The Football Fan Spot

Winners

Yankees

They didn’t NEED anything, but this was simply the Yankees saying to the world, hey, we’re the New York Fucking Yankees and we can do whatever we want. If we want to take a player whose been the face of his franchise for at least the half decade and add him to our bench because we need someone to DH versus lefties, we will. Berkman is an experienced vet who was extremely cheap and can be a valuable, backup 1st baseman, DH, pinch hitter, and occasionally corner outfielder for them down the stretch. Austin Kearns was probably one of the 2 or 3 best hitters on the Indians, but the Yankees add him to, to strength their bench and flex their muscle, and he too was very cheap. Kerry Wood might not be much better than any of their other options in the 8th, but then again he might be, but again it doesn’t matter because they didn’t really give up much. The only thing they lost really was money, but we all know they have plenty of that.

Rangers

I’m no economics expert, but something tells me that a team that has filed for bankruptcy shouldn’t be allowed to add 4 players to their team in the span of a few weeks, but that’s exactly what the Rangers did. It started with Bengie Molina, who solidifies the catcher position for them, and then Cliff Lee for 30 cents on the dollar, who was the ace/best player alive they desperately needed. Then, in the past few days they added infielder Cristian Guzman, who will play second while Ian Kinsler is on the DL, as well as Jorge Cantu, who will play 1st to replace the promising, but struggling Justin Smoak, who went to Seattle as the 25 of the 30 cents to Cliff Lee’s dollar. They’re currently running away with their division and with all of their moves, they’re trying to position themselves to compete with teams like the Rays and Yankees in October.

Angels

They may be out of it now, but the Dan Haren deal was very clearly made with 2011 in mind. Haren is no rental and with the Rangers having key players hit the free agent market this offseason and with Angels star Kendry Morales expected to be good to go for the start of next season, the Angels felt they were a Haren away from being the favorites in the AL West once again in 2011 and they got him for relatively cheap, a backend starter and some middle of the road prospects.

Phillies

Roy Halladay. Cole Hamels. Roy Oswalt. That is what opposing teams will have to face 1-2-3 in the playoffs. Isn’t that scarier than Roy Halladay. Cole Hamels. Joe Blanton. I thought so. The offense still needs to come together and of course they still need to make the playoffs, currently trailing the Braves for the division and the Giants for the wild card, but once they get there, they should be in pretty good shape to make a 3rd straight run to the World Series.

Nationals

Well, first they traded the closer that they signed in the offseason for almost nothing to the Twins for their top hitting prospect, catcher Wilson Ramos, the same Wilson Ramos that the Twins were hesitant to give up for Cliff Lee. Then, they kept Adam Dunn. Many places will say that’s a bad move. This is not one of them. Dunn is their best hitter. He is secretly one of the best hitters in the entire world with 6 straight seasons of 38 or more homeruns and 340 career homeruns at age 30. His average is seeing its best days in Washington and even his strikeouts are getting less and less frequent. For any of the amounts I’m hearing that Dunn wants from Washington in an extension, Dunn would be a steal. Dunn enjoys it there and Dunn, with guys like Ryan Zimmerman, Josh Willingham, the world’s top prospect Bryce Harper, as well as Stephen Strasburg, and now Wilson Ramos, this team has the core to become an NL powerhouse in a few years.

Cardinals

Ryan Ludwick is a solid player, but he won’t be missed. The Cardinals have rookie John Jay who is hitting very well this season in limited action. I expect Jay to offer comparable production to Ludwick for the rest of the season. However, Jake Westbrook is perfect for this team. With Westbrook, the Cardinals now have a rotation, with Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, and Jaime Garcia, that is not only one of the best in baseball, but is playoff good. In the playoffs you need 4 good starters. They have 4 good starters. That 5th guy becomes a reliever in the playoffs, meaning he’s not all that important. Westbrook is the type of pitcher the Cardinals and pitching coach Dave Duncan love to work with. To make things sweeter, the Padres also sent back a prospect to St. Louis in the deal.

Astros

Astros fans may not see it this way, but I see them as winners. As they were built before, they stunk. By getting J.A. Happ, who has done nothing but impress me and many others, for Roy Oswalt, they actually got more for Oswalt than the Mariners got for Cliff Lee. Happ is still young at 27 and is 15-5 with a 3.03 ERA in his career. He’s a solid #2 or #3 starter and he’s significantly cheaper than Oswalt. Remember this is the same Happ that the Phillies refused to send to Cleveland last year for Cliff Lee. They also got some decent prospects back for Lance Berkman. I’ve seen teams rebuild by selling their top players way cheap. This team did not do that. The haul they got back for Oswalt and Berkman give their team a much better chance to compete in the future than if they had kept Berkman and Oswalt and let them leave as free agents or get worse due to age.

Padres

They weren’t supposed to be good this year. They are. They weren’t supposed to be buyers at the deadline. They were. They may be a cash scrapped franchise, but they got two nice additions and showed the world that, by the way, they are here to compete this year. Miguel Tejada and Ryan Ludwick don’t jump off the page, but they’re better than what they had in right and at shortstop before and they add some needed pop to what is probably the weakest lineup of any of the true NL contenders.

Dodgers

How is it the teams with the most issues in terms of ownerships got the most players at the deadline? The Rangers filed for bankruptcy and the Dodgers ownership is going through a messy divorce. However, the Dodgers and Rangers both added 4 players. The Dodgers got Scott Podsednik. He’ll fill in for Manny Ramirez until he returns and he’ll be a very valuable 4th outfielder down the stretch. He can run. He can play the field and he’s been there before winning it all with the White Sox in 2005. He also can be a solid pinch hitter. They got Octavio Dotel, who wasn’t the best bullpen arm on the market, but he’s a much needed power righty and can be the setup man that George Sherill was supposed to be. They got Ted Lilly, who adds a true veteran #3 starter to the rotation behind Chad Billingsley and Clayton Kershaw, and solidifies a rotation that, at times, was calling multiple random pitchers from Triple-A every week to make spot starts. They also added Ryan Theriot, who will be a solid replacement for the underachieving Blake DeWitt at 2nd. DeWitt went to the Cubs in the Lilly deal. And by all indications, they didn’t make a single Carlos Santana for Casey Blake mistake, even though they got a lot of their trade partners to eat salary.

Losers

Rays

The Yankees added Lance Berkman, Austin Kearns, and Kerry Wood because they did. The Rays needed to make a move even before they did that. They didn’t make a move, unless you count trading for Chad Qualls and his 8.15. They needed a bat for the lineup and an arm for the ‘pen and unless you count Qualls, they didn’t really do either. They needed Adam Dunn or, at the very least, Lance Berkman, and got neither.

White Sox

They needed someone like Adam Dunn, Prince Fielder, or even Lance Berkman. They got none of them. They didn’t need Edwin Jackson. They got him. I’m not sure Jackson is an upgrade for the rest of the season over 23 year-old Daniel Hudson, one of the White Sox top prospects, who they sent to Arizona for Jackson. In 4 starts this year, Hudson was 1-1 with a 4.56 ERA, 18 strikeouts, and 12 walks.

Twins

So they were hesitant to trade Wilson Ramos to Seattle for Cliff Lee, but they’ll send him to Washington for Matt Capps. Capps doesn’t even really fill a need. Jon Rauch has converted 21 of 25 saves and has a 2.97 ERA in 39.1 innings. They may have needed a late inning reliever, but they didn’t need to trade their top prospect for a closer and convert their closer to a late inning reliever. I know they didn’t need Ramos, with Joe Mauer at the big league level already for many, many years, but they could have swapped him for a bat, maybe a guy like Adam Dunn, or a starter or just keep him until the offseason and see who opens up on the market. Ramos was a highly sought after prospect and they sold him way too cheap and they still didn’t add a starter to the rotation, which was extremely necessary for them.

Tigers

With the injuries they’ve had in recent weeks, including most notably Magglio Ordonez, this team needed to add another bat to the mix and they didn’t. They’re currently 52-52 and 7 games back and it’s not looking good for them this season.

Blue Jays

They have a guy in Jose Bautista whose value will never be higher. He was a perfect sell high candidate for them. He’s likely a one year wonder as a result of playing in Toronto, where he is hitting 70 points better and hitting homeruns twice as frequently as on the road. They could have gotten a ton for him, but they didn’t want to move him. They also had huge asking prices for two late innings relievers, including Scott Downs, one of the most sought after arms on the market, and ended up getting nothing for them.

Orioles

Trading Miguel Tejada was good, but they needed to trade a few other players. This team is currently farther out of 4th place than any team in the league is out of 1st. They stink. Ty Wigginton was one of the most sought after bats on the market, but they didn’t want to move him. Jeremy Guthrie was also a valuable 4th starter type pitcher for a contender and they weren’t listening to offer for him either.

Mariners

What they got back for Cliff Lee was ridiculous. Justin Smoak and some spare parts. Smoak has potential, but at the same time he’s batting .198 this year and is having some major issues at the plate. They almost might have been better off letting Lee go this offseason for draft picks.

Brewers

The Brewers aren’t in any position to win right now and they needed to move one or both of Corey Hart and Prince Fielder, not because they will become free agents in the next few years, but because their farm system at pitching is horrible. They have some decent hitting prospects that could come up and take Hart’s spot or Fielder’s spot, but they have no hope really in the farm system in terms of pitchers and they’re already struggling to get outs.

Giants

They’re kind of the anti-Brewers right now, only they’re actually in position to contend for a playoff spot right now. However, they needed a Prince Fielder or Corey Hart to add to their lineup and they could afford to part with a starting pitcher. With Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez, Madison Bumgartner, and top pitching prospect Zach Wheeler, as well as Barry Zito under contract for a few more years, they could trade one of them and still have 5 good pitchers for the future and 4 good pitchers for this year, which is all you really need in the playoffs. With a good hitter, they could have been a World Series contender this year. Keeping their team as it currently is, they are a playoff contender and will likely stay that way for a while as they have to pay their pitchers and won’t have enough money to ever add to the lineup and take their team to the next level.