So another Trade Deadline has come and gone. How did this year’s moves sit with you? Are you happy with the moves made? Or even more importantly the moves not made? I was really sad to see the Oriole’s decided to stand still as the team needs a desperate infusion of young talent in the absolutely barren farm system. Talk is the offers just weren’t there, but it’s really hard to imagine they couldn’t have done something. How did your team fare this year? Do you look at any other teams like the Dodgers or Nationals or Yankees any differently than you did a few weeks ago?
Royals 2, Orioles 7 – Prof: Dylan Bundy went eight very impressive innings, allowing only three hits total. Seth Smith had 3 RBI and Tim Beckham had 2 as Baltimore cruised to victory.
Tigers 4, Yankees 3 – Prof: John Hicks and Justin Upton put a Tiger in their tanks, so to speak, and squeezed Detroit to a W against the AL East leaders with home runs.
Reds 9, Pirates 1 – Prof: Speedy Billy Hamilton hit a three run homer and a triple to help Cincinnati go up over Pittsburgh. The Pirates’ feel-good story, Jameson Taillon, isn’t doing so well these days. Health-wise, he’s just fine, but baseball-wise, he’s really bombing. Taillon has an ERA of 12.18 since the All-Star Break.
Rays 6, Astros 4 – Scouts: What a night for Evan Longoria! Longoria came up to bat in the 9th needing a double to complete the cycle, and it came down to a crew-chief review which eventually went into Evan’s favor.
Nationals 6, Marlins 7 – Prof: Interesting game. Washington got all of their runs in the second inning, including a three run homer by starting pitcher Max Scherzer! Then, in the second inning, Scherzer pulled himself out of the game because of a messed up neck. That’s where the Marlins came in. The runs started slow, then doubled in the next two innings. Super cool when that happens.
Twins 0, Padres 3 – Scouts: What is going on with the Twins lately? They really don’t seem like they want to win anymore. Can I get some insight here?
Indians 10, Red Sox 12 – Prof: Whew! This one was something else. Singles, doubles, homers, homers, doubles, homers, doubles, more homers and Craig Kimbrel threw a wild pitch, and still won the game. Time to break out my favorite gif.
Giants 10, Athletics 4 – Scouts: Johnny Cueto suffered a setback in his rehab, however the Giants are still optimistic he’ll pitch again this season. In his stead, Jeff Samardzija and company put up a 10 spot on the A’s.
Phillies 1, Angels 7 – Scouts: Albert Pujols proved he can still put on a show picking up 5 RBIs on a 3-run HR and a 2-run double. Pujols is just one HR shy of Sammy Sosa for 8th all-time.
Dodgers 3, Braves 2 – Prof: The Braves called up two youngsters for last night’s game, Lucas Sims (pitcher) and Ozzie Albies (wunderkind of the future). Here is a very, very cool stat:
Yeah, I’m feeling good about the future!
Mets 4, Rockies 5 – Scouts: The lolMets gave up one in the 8th to tie, and a walk-off single to Nolan Arenado, who had already hit a 3 run jack earlier in the game.
Cardinals 2, Brewers 3 – Prof: The Brewers scored all of their runs in the first inning, and St. Louis tried to play catch up. Milwaukee was buoyed by a strong outing from Jimmy Nelson, and bolstered by the excellent work of Corey “Able” Knebel, who recorded his 19th save of the season.
Blue Jays 8, White Sox 4 – Prof: As always, there is a player of the game, and for Toronto that player was Josh Donaldson. A homer, a sac fly, and a double to deep center.
Mariners 8, Rangers 7 – Scouts: Texas fell behind by 5 early, but attempted a comeback that came up just a little short. It’s been a rough few weeks for Texas. But at least you got a good haul for Darvish right?
Diamondbacks 4, Cubs 16 – Scouts: Holy shit the Cubs put a whoopin on the D’Backs! Even Jon Lester took one out of the yard, something he’s never done before! Rizzo homered twice! The Cubs are now 14-3 since the All-Star break and are starting to look like the team that won the WS last year.
The Astros essentially sat out the deadline, and there is some noise in the Houston press over it. Liriano is an improvement in the bullpen (their LH situation was a disaster), but they need the starters to log more innings. Some of those guys are already showing signs of being gassed in the BP. And with your #1 and #2 pitchers bouncing on and off the DL, you gotta be worried.
Time will tell. Luhnow told the press he hadn’t “fallen in love” with his prospect list, but he definitely couldn’t bring himself to pull the trigger on the good deal. If I were to guess, a weakness for him may be the perfect being the enemy of the good. I get the feeling that if a deal isn’t a coup for the Astros, then he just really isn’t into it.
But we all know the playoffs are a crapshoot no matter what you do. Que sera sera.
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Apparently they went after Britton hard and their GM thought they had a deal, but supposedly Peter Angelos nixed the deal. Alternatively I’m also hearing that the deal was cut due to health concerns for the players returned. Either way, it looks like they were making a valiant effort but sometimes these things just fall apart. Unfortunately the fact that there is a deadline means a lot of teams wait until the last second to drive up prices. But if anything goes wrong, then there isn’t enough time to fix it.
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The Twins are no mystery. They’ve scored more runs than 5 of the 15 American League teams and have allowed more runs than all but 3 of the American League teams. After a fun first half it looks like their final record will reflect that.
But baseball is really really weird so we might yet enjoy the sight of stat heads jumping off cliffs at the end of the year.
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And landing stats first.

Greetings from London, BTW. Cricket in a few days….
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When you play the limeys a game of cricket ask them this: do they think this is the writing of a man getting ready to take a stand, or is this merely the second thoughts of a man who voted to indirectly take away the health care of, and in effect kill, millions of his fellow citizens including me.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/31/my-party-is-in-denial-about-donald-trump-215442
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All I will say about last night’s game is that it was awfully nice of the Nats to suspend their normal policy of “Fuck you, we only talk about injuries after the game” and instead give us an update on Scherzer about 30 minutes after he left the game.
I’m pretty sure thousands of fans had to come in off the ledge after that.
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I guess Max is going to see a chiropractor? Must be quite the crick in his neck.
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Stupid hotel pillows. Word is that he went to Target and bought himself a new one to use for the rest of this road trip (and perhaps subsequent ones).
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A little bit of mediocre talent acquired at the deadline, but Baltimore continues to trade away international free agent money like a drunken sailor. No wonder the farm system is puny.
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That and a long list of trades where they’ve given up quality young talent in exchange for negative war free agents to be.
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Hiya! Good to see you 🙂
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