I would probably lean towards him being in a position to know more about his own prospects than most general managers. However, I think the lack of deals yesterday involving any players of relevance should lead us to believe that a trade was either not to be had or that the sellers overplayed their hand and were asking for too much in return. I'm not sure I would say sorely, but a big bat would've been nice. I'd have loved to get Manny, Huff, Alou or Dunn, but apparently it just wasn't feasible. I think the fact that there were no players of real consequence dealt proves that there were no good deals available. If you're going to blame Pupura for yesterday, you have to blame all other GMs who had needs but didn't make a trade for a huge bat (or pitcher for that matter). I'm sorry, but the OFs that were dealt do not qualify, with the possible exception of Lawton. I'm not sure it was our biggest need, but it was something that needed to be addressed. With Roger having back issues, Backe on the DL, Pettitte a season removed from elbow surgery, Roy admitting that he's pitching with dead legs and arms, and currently having two rookies bring up the rear of the rotation, a starting pitcher was a need. I'm glad it didn't go through, personally, but it was still a need.
Excellent article by Jayson Stark regarding the nonsense that went on around the trade deadline: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=2121261
In summation, btw, it was Moyer & Winn for Burke & an undetermined pitcher(s) - Astacio, Nieve, Harville, other. Moyer nixed the deal before it was agreed upon. Trading Lane for Lawton doesn't fill the hole in the OF, you still have Burke/OP/Lamb/Bruntlett playing LF. Plus, Lane's due to go on a tear.
Buck: where did you read that? Will Carroll over at BP said it was Nieve and a lower pitching prospect for Moyer... I didn't realize that Burke and Winn were also in the deal. Winn obviously wouldn't help with power, but certainly he would've been a nice upgrade for the rest of this season...
Some quotes from the Jayson Stark article that should calm down the internet haters. "Most anticlimactic thing I've ever been a part of," grumbled an executive of one contender. "Ridiculous," moaned another contender's assistant GM. "What a waste of a lot of people's time," muttered an official of yet another club. Four deals. Four. Incredible. Want to know what happened? Here's what: • Way too little supply and way too much demand. • A crummy free-agent class on the horizon that produced almost no decent rent-a-players. • Two dozen teams that apparently thought of themselves as still being in some kind of race. • And a group of non-contenders that apparently thought the definition of "seller's market" was: Give us your wallet, your watch, your ATM card, your 401K and your entire Baseball America Top 10 Prospect List. And the article goes on... Two sellers who did it wrong Devil Rays and Reds You know the names by heart at this point: Danys Baez. Aubrey Huff. Julio Lugo. Adam Dunn. Austin Kearns. Junior Griffey. Sean Casey. They're all names that have kept Rumor Central percolating for weeks now. So how come, after all that blabbing, not oneof them got traded? Let's just say a bunch of teams were fuming at the two general managers -- Tampa Bay's always-embattled Chuck LaMar and Cincinnati's Dan O'Brien. The complaints about LaMar -- a Deadline Day tradition -- were a little different than usual, though. This time, LaMar really had teams convinced he was going to move Baez and Huff for sure, and probably Lugo, too. But after seeing mega-prospects like Hanley Ramirez, Lastings Milledge, Yasmiero Petit, Jon Lester and Shoppach dangled before his eyes in the Manny-palooza talks, LaMar was unwilling to lower his sights even a little bit when it came time to trade his guys separately. Then, on Sunday, he started telling teams Lugo wasn't even available "after telling everyone he'd move him," said one front-office man. "I'm always amazed," added one frustrated GM, "by a team that needs that much help, as bad as it is, and doesn't do anything." But at least LaMar set the ground rules early on. If he didn't get your team's best prospect, he wasn't trading with you. He said that from the start -- and stuck to it. The Reds, on the other hand, sent mixed signals in all directions -- and aggravated more teams than anyone else in baseball. "I don't understand what they were doing," said an executive of one contender. "I thought we made real solid offers for a couple of their guys, and we'd never get a response. They'd never give you names of guys they want. They wouldn't tell you what they were trying to do. You were never sure who they wanted. You could never tell whether guys you were talking about were available. And they might not even call back." At least the Reds did make one decent trade (Joe Randa for promising pitching prospects Justin Germano and Travis Chick). How the Devil Rays could stand pat, on the other hand, is a bigger mystery to many teams than the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Now that is the one that really hurts. The sCrUBS got Lawton for bassically Dubois. Poop could have done better or we could have gotten Lawton for Coolbaugh and/or cash.
I am not sure if the Bucks would want Coolbaugh with his age situation but I do not think it would have been out of reach if we added cash to the deal. Matt is 34 anyway and will be a FA by year's end. Coolbaugh is having a great year and Matt's value wasn't that high. I am not even sure Gerut will be in the league in 2 years and I think we could have landed Lawton with minimal offer or effort. If not Coolbaugh, we could have offered a younger class 3A low prospect in the mould of Dubois or Gerrut + cash. You know the Bucks would have loved to get cashback in return for Lawton. Oh well whatever....
Of course not. "We said all along that we wanted to get a Major League player back." -- Dave Littlefield, Bucs GM http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/N...t_id=1151990&vkey=news_pit&fext=.jsp&c_id=pit Gerut's only 27, was the '03 AL ROY (coming off a knee injury), is arb-eligible but under club control for a few more seasons. He's no more of a scrub/throwaway/whatever than Jason Lane is, except Gerut's more proven at the MLB level.
Don't know if you saw this on ESPNews today, but Moyer has now rejected a waiver wire trade to the Yankees as well. This guy just doesn't want to go to any contender, does he?
