All Change?
In tight races, what turns teams into buyers or sellers ahead of the trade deadline?
Although it often doesn’t have the drama – or the props – to match football’s transfer window, Baseball’s trade deadline is next Thursday, July 31 at 6pm ET.
According to a rundown of the top 50 likely moves, in The Athletic, this is the “best week of the season” when “executives around the league reveal how they really feel about their teams.”
“In many instances, the question is less about whether the team will sell than the extent of that teardown. But we’re also keeping an eye on teams that may thread the needle and seek to move a major-league player off its roster while adding a better fit elsewhere.”
Here’s the Top Twenty on their big board:
Mark Feinsand at MLB.com looks at how the tight standings right now are likely to affect a number of teams’ roster strategies for the run-in and the post-season.
And in an indicator of just how razor’s-edge that decision-making process can be, Zachary Rotman at Fansided writes about how the Arizona Diamondbacks’ immediate future may have hung on a single call.
“Not only did the Diamondbacks get robbed, but a truly terrible called third strike might be what pushes them to become trade deadline sellers.”
MLB.com explains that the outcome left the D’backs at 50-53 and 5 1/2 games back of a Wild Card spot, possibly making them more likely to shop some of their big names.
Mike Axisa at CBS Sports predicts every contender’s biggest move, writing that “Thanks to the third wild-card spot, more teams are in the postseason race at the trade deadline than ever, which muddies the water a bit. More teams in the race means fewer teams are eager to sell. That creates a seller's market.”
So your favorite team’s line-up, however how it looks right now, might look different by next Friday. Or it might not. As Jeff Passan writes at ESPN, with three-quarters of all 30 teams within five-and-a-half games of a playoff spot, this is “a moment of discomfort for nearly every team in baseball.”
But before career arcs change midseason for players who might be involved in transactions ahead of next Thursday, we’ll celebrate where they all hope their road ends up, with the Hall of Fame induction ceremony this coming weekend.
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Batting Around
In another unusual ending to a game this week, after losing to a walk-off, inside-the-park home run in San Francisco a couple of weeks back, the Phillies beat the Boston Red Sox on Monday night on a catcher interference call, the first time such a situation had happened since 1971. The catcher back then was the great Johnny Bench.
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On Tuesday, 45-year-old Rich Hill ended up back where it all began, taking the mound for the Kansas City Royals at Wrigley Field against the team for whom he made his MLB debut two decades ago.
It was Hill’s first big-league start in two years, with his 14th team – tying Edwin Jackson’s record – while he also became the oldest Royal to appear in a game (Gaylord Perry was the previous record-holder, also at 45, in 1983).
This is quite the timeline, via The Score:
Despite Hill allowing just one earned run in five innings, the Cubs ran out 6-0 winners.
But what a career!
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Moon Mammoths mania may be sweeping the nation after the first outing for the re-branded Erie SeaWolves at the weekend, as part of late night comic John Oliver’s crusade to celebrate the surreal that is minor league baseball - “One of the great things America has.”
According to Tom Reisenweber at the Erie Times-News:
“The inaugural Erie Moon Mammoths game brought a record crowd to UPMC Park with 7,070 fans. The line around 4 p.m. to get into the 6:05 p.m. game stretched around the block as the anticipation of the new brand and seeing John Oliver became a premier event in the history of Erie sports.”
George Moon himself was in attendance. There are three more Moon Mammoths games this season.
See Also:
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‘If they don’t win it’s the same…’
Finally, the ‘Prince of Darkness’ and ‘father of heavy metal’, Ozzy Osbourne passed away this week at the age of 76.
An odd jump from here, maybe, but the beloved Brummie singer endeared himself to baseball fans on August 17, 2003 when he famously led the seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley Field, “singing” – in perfect meter – “I don’t remember what I have to do…”
After MLB shared the clip following his death, one fan commented “Ozzy is the ONLY person that could’ve butchered it THIS badly and still be praised for it! RIP legend, this world won’t be the same without you here!”
Go well, Ozzy. One of the greats.
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As always, thanks for reading. I aim to write a baseball-related post midweek and then a politics wrap at weekends.
It’s no exaggeration to say one is usually more sane than the other. Particularly at the moment.
You can find a full States of Play archive here.
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