Give Them the StrapWhether the addition of Mark Teixeira translates to more wins on the field and yet another NL East championship for the Braves remains to be seen, but Atlanta does win the title of 2007 MLB Trade Deadline Champions of the World. General Manager John Schuerholz was not only able to finagle Teixeira and left handed reliever Ron Mahay out of Texas, but in addition he landed former Mets Octavio Dotel from Kansas City and lefty reliever Royce Ring from San Diego. Not bad for a day’s work. An added incentive is the possibility of Dotel and Ring coming back to haunt their former club from Queens as the teams battle it out for the division crown.
Can't Figure it Out
The Pirates win the award for Most - umm - Surprising Move at the Trade Deadline by acquiring pitcher Matt Morris from San Francisco. One could only assume that Pittsburgh feels a veteran presence is needed to solidify its young starting rotation going into next season since this year is already over for the Pirates. To say that the move is questionable would be an understatement, however, it isn’t the first move by GM Dave Littlefield that makes you scratch your head. Year after year the Pirates roster is a mish mash of young players and patchwork veterans of marginal ability and a clear direction for the franchise never seems to be established. It’s difficult to tell what the Pirates are trying to do and as the years of residing in the bottom of the standings continue to mount it becomes clear that the front office doesn’t have any idea either.
Most Ludicrous Trade Analysis - Ever.
The Yankees sent Scott Proctor to the Dodgers in exhange for Wilson Betemit. All fine and good, but someone needs to explain to me how so-called “baseball experts” could agree with the following rationale:
Yankees trade for Wilson Betemit as a possible replacement for Alex Rodriguez next season.
Yea, and Atlanta traded for Mark Teixeira as an insurance policy at first base in case Julio Franco decides to hang them up after this season. Betemit couldn’t even hold down the third base job this season for the offensively inept Dodgers, therefore, something tells me he may not be the Yankees long term answer. Betemit is hitting .231 this season and in his 372 game career he’s batted an underwhelming .263 with 32 homers and 102 RBIs. Some may argue that he's still green and need time to develop. The only problem with that argument is that nobody know how hold the guy is. Some reports say he’s 25, others state that he’s 26, his ESPN.com player page says he’s 27, while his profile on MLB.com says he won't be 26 until November. All this means is that in reality he's probably atleast 30 years old. Can somebody say career utility man? I would bet the house that there is a greater chance of Miguel Cabrera or Scott Brosius playing third base in the Bronx next season than there is of finding Wilson Betemit out there.
