Saturday, August 25, 2012

Dodgers & Red Sox Complete Historic Post-Deadline Trade

by Kevin Zeni

Had the Dodgers completed the season having only acquired relievers Brandon League and Randy Choate, outfielder Shane Victorino, shortstop Hanley Ramirez, and starter Joe Blanton, that alone would have been a huge haul for a streaky team with playoff aspirations. However, what began to transpire on Friday very well may give the Dodgers the best lineup in the National League, while also supplying a veteran, playoff-tested arm to a rotation that just lost Chad Billingsley to an elbow injury last night.

After claiming first baseman Adrian Gonzalez and starting pitcher Josh Beckett off waivers from the Red Sox, the workings of a major trade began to unfold. By Friday afternoon, the news began to break that the Dodgers and Red Sox had agreed in principle to send Gonzo, Beckett, left fielder Carl Crawford, and utility infielder Nick Punto to Los Angeles in exchange for first baseman James Loney, minor league pitchers Rubby De La Rosa and Allen Webster, infielder Ivan De Jesus Jr. and outfielder Jerry Sands.


Complicating the trade was the matter of Crawford's no-trade clause, which included the Dodgers, and Beckett's 10-and-5 rights, which give him authority to decline being traded. (Note: 10-and-5 refers to a player that has been in the majors for 10 years, with the last five being with his current team.) On the Dodgers' side of things, De La Rosa was claimed by the Toronto Blue Jays, while he was put on the waiver wire, therefore, he had to be pulled back and optioned to Triple-A Albuquerque, where he will remain until he is eligible to head to Boston as the "player to be named later." That being said, all obstacles had been cleared up by Saturday morning, allowing the deal to move forward.

For the Red Sox, this trade is essentially a salary dump, with the team agreeing to pay only $14 million of the approximately $270 million dollars of current and future salaries the Dodgers are taking on. On the field, Loney gives Boston an immediate option to replace Gonzalez at first until the offseason, while Sands and De Jesus give the team sorely-needed middle infield and outfield depth and De La Rosa and Webster, the Dodgers' second-ranked prospect, give the Sox a pair of high-quality, young arms to add to their starting rotation in the next year or two.


Meanwhile, Gonzalez finally gives Los Angeles a power-hitting, slick-fielding first baseman to replace the struggling Loney, a battle-tested starter in Beckett, who will likely slide into Billingsley's rotation spot until he is healthy, a potentially top-tier left fielder and top of the order bat in Crawford, who will sit out the rest of this season after having Tommy John surgery on his left throwing arm, and a dependable utility infielder in Punto, who will fill the role of Jerry Hairston Jr., who is out for the remainder of the season after undergoing hip surgery.

While I would have liked to not have to take on Crawford and his behemoth contract, he could prove to be a good option in left field next year, with Shane Victorino becoming a free agent at season's end. In any case, he would at least keep the position warm until Yasiel Puig shows that he is ready to make the jump up from the minors.

At the end of the day, this move shows that new Dodgers ownership is not afraid to take on massive amounts of salary if it means they have a better chance of bringing the World Series trophy back to Los Angeles.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Clemens Returning to the Mound Saturday Night

by Kevin Zeni

With his perjury trial having ended a few months ago, former MLB pitcher Roger Clemens has thrust his name back into the spotlight with the breaking news that he will be returning to the mound in a pitching performance in his native Texas.



No, the former All-Star fire-baller will not be suiting up for the Astros, Rangers, nor one of their minor league affiliates, but rather for the independent Sugar Land Skeeters of the Atlantic League.

The 50-year-old reportedly impressed current Skeeters special adviser and former Houston Astros general manager Tal Smith in a workout earlier today, leading to his signing to a pitching staff that already features former major leaguers in Scott Kazmir, Jason Lane and Tim Redding.



It is expected that Clemens will suit up for the Skeeters Friday night and make his first, and possibly only, on-field appearance for the team on Saturday.

It will be interesting to see how Clemens performs this weekend, since a good outing may lead a major league team to take a chance on him for the stretch run to the playoffs. However, I believe that this is more a publicity stunt staged by both the Skeeters and Clemens himself to make their brand more relevant in the sporting world.

Click here to read the Sugar Land Skeeters' official press release.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Dwight Howard Mega-Trade Breakdown

by Kevin Zeni

The Dwight Howard drama in Orlando is finally, mercifully over, with the much-vilified big man being sent to the Los Angeles Lakers in a complicated four-team trade. Rather than taking up paragraph after paragraph attempting to describe who went where as clearly as possible, I made it easy for my readers by developing the following visual breakdown:



 
As most of my followers are in or have ties to Los Angeles, I'll start with how the Lake Show came out in this deal first. For starters, a healthy Dwight Howard offers a dramatic upgrade defensively and is a more reliable contributor on a nightly basis than Andrew Bynum had been with the team. While Bynum may have a better offensive skill set, Howard won't be counted upon as much for his offense, as the Lakers will also have Pau Gasol, Kobe Bryant, and Steve Nash to handle the bulk of the scoring. Christian Eyenga is a nice developmental small forward, but wouldn't have won a spot on the team out of camp, while Josh McRoberts's backup forward role can be filled by the incoming Earl Clark. The addition of Chris Duhon, also gives the Lakers a good backup point guard option to compete against Steve Blake.



For the 76ers, they lose an All-Star and Olympic-quality player in Andre Iguodala, but with Evan Turner already in place and Jason Richardson arriving in the trade, reasonable replacements are in place. Meanwhile, the addition of Bynum, who lives just an hour away and will likely remain with the Sixers long-term, offers a dramatic upgrade over Nikola Vucevic and the other centers the team had in place. With this team likely becoming a perennial contender in the East, Moe Harkless and a future first-round pick were an easy throw-in to bring in a potential face of the franchise in Bynum.

As far as Denver is concerned, they bring in a great defender and dependable scorer in Iguodala by dealing from positions of depth with Arron Afflalo and Al Harrington. The Nuggets have one of the deepest teams in the league and both Afflalo and Harrington had down years last season, thus making them more expendable.



Finally, the Magic rid themselves of the Howard headache and clear the bad contract of Richardson off their books, while receiving a large group of solid players looking to prove themselves on what will most certainly be a bad team looking to earn a high lottery pick next offseason. With the 76ers, Lakers, and Nuggets all being playoff teams, it's highly unlikely the future first-round picks they will be receiving will ever be high on the draft board, so it will take some clever drafting or trading of the picks by new GM Rob Hennigan to turn them into a potential franchise type player.

Unless Hennigan has something left up his sleeve, it appears that Orlando is the only loser in this trade, with the Lakers, Sixers, and Nuggets all receiving at least one piece that pushes them closer to a championship.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Hamilton Closing in on Steals Record

by Kevin Zeni

Top-rated Cincinnati Reds prospect Billy Hamilton pulled to within 14 steals of the Minor League Baseball single-season record last night, after swiping three bags in the Pensacola Blue Wahoo's  5-0 win over the Chattanooga Lookouts.



Hamilton now has 131 steals between Double-A Pensacola and Advanced-A with the Bakersfield Blaze this year. With 23 games remaining on the Blue Wahoo's schedule, the speedy shortstop currently sits third on the all-time MiLB single-season steals list, behind just Vince Coleman, who stole 145 bases for the Macon Redbirds in 1983, and Donnell Nixon, who amassed 144 steals for Bakersfield that same year.

Click here to view Billy Hamilton's MiLB.com player page.