Deadline Deals 2006

[seawolf17]

We mentioned the Aubrey Huff-to-Houston deal in another thread, but a doozie came down today:

The Nationals acquired outfielder Austin Kearns, shortstop Felipe Lopez and right-handed pitcher Ryan Wagner from the Reds in exchange for right-handed pitcher Gary Majewski, left-handed pitcher Bill Bray, infielder Brendan Harris, shortstop Royce Clayton and right-handed pitcher Daryl Thompson.

Last season for Washington, Majewski recorded a 2.93 ERA while leading the pitching staff with 79 appearances, a franchise record for a rookie. During the first half of this season he went 3-2 with a 3.58 ERA in 46 games.

Bray, 23, made his Major League debut this season and has posted a 3.91 ERA in 19 relief appearances.

This season for the Nats, Clayton is hitting .269 with 22 doubles and 8 stolen bases in 87 appearances.

Harris, 25, has appeared in 17 games for the Nationals and hit .283 with five home runs and 32 RBI in 59 games for New Orleans.

Thompson, 20, was selected by the Expos in the eighth round of the 2003 first-year player draft. This season for Vermont in the Class A New York-Penn League he went 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA in 4 starts.

Kearns, 26, this season for the Reds hit .274 with 16 home runs and 50 RBI in 87 appearances.

Lopez, 26, hit .268 with nine home runs and 30 RBI in 85 games during the season's first half.

Wagner, 23, has spent the entire season in the minor leagues at Louisville, where he has posted a 6.34 ERA in 35 relief appearances.

The Reds recalled outfielder Chris Denorfia and infielder William Bergolla from Louisville to fill the roster spots of Kearns and Lopez on Thursday night.

[MFS62]

I wonder if they got Kearns to replace the rumored-to-be-on-the-block Soriano? If they'll keep both, they're putting together a nice lineup.
Stay tuned.

Later

[Guest Edgy DC]

I know I'm misreading this, but at first glance, the Reds are getting taken.

[TransMonk]

I agree, I don't get it.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

That's how it looked to me, too. And the Reds are more in the 2006 race than the Nationals are. They're 1.5 games out of the Wild Card, and DC is 9 back.

[seawolf17]

I agree; I thought so immediately, but I wanted to see if maybe I was seeing things wrong. They gave up a masher (Kearns) and a 20/20 shortstop (Lopez), PLUS their 2004 #1 draft pick who struck out 148 guys in 71 innings his senior year in college (Wagner) for Frankenstein (Majewski), a guy with a 5+ ERA in AAA last year (Bray), a middle infield "prospect" who's now in his fourth organization in two years (Harris), an old guy (Clayton), and a 20-year-old (Thompson).

[Guest OlerudOwned]

Edgy DC wrote: I know I'm misreading this, but at first glance, the Reds are getting taken.

No misread, this is a pretty lopsided trade.

Clayton + Speed + Power - 10 years = Felipe Lopez

Majewski is a good relief pitcher who now gets to pitch in a bandbox.

Bray is a young LOOGY.

Kearns reminds me of Nady.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

From Joe Kay of the Associated Press:

]Cincinnati's bullpen has dragged it down the last two months, giving up the most homers in the majors. The Reds came out of the All-Star break at 45-44, trailing St. Louis by four games in the NL Central and in the middle of the wild-card race.

]Majewski, a 26-year-old righty, was 3-2 with a 3.58 ERA in 46 games. He led the Nationals with 79 appearances last season and had a 2.93 ERA. Bray, a 23-year-old lefty, was the 13th overall pick in the June 2004 draft and was considered one of the Nationals' top pitching prospects. He was 1-1 with a 3.91 ERA in 19 relief appearances this season, his first in the majors. In order to get them, the Reds had to give up two of their everyday players. The 26-year-old Kearns was hitting .274 with 16 homers and 50 RBIs. The right fielder was considered one of the team's building blocks under Bowden, who was fired midway through the 2003 season. They listened to offers from other teams over the winter, but decided to hold onto Kearns. Lopez, also 26, is hitting .268 with nine homers and 30 RBIs. He failed to improve upon his breakthrough season last year, when he made his first All-Star team.

[Willets Point]

]The Nationals acquired outfielder Austin Kearns, shortstop Felipe Lopez and right-handed pitcher Ryan Wagner from the Reds in exchange for right-handed pitcher Gary Majewski, left-handed pitcher Bill Bray, infielder Brendan Harris, shortstop Royce Clayton and right-handed pitcher Daryl Thompson.

That looks like a classic MOFO WATP.

[seawolf17]

Yancy Street Gang wrote: Lopez, also 26, is hitting .268 with nine homers and 30 RBIs. He failed to improve upon his breakthrough season last year, when he made his first All-Star team.

Yeah, you definitely want to give up a 26-year-old who hits .260 for a 36-year-old who hits .260. Brilliant.

In the Reds' defense, it does open up space for my birthday buddy Ryan Freel, who deserves more time, and for Chris Denorfia, who's one of their top OF prospects.

Deal still probably sucks if I'm a Reds fan.

[Guest OlerudOwned]

http://www.redreporter.com/story/2006/7/13/15430/5675#commenttop

These Reds fans agree, wolf.

[Guest Rotblatt]

An absolute steal for the Nats. Wow. If they don't start unloading guys like Hernandez & Soriano, they could contend for a wild card slot this year, 9 games out or no.

And hell, long-term, they're looking mighty dangerous.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Speaking of Nationals and trades, this is from Ken Davidoff in Newsday:

]Mets. Everything in Omar Minaya's history says he'll acquire a pitcher between now and July 31. He'd rather be overly proactive than overly passive. The glaring need lies in the starting rotation, of course, and there are very few upgrades available from the quintet the Mets currently employ. In return for Livan Hernandez, the Nationals still wonder whether they can get Lastings Milledge or Mike Pelfrey. They can't, of course. Washington must be motivated to move Hernandez's salary in return for little talent, and then Minaya can really negotiate with his counterpart Jim Bowden. Expect the Nats to relent as we approach July 31, and for Minaya to reunite the Hernandez half-brothers, just as he did in Montreal three years ago. Pelfrey, meanwhile, will start for the Mets next week, giving Minaya a better idea of how badly he needs another starter. Pedro Martinez has two and a half months to work his way into peak form, at whatever pace he desires, while the position players merely have to avoid accidents of all kinds.

[Guest Edgy DC]

First of all, Majeski isn't Frankestein, he's Inigo Montoya.

Now, the Nats have a pretty accomplished bullpen at first glance, and the Reds a pretty weak one, but please don't tell me this deal is about muscling up Cincy's pen. The difference between your typical Reds relief pitcher and your typical Nats relief pitcher is the ballparks as much as anything. The Reds bullpen isn't killing them so much as their ballpark. It's also helping them to kill other people's bullpens. ("You down wit' OPB? Yeah you know me!")

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

="Yancy Street Gang"]Speaking of Nationals and trades, this is from Ken Davidoff in Newsday: ]Mets. Everything in Omar Minaya's history says he'll acquire a pitcher between now and July 31..

Yeah. Everything except his entire track record as Mets GM (last year) when yutzes like Davidoff said the exact same thing.

(Not that I disagree they'll try and trade for some help, just the framing of the argument).

That is a doozy of a deal. They must really like Majeski

[Frayed Knot]

Majewski is a pretty good reliever and the Reds pen needed help bad - but they must really like those young Washingtonians (who I know nothing about) or this trade seems really odd to me too. You would have though Kearns to be safe when they dealt Wily Mo Pena early in the season.
But this all looks like the team in contention is trading for the future and verse-vica. Clayton's OK for instance but he's 64 years old. Sheeet, he was already a veteren when he became the first ever strikeout victim of teacher-turned-pitcher Jim Morris and that was about 8 years ago.

[MFS62]

Got a message from my cyber-pal in DC (NO, the other one) who said that this may mean that Jose Guillen may be the one to be dealt by the Nats, not Soriano.

Later

[metirish]

St.Louis pick up Jeff Weaver.

[smg58]

The Reds/Nats deal is the kind of trade I'd veto in the Fantasy League. Righty relievers with a 3.58 ERA in a pitchers' park are not difference makers. Clayton for Lopez is an enormous downgrade. I've always thought Kearns was overrated, but a lot of teams desired him in the offseason who probably assumed he wasn't available right now. So I guess the deals for Arroyo and Ross were more dumb luck than the Reds' GM knowing something the rest of us didn't.

[smg58]

And they STILL can't find room for Ryan Freel in today's starting line-up. If Valentin tails off I'd be on the phone with them very quickly. They can obviously be had.

[MFS62]

Confirmed.

Nats sign OF Luis Matos this morning. Marlon Byrd DFAed.


Wonder if the Yanks will give him a try? At least he's a real centerfielder.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

Yanx don't need a CFer.
They need a corner guy with some pop and Byrd doesn't fit that at all.

Byrd could make someone a decent bench player but I'm not sure he's looking at much beyond that at this point. Was a fairly highly touted prospect a coupla years back.

[Guest Edgy DC]

"Worst trade of the decade gets Mets off hook."

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

I saw the beginning of the local Cincinnati broadcast before Tuesday's game, and the Reds announcer (I forget his name) was going on about the benefits of the deal.

The big plusses: It improves the bullpen and makes the team younger. And if you don't make the team younger, you'll always be having to replace older players.

He finally switched to devil's advocate mode, and asked himself, "Does this make the Reds better for July and August? Probably not. But it does make them better for next April!"

I don't know if that's true or not, but even if it is, why are the Reds making next year deals when they're currently leading the wild card race?

[metirish]

The people that like the deal will say that the Reds pen was brutal and that they were not going to the playoffs unless it got revamped,I don;t think people will be talking about this deal beyond this season but the Kazmir deal will be talked about forever probably.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Yes, the Kazmir thing is going to linger. Just like fans still lament Joe Foy and Jim Fregosi, they won't let go of Victor Zambrano either.

It was a bad trade, and as time goes on it keeps getting worse. We (collectively) need to move on, though. I don't know why fans have to spend more time thinking about how bad the Nolan Ryan trade was than they spend thinking about how great the Keith Hernandez trade was.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I think I do know.

[Elster88]

Yancy Street Gang wrote: Yes, the Kazmir thing is going to linger. Just like fans still lament Joe Foy and Jim Fregosi, they won't let go of Victor Zambrano either. It was a bad trade, and as time goes on it keeps getting worse. We (collectively) need to move on, though. I don't know why fans have to spend more time thinking about how bad the Nolan Ryan trade was than they spend thinking about how great the Keith Hernandez trade was.

Y'see the thing is (or at least I think the thing is, I'm too young to know) that no one new Ryan would become that nasty, right? Were people against the trade at the time? I could be wrong here but that's why I think the Kazmir deal is different. The majority of the people I know were immediately thinking, "What the HELL are they DOING?"

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

True, the Ryan deal didn't provoke instant head-scratching. Fregosi was an All-Star shortstop who was finally going to solve the Mets third-base problem.

[Zvon]

from CBSsportsline:

Kansas City Royals traded 2B Ruben Gotay to the New York Mets for 2B Jeff Keppinger.