Deadline Wrap-up

A few housekeeping issues before I start dispensing my thoughts on today’s action. First, slap a big, fat “Lance Manly Approved” sticker on the day Wyatt had today, keeping you posted on all the rumors and movement. Second, check out our new Contact Us page.

Okay, on to the deals.

Early this morning, the White Sox swooped in and grabbed Ken Griffey, Jr. from the Reds for second baseman Danny Richar and right handed pitcher Nick Masset. Richar’s career minor league line is .288 avg/.339 obp/.440 slugging, not bad for a second baseman. The thing is, the Reds already have Brandon Phillips, who happens to be a better hitter than that, and an above average defender. If Richar hits closer to his 2008 minor league line of .262/.321/.427, he’s still a nice player, but doesn’t fit with the Reds. The White Sox didn’t have a need for him as long as they have Alexei Ramirez and Orlando Cabrera in the middle infield and Chris Getz waiting in the wings. Masset looks like a back of the rotation starter or a low-leverage middle reliever, nothing more.
So the White Sox got The (38 year old) Kid for a couple of expendable parts, right? Right, except I just don’t think he fits with their team very well. Jermaine Dye and Carlos Quentin are better players than Junior in 2008, so that eliminates the outfield corners. Jim Thome is entrenched at DH, and The Paul Konerko Disappearing Act is playing first base. Apparently Griffey only approved the trade after some sort of handshake agreement that he would be the everyday centerfielder. In 1997, that would have been awesome, in 2008, that’s a scary proposition. No one except for White Sox GM Ken Williams Junior himself seems to think he can be an everyday centerfielder (I even mentioned his, um, “adventurous” defense after our recent trip to a Reds game), and even if he can, where does that leave Nick Swisher? It’s going to be interesting to watch this play out.

The Marlins pried lefty Arthur Rhodes from the Mariners for Gaby Hernandez. Wyatt saw this one coming yesterday. Hernandez has struggled at AAA this year, but he’s still only 22, has a high strikeout rate, and until this year, has kept his home run rate pretty low. He looks like a very real pitching prospect. Rhodes has always been one of the best lefty relievers in the game, able to handle whole innings rather than just one lefty at a time. Over the past couple of years, however, he’s definitely declined, and this year has only 22 innings in 32 appearances, a pretty typical “specialist” sort of ratio. You don’t give up real prospects for guys like that.

The Yankees and Nationals made a minor league swap, the Yanks getting Jhonny Nunez and the Nats getting Alberto Gonzalez. Nothing too exciting there, move along.

Ah, now for the big one. The Red Sox sent Manny Ramirez and the remainder of his salary to the Dodgers and Craig Hansen and Brandon Moss to the Pirates; the Dodgers sent Andy LaRoche and Bryan Morris to the Pirates, and the Pirates sent Jason Bay to the Red Sox. This is the sort of deal everyone wins, in a way.
The Red Sox have to be happy that they moved their biggest headache, and while Bay is not quite the name that Manny is, he fits nicely into this Red Sox team – another lefty might have pushed them too far left, as they already have David Ortiz and JD Drew in the middle of the order. Plus, while Manny’s raw rate stats are slightly ahead of Bay’s (.299/.398/.529 vs. .282/.375/.519), Baseball Prospectus’s park-, league-, opponent-, and era-adjusted numbers give Bay the slight edge (.308/.400/.601 vs. .290/.395/.577). A lot of that is probably due to the Green Monster, which can turn some routine fly outs into hits and turn doubles into homers. Bay’s defensive translations look really ugly, but I don’t think you’ll many people in baseball who actually think Manny’s a better defender than Bay. Boston’s centerfielders – Coco Crisp and Jacoby Ellsbury – are both significanly better defenders than Nate McLouth, too. Once upon a time, Craig Hansen looked like Boston’s closer of the future, but now it’s hard to see why. He’s probably got a career as a serviceable middle reliever ahead of him. Moss really had no place in Boston, where he was a fifth outfielder. He can hit a little bit and defend an outfield corner pretty well, but the Sawx will be okay without him.

The Dodgers outfield before this trade was any three of Andruw Jones, Juan Pierre, Andre Ethier, and Matt Kemp. The trade makes it so that there is an obvious starting three: Ethier, Kemp, and Ramirez. You just can’t make a good argument for either of the other two to take much playing time from the lead three, so it will be interesting to see if Joe Torre makes the right call there. If they were going to continue to treat Andy LaRoche like he was expendable, better that they moved him before he lost all sorts of value, I suppose, but I just never understood why he didn’t have a place in that organization. Bryan Morris is still in class A, but also only 21, and the Dodgers are loaded with arms in a way few teams outside of maybe the Twins and Rays are.

The Pirates must be pleased with the deal, too. As I mentioned, I like LaRoche quite a bit; he looks like the sort of guy the Pirates can put at third for the next few years and just not worry about; he’ll be one of the Pirates four best position players the minute he puts on a uniform unless something goes terribly wrong. In the NL Central, the only third baseman clearly better than him is Aramis Ramirez; he might be in the same class as Troy Glaus and Edwin Encarnacion right now, in my opinion.
The other guys are a little less exciting; as I said, Hansen looks like a middle reliever, Morris is significantly far from the Bigs, and Moss is a stopgap corner outfield solution. However, all three of those guys can be a part of the next good Pirates team, and trading Bay gives them some payroll flexibility for next year.

Thus ends the 2008 non-waiver trade deadline; We’ll continue to cover any interesting player movement during August. Thanks for reading.

Lance Manly AL all-stars

With the NL in the books and the all-star game tonight, Lance is back with his AL lineup. Keep in mind when reading this that these are not necessarily the players with the best stats, but the people who best personify manliness, just as the great Lance Manly himself.

AL Lance Manly all-stars:

SP-Roy Halladay, 2.71 ERA, 121 Ks. Not to mention his 146+ innings pitched at the break.

C-Joe Mauer, 5 HRs .873 OPS.

1B-Jason Giambi, 19 HRs, .915 OPS. The mustache seems to be working alright. Interesting fact, from 2005-2007 Giambi’s splits by position according to ESPN.com:

DH- 613 AB .227/.380/.450 1B- 488 AB .293/.453/.611

2B-Ian Kinsler, 14 HRs, .945 OPS. Ian Kinsler has put forth quite the Rico Constantino-like effort this year.

3B-Evan Longoria, 16 HRs, .861OPS. (Insert Evan/Eva Longoria joke here.)

SS-Michael Young, 7 HRs, .777 OPS. We can only hope that Michael Young shares the same infatuation with the number seven as Larry Walker does with the number three.

OF-Josh Hamilton, 21 HRs, .919 OPS. As Joe Sheehan put, “The House That Ruth Built, 85 years old, goes out as The House That Hamilton Knocked Down.”

OF-Grady Sizemore, 23 HRs, .913 OPS. Sizemore has seen a nice jump in a few categories this year such as home runs and stolen base percentage, and he’s just entering his prime.

OF-Manny Ramirez, 18 HRs, .907 OPS. He hits the ball real hard.

DH-Milton Bradley, 19 HRs, 1.050 OPS. With Big Papi injured it’s safe to say Milton Bradley has a “monopoly” at DH this year. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.

Wow

Josh Hamilton is a man among boys, and a legend in his own time.

Hats off to Josh on coming back from everything he put himself through, and giving credit where it’s due.

Josh’s first round performance in tonight’s Home Run Derby was more impressive than I can convey to anyone who hasn’t seen it.  I’ve seen a lot of home runs, but that was unreal.  He hit the outside wall of Yankee Stadium – TWICE.  He was basically mobbed by every major league All-Star when his round was over.  I really can’t say enough about it.  It speaks to Josh’s raw talent and work ethic.  He’s a superstar, and tonight, he stopped being “Josh Hamilton, World Class Comeback Story,” and started being “Josh Hamilton, World Class Hitter,” to those who didn’t already know.

Introducing Lance Manly

Call off the search, I’m here and I brought with me Lance Manly. With the all-star festivities starting tonight, we thought it would be a good time to unveil the Lance Manly NL all-stars. Keep in mind when reading this that these are not necessarily the players with the best stats, but the people who best personify manliness, just as the great Lance Manly himself.

NL Lance Manly All-Stars:

SP- Edinson Volquez, 2.29 ERA, 126 Ks.

C-Brian McCann, 18 HRs, .940 OPS.

1B-Lance Berkman, 22 HRs, 1.096 OPS. A tough decision between Pujols and Lance Berkman, but a nickname like “the Big Puma” puts Berkman over the top.

2B-Dan Uggla, 23 HRs, .978 OPS. Another close call but Lance favors Ugly Uggla over Utley.

3B-Chipper Jones, 18 HRs, 1.086 OPS. Russell Branyan didn’t play enough games to qualify, otherwise it would’ve been close.

SS-Hanley Ramirez, 23 HRs, .957 OPS. “El niño” is manly enough for Lance.

OF-Adam Dunn, 26 HRs, .918 OPS. We at Charging the Mound are very confused as to why no one seems to like Dunn right now.

OF-Ryan Ludwick, 21 HRs, .962 OPS. Do we expect to find Ludwick receiving any postseason awards? No, but you have to give credit where credit is due.

OF-Pat Burrell, 21 HRs, .979 OPS.

Check back in tomorrow for the AL Lance Manly’s.