July Deadline Dealios of 2017

[Edgy MD]

The fun begins today as the Chicago White Sox trade ace José Quintana ... crosstown to the freaking Cubs!

[tweet:25azh5uj]

[/tweet:25azh5uj]

For what it's worth, Eloy Jiménez is no Happy Meal toy. His prospect rankings are pretty comparable to Amed Rosario.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

WoW. Go Chisox

[Frayed Knot]

That trade looks like it pretty much cleans out the Cubs' (high A) Myrtle Beach roster.
So while no one of the guys headed to the ChiSox are on the verge of the big leagues, Jimenez, as mentioned, is the big prize, a corner OF with plenty of power potential who was in the Top-Ten among
prospects in the recent mid-season updates while still just 20 y/o.


Quintana's not having the year this season like he did in 2016 when he was an AS and got some CY votes, but he's 28 and is under control thru 2018 when almost certainly one of Lackey or Arrieta won't be back.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

MFYs trade one of their Tyler relief pitchers to MIL for AAA 1Bman Cooper, reducing chances that Doodoo goes there

[Frayed Knot]

Garrett Cooper - 6th round draft pick in 2013 out of Auburn U.; 6' 6"/230; 26 y/o; BR/TR
Hitting REAL well in AAA [.366/.428/.652] but keep in mind that it's Colorado Springs although he's hit reasonably well in prior minor league seasons as well but you figure that the emergence of Thames from
Korea made him expendable.
Yanx have tried seven different 1st basemen already this year and I guess this signals that they don't believe Greg Bird is due back anytime soon.
Cooper will probably hit six HRs his first week because that's what big MFY players do even if their careers go on to suck.

IIRC from when we played them, the Brews had no LHRs in their pen so Tyler Webb is probably going to find a lot of work as they try to hold off the Cubs.

[Guest sharpie]

Yankees like to pick up Brewer cast-off first basemen (Carter, now Cooper).

Quintana has actually been pitching well the last 6 weeks or so after a terrible start.

[ashie62]

Surprised Cubs traded Eloy Jimenez.

[seawolf17]

Quintana trade broken on Reddit by KatyPerrysBootyHole & Wetbutt23 last night, by the way: http://deadspin.com/katyperrysbootyhole-and-wetbutt23-broke-the-jose-quinta-1796888271

I guess we figured out one of Ken Rosenthal's Reddit handles.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

That is pretty funny

[Edgy MD]

Rosenthal, by the way, is out of work just at the time of year when he becomes is the hardest working baseball reporter since pre-stroke Peter Gammons.

Just a terrible move, FOX Sports.

[HahnSolo]

Quintana trade broken on Reddit by KatyPerrysBootyHole & Wetbutt23 last night, by the way: http://deadspin.com/katyperrysbootyhole-and-wetbutt23-broke-the-jose-quinta-1796888271 I guess we figured out one of Ken Rosenthal's Reddit handles.

This is amazing.

A CSN Chicago story on how the trade avoided the radars of the national baseball writers was forced to issue an excellent correction: Correction: While no national media had this story, a Reddit user named “wetbutt23" had it last night. CSNChicago.com apologizes to wetbutt23 for the error.

[Frayed Knot]

I've had to apologize for a wet butt a few times in my life, but never to one.



I hadn't heard about Rosenthal's situation and now that I read up on it ... it's kind of weird.
FOX Sports is apparently making all of their "writing" 'video-only' leaving guys like him no place to write and no way to break stories unless there's some accompanying film, and even then
the few things he has filed get buried behind all the stuff from FOX's "stars" like Cowherd who have their own shows and therefore get priority whether the "news" from them is interesting
or not.
Meanwhile, he's still with FOX and will still work their GotW. Just no writing because, after all, why would a news outlet want writing from a writer?





Quintana was long rumored to be a MFY target for this season but apparently there wasn't much of a push from their end on this. Either that or the Cubs just surprised them with their swiftness.

[Lefty Specialist]

I actually found Rosenthal's writing better than his in-person irrelevancies. I don't care who you're wearing that ugly bow-tie for, dude.

[Frayed Knot]

Sideline reporters are, IMO, virtually always irrelevant so I don't hang that particular fault on Rosenthal. It's more the fault of the ingrained thinking that convinces networks they're required to have one.

The bigger story is the idiocy of having the guy who probably breaks more national baseball stories than anyone and his employer decides, right as they're heading into deadline season, to take his main format away.

[ashie62]

Not quite a trade but the Tampa Bay Rays Colby Rasmus has left baseball.

http://www.rotoworld.com/headlines/mlb/544416/colby-rasmus-(hip)-to-step-away-from-mlb?ls=roto:MLB:topheadlines

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

I'm just saying, if Quintana gets you Eloy-plus, then Dutch Boy gets you...

[Edgy MD]

I see your knavery.

[seawolf17]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: I'm just saying, if Quintana gets you Eloy-plus, then Dutch Boy gets you...

...a fucking riot at Citi Field, because he's like the only guy we have left to root for.

[Frayed Knot]

Frayed Knot wrote: Quintana's not having the year this season like he did in 2016 when he was an AS and got some CY votes, but he's 28 and is under control thru 2018 when almost certainly one of Lackey or Arrieta won't be back.

Actually it turns out that Quintana is under a long-term contract with team options for both 2019 & 2020 so the Cubs can get up to 3-1/2 years of use out of him at reasonable rates:
$8.5 / $10.5 / $11.5 for 2018/19/20
So now the question remains whether he's going to be the 3.5 - 5.0 WAR/year pitcher he was from 2013-16 or the 0.9 WAR guy he is this year.

[Ceetar]

Frayed Knot wrote: Sideline reporters are, IMO, virtually always irrelevant so I don't hang that particular fault on Rosenthal. It's more the fault of the ingrained thinking that convinces networks they're required to have one. The bigger story is the idiocy of having the guy who probably breaks more national baseball stories than anyone and his employer decides, right as they're heading into deadline season, to take his main format away.

It wouldn't surprise me if you get very little pageviews/clicks on the few minutes of early news on a trade versus the yelling (or in a more sane world, discussion) about it 20 minutes later.

[Frayed Knot]

For an [u:860aulv1]UN[/u:860aulv1]-deal in July comes news that the BoSox have DFA'd Pablo Sandoval 2-1/2 seasons into his 5 year/$95 million deal.
Total return for their investment: 575 ABs, 14 HRs, .237/.286/.360 -- essentially a replacement level player and even a negative one once his (lack of) defense is factored in.
A hunnert mil just don't buy what it used to. Sandoval turns 31 next month.


Tough to find a worse recent FA signing than this one and, while I'm not going to claim I saw a disaster of this proportion coming, it did seem to me back when he was signed like the Sox had
uncharacteristically abandoned their Moneyball-ish tendancies and instead were buying a wee bit too much into Sandoval's 'clutchness' factor given his playoff record for the Giants.
And maybe the bigger problem is that they traded away his logical replacement over the winter in Travis Shaw (now tearing things up for Milwaukee) for some bullpen help, Tyler Thornton, who's
missed the entire 2017 season to date due to shoulder (Thoracic Outlet) surgery

[Edgy MD]

Putting aside re-signing deals (*cough* Wright *cough*), I like the B.J. Upton deal for free agent futility, if only because the Braves had to throw in Craig Kimbrel to get rid of him.

[Frayed Knot]

And unlike most Atlanta deals, even when they seem to be just dumping salary, they didn't get much useful back in that trade.
In the meantime I've lost track of who's paying BJ -- now Melvin -- NOT to play this year as 2017 is the final year of that five-year deal he signed w/the Braves. It's some combo of the Braves,
Padres, and/or Blue Jays.

After the Jays released him in April he hooked on with the Giants on a minor league deal but is listed as having played just one game w/AAA Sacramento. Still just 32 y/o

[Edgy MD]

Francisco Rodriguez, continually looking to break his personal best when it comes to wearing out welcomes, has been released by the Nationals before appearing in a single game.

[Frayed Knot]

So corner OF JD Martinez nets the Tigers three prospects from the DBacks.
Martinez, 4 months younger than Bruce, was hitting .305 with 16 home runs and 39 RBIs for Detroit but played just 57 games this season.
Adjust your Granderson and/or Bruce WATPs accordingly.


MLB.com: Arizona sent prospects Dawel Lugo, Sergio Alcantara and Jose King to Detroit.
Lugo, a 22-year-old third baseman and shortstop, was ranked the D-backs' No. 4 prospect by MLBPipeline.com and is currently in AA
Alcantara (High-A) the D-backs' No. 15 prospect, is a 21-year-old shortstop.
King is an 18-year-old shortstop.

[ashie62]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: I'm just saying, if Quintana gets you Eloy-plus, then Dutch Boy gets you...

If Dutch-boy is Nimmo I would have to disagree.

[ashie62]

Astros Carlos Correa out 6-8 weeks with a thumb.

Asdrubal Cabrera, how bout it Astros.

[Edgy MD]

Thumbs are the worst.

Unless they think there's a chance that Correa won't entirely return, there's no need for Houston to deal, as they're up by 15 1/2.

[seawolf17]

Edgy MD wrote: Thumbs are the worst. Unless they think there's a chance that Correa won't entirely return, there's no need for Houston to deal, as they're up by 15 1/2.

I think they need a clubhouse leader type like Cabrera. And Granderson. And Duda. And Harvey.

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah I can't see Houston panicking here, especially with Correa at least slated to be back by early-mid-September.

btw, this was one of those deals where he hurt it initially on a (say it with me folks) head-first slide into home!! back in early July but continued to play with it until re-hurting it on a swing.
So it turns out that he lost a couple weeks of potential rehab time. Wonder if Houston fans are blaming the doctors and/or training staff?