Baseball’s silliness season underway

Gary Dudgeon
Greensburg Daily News

July 22, 2008 12:00 am

— Baseball’s silliness season got off to an early start when the
Milwaukee Brewers traded four minor league players to the
Cleveland Indians for big lefthander C.C. Sabathia. The trade
matches Ben Sheet’s status as a “stopper” from the right side with a
lefty who already recorded two wins in two starts in his first week in
brew town.
The trade didn’t go unnoticed in the Central Division of the National
League. The Chicago Cubs acquired pitcher Rich Harden from
Oakland two days later to bolster their starting pitching staff. The
price? The same, four minor leaguers.
On Sunday the Brewers went to the market to acquire second
baseman Ray Durham from San Francisco. The 36-year old
provides another bat in the Brewers line-up at a position where
former Notre Dame star Craig Counsell has played.
These transactions should be just the start of a busy trading season
as teams sort out who are “buyers” and who are “sellers”. Obviously
five teams have already established their positions - Milwaukee and
the Cubbies are both buyers; the Indians, Giants and A’s are all
sellers.
Or at least they have been.
Two key ingredients in any transaction from the sellers’ point of
view are “Do we have a chance to win our division?” and the
free-agency status of a player.
Sabathia will be a free agent at the end of the season, as will
Sheets. He plays for a team that has been inconsistent this year
and badly trails Chicago, the Twins and Detroit. Durham is a 36-year
old veteran who is at least near the end of his contract. The Brewers
bought themselves two “rent-a-players." They’ll have them for the
pennant race and Sabathia has been lighting up the National
League.
The jury, in my mind, is still out on Hardin, but the Cubs felt they
needed a starter to keep the upstart Brewers at bay.
What did the Indians, A’s and Giants get? Prospects. For the Indians
and the A’s this isn’t a new story. Both teams have had a good
recent history of developing new players and they both got four more
players to develop. Long term, the A’s and Indians will win. Short
term the Cubs and Brewers win. They are in a pennant race; the
other teams aren’t.
In the next 10 days, nearly every other major league team will have to
make the same decision - buy, sell or stand pat.
This scenario is made easier if you have an aging superstar near
the end of his career or a budding star coming into free agency. It
gives their team the opportunity to relieve payroll and perhaps build
a future by trading another team a short-term chance at a pennant
for your own future.
The nearest major league team to us, the Cincinnati Reds, have
three players that may very well force them into a “sellers” mode -
Ken Griffey Jr., Adam Dunn and David Weathers. The first two are the
Red’s highest-paid players and both outfielders should be
platooned in late innings because they are defensive liabilities -
Griffey because he has lost his speed from the numerous leg
injuries over the last eight seasons, Dunn because he is not a good
outfielder.
They may very well have value in the American League where the
designated hitter rule resides.
Weathers is slightly different. He is a journeyman left-handed pitcher
who is having a good season. For any team looking for a left-hander
in their bull-pen, Weathers is exactly the kind of “rent-a-player" they
may be looking to find. The same goes for Dunn and Griffey who are
both free agents at the end of the season.
The Reds, despite a recent resurgence, will probably not be a
“buyer." They have logical reasons to be a “seller” but the come-back
since July 1 may make them stand pat.
Every team in the major leagues is currently having a similar debate
internally.

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