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July 31, 2005

Will's Mill

Deadline Weekend

by Will Carroll

Past Mills.

Sunday, July 31, 5:10 p.m. ET: It's time to close up the Mill for now. I'd like to thank everyone who wrote in with tips and encouragement. Doing this has really opened my eyes into just how hard guys like Jayson Stark, Ken Rosenthal, Buster Olney and Hall of Famer Peter Gammons work. It's hours on the phone and years of building relationships.

The trade deadline came and went with a couple sneaking by. The Cubs had looked at Matt Lawton earlier and re-visited the deal very late in the day. Given the few teams looking at Lawton, it seems that the demand was a bit overestimated. The Bucs are also left with Jose Mesa and Mark Redman, but one front-office exec thinks those players might be the type to make it through waivers. "If there's really 20 teams that think they're in it, that means only 10 have to pass on a guy to get to a 'contender.' It will be interesting to watch [the wire] in the next few days."

In retrospect, the deal for Kyle Farnsworth shouldn't surprise me as much as it did. John Schuerholz likes to get relievers at the deadline, knows what Leo Mazzone can do, and the Tigers were active late in the trading game. Schuerholz's ability to make deals like this are what separate him from some of the GMs that are left holding the phone and looking down at an empty bullpen.

The 2005 trading deadline will likely be remembered more for what didn't happen than what did. Baseball is not yet to the point of football where it's nearly impossible to make trades, or to hockey, when they play, where everyone makes the playoffs. Joe Sheehan and Chris Kahrl will do their normal stellar job of breaking down the whos, the wheres and the whys in the next 48 hours, while I head back to the injury beat.

Sunday, July 31, 3:55 p.m. ET: There's a rumor currently circulating that the Twins and Red Sox have a deal. Instead of Bill Mueller, the Twins would get Kevin Youkilis in return for J.C. Romero. They would also get the recently acquired Jose Cruz Jr., someone who could help fill in for Torii Hunter. This likely will get completed in some form before the deadline.