Trade Stuff

Big Deadline Deals:

Ken Griffey Jr. to the White Sox for some dudes who are not Ken Griffey Jr.
This seems like an upgrade for the Sox offensively since they were running Konerko out there quite a bit and Konerko apparently decided before the season began that hitting was tiresome and boring. However, Junior will be manning centerfield (reportedly) which could spell trouble defensively. Swisher wasn't exactly Mays out there, but at least he didn't pull a hammy every time a ball went into the gap.

Manny Ramirez to Dodgers, Jason Bay to the Red Sox, Minor Leaguers to the Pirates
I hate the Sox, but this is a good move for them. They get back a guy who's younger (Bay is 7 years younger), slightly worse with the bat (135 OPS+ versus 140 OPS+) but better in the field, and not likely to publicy whine or knock down random Red Sox employees. Plus he's signed through next season at $12.5 million less than Manny's option would have been. There's a theory about managers that says: Good managers won't win many more games for your team than an average manager, but a bad manager can lose a lot more. I think it's the same way for clubhouse presence: Really good clubhouse guys are nice, but don't have much actual affect on in-game play, while bad clubhouse guys can be a detriment. Manny had turned from a quirky, on-again-off-again weirdo to a full-fledged distraction machine. And I really think it was hurting the Sox more than ever.

So why did the Dodgers pick him up? Well, he's an immediate help to their lineup and an immediate sieve to their defense. Andruw Jones is historically awful this season (36 OPS+!!! 2 HR's!!!!), and Juan Pierre doesn't do much. For the record, the Dodgers now have 3 outfielders who make a combined $47.1 million this year, and only one of those is even halfway decent. Manny will help the Dodgers make a playoff push in the weak NL West, but I can't see him being a huge difference maker in a lineup that still has a ton of holes. But he gets to play for Joe Torre! That should be exciting!

The Pirates got a bunch of minor leaguers, some of whom should be decent, one of whom (Andy LaRoche) could actually be pretty good. That's what they should have done, although you can't say their haul was anywhere close to what the Rangers got for Teixeira last year when Tex was in the exact same contract situation Bay was this year. To be fair, Tex is better and younger, but you'd think at least one of those prospects would have been a sure thing.

Anyway, not much else happened. Kinda disappointing. I was especially hoping the Rays would add a bat to give them the best chance to hang onto first place in the East. They have so many prospects that they should have been able to swing a deal for Bay, but that's the way it goes, I guess.

It looks like Teixeira might be the best deadline pickup of the year, unless Manny really carries that Dodgers offense for the rest of the season.