THT Daily: Trading deadline day
by Matthew CarruthJuly 31, 2007
Major League News for July 31
Today’s LinksPlayer News
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings
Top Minor League Performances
You can always find the most recent THT Daily at http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/content/thtdaily/
THT Links
Valuations - Economist and Braves fan J.C. Bradbury gives his take on the Mark Teixeira trade.
Q&A - Viva El Birdos checks in with Cardinals vice president of development Jeff Luhnow.
THT Links represents the best efforts of our editors in scouring the various tubes of the interweb for both relevant and irrelevant news items. If you have happened upon a story that we have overlooked or wish to give feedback of any sort, please notify us at THT Links.
Player News
Player Headlines are courtesy of RotoworldMets acquired second baseman Luis Castillo from the Twins for outfielder Dustin Martin and catcher Drew Butera. We understand why some Mets fans wanted to stick with Ruben Gotay, but Castillo remains the better bet on offense and is clearly better defensively. Considering the Mets gave up next to nothing to get him and likely will reap a supplemental first-round pick if they let him go at the end of the year, this is a big win for Omar Minaya. Castillo will start at second base most of the time and should take over as the Mets' No. 2 hitter. Gotay can play day games after night games. Carlos Beltran will likely go on the DL to open up a roster spot tomorrow.
According to the Kansas City Star, the Royals will acquire Kyle Davies from the Braves for Octavio Dotel. Definitely a deal worth making for Kansas City. Davies' stock has fallen the last two years, but he's just 23 and he still has a chance to be a long-term No. 3.
The Rangers are expected to announce the Mark Teixeira deal with the Braves this afternoon, pending final medical approval. When it's announced, the Rangers are supposed to get Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Elvis Andrus, Neftali Feliz and a player to be named later. The PTBN could be Matt Harrison, with the Rangers potentially have the option of taking someone else if Harrison's shoulder is worse than thought. The Dallas Morning News believes the Rangers will play Salty at first base for the rest of the season.
FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal reports that the Dodgers fell short of completing a Joe Blanton trade with the A's before talks halted Monday night. A source said the Dodgers offered three top minor leaguers — two position players and one pitcher — but were not willing to go further. Further talks are possible, but a deal is unlikely. The A's want the one thing the Dodgers don't have: near-major league-ready starting pitching prospects. Andy LaRoche and Jonathan Meloan apparently aren't enough for Oakland.
SI.com's Jon Heyman says the Red Sox are leading the Yankees and Mets in a three-team race for Eric Gagne. Newsday says it's close between the same three teams and the Brewers. The general opinion seems to be that Boston has the best offer on the table. However, that might not matter since their on Gagne's no-trade list. The Red Sox would likely have to make it worth his while for Gagne to accept a trade.
White Sox GM Ken Williams is reportedly going to sleep on Boston's counteroffer for Jermaine Dye, which doesn't include either Manny Delcarmen or Justin Masterson. The revised proposal may yet include Wily Mo Pena, who would have no role in Boston with Dye on the team. The White Sox are still considering keeping Dye and trying to re-sign him to a two- or three-year extension.
Shane Victorino will undergo an MRI Tuesday after injuring his right calf during Monday's victory. The Phillies' right fielder said he heard a pop, which makes a DL stint fairly likely. Michael Bourn will take over in right field, assuming that he can overcome the ankle sprain he suffered tonight. The Phillies also have Greg Dobbs as an option there. They might try to pick up a Bobby Kielty-type cheap before the deadline.
In his first at-bat after entering the game as a pinch-runner, Carl Crawford hit a walkoff homer in the bottom of the 11th to give the Rays a 5-4 win over the Jays on Monday. Crawford seemed to be bothered by his sore right wrist on his only other swing of the at-bat before homering with a full count, and he admitted after the game that it still was causing him problems. As impressive as it was that he muscled the ball out of the park, he might benefit from another day or two off.
Pedro Martinez (shoulder) is scheduled to throw about 45 pitches Wednesday in his first start for Single-A St. Lucie. "I don't know how I'm going to be," Martinez said. "I just know I feel better than the last two years or so. ... Every time I throw I bounce back really quickly. Right now, I'm 100 percent healthy." Martinez is likely to make five starts in the minors, which would put him on track to rejoin the Mets somewhere around Aug. 26-28.
Yesterday’s Results
American League TB 5 TOR 4 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 3 KC 1 (Recap and Boxscore) DET 5 OAK 2 (Recap and Boxscore) SEA 2 LAA 0 (Recap and Boxscore) National League PHI 4 CHN 1 (Recap and Boxscore)
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Today’s Games
National League --------------- St. Louis Cardinals at Pittsburgh Pirates, 7:05 PM (R) Adam Wainwright (9-8) vs. (L) Paul Maholm (7-12) Colorado Rockies at Florida Marlins, 7:05 PM (R) Aaron Cook (7-6) vs. (L) Scott Olsen (8-8) Cincinnati Reds at Washington Nationals, 7:05 PM (L) Bobby Livingston (2-1) vs. (L) Matt Chico (4-6) Houston Astros at Atlanta Braves, 7:35 PM (R) Chris Sampson (7-7) vs. (L) Chuck James (8-8) Philadelphia Phillies at Chicago Cubs, 8:05 PM (R) Adam Eaton (9-6) vs. (R) Jason Marquis (7-6) New York Mets at Milwaukee Brewers, 8:05 PM (L) Tom Glavine (9-6) vs. (R) Jeff Suppan (8-9) Arizona Diamondbacks at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM (R) Brandon Webb (9-8) vs. (R) Justin Germano (6-5) San Francisco Giants at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM (L) Noah Lowry (11-7) vs. (R) Brad Penny (13-1) American League --------------- Texas Rangers at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM (R) Brandon McCarthy (4-7) vs. (R) Fausto Carmona (13-4) Chicago White Sox at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM (R) Jose Contreras (5-13) vs. (R) Mike Mussina (5-7) Baltimore Orioles at Boston Red Sox, 7:05 PM (L) Erik Bedard (10-4) vs. (R) Josh Beckett (13-4) Toronto Blue Jays at Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 7:10 PM (R) Jesse Litsch (3-4) vs. (R) Edwin Jackson (2-10) Kansas City Royals at Minnesota Twins, 8:10 PM (L) Jorge De La Rosa (8-10) vs. (R) Carlos Silva (8-11) LA Angels of Anaheim at Seattle Mariners, 10:05 PM (R) John Lackey (12-6) vs. (R) Jeff Weaver (2-9) Detroit Tigers at Oakland Athletics, 10:05 PM (R) Justin Verlander (11-3) vs. (R) Danny Haren (12-3)
Standings
The graphics next to each team are called "sparklines.” They depict each team’s performance over the last month. Each "up" bar is a victory and a "down" bar is a loss. There are horizontal lines for home games and red bars represent games decided by two runs or less. "PWins" is short for Projected Wins, based on each team’s Run Differential, and is often a better measure of a team’s true strength. Other team graphs and stats can be found on our Team Page.American League East Pwins Diff BOS 64 41 .610 0.0 65 -1NYA 56 49 .533 8.0 63 -7
TOR 52 53 .495 12.0 56 -4
BAL 49 55 .471 14.5 53 -4
TB 40 65 .381 24.0 38 2
American League Central DET 61 44 .581 0.0 60 1
CLE 60 45 .571 1.0 58 2
MIN 54 51 .514 7.0 55 -1
CHA 48 57 .457 13.0 44 4
KC 47 58 .448 14.0 50 -3
American League West LAA 61 43 .587 0.0 58 3
SEA 58 46 .558 3.0 53 5
OAK 49 57 .462 13.0 53 -4
TEX 46 59 .438 15.5 47 -1
National League East Pwins Diff NYN 59 46 .562 0.0 56 3
PHI 56 49 .533 3.0 57 -1
ATL 55 51 .519 4.5 56 -1
FLA 49 57 .462 10.5 50 -1
WAS 45 60 .429 14.0 41 4
National League Central MIL 57 49 .538 0.0 57 0
CHN 55 49 .529 1.0 58 -3
STL 49 53 .480 6.0 43 6
HOU 46 59 .438 10.5 46 0
CIN 45 61 .425 12.0 47 -2
PIT 42 61 .408 13.5 41 1
National League West LAN 57 48 .543 0.0 56 1
ARI 58 49 .542 0.0 50 8
SD 56 48 .538 0.5 57 -1
COL 53 51 .510 3.5 53 0
SF 45 58 .437 11.0 50 -5
Top Minor League Games
The following list, provided by First Inning, includes the top minor league batting (based on Runs Created) and pitching (based on Game Score) performances from yesterday, with a focus on each team’s top prospects.ORG LVL PLAYER AB H 2B 3B HR BB SO Notes LA AAA Andy LaRoche...... 5 2 0 0 1 0 0 DET A+ Cameron Maybin.... 4 3 2 1 0 0 0 TB AA Evan Longoria..... 6 3 0 0 1 0 0 4 RBI ARI AA Carlos Gonzalez... 4 3 0 0 0 0 1 COL AAA Ian Stewart....... 4 2 1 0 0 0 1 CHW AAA Ryan Sweeney...... 4 2 2 0 0 1 0 ATL A+ Eric Campbell..... 4 2 2 0 0 1 1 BOS AAA George Kottaras... 3 1 0 0 1 1 1 TOR A+ Anthony Hatch..... 4 3 2 0 0 1 1 ARI AAA Alex Romero....... 4 3 0 0 1 0 0 TB AAA Elliot Johnson.... 4 1 1 0 0 1 1 MIN AA Trevor Plouffe.... 4 2 1 0 1 0 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes ATL A Jamie Richmond.... 6 7 4 0 7 0 0 ARI A+ Matthew Torra..... 8 5 2 2 6 0 1 FLA AA G. Hernandez...... 9 7 2 2 4 0 1 MIN AA Anthony Swarzak... 7 7 4 4 8 2 1 PIT A+ Todd Redmond...... 8 4 3 2 4 1 0 MIL AAA Adam Pettyjohn.... 9 7 0 0 6 1 0 COL A+ Brandon Hynick.... 7 7 4 3 5 1 0 BAL A- Zachary Britton... 6 7 2 2 6 1 0 FLA A+ Ryan Tucker....... 5 4 1 1 4 2 0 NYY AAA Joba Chamberlain.. 1 0 0 0 3 0 0 TB A J. Hellickson..... 5 6 2 2 5 3 0 CIN AAA Richie Gardner.... 5 4 3 3 4 1 0 9 GB
Access THT’s stats here…
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Matthew Carruth is an editor for The Hardball Times. He welcomes any and all sorts of communication at his email.