Trade Deadline Winners & Losers

WARNING: I'm not color-coating anything in this article, so if you're sensitive to people critiquing your moves, don't read, or read and complain to someone else.


Winners
Arizona Diamondbacks - Arizona made some nice moves. The Dbags picked up SPs Josh Johnson & Kyle Lobstein along with C Joe Mauer and an underrated spect in Cory Thomas. Meanwhile, they gave up a catcher on the decline in Miguel Montero, a 35 year old middle of the rotation pitcher in Brandon Webb, a league average 3B in Mark Reynolds, an overrated pitching spect in Joel Shaw and a few AAAA players. Arguably, the best resourves they parted with for the incoming talent was cash (to buyout Johan's contract, who was handcuffed to Josh Johnson) and a bad fielding OF spect in Nick Berkeley. A season-ending injury to Justin Upton killed their shot at a late-season rally in the winnable NL West this season, but they can certainly be a sleeper in that division next season.

Pittsburgh Pirates - It would have been tempting for Pittsburgh to try to pull the trigger on a trade or 2 to help them make a move towards keeping them in the NL Wildcard race, but they wouldn't have been well-advised moves. Staying put was the right move and I'm giving them credit for it.

Florida Marlins - Essentially, the marlins swapped out 27 year old pitcher William Wilson for 23 year old southpaw reliever Ward Bradley. Bradley has better vitals for a reliever, making that an upgrade for Florida, especially considering how Wilson has struggled the past 2 seasons. They also shed $5M in payroll in the form of Chris Coghlan, another player who has underperformed in recent seasons, while picking up a really good SP spect in Dan Ruhl. Lateral move for the present, upgrade for the team in future seasons...that's the recipe for winning a trade.



Losers
Colorado Rockies - Much like how I lauded Pittsburgh for staying put when they shouldn't have, I'm down on Colorado for not making a move when they should have. They're in a tight division race behind a team that has players going down left and right with injuries, and Colorado's big move was to put Dexter Fowler on the waiver wire. The Rockies could have used another SP and definitely some bullpen help, but instead their strategy was to hope that the SF injuries don't stop.

Cincinnati Reds - The Reds did pick up a good player in Longo, who has excelled since coming over, but at what price? A pair of future all-stars in Olenhouse & Konruff, a solid 17 year old RP spect in Torrence Heck, AND a high ceiling southpaw in McCullough. They then traded Konerko's expiring deal so they could overpay Jason Bay for 3 more years. The same player is available on free agency in Chris Young, who is about to sign a 1 year deal for $1M. I could certainly be wrong, but it looks like Cincy would have been better off staying put and letting the spects they traded away stay in Cincy, mature and come up together, instead of trying to impatiently rush the rebuild process, giving them a shorter window in which to win in a tough NL Central division.

Oakland Athletics - Oakland saw that Johan wasn't living up to his offseason deal, and panicked. In order to move a bad contract, they packaged him with their ace, bringing back nothing more than filler players. Since that move, Oakland has simply been treading water, and even that has to be viewed as a minor victory. Oakland went from being a favorite to win the Wildcard, if not chase down LAA for the AL West crown, to a team that will be watching the postseason from the sideline.

Los Angeles Dodgers - While I liked the Bruce trade (didn't get much, but Bruce has never produced much either) and think that Yosvani Garcia will be anchoring their rotation sooner rather than later, they gave Broxton away for peanuts and gave SD half a team for just $10M. The Dodgers decided to go into rebuild mode afteer a couple of bad weeks, despite seeing other teams in their division struggling along with them. Instead of pushing through and trying to stay in the race for the division crown in FCM's worst division, they panicked & hit firesale mode. One has to think that they could have got more for the 7 players they sent to SD, even if they had to hold on to them until the offseason.



To Be Determined
New York Mets - While I think NYM did give up some good young spects for a great SP in David Price, they did their best to make Price more likely to accept his Player Option by also bringing in a trio of his friends. If Price stays, this could be the deadline that turns around the recent disappointments of the Queen City Mess. If he leaves for free agency, this deadline will have set the team back by at least a season or 2. We also aren't really big on the Donaldson deal either.

Minnesota Twins - League-wide, the Mauer trade was met with mixed reviews. I'm inclined to think that the addition of Curray to the trade made it a bad move overall for Minnesota, and that they could have got a better SP for Mauer than Old Man Webb. That said, if Birse peaks this offseason, then Minny may have been able to make up for that trade by picking up prototypcial leadoff man Jared Mitchell and great-hitting SS Toby Anderson. The SD trade just looks like a trade for the sake of a trade, even though they did manage to acquire some much-needed cash.