Since the Roy Halladay trade announcement (about a month and a half ago), there have been seven more deals. I apologize for not getting some of them out in a timely manner. In any case, here’s what went down:
After their acquisition of Halladay, the New England Yankee Stompers stayed busy on the trade market. Just over a week after picking up “Doc” to lead the pitching staff, James Herndon increased his team versatility by dealing for AC/BC infielder Placido Polanco. Polanco cost Herndon Aubrey Huff, who can also play multiple positions, but not all of them adequately.
Herndon went right back out and picked up righties Derek Lowe and John Axford from the Sin City Cowboys to further bolster the hurlers. Three prospects went west: 1B Chris Carter, RHP Kyle Drabek and OF Jose Tabata, whom Herndon gushed about when he was acquired from Casselton. Read Herndon’s take on the deal here: http://yankeestompers.blogspot.com/2011/07/train-from-sin-city-rolls-into-town.html
Anthony Guerra, who has begun to stockpile prospects in the midst of a disappointing season, made a curious swap a few days later. He added 1B/OF Lance Berkman from the Los Angeles Wolverines and gave up young right-handed pitchers Homer Bailey and Zach Wheeler. Guerra’s press statement exuded confidence for the future, though:
“Once again Sin City positions themselves in place to prove driven in winning games at any price". Sin City traded Homer Bailey and the potential ace arm of righty Zach Wheeler for the bat of "say hello to my little friend" Lance Berkman. Cowboys had lost patience with Homer Bailey and figured to sell while his value was high. Zach Wheeler was affordable to loose with the far more superior arms of Martin Perez,Matt Moore, being opted to tripple A , and the additions of James Taillion,Anthony Renaudo, and Taylor Jugmann barely made them blink to aquire the Rising Sun of Lance Berkman in the line up. We believe that we made the right moves this season to really bring our team to the level of some of the other elite teams we have to compete against in our division. At the end of the season we will have dumped over 20+ million in salary at the same time to allow us to sign new young talent and the big time players we have sought out and traded for to help us bring home a Championship. Games lost this season have been close and lost in extra innings....but we believe at least the future holds a different fortune for the franchise next year to be seen for sure.”
Los Angeles GM Brian Chae had this to say:
“After a protracted period of discussions, the Wolverines have traded the resurgent Lance Berkman for two young right-handers. Both will be sent to the Wolverines minor league system with Homer Bailey likely to receive a call to the big show at some point in the future. While talented, Bailey has battled injuries and inconsistency in his short big-league career. Zach Wheeler is seen as the centerpiece of the trade, given his projection as a potential no. 1 or no. 2 starter, provided that he is able to further develop his command and control. Most importantly, both players are young and offer the Wolverines long-term control while providing further depth to a talented, but unproven, crop of talent. Lastly, with the trading of Berkman, the Wolverines now have substantial room under the salary cap. The team is now positioned to take on large salaries of other players provided that teams are willing to trade impact prospects in a deal.”
At the beginning of August, Sin City and AC/BC came to an agreement on four unestablished players: Ike Davis to the Cowboys and Gordon Beckham, Jose Tabata and Chris Tillman to Anaheim. Davis, who is out for the season with an injury, is expected to be the best option at first base next year for Sin City, while Beckham and Tabata will compete for playing time on a potentially contending AC/BC 2012 team.
“Well the way we here in Anaheim see it, we have a talented young first basemen in Mark Trumbo; so losing Ike Davis was not to bad and the newly acquired talent is young which we hope will help us get back into contention for the next season and seasons after,” Alex Coffman said.
YUMA PICKS UP A CATCHER
The Yuma Firebirds, the most-injured team in BARB so far this year, were at a loss for actions. They had lost their backup-backup catcher, Ivan Rodriguez, to a month-long injury, which meant Ryan Hanigan was the only healthy backstop. In case you (somehow) forgot, young Firebird starter Buster Posey was lost for the season in May to a gruesome injury, after which the speculative free-agent pickup of “Pudge” appeared brilliant. But in his free agent signings, Chris Melkonian had left no room for another player without releasing an established player in the process, which meant the team was unable to come to terms with C Brian Schneider. Their hand forced, the Firebirds sought out trade partners and finally found one, but at a hefty price: prospect LHP Casey Crosby was deemed expendable in order to acquire C Rod Barajas from the St. Francis Friars.
This was the reasoning from the Friar braintrust:
"Trader" Jack McKeon stared thoughtfully at his still-smoldering stogie. The acting GM and chief executive of the St. Francis Friars has been hampered by a high payroll, but on August 5th, he found himself maxing out all the credit cards, adding another $800,000 to his team's payroll, and (contrary to recent comments) doing this in order to obtain a prospect.
"We've made a deal with the West-leading Yuma Firebirds," said McKeon, "and I have some misgivings where the bottom line is concerned. It's going to be very difficult for us to make any moves down the stretch with our payroll, which is just a smidgen below the league cap of $120 million. Nevertheless, we were offered a significant prospect (LHP Casey Crosby) who has had some injury history, but appears to be putting things together at age 22. We had to take it, really, because getting another minor-league arm will make it easier to make a deal for pitching to help us now. At any rate, the price was a good team player, C Rod Barajas. Rod began the year as the right-handed half of a platoon with A.J. Pierzynski, but our team captain (and player/manager) Jason Varitek has been so good when Rod was on the DL, that we didn't see him having much of an impact."
"So, we sacrificed the luxury of carrying two catchers, took on some salary and acquired Crosby. He'll join our other four young lefties. Rod's departure will allow us to carry another utility guy, give us a little bit more flexibility. If anything happens to one of our other starters, we still have (Taylor) Teagarden at AAA. So, we wish Rod well, but think this will allow us some better matchups as we get closer to October, and...of course...if we can find a partner, another chip to deal for an impact arm."
“Trader” Jack and St. Francis were at it again shortly thereafter, completing a trade that sent IF Juan Uribe, pitcher Kevin Correia and top prospect Brett Lawrie to Worcester for IF Brent Lillibridge and RHP Heath Bell.
”Concerned by sagging bullpen performance, the St. Francis Friars reluctantly offered their hottest minor-league bat (IF Brett Lawrie) along with veteran starter Kevin Correia and utilityman Juan Uribe as part of a complex deal for Worcester reliever Heath Bell.
Bell, who has been a bridge to the great Mariano Rivera, earned a Series ring last season as Rivera's setup man but will see his salary shoot up in 2012, where younger arms (Johnny Venters, Jake McGee, Tony Sipp) seem ready to make a more affordable contribution.
To complete the deal, the Eliminators have also sent versatile IF/OF Brent Lillibridge to St. Francis, receiving veteran utilityman Juan Uribe (and his significant salary).
Friars GM "Trader" Jack McKeon confirmed that Bell would usurp the inconsistent Francisco Cordero as the club's primary closer, with both Cordero and Leo Nunez assuming setup roles.”
For his part, Eliminators GM Matt Caskey said, "the emergence of young, overpowering relievers have made the dependable, but soon to be expensive Bell expendable. Too many question marks surround this teams high price talent, so it was necessary to make move for cheaper talent. Lawrie is a fine player and we hope he becomes a pillar for this team for years to come."
With all of that, we’re down to the most recent deal, in which Ronald Melkonian (temporarily?) decides he’s back in the race. “Trader Ron,” after taking heat from Rebels fans after the Halladay trade, acquired a new ace: RHP Tim Hudson. The price was quite steep. In return, Los Angeles picks up SS Derek Jeter, OF Travis Snider, RHP Matt Garza and LHP Mike Minor.
Melkonian’s comments: “(I made this trade) to boast my starting staff with a veteran ace. Hudson provides further dominance in a rotation that now features: Lee, Haren, Hudson, Marcum, and Scherzer. Up and down, we have a very experienced, talented staff who should continue to help us climb back to the top. We got a lot of flak when we traded Halladay, in order to boast out offense and build a better overall rotation.... it has proven to be effective as we are now 4 1/2 games back and not 10+ at the time the [Halladay] trade. Jeter was thrown in to help the deal finically, since Hudson is at 9.00 million. We have a better SS in Andrus who is ready to take over, so we are happy to make room. We like Minor and Snider, but we are continuing to push forward this season, and cannot wait for Snider to figure it out at the major league level (demoted for the 3rd time this season). Garza may turn out to be a solid arm down the road, but we need a more experienced, ready arm now and not next year. “
The Wolverines, who are picking up steam in BARB, appear to be ready to compete in 2012 and beyond with their deep farm system starting to place players in the bigs.
Recent free agent signings/cuts:
Yuma released RHP Rafael Betancourt and signed OF Franklin Gutierrez
Worcester released OF Lastings Milledge
Los Angeles signed 2B Orlando Hudson
New England released LHP Craig Breslow and signed 1B Casey Kotchman
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