Deadline snooze
Posted: Sunday, July 29, 2007 8:48 PM
Even Major League Baseball, which has a vested interest in hyping the game, can’t find a drum to beat about the looming July 31 trade deadline. Here’s what MLB.com has to say about the prospects of big news coming down: “Few deals in the works.”
This is what most analysts expected. I wrote a couple of weeks ago that fans shouldn’t expect anything earth-shattering. Top teams are reluctant to trade their best prospects, and the many teams involved in wild-card and division races don’t want to unload anybody.
What’s strange is that two of the deals made in the past week were by teams that are out of it. In one, Ty Wiggington, who was rumored to be going to the Twins, Cubs or Yankees, instead went from one loser – Tampa Bay – to another – Houston. In the other, Tampa Bay dumped infielder Jorge Cantu on Cincinnati for reliever Brian Shackelford and a minor leaguer; The D-Rays even paid Cincinnati cash to take Cantu. The only other deal worth mentioning saw Texas sending Kenny Lofton back for a third tour of duty in Cleveland in return for catching prospect Max Ramirez.
So what’s the deal? The trade deadline is supposed to be when contenders try to improve their chances. So, while it’s no surprise to see Tampa dumping players, it is a surprise to see them going to other non-contenders.
It probably shouldn’t be. If you’re Tampa, and you want to move some players, you don’t really care who you deal with as long as you get something you consider to be of value in return. And if you’re Cincinnati or Houston, you’re already thinking of next year. If you can get players you think you can use now, why wait until after the season to do it?
There will be action before the deadline, and it’s possible that Texas may get the high price it’s asking for first baseman Mark Teixiera.
The Braves are supposed to be the frontrunners, and they’re one of the teams that’s had luck with a deadline deal before. You have to go back to 1993, when they got Fred McGriff from the Padres for next to nothing, but at least Atlanta can say they had a deal that worked.
More often, deadline deals – especially the big-name variety – come back to haunt the team moving the star player.
John Rowe of The Record of Hackensack, N.J. ran a list Sunday of some of those deals. Like the Cardinals dumping Keith Hernandez for nothing in 1983, the Yankees giving Jay Buhner to the Mariners for Ken Phelps in 1988, the Mets sending Tom Seaver to the Reds in 1977, and the Mariners sending Derek Lowe and Jason Varitek to the Red Sox in 1997 for Heathcliff Slocumb.
It’s enough to make any G.M. think twice, and then think twice more.
