Archive for the ‘Talkin’ Trades’ Category

Arizona Looking for a Shortstop (Hint, Hint)

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Talkin' Trades, Yunel Escobar on Aug 22, 2012

Our friend Ben Nicholson-Smith of MLB Trade Rumors passes along a post from Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic, in which he spoke to Diamondbacks GM Kevin Towers about their shortstop situation for 2013, now that the club has washed its hands of Stephen Drew, essentially giving him away to Oakland earlier in the week.

“There’s not a lot on the free-agent market, so more than likely it’s going to take a trade,” Towers tells Piecoro. “We’ll probably have to trade a good player — or a couple of good players — to find one.”

Well, well, well. The Jays have something almost resembling a mild surplus at that position! And while the Rangers, with Elvis Andrus in place and Jurickson Profar ready, would be able to do some serious business in this regard, if they wanted to, the Jays might be able to do something a little more modest and reasonable with the Diamondbacks.

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Alright! It’s the Getting Blanked Podcast: Super Special Trade Deadline Edition!

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Getting Blanked Podcast, Talkin' Trades on Jul 31, 2012

Alright! It’s time for our rundown of all the day’s wheelings and/or dealings as the window closed for MLB clubs to make trades… um… without players passing through revocable waivers first. Er… it’s the Getting Blanked Podcast: Super Special Trade Deadline Edition!

This week we spoke to Twitter’s @CrashburnAlley (aka Bill Baer of Crashburn Alley!) about the Phillies being in the odd position of selling off assets, and Twitter’s @hangingsliders (aka Wendy Thurm of Hanging Sliders, FanGraphs, Baseball Nation and Getting Blanked!) about the Giants’ new acquisitions and the arms race in the NL West.

If you prefer to have a listen later, you can download the podcast right here.

Alternately, you can hit up the Getting Blanked iTunes page, which is humming along these days, and from now on until the end of eternity will have all our podcasts, mp3s and whatever other audio goodies we dream up posted there in a timely manner.

As always (again! finally!), Mint Musical Interludes courtesy of The Constantines, Arts & Crafts Records, Deathwish Records and Optical Sounds. Be sure to check them out and buy every single fucking thing you hear at their sites.

And, in case you missed it, once again here’s our pre-deadline version of the Getting Blanked Show, with our guest @MLBTRBen (aka Ben Nicholson Smith of MLB Trade Rumors!).

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Counting Down to the Trade Deadline…

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Talkin' Trades on Jul 31, 2012

The 4 PM ET deadline is closing in on us, and rather than sit here and wait for something to happen, then start a new post when it does, write as little detail as I possibly can, the “MORE FORTHCOMING” and the scramble to not take 45 damn minutes to write up my thoughts, I’m thinking, why not just live blog the details as they start flyin’. Join me, won’t you?

4:31 PM: That really appears to be it. I know it’s going to be a disappointing way to end a trading period where it looked as though the Jays would have some real prospect capital to expend in order to strengthen the core of their club at the expense of just a few of the vast riches they possess in the low minors, but as we can see, not only were they unable to come to an agreement for someone like Matt Garza or Josh Johnson, but nobody really could. There were no Cliff Lee-like deals made by anybody, and while I’m sure that’s not going to be satisfactory to a whole lot of fans who expected something big, it has to be at least a little bit heartening that no other GM in the game was willing to pull off the kind of moves we expected AA to execute either.

The club has officially announced, via Twitter, the roster moves detailed below, which puts an official stamp on the end of business today. But let’s not forget that there is still the possibility for some August deals to be done– as the Jays did last year, acquiring Kelly Johnson for Aaron Hill and John McDonald.

Another thing we shouldn’t forget is that we’re not operating from the same pool of knowledge as clubs are. For example, Ken Rosenthal tweets that the Rangers ended up turning their interest to Ryan Dempster because they weren’t comfortable with the medicals they saw on Matt Garza. Obviously that kind of thing would have been a concern to the Jays as well, so… it’s hard to kill them for not going there, even though I’m sure lots of fans will insist on doing so.

We’re about to record a special, post-deadline edition of the Getting Blanked Podcast, so stay tuned for that. Afterwards, we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming, I guess.

What a letdown!

4:12 PM: Here it comes: According to a tweet from Shi Davidi of the Rogers-owned Sportsnet, the Rogers-owned Toronto Blue Jays have stood pat on the final day of non-waiver wheeling and dealing, and have confirmed the earlier roster moves, sending Joel Carreno and Evan Crawford back to the minors, and calling up Moises Sierra and adding Steve Delabar to the active roster in order to take their places. Welp, that was fun…

4:10 PM: Yes indeed, it’s quiet. Barring a late announcement, Brendan Kennedy tweets, it looks like the Jays did nothing. Again, not the most emphatic thing I’ve ever heard.

4:07 PM: Wilner and Griffin each tweet that things appear pretty quiet for the Jays as the deadline passes. Alex Anthopoulos will provide an update later today. Griffin specifically says that it’s quiet “re: Garza.” Hmmm. Not exactly the most emphatic “no deals” tweets I’ve ever read…

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Remember Matt Garza?

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Matt Garza, Talkin' Trades on Jul 31, 2012

Garzas gonna Garz.

Before Twitter went absolutely fucking ape goof over the sad, possibly premature, end of the Travis Snider era, you may have noticed a few rumblings about the Jays’ renewed interest in Cubs pitcher Matt Garza.

There’s a “very high chance” he gets dealt today, tweeted Jayson Stark of ESPN, after speaking with an unnamed executive who also told him that the Jays “have been bearing down on him.”

Ridiculous imagery aside, it certainly did seem like the Jays were very interested, as their name came up from a number of different sources: Ken Rosenthal tweeted that they were a more realistic landing spot for him than the Texas, and Bruce Levine of ESPN Chicago pointed out that the Jays are interested– and have been since the Winter Meetings– and the Cubs have been extensively scouting the pitchers at Lansing.

Most interestingly, perhaps, is the report from Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star, who says that “the Jays are believed to have already asked the Cubs for permission to conduct a physical exam of the ailing veteran.”

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Trade Reactions Don’t Clash (Unless They Do)

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Talkin' Trades on Jul 31, 2012

So… there’s still a whole lot of hostility out there for what went down last night, with the Jays moving Eric Thames to the Mariners for Steve Delabar… oh, and Travis Snider to the Pirates.

There are a lot of reasons why I get that– though I’m somewhat surprised that Snider’s “contending organization” comment about the Pirates didn’t spark much backlash, but I suppose that’s because lot of embittered Jays fans were probably nodding and “fuckin’ eh-ing” in agreement at the time.

Certainly there’s good reason relievers aren’t sexy pick-ups, and that’s because they just don’t pitch often enough to provide the kind of value that we all once dreamed Travis Snider would be capable of producing– and which, as a 24-year-old, he still may be able to. But Lincoln has been excellent in the role this year and remains under team control for a long time– the latter of which probably couldn’t be said of Snider, which is really what fans are having trouble processing today.

Very obviously, the Jays didn’t see Snider as part of their future, and feared hanging on too long to a diminishing asset.

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Snider Dealt To Pirates for Brad Lincoln (No, Really)

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Talkin' Trades, Travis Snider on Jul 31, 2012

Travis Snider was pulled from tonight’s game in the seventh inning for no injury-related reason, then proceeded straight into the clubhouse with John Farrell, eventually coming back out to shake hands and exchange hugs with teammates. Clearly he has been dealt somewhere.

And Wilner has it:

This will not go over well.

But, of course, Travis Snider for anybody would have had the masses up in arms, because of all that was promised of him over the years, and all that wasn’t delivered on. And of course, to many minds– mine included– all that he wasn’t given enough opportunity to deliver on.

But as disappointing as it is to see the club give up on him, and as underwhelming a return as Brad Lincoln appears to be on first blush– especially since this all went down in real time, on the field, with many rumours swirling about the club’s interest in Matt Garza — the red flags certainly come a little more into focus as Snider heads out the door.

There are the crazily high number of strikeouts. The inability to keep himself healthy and on the field. The lack of success he’s had in the few, limited opportunities he’s had in the majors.

Most importantly, I think, there’s the question of his future value.

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Just In: Morneau Being Considered By Jays?

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Talkin' Trades on Jul 30, 2012

Get your maple-appendages out, because Jon Heyman has a piece at CBS Sports where he suggests that the Jays– along with the Giants and Dodgers– have some interest in Twins first baseman Justin Morneau.

Morneau hasn’t been himself since suffering a concussion at Rogers Centre midway through 2010, though his numbers this season by an atrocious (.277 wOBA) June, and an even worse split against left-handed pitching (.199 wOBA). He’s owed $14-million next season, meaning that, as a platoon player, the most valuable thing about him might be his passport.

And, judging by their Lawrie-tastic marketing strategy, that might be enough for Rogers to maybe give a shit, but– and here’s something you don’t hear every day– that’s probably not giving them enough credit.

Seriously, I don’t see how he’s a fit at all.

So… there’s that.

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