites.
• Also under the tools tab is our Transaction Tracker, which enables you to search about anything and everything to do with baseball trades, signings and extensions. 
• Under the tools tab, you'll find a link to our Forums, a message board community of MLBTR readers with over 9,100 members.  You can discuss any baseball-related topic on the Forums, and start your own thread too.
• MLBTR's Agency Database lets you know which agencies represent which players. It's searchable by team, agency or player, so be sure to check it out.
• Feeds By Team is a very useful dropdown.  Hover over it to see all 30 teams.  Click on the team name to bring up a page of every post containing information about that team, with the latest on top.  These are the same pages you'll find if you go to the Rumors By Team section on the sidebar and select A's Rumors, Angels Rumors, etc.  
• Also under the Feeds By Team dropdown, you'll find RSS and Twitter buttons.  Those links allow you to follow a single team's rumors via RSS or Twitter.  Did you know we have a separate Twitter account for each of the 30 teams?  For example you can follow @mlbtrtigers, where you would get the latest Tigers updates.
• You can also follow Tim Dierkes and Ben Nicholson-Smith on Twitter for more MLBTR content.
• On the far right of the Navigation bar, you'll see buttons for Twitter, Facebook, and RSS.  MLBTR has over 198,000 Twitter followers, over 59,000 Facebook fans, and over 53,000 RSS subscribers.  Sign up for these and you'll be the first to receive all of our posts.
• Be sure to check out your favorite team's MLBTR page on Facebook so you can receive and comment on the latest rumors.
• On to the sidebar.  It begins with a list of our Top Stories, which our writers update any time major hard news occurs.  Go here for a quick update on the most important stories.  Below that is the site's Search Box, where you can type in any player's name and get the latest on him. 
• MLBTR Features has all kinds of goodies, including our free agent lists.  Many of the MLBTR Features are constantly updated by our writers, so be assured that our free agent lists are always fresh. 
• Below Features you've got headlines for all the Recent Posts, in case you'd rather not scroll to see all the headlines.  Then there's a box for our Mailing List, where you can sign up to receive a daily email containing MLBTR's posts.  Use this option if you don't need the news as soon as possible.
• Next we have Featured Posts, where you'll find original work from MLBTR writers we consider noteworthy.  For example, read about the longest current contracts by team.
• There's also a contact form in case you need to reach MLBTR.

If you're a regular MLBTR reader, you'll be familiar with our chats, our Week In Review posts and Mike Axisa's Baseball Blogs Weigh In feature. Here's some more detail on when you'll see our weekly features and exactly what to expect from them:

• MLBTR Chats - Come by every Wednesday at 2pm CDT to chat about the latest trades, signings and rumblings around the Major Leagues.
• Baseball Blogs Weigh In - Every Friday morning, Mike Axisa directs you to some of the best writing on baseball blogs around the web. Whether it's opinion, stats or something else entirely, you can connect to the best of the blogosphere once a week on MLBTR. If you want to send Mike a post of yours, reach him at: mike@riveraveblues.com.
• Week In Review - It's remarkable how much happens in seven days. Every Sunday night, we summarize the week's biggest stories in our Week In Review posts.
• MLBTR Originals - We gather all our original analysis and reporting in one place every Sunday night.

MLBTR is increasing efforts to enforce our commenting policy.  The goal is to raise the level of discourse in the comments, part of which involves eliminating inappropriate language and insults.

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If you see comments that fit the above criteria, please flag them and/or contact us.  Those who repeatedly violate the policy can be banned at any time.  Bans may be handed out liberally by our moderators, without second chances.  Remaining civil is not that difficult, though, and most commenters have no problems doing so as well as helping rein each other in.  We at MLBTR are grateful for long-time commenters and readers, though this policy applies equally regardless of tenure.  This policy is always available at the bottom of the site, and will be re-posted monthly.

Ozzie Guillen and Bobby Valentine get more than their share of the coverage, but the Marlins and Red Sox weren’t the only teams that hired new managers this past offseason. Five teams made managerial changes for the 2012 season and two other managers are in their first full seasons with their current teams. Here’s a look at how the managerial changes are going…

American League

Valentine has been in the spotlight often, publicly questioning Kevin Youkilis’ effort level and producing a documentary about baseball in the Dominican Republic. The Red Sox are in fourth place in the AL East with a disappointing 53-53 record. 

While Valentine has considerable experience managing MLB teams, Robin Ventura hadn’t managed a single game when he accepted the managerial job with the White Sox. The results have been excellent so far; the first-place White Sox have a 57-47 record.

Bob Melvin managed the Athletics for much of the 2011 season, but this is his first full season in charge. The surprising A’s have a 57-48 record under Melvin, the 2007 NL Manager of the Year.

National League

Guillen’s year started off poorly when he expressed admiration for Fidel Castro and drew a five-game suspension from his new team. The Marlins opened the season in a new stadium with lofty expectations, but they’re just 48-57 entering today’s action. Meanwhile, Davey Johnson’s Nationals lead the NL East with a 62-42 record in Johnson’s first full season as Washington’s manager.

Rookie manager Mike Matheny replaced future Hall of Famer Tony La Russa on a Cardinals team that won the 2011 World Series, but the former catcher (pictured with Ventura) has done well in St. Louis, leading the Cardinals to a 56-49 record. Dale Sveum’s roster doesn’t have the same kind of talent that the Cardinals have, so it’d be unfair to judge him by the Cubs’ 43-60 mark.

Photo courtesy of US Presswire.

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The non-waiver trade deadline passed, but MLB teams will continue making deals this month. What kind of trades can we expect in August? Relievers and role players are often involved in August trades, while star-caliber players are likely to stay put. High-salaried players such as Alfonso Soriano could also be dealt in the next four weeks. MLBTR's Transaction Tracker offers a look back at which trades took place last August:

• Rangers acquire Matt Treanor
• Rangers acquire Mike Gonzalez
• Braves acquire Matt Diaz
• Braves acquire Jack Wilson
• Red Sox acquire Conor Jackson
• Indians acquire Jim Thome
• Rockies acquire Kevin Kouzmanoff
• Diamondbacks, Blue Jays swap Kelly Johnson, Aaron Hill, John McDonald
• Tigers acquire Delmon Young

Jeff Francoeur, Brian Fuentes, Zach McAllister, Pedro Feliz, Derrek Lee, Mike Fontenot, Jim Edmonds and Mike Sweeney were all traded in August of 2010. The previous year saw Thome, Jon Garland, Jose Contreras, Ron Mahay, Scott Kazmir, Jon Rauch, Billy Wagner, Bill Hall, Ivan Rodriguez, Aubrey Huff, Alex Gonzalez and Carl Pavano get traded in August.

Note: I've excluded from this list players such as Manny Ramirez, Cody Ross and Alex Rios who were acquired in straight waiver claims.

After last year’s non-waiver trade deadline passed I was asked on various radio shows to break down the day’s winners and losers. I listed the Braves as big winners, citing the Michael Bourn trade as a particularly promising move. Little did I know, the Braves would go 26-27 in August and September and miss the playoffs. Meanwhile, Doug Fister, would go 8-1 with a 1.79 ERA and a 57K/5BB ratio in 70 1/3 innings for the Tigers after being acquired from Seattle in a trade that got relatively little fanfare. Detroit pulled away from the rest of the AL Central on the way to an ALCS appearance thanks, in part, to Fister’s tremendous finish. In retrospect the Tigers were definitely trade deadline winners, even though it wasn’t apparent on August 1st, 2011. 

Assessing a flurry of trades so soon after they happen isn’t always easy, but it’s still fun to check out reaction to the trade deadline. Here’s what’s being said about the recent MLB moves…

• Joel Sherman of the New York Post says the White Sox, Angels, Dodgers, Yankees and Astros can be considered trade deadline winners. But as Sherman points out, we tend to declare teams winners if they spend money and acquire big names, even though that’s hardly a surefire predictor of success. Sherman isn't so high on moves made by teams such as the Mets, Tigers and Phillies.
• The Pirates, Rangers and White Sox are among this year's deadline winners, Yahoo's Jeff Passan writes. Passan breaks down each team's deadline moves (or non-moves), writing that the Phillies, Twins and Indians were among the year's losers.
• Jayson Stark of ESPN.com likes what both L.A. teams did, but he's not impressed by the moves the Marlins and Phillies made. Stark groups the Cubs with Miami and Philadelphia in his 'losers' division.
• The Nationals would have done well to add some experienced players, Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports writes. The Blue Jays, Orioles, Indians and Red Sox came up short at this year's deadline, while the Phillies and Angels did well, Morosi writes.
• The Dodgers, White Sox and Astros are among this year's winners, Dave Cameron of FanGraphs writes. The Nationals and Rockies didn't do so well in Cameron's estimation.
• Ken Davidoff of the New York Post reacts to the deadline without providing a definitive list of winners and losers. Instead, he explains the role of the new collective bargaining agreement and examines the role of ownership in midseason trades.
• Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus ranks the 43 prospects traded in an article at ESPN.com. Jacob Turner and Jean Segura top his list.
• Matt Eddy of Baseball America recaps this year's trade action with an easy-to-follow guide.
• Trade season isn’t over yet, and Jed Lowrie and Cliff Lee are among the players who could be traded in August, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney writes. Here’s MLBTR’s primer on trading in August.

Shane Victorino, Hunter Pence, Ryan Dempster and Jonathan Broxton were all traded on a busy July 31st. But many others weren’t moved despite considerable speculation. The fate of these players will be closely tied to their contract status, as is often the case in MLB. 

Josh Johnson, Matt Garza, Justin Upton, Justin Masterson, Josh Willingham, James Shields, Chase Headley, Shin-Soo Choo and Jason Vargas are under contract or team control for 2013 (and in some cases beyond). These players probably won’t clear waivers, so it’d be a surprise if they’re traded in August or September. But teams could revisit trades involving these players in the offseason. It won’t be surprising if Garza, Upton, Shields and Headley are available this winter. 

Cliff Lee, Josh Beckett and Alfonso Soriano are all under contract for at least two years after 2012 at no less than $15.75MM per season. Lee ($25MM per season through ’15), Beckett ($15.75MM per season through ’14) and Soriano ($18MM per season thorough ’14) could all clear waivers. So could Justin Morneau, who will earn $14MM in 2013. If these players do clear waivers, they’d be available in August trades. 

Joe Blanton and Stephen Drew are nearing free agency, but they could be dealt before they hit the open market. It's not hard to envision Drew's $7.75MM salary clearing waivers, but some team might claim Blanton, who earns $8.5MM.

Pick one player from each of eight tiers and you've got a shot at part of the $400 prize pool in DraftStreet's latest MLBTR freeroll!  You've got nothing to lose by signing up and making your picks, as this game has no entry fee.  You'll be competing based on the stats your eight players accumulate in games on Tuesday, July 31st – trade deadline day.

I've chosen an all-offense strategy, with huge power coming from bats like Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder, and Michael Morse, plus plenty of speed from Mike Trout, Ian Kinsler, and Jacoby Ellsbury.  Check out the scoring categories in the rules section.  A screenshot of my roster:

Take five minutes to make your picks for Tuesday's games, and you've got a shot at the $400 prize pool!  Please note that this post is a paid advertisement by DraftStreet.