Thursday, August 1, 2024

MLB Trade Deadline Special 2024



The Trade Deadline coincides with my birthday this year.  I got a pizza at work, along with some pistachios, chocolate, and some Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.  I did well.   

 

Some of my preseason picks have looked pretty good, but I don’t think I went out on a limb with them.  The Orioles, Yankees, Astros, Phillies, and Dodgers being good isn’t much of a shocker.  Cleveland and the Brewers are leading the Central divisions, but then again, these teams are essentially the best of the worst.

 

It looks like the AL East and AL West winners may not be settled until the end of the season.  The other divisions will require the leader to collapse for there to be a change.  The two Central divisions are the most likely, but whoever wins will probably be irrelevant in the playoffs.  The Wild Card race is still wide open to this point.  In the AL, the Twins, the Royals (good job staying competitive, guys), the Red Sox, the Mariners, and even the Rangers are still in it.  There are eight teams in easy striking distance of the playoffs in the NL. 

 

I haven’t been keeping a baseball “diary” this season, but as the deadline has approached, I couldn’t resist noting several games.  A couple of trades happened near the end of the month as part of the recaps.   

 

6-8-24

So far, this has been the game of the year.  The El Paso Chihuahuas were down 15-1 in the fourth to the Las Vegas Aviators.  I was playing a computer game during the slaughter and was barely attention by that point.  However, the pups scored 7 over the next two innings and the game got my attention back.  They scored 9 in the seventh to take a two-run lead and held on for the next two innings for a 17-16 win!

 

The game was the talk of the town the next day.  Nate Mondou went 3 for 5 with 6 RBI’s and a two-run homer.  The oddity of the game was that Anthony Rifenberg was the broadcaster.  Our old friend Tim Hagerty was on a team mandated vacation at the time and was surely kicking himself for not being there.     

 

7-7-24

Funny moment in today’s Rangers game.  A fan reached over the rail and caught a flyball.  It wasn’t going to go out and Travis Jankowski was camped under it to make the play, so it was an odd circumstance that a fan could have interfered.  The broadcasters recognized the fan as a regular and had even met him before.  They hoped he wouldn’t get banned from the stadium as a result, since the guy didn’t realize he was interfering until after the play. 

 

Jankowski was mad at first, but the batter was out on interference anyway.  No harm done to the game.  The broadcasters asked him about the play after the game.  He said, “Not many fans get to make a Major League putout.”

 

7-13-24

The Astros had buried themselves at the beginning of the season, but have made a dramatic comeback since then.  This game against the Rangers may have been their for sure turning point.  Both teams started off the game with shaky pitching in the first, but what followed was a scoreless nail-biter that played like playoff game.  There were three runs waved off during the game upon review.  The Rangers loaded the bases for three straight innings without scoring.  The Astros had their chances, too.  Finally, the Astros won it in the tenth, 2-1.  This game definitely highlighted the Rangers’ offensive woes. 

 

The Chihuahuas played against Clayton Kershaw on rehab in OKC.  Under new management, they are no longer called the Dodgers, though.  They’re going by “The Oklahoma City Baseball Club,” until they settle on a new name next year.  Lame.

 

Chihuahuas players were asking the manager to be put in the game to face Kershaw.  He didn’t disappoint.  He faced 9 batters in three innings and struck out 5 with 1 walk.  A batter challenged the call on one of his pitches.  Kershaw chuckled and, of course, got the call.  After he was out of the game, fans crowded around just watching him throw a few pitches in the bullpen. 

 

I should mention this was the same day as the Trump assassination attempt.  I was completely unaware of it while listening the Ranger game earlier.  I’d called dad to give him a breathless account of the game.  He answered with, “Well, Trump got shot today.”   Later in the OKC game, they sang God Bless America and the crowd broke into a “U-S-A, U-S-A!” chant.

 

7-19-24

On the MLB.TV free game tonight, the Pirates come back from 3 runs down twice tonight to win, 8-7.  In the bottom of the ninth with the winning run on third, Nick Gonzales only needed to see one pitch to walk it off with a hit.  Nick, of course, was an Aggie star player that I’d seen in person, so I was genuinely thrilled with the outcome. There was a huge crowd there in Pittsburgh for fireworks after the game.

 

And then the agony of defeat.  It was a 2-2 game between the Chihuahuas and Sugarland.  The pups went up by 2 in bottom of the eighth.  In the top of the ninth with two on and two out, there was a dropped third strike.  I could tell by the way Tim Hagerty called it, that something weird was about to happen.  The catcher’s throw to first was dropped and the runner reached safely.  What followed was 5 unearned runs and a 7-5 loss.  (There were 4 strikeouts in the inning.)  There were lots of boo’s from the El Paso crowd following this one.  (And it gets worse.) 

 

7-22-24

“Nikky G” does it again with the game-winning hit.  This time it was against the Cardinals.  I had a day of Free MLB.TV and got to watch several games, including a couple of extra innings games.  Nick Gonzales got his clutch hit in the bottom of the eighth.  David Bednar closed it out in the ninth.  I couldn’t resist writing to my Cardinal-loving Aunt Judy to brag about my former Aggie doing well.  I hope she’s still talking to me.  I did notice that Nick is still using the same walk up music that he was using at NMSU.  (Unfortunately, I don’t know the name of the song.)

 

7-26-24

The Chihuahuas set an ignominious franchise record tonight—their eighth-straight loss.  That wouldn’t be something you’d want to remember, but for how it happened.  In the bottom of the ninth with two on and two out, a flyball to the outfield by the Salt Lake City Bees was dropped by Oscar Mercado, who had pinch hit the previous inning.  Both runs scored and the Bees had a walkoff 4-3 win.  Tim Hagerty was incredulous (as was the Bees’ announcer, who I also heard).  You’d think after that dropped third strike incident, he’d be more nonchalant about it.  (Mercado started in the outfield the next night.  Unsurprisingly, the Bees kept hitting it out to him.) 

 

Mike Trout was on a rehab assignment with the Bees to start the week.  Unfortunately that only lasted two innings before he re-tweaked his injured knee and had to come out.  The Bees sold 5,000 advance tickets on Sunday before his first game on Tuesday.  The large crowd gave him a big cheer after making a couple of putouts in the first inning and for his first at bat.  Even without him, the crowds there in Salt Lake sounded large and enthusiastic.  (And why not?  They were winning.)

 

The first big trade deadline deals also happened on the 26-th.  The Rays threw in the towel on the season, as they dealt off Randy Arozarena to the Mariners and the Orioles picked up Zach Eflin.  The M’s desperately needed the bat, as they’d lost the AL West lead from their anemic hitting.  The O’s needed some more pitching.  Both teams may not be done.

 

7-28-24

The Rangers and the Blue Jays played their series finale.  After yesterday, where Michael Lorenzen started and threw 40 pitches and only got two outs, today, Jon Gray didn’t even get that far.  He was pulled after pulling his groin after his final warm up pitch.  Worse, after two losses, the broadcasters had tabbed this as a must win before the Trade Deadline, if the Rangers were going to try and add pieces to save their season. 

 

After Gray came out, Lorenzen immediately lobbied Bochy to get into the game, which he did later, but by that point the game was out of hand.  It was a three-game sweep.  Lorenzen did go four innings and gave up only one run to get his confidence back.  And then he was traded the next day to the Royals for a Triple-A pitcher.  The Rangers do have some injured players coming back soon.

 

Meanwhile, Danny Jansen went from the Blue Jays to the Red Sox.  The Jays been losing pieces steadily over the last couple of days.  The Rays and the White Sox traded some losing pieces. 

 

Overlapping the Rangers’ game, the Chihuahuas experienced their first six-game series sweep as they lost their tenth in a row.  In the evening, I got to listen to the ESPN game.  The big news was that Jazz Chisholm went from the Marlins to the Yankees.  (What happened to the Marlins?)  Jazz got to the park just before the game started.  What was usually a 20-minute drive from Logan Airport to Fenway Park in Boston, but took over two hours because of a massive traffic jam.  Red Sox fans will apparently do anything to try and keep the Yankees from beating them.  (It didn’t work.  They got crushed.)

 

7-29-24

Lots of trades today.  In addition to trading Michael Lorenzen, the Rangers also picked up Carson Kelly from Tigers for some catching help.  The Cubs acquired Isaac Paredes from Rays.  The Rays are right in the Wild Card race, but figured it was a seller’s market and the franchise would do better by picking up more controllable younger talent.

 

The Cardinals, White Sox, and Dodgers traded a bunch of players with each other and they all ended up with nothing.  The Mariners got more hitting help with Justin Turner from Jays, but also traded Ty France to Reds.  He’d fallen off this season.  (Ty was great with the Chihuahuas.  I got to listen to him play nightly.)  The Astros acquired Yusei Kikuchi from Blue Jays for three prospects for some more pitching.  Likewise, the Brewers got Frankie Montas.  Finally, the Giants traded Jorge Soler and others to Braves.  They may have thrown in the towel on this season.

 

7-30-24

The big news of the day is that the Chihuahuas finally broke out and ended their 10-game losing streak.  In related news, the Padres picked up Tanner Scott for their bullpen.  This deal sent a couple of Chihuahuas to the Marlins.  I should mention that Dylan Cease just pitched a no-hitter for the Padres recently.  The team seems to be on the rise.     

 

Unsurprisingly, on the final day before the Trade Deadline, there were a bunch of trades.  Maybe what was surprising was the lack of big deals.  Two big rumored trade pieces, Tarik Skubal and Vlad Guerrero Jr., were not moved.  Likewise, no top 100 prospects changed teams.  With the expanded playoffs, more teams are still viable, but that also means they don’t want to give up what they have to try and improve.  It’s also reduced the number of non-contending teams with good pieces to trade.

 

In response to the surging Padres, the Dodgers got Jack Flaherty from the Tigers for essentially nothing.  [Edit: Apparently, there were possible medical issues scaring teams off.]  I find it hard to explain that.  If Detroit had sent Skubal to the Orioles, they would have lost this years’ possible Cy Young winner, but they might have gotten Jackson Holiday for him.  [Edit: Don’t listen to me.  Holiday hit a grand slam for the O’s today.]  The Tigers should have been good the last two years.  What’s wrong with them?  (Other than poor trade decisions, like not dealing Eduardo Rodriguez last year, and then not keeping him for this year.) 

 

The Dodgers also acquired Kevin Kiermaier from the Blue Jays.  He’s not the player he used to be, but is a good late innings defensive replacement.  These are the kind of deals you can make when you’re the Dodgers, picking up niche players to patch up little holes in your roster.  The slumping, disappointing Blue Jays, meanwhile, traded off a bunch of players on their team, but kept Vlad, who would have gotten them back someone worthwhile at least.      

 

In other random trades, the Royals picked up a couple of players.  They’re really trying this season.  If they had the money, they would have done something splashy.  As is, they’re just building up decent parts and hoping to squeak into the playoffs.  The D-Backs got Josh Bell.  That deal isn’t as exciting as it was the first three-or-so times Bell was traded.  [Edit: He's there for Christian Walker, who is injured.]  They also picked up A.J. Puk from the Marlins for their bullpen last week.  (Is there anyone good left on the Marlins?  They certainly didn’t need Kim Ng as their GM, if dismantling the team was ownership’s plan.)    

 

The O’s got Eloy Jimenez from the White Sox.  I’m not sure if they needed the bat.  Highly-rated pitcher, Garrett Crochet, might have been a better acquisition, but the Sox didn’t part with him, especially after Crochet said he might not be available to pitch in the postseason.  Once again, the good stuff was held back.  The Pirates acquired Bryan De La Cruz from Marlins.  (They needed pitching, too.)  And, the Giants give up Alex Cobb to Cleveland and gave up on the season in general. 

 

Obviously, it’s too early to rate the impact of these trades.  I didn’t even mention Tommy Pham going back to the Cardinals.  He paid off immediately by hitting a grand slam yesterday for them and going 3 for 4 today (all against the Rangers).  Likewise, Jazz Chisholm has chipped in four home runs for the Yankees.    


I’m inclined to say the Mariners picking up a couple of bats might help them win the AL West.  While the Astros did get some pitching help, I think a team that started off as badly as they did will regress.  If Jazz, Aaron Judge, and Juan Soto can all keep hitting, the Orioles are in trouble, but the O’s did improve themselves, too.  The Dodgers may not be endangered from winning the NL West, but they’d best hope they don’t meet the Padres in the playoffs. 

 

The Rays, White Sox, Marlins, and Blue Jays were sellers in a seller’s market and probably didn’t do much to improve their teams for the future.  If you’re going to be sellers, you probably need to go all-in to get a real return.  Finally, my World Series pick, the Phillies, basically didn’t do anything.  This reminds me of the Orioles last year.  That wasn’t the best strategy.  The Phillies also got swept, if not embarrassed, by the Yankees this week.  That wasn’t the Trade Deadline statement they wanted to make.  

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