Larry Walker finally accepted a trade, in another Walt Jocketty Summertime Special. The Blue Jays also made a deal, giving up on The Last BP Cover Boy. It was a player who’s never been traded, though, who owned the weekend.
ATLANTA BRAVES
Romping and stomping in the patented Bobby Cox second-half manner. This is no last ride of the Magnificent Seven, because there is no seven. Even the Magic Three (which, I will come right out and tell you, is an entirely relevant reference to Chinese castrati) have been scattered, with Greg Maddux hunting #300 and Tom Glavine burning in the circle of Hell reserved for fools and suicides. What there is, again, is a very successful pitching staff, now tied for the league lead in ERA. Last week the team ERA was 2.18. In seven games, they issued eight free passes and gave up just five home runs. The batters hit all of four home runs. J.D. Drew contributed almost nothing–it didn’t matter. Where do they find these people? How do they “adjust” them? It’s the Stepford Ballplayers, coming to a post-season near you. GRADE: A
Jonah Keri launches a new column today with a look at the collapse of the Diamondbacks. Hint: “launching” played a role in their season.
Dayn Perry takes a look at the rest of the prospects traded at last weekend’s deadline. Young guns under the microscope include Jose Bautista, Justin Huber and Scott Kazmir.
The insider set ranted and raved over the weekend about how Hee Seop Choi was a guy who couldn’t handle good pitching. How much truth is in that statement? Joe Sheehan and Keith Woolner present some information.
Sometimes, a minor injury can be an opportunity to get a player some rest. Will Carroll finds the silver lining in Steve Finley’s pants, and updates the conditions of Joe Mauer, Andy Pettitte and Pat Burrell.
Since the advent of three-division play, the average distance between first and second has risen from 6.4 to 8.2 compared to the two-division era. Percentage-wise, about a quarter of the races come within 2.5 games when the season is done, which is also about what it was during the two-division era. Grudgingly then, I must concede that the raw number of close finishes has gone up because–obviously–25% of four division races is less than 25% of six. However, it is undeniable that the number of blow-out finishes has gone up as well, and not just because there are more divisions. Fully a third of the divisional races since 1995 have gotten way out of hand, up from about 25% in the 1969-1993 era. If teams like the Phillies, White Sox, Red Sox, Cubs, Padres and Giants don’t watch out, that trend will be maintained this year.
When teams rush to pull off a big trade at the deadline, does it really end up helping their chances? Steven Goldman takes a look back at previous trades to sort out what the results really were. This time, the Minnesota Twins.
The Yankees and Phillies are each dealing with the health concerns of about $20 million worth of ballplayer. How they’re coping, along with updates on Jerome Williams, Michael Young and Victor Martinez, inside.
The Angels, Twins, A’s and Devil Rays all earned top marks for their work last week. Which team showed up on the other end of the curve? Hint: they’re in the wild-card chase. Steven Goldman explains all this and much more about the week that was in the AL.
Is there more than defense involved in the Nomar Garciaparra trade? What do the Reds have for the future? And who’s got the best-rested staff in baseball? Answers to these questions and more news from Boston, Cincinnati, and San Diego in your Thursday Prospectus Triple Play.
The Marlins upgrade their awful catcher situation, but at what cost? The Yankees unload an albatross in Jose Contreras. The Pirates get an average haul for an average pitcher. These and other news and notes out of Florida, New York and Pitssburgh in today’s Prospectus Triple Play.
Good teams shuffle bodies to get the weekend’s swag into uniform, while bad ones start taking a look at the stars of the future. All this, and Ryan Dempster, too, in the post-deadline edition of TA.
It’s a key time in the baseball season, as teams make decisions on how to get the most out of tired, banged-up ballplayers now while keeping an eye on the standings and the calendar. Will Carroll updates the injury status of more than a dozen of them, and has a kind word for Brad Radke, in today’s UTK.
The PECOTA projection that has garnered the most attention this year is the one for the Reds’ Wily Mo Pena. Nate Silver breaks down how PECOTA arrived at such an optimistic–and accurate–prediction.
After much dithering about, major league GMs were finally able to cobble together a respectable trade deadline after all. My Prospectus confreres have done an excellent job in deconstructing these deals with regard to how they’ll affect organizations at the major league level. Now I’m going to take a gander at the prospects involved.