Moving Toward the Trading Deadline

1. The separation between the have's and the have not's has grown a little wider during the past month. The best pitchers of the lower-payroll-teams have mostly been traded to teams with bloated payroll. Denny Neagle to the Yankees. Andy Ashby to the Braves. Curt Schilling to the Diamondbacks. Ismael Valdes back to the Dodgers. Manny Aybar to the Marlins. OK, maybe the Aybar trade doesn't mean much. But the rest of these teams are loading up, not only for the division stretch runs, but the playoffs.

2. Any real baseball fan hated to see Pudge Rodriguez get hurt. He is one of the few players who can single handedly dominate a game. His hitting only gets tougher in the clutch, and players are afraid to try and steal on him.

3. So who else could be traded? Look for Jason Kendall, Manny Ramirez, Rondell White, or Rolando Arrojo.

4. What teams will be trading? Just the usual suspects: Yankees, Cardinals, Braves, Indians, and the Mariners. The most likely trade is for the Mariners to lose one of their 34 starting pitchers for a big bat.

5. Nomar Garciaparra may end up with a batting average over .380, but hitting .400 isn't going to happen. But in 1997, I said that hitting 70 home runs was impossible.

6. As of right now, I'm starting my "Carlos Delgado for American League MVP" campaign. He is leading the majors in OPS.

7. A few weeks ago, when I pegged the Giants to win the NL West, the Diamondbacks did not have Schilling. If they get Stottlemyre back for the playoffs (assuming they get in the playoffs,) we could have a real dogfight for the NL pennant.

8. It appears that the Yankees may be pulling away with the East. Look for Seattle to do the same in the West. The wild-card spot will be the only interesting playoff spot. Take that, Bob Costas.

Go To Page: 1

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic