Well, the deadline’s passed, and nothing’s been announced by ther Red Sox, so cue up the "Trade Grades" from all of our big media outlets. We’re guessing the Yanks get an "A" for their efforts, while the mass of mediots will hand the Sox an "F" for not making a move, no matter what the outrageous demands by other teams might have been. But let’s remember two things: first, the Sox aren’t in the business of trading a bulk of their future for short-termers, particularly not short-termers who may not be any upgrade over the collection of men currently stocking the roster that they would have to offload. And they certainly won’t mortgage their future by trading three regular players (including a potential top-of-the-rotation guy like Lester) for two months of Andruw Jones. And two, trades can still happen, and they can have impact. The waiver wire is always busy.
So the Sox haven’t answered the Yankees big move, but there’s probably a very sound reason for that, whether we like it or not. My guess is most people won’t like it. The Sox lose this round not because they stood pat, but because those around them got better. Sometimes that’s the way it goes.
28 comments… add one
The good news for Yankee fans is, We Do Too (know where our prospects are), and, yes, they remain in pinstripes. And we got the big fish we had been hoping to reel in, too. Hoot.
Considering the dearth of talent available, the dubious demands made by teams holding the biggest cards, and the talent about to hit the FA market at the end of the season, I think Theo made a judicious no-call.
Unless Wells makes a miraculous comeback, and Wakefield makes a speedy return, I’m very worried about the Sox’s “prospects” for a serious playoff run.
YF – The Yankees biggest problem, like the Sox, was pitching and I don’t really think you made any great improvement to your pitching staff, but time will tell. Now, get a half game up so we can work the waiver wire.
Last year everyone cried at the deadline when Theo didn’t make a splash, and they a) tied for the division (lost on the tiebreak) and b) were a Tony Graffanino error from being in the thick of it with the eventual World Champs. So I don’t think there’s any rule about whether deadline deals are the ones that make or break a team. I like the fact that Theo won’t make a deal at any cost. Of course, I don’t like the fact that the Sox haven’t improved, for sure, but it’s reasonable to think that the FO’s judgment was that the moves speculated on were not going to improve the team, either short or long term.
I seem to recall SF getting on Cashman’s case in the past for not being “creative” enough in his dealings. Perhaps there was no appropriate move for the Sox today, but it’s worth noting that, apparently, Theo isn’t being held to the “creativity” standard for inventing deals.
It’s not unreasonable to see the deadline deals as follows: the Yanks and Sox are essentially tied. One team improved. The other didn’t.
It’s not unreasonable to see the deadline deals as follows: the Yanks and Sox are essentially tied. One team improved. The other didn’t.
That’s absolutely 100% accurate. But that doesn’t mean that Theo Epstein had any deals on the table that could have improved the team.
As for his lack of “creativity”, you’re right. It doesn’t sound like one has to be very creative to turn down Lester, Hansen, and Crisp for 2 months of Andruw Jones. If that’s to be believed, of course.
SF: You were very much on Cash’s case for not MANUFACTURING something positive (ie, being “creative”). I think it’s now readily apparent that this is easier said than done.
As for what all of this means, I would agree with anyone who contends that neither the Sox nor the Yanks, with their present pitching staffs, can rest easily or comfortably.
I think Theo woke up late.
I heard that the 5-team trade the Boy Genius put together is so complicated that Bud Selig had to step in to make some sense of it. After Commissar Bud’s ‘adjustments’, it’s now looking like this:
Sox give: Lowell, Pedroia, Tavarez
Sox get: Pujols, Clemens, Crawford, A-Rod
Cards give: Pujols
Cards get: Tavarez
Astros give: Clemens
Astros get: Some steaks and Mike Lowell
Tampa gives: Crawford
Tampa gets: to promote one of their young thugs, and Pedroia
Yanks give: A-Rod
Yanks get: to pay A-Rod’s salary and buy Selig some new suits at Mens Wearhouse
I like the name Banjo Kablooey. A fellow gamer!? (videogamer, that is)
Eh, I think the Yankees are now the odds-on favorite to win the division, but heck, let’s play some games, and let’s see Wells not suck out there!
Lockland: Sure the Yanks made an improvement to their pitching: they shipped Chacon to the other league. The only thing better would have been if they had found someone in the division to take him.
“Sometimes the silence can be like thunder.” Bob Dylan
Sox stay put, Yanks open up their bank account, (built up by record sales of pink new era Yankee hats bought by impressionistic 13 year old girls) what else is new.
YF: I am not sure what your beef is. The Yankees made a good trade, albeit not a difficult one to conceive of (I mean, you, a self-proclaimed HORRIBLE GM, thought of it!). But it was still a good one, so that gets the organization deserved credit, however limited it might be from me, a Sox fan. They improved. The Red Sox did not. And Epstein was the one who chose not to make any deals, I suppose. So I agree with you about just about everything. But you seem to want to disregard the Yankees’ resource advantage, but I can’t help but understand that as part of the context of the trading landscape. Kudos to the Yankees for improving, but their improving had nothing to do with Epstein’s decision-making with whatever offers were on the table.
I suppose there was one aspect of this that the Yankees might have exploited, which was that other teams may have figured that Epstein was going to make a deal no matter what once the Yankees landed Abreu, and raised their offers accordingly. That, I guess, is one piece of collateral damage that Cashman might have inflicted, to his credit.
As I said before (not realizing this post was here), no trades is better than trades involving Lester and Pedroia. Still, I fear.
If the Red Sox had claimed Wells off the waiver wire and said he was their main deadline pickup, there’d be screaming in the streets of Boston. Yet this is what has essentially happened, for better or worse.
I don’t disregard the Yanks “resource” advantage, if by resources we mean a financial commitment that the Yankees are willing to make toward their payroll, and that other teams are not, either by choice or by necessity. Obviously, the Yanks have a vastly greater bankroll than other teams. That’s a powerful weapon, no question about it.
Shawn, you might wanna call New Era and double check their sales metrics. I’d wager that most pink MLB hats sold are embroidered with a ‘B’ on the front and are bought by Saab-driving Brittany’s who end up ‘die hard sawx fans’ due to their whole 4 years of living in beantown for college.
For those wondering who stays and who goes for the Yankees.
As per Peter Abraham:
UPDATE: Aaron Guiel has been optioned to Columbus. Sidney Ponson has agreed to pitch out of the bullpen as the long reliever. Cashman says that Andy Phillips “definitely has a place on this team” and they will announce a move tomorrow.
But the whole “the Yankees choose to spend their money while other teams don’t” is pretty disingenuous, because, the way I read it, it’s trying to truncate the discussion by making the Yankees out to be noble in this whole deal (“hey, we have an owner who cares“) But that’s not the debate. The issue, for me at least, is whether or not there are deals available for certain teams and not for others, based on their finances. And whether or not these deals are available plays into my perception of how good a job or how difficult a job the GM of that team has. By my own personal measure, Cashman and Epstein have rather easy jobs in the context of MLB, with Cashman having the absolutely most easiest job in the league, and quite possibly in all of sports (let’s forget externalities like the local press or the noisome fans for the moment). I mean, what organization has the clout to make Onion stories come true, where a team can, by virtue of the strength of it’s coffers, effectively purchase the best player at almost any position? He has almost every possible option at his fingertips, because of who the Yankees are. And I don’t want to hear a “well that means he has to make tougher decisions” retort, because that’s BS. The fact that he has these decisions to make is a rare opportunity, and allows him to shop for whatever he wants. That doesn’t make creativity a very big job requirement, and it shows. To me, at least. Just because Cashman is able to beat down his trading partners doesn’t make him creative, as far as I am concerned, since he’s got deals available to him whether he thinks them up or not. And he’s able to negotiate downward because he has the sporting universe’s largest ATM at his disposal, and that’s quite often much more valuable than prized prospects.
Now, Epstein may be in second place in the job-easiness standings, by my own standards, but the magic number for Cash is already zero, to conjure up pennant race images.
Theo:
“Came close on a lot of things, but that’s the nature of these deals,” he said. “Pretty easy to come close, hard to find something that works for both teams.”
post up- since you’re an insider at New Era, please make sure chacon gets a pirate hat that has a pre folded bill. how’s the sales on the yankee leather embossed guido jackets?
This doesn’t have anything to do with trades made and not made, but there no better place to put it right now.
For years, even Red Sox fans conceded Jeter’s greatness and, grudingly, defended him.
Then comes this, and now none of us can argue that Derek Jeter doesn’t stink.
Read on:
Derek Jeter gets his own fragrance
By The Associated Press | July 31, 2006
Derek Jeter cologne is on the way.
Avon Products Inc. has signed the New York Yankees shortstop to a deal in which it will create a men’s fragrance called Driven — “reflecting the unique personality of one of the most driven men in America,” according to a news release from the company.
The fragrance, the first in a line of men’s grooming products bearing Jeter’s name, goes on sale in November.
“I have been very involved with creating this fragrance — everything from the blend of scents to the design of the bottle and logo,” Jeter said in the news release. “I did have some help, however. Because women buy a large percentage of the men’s grooming products sold in the U.S., I asked my mother Dot and sister Sharlee to be part of the project.
“I wanted to make sure the final product was something men would like to wear — and that women would want them to wear.”
The fragrance is a blend of chilled grapefruit, clean oak moss and spice.
SF: The point is, what is and is not available to certain teams is to a certain degree discretionary, and without access to the MLB books, we don’t know how much; it’s not a truncation of the discussion. The GMs, of course, work within these constraints. To say that Theo and Cash have the easiest jobs, I think, is false, because there is no way to remove the “externalities” from their jobs, and these externalities create a dynamic in which case they may not have, to use Seinfeldian parlance, hand. I also find this tenor of this discussion ridiculously condescending, as if the jobs of Cashman or Theo were somehow easy to do. If anyone thinks that’s the case, they’re kidding themselves, and the non-moves by Theo, who is surely as savvy a comer as there is, proves just that. Moreover, one could just as easily argue that, because, say, George Weiss and Branch Rickey had similar advantages over their peers, their jobs were relatively simple and their accomlishments should be understood accordingly.
Today I am disappointed that the Red Sox didn’t make a deal.
Will I be disappointed on Oct. 31? We’ll see.
Will I, on Oct. 31, 2007, or Oct. 31, 2008, be disappointed that the Red Sox didn’t make a deal on Aug. 31, 2006? Probably not.
Well’s return and no game thread? Humph.
Dude, I don’t think they have easy jobs. Hardly. Being a GM of a sports team is brutal. But baseball GMs don’t have a bizarro salary cap. They don’t have “slots” that make no sense and render roster movement cryptic. Baseball GMing is as cut and dry as team management comes in sports, I think. That doesn’t make it easy, of course not. There is a much fuller farm system so player accounting is difficult. The finances are obviously somewhat opaque. But the point is that one guy on the eastern seaboard has an easier job than the other guy. And that much was clear from the last 36 hours.
Derek Jeter cologne is overrated. It has no range of scent, and is really bad to it’s left.
Omar Minaya: also has an easy job, relatively speaking.