Toronto continues its season-long commitment to never leaving the trade machine alone, sending 1B Bob Hamelin, 3B Scott Cooper, and a 1998 third-round pick to the Milwaukee Creams for OF Mike Greenwell. For Milwaukee, this one is beautifully simple: take Toronto's stuff, collect a third-round pick, and move on with your life. Greenwell wasn't likely to be retained at the end of the season anyway, so the Creams get a useful asset while making...
What a weekend it was for the DBL. Seven trades around the league, some small, some large. Rather than digesting every single trade, let's look at some themes. Are the Toronto Blue Jays Buying or Selling? The Toronto franchise continues to look at the "most trades made in a single season" record and think, I can easily break that. Trading Jay Bell for Bill Mueller is a good trade for a rebuilding team. Mueller is younger and, although limited...
The Toronto Blue Jays and Colorado Rockies have now matched up for the third time, and this one may tell us more about the state of the trade market than either team probably intended. Toronto trades SP Scott Garrelts to Colorado for OF David Dellucci. Let's start with Colorado, because at this point, you have to respect the hell out of what they're doing. We're six weeks from the trade deadline, the league is full of sellers, and plenty of...
The trade market has officially awakened. Twenty trades are already on the books, 16 of the league's 24 teams have gotten involved, and there are now six weeks until the trade deadline. Six weeks. That's enough time for a patient front office to methodically identify its needs, explore the market, make some sensible moves and generally behave like adults. It is also enough time for somebody to trade half their roster because they lost three...
The Toronto Blue Jays woke up yesterday morning and chose violence. After spending a portion of the beginning of the season in first place, the flame has cooled a bit, and they're now looking up at New York, Montreal, and Washington. So naturally, rather than simply accepting that perhaps the season isn't going exactly as planned, Toronto has decided to blow the whole damn thing up. Honestly? Good for them. A team that entered the season with...
The Kansas City Royals trade CF Andruw Jones and 3B Hensley Meulens to the Cincinnati Reds for 3B Scott Rolen and CF Jay Payton. Woah. Let’s unpack this. First off, congratulations to Kansas City. They got the best player in the deal. Scott Rolen is a legitimate star. He’s been one of the best hitters in the league, averaging around 6 WAR a season, and now he gets dropped into a lineup that was already loaded. He replaces Quilvio Veras and...
Raise your hand if you had Las Vegas leading the division after seven weeks. No one? Well, here we are. While the Angels have a lead, there are several teams chasing them, and the West is starting to look like it could get very interesting. Here's a look at the biggest needs around the division. Las Vegas Angels The Angels are ahead of schedule on their rebuild, which puts them in an interesting spot. The hitting looks great. The pitching looks...
As we head into May and the divide between contenders and pretenders starts to make itself obvious, let's do a deep dive into team needs. The marketplace is starting to come alive, with people other than Ginter posting team needs and wants for the 19 different teams he's running, so away we go. With no offense meant to the Detroit Tigers or the Baltimore Orioles. New York Mets Sitting at 19-18 after going 2-8 in their last ten games, the Mets...
Washington Senators acquire 3B Ken Caminiti and a 1998 5th-round pick from the Milwaukee Creams for OF Mike Greenwell, OF Jeff Abbott, SP Jim Niedlinger and a 1998 2nd-round pick. The Washington Senators, owners of the second-best record in the league at 16-4, have looked at their roster, looked at their pitching staff, looked at the standings and apparently reached the following conclusion: You know what we're missing? A 35-year-old hitting...