Trade Winds Swirling

The Major League Baseball's trading deadline is only a day away and some teams jumped the gun this pass week and made some deals. Did these deals help or hurt? Let's take a look...

Cliff Lee to the Phillies

The biggest deal so far this year has to be the Phillies plucking Cliff Lee from the hapless Indians in a six player deal. Before breaking down this trade, let Jayson Stark shed some light on y'all...

"Now here is a claim to fame no team wants to brag about: the Indians have become the first time in history to trade the incumbent Cy Young in back-to-back seasons.

But hang on.

It gets more historic. Before the Indians exported CC Sabathia last July, only two Cy Youngs in history had been traded in mid-season the year after winning the award. Now Cleveland has traded two just in the past 12 months and three weeks."

Good history to be in Cleveland. I feel for all of you Indian fans out there...wait no I don't. Anyway, this trade is perfect for the Phillies. They were front runners in the Doc Halladay sweepstakes, but once the demands rose to high (Jays wanted some sort of package that included JA Happ, Kyle Drabek and/or Dominic Brown) the Phils went another direction and picked up another Cy Young winner in Cliff Lee.

Looking at what the Phillies gave up (pitchers Carlos Carrasco (rated #2 prospect by Baseball America), Jason Knapp (#10), infielder Jason Donald (#4), and catcher Lou Marson (#3)) it would at first glance look like the Phillies gave up a lot (4 of the their top 10 prospects) but the thing that people forget sometimes that the ratings are just "experts" thoughts on how players will play out.

I, personally, would rather acquire a front of the line starter for a playoff push then sit and wait for the prospects to develop so good job Phillies. This trade puts the Phillies back into the "team to beat" category taking the spot from the Dodgers.

Pirates make yearly trade(s)

It seems like every year the Pirates unload talent in order to pick up more talent. Other then the obvious question such as, "When has this ever worked for the Pirates?" I ask, "What do they do with all these minor leaguers they compile?"

Well another sub-.500 year (is it 16 in a row now? Damn) is going to happen and Pirates fans are left to wish for the days of Barry Bonds and Andy Van Slyke. Last year the Pirates traded Canadian slugger Jason Bay as well as Xavier Nady. This year the Pirates traded Nate McClouth early in the season and just sent the longest tenured Pirate Jack Wilson to the Mariners along with pitcher Ian Snell and former batting champ Freddy Sanchez to the Giants.

Yesterday there was much debate over the direction that the Pirates are going. I think it was on Around the Horn where one of the talking heads suggested that the Pirates be demoted to AAA like they do in England with the Premier League. Not a bad idea. I just don't understand how a city that currently holds the Lombardi Trophy and the Stanley Cup can have the laughing stock of Major League Baseball. Doesn't make much sense.

Cardinals add bats

The Cardinals traded for some protection for Albert Pujols before the deadline with two separate moves. The first move they made was to acquire Mark DeRosa from the Indians (he made his debut at the Cardinals/Twins game that I was at) and while I was at 10k the Cardinals added Matt Holliday to their lineup.

This is a good move for the Cardinals as they needed some help with their lineup. Albert Pujols can do it all but if you want to win, you have to have someone that can hit around him. The Cardinals did give up highly touted prospect Brett Wallace in the deal for Holliday but with the acquisition of DeRosa, Wallace would be in the minors for a bit anyway (both play 3rd base). I like what the Cards did here and the race for the central should be a good one.

Giants add a Greek

This trade could be a sneaky good one for the Giants. The Indians (again) traded part time first baseman Ryan Garko to the Giants for a minor league pitcher. The Giants desperately needed a bat a first base with Kung-Fu Panda back at third and J.T. Snow no where to be found. The Giants upgraded without really giving up much and also picked up Freddy Sanchez to play 2nd.

Rumors Flying

Lots of rumors going down as well. There is a rumor of a three team deal involving the Red Sox, Indians and a mystery team. The deal is centered around Indians catcher Victor Martinez and Red Sox starting pitcher Clay Buchholz. Boston is also rumored to be in the Adrian Gonzalez sweeps, and in the Roy Halladay sweeps.

Twins are actually players in this years trade deadline. For weeks the Twins and A's have been talking about shortstop Orlando Cabrera. Twins need a shortstop and Cabrera has been solid as of late. This guy is a quality player and I really would like a deal to get done. Do you hear me Billy?

Another rumored trade that I want to go through is the trade of Padres closer Heath Bell to the Marlins. Why would I want this to happen? More saves for my fantasy team. Simple as that. The Padres do not win, the Marlins do. Good enough for me.