Just A Few Minor Adjustments
http://www.atomicsportsmedia.com/articles/523/1/Just-A-Few-Minor-Adjustments.html
Peter Doyle
By Peter Doyle
Published on 07/24/2006
The trading deadline is just a week away, and ASM's Peter Doyle has the first last word on what might go down.
Call it baseball’s annual rite of summer. Every year as Major League Baseball’s July 31st trading deadline begins to loom after the All-Star break, the rumor mill begins to churn. By the last week in July, every team in contention is mentioned as being interested in every high-priced talent available from also-ran teams looking to dump salary. This year is no exception as Bobby Abreu, Barry Zito, Alfonso Soriano and Greg Maddux are supposedly changing teams every day.
The problem with this rumor mill is that these deals no longer happen before the trading deadline. Since the team giving up the star player wants a grade-A prospect or two and to dump salary and the team needing the star player wants to not give up the minor league gems and to not drastically increase their payroll, getting a deal done is a tough task. Smaller market teams who were out of contention relied in the past on the richest teams (Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Dodgers and Braves) to relieve them of expensive proven talent in exchange for cheap, unproven minor league talent. The larger-market teams used to be able to lower their expenses by paying a portion of the salary of a high cost player as part of a trade to a contending team.
For the last few years, contending teams have been content to tinker with their rosters by acquiring role players and promoting their own minor league stars rather than making a big splash in the trade market. The Yankees are the most dramatic example of this shift in thought process. Historically the kings of free spending and prospect dealing, the Yankees big response to their starting pitching woes in 2005 was to acquire Shawn Chacon and his 24-45 career record for two marginal pitching prospects. They relied on two of their promoted minor leaguers, Chien-Ming Wang and Aaron Small to fill in the back end of their rotation. Together Chacon, Wang and Small ended up going 25-8 in helping the Yankees win the division, at a total cost of about five million dollars.
This year, the Yankees lost their two star corner outfielders, Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui, to injuries until at least September. In the past, the Yankees would not have hesitated to loot their farm system to get Bobby Abreu and his $13.6 million dollar salary. Thus far the Yankees have lived with 21-year-old Melky Cabrera and 37-year-old Bernie Williams as replacements and are 3½ games out of 1st place and 2½ games out of the wild card. The only outfielder they seem likely to trade for is 38-year-old Reggie Sanders and only if the Royals will take basically nothing in return. Whether the Yankees’ new thriftiness is due to George Steinbrenner slowly handing over the reins or the new collective bargaining agreement which requires the Yankees to share their wealth, it looks like its here to stay.
Since the other big-money teams no longer have to play “Keeping Up with the Yankees”, the price they are willing to pay for big-name, high-salaried players has dropped considerably. On the other side, the teams with the big name players do not want to be seen as getting nothing for their superstar, so they are reluctant to lower their asking price.
Other recent events have affected the way contending teams are reacting to the trading deadline. In 2004 in an effort to bolster their rotation, the Mets traded once-untouchable prospects Ty Wigginton to Pittsburgh for Kris Benson and, most infamously, Scott Kazmir to Tampa Bay for Victor Zambrano. Benson has since been traded to Baltimore and Zambrano is 8-14 with the Mets and is out for the season this year with elbow surgery. Wigginton is now on Tampa Bay and has 16 HR and 52 RBI in 87 games and Kazmir is an all-star with a 10-7 record, 3.40 ERA and 129 strikeouts in 121 innings. At the time, the Kazmir trade was ripped by Mets fans and media alike and the criticism has grown exponentially with Kazmir’s performance this year. Team executives are now petrified of pulling a “Kazmir”, so they are holding on to their minor league stars like pure gold. This year, outfielder Lastings Milledge and pitcher Mike Pelfrey, the crown jewels of the Mets farm system, have been the subject of repeated trade rumors, but the Mets instead have brought them up to the majors to fill in injury-related gaps and the team is running away with their division.
Last season, the Atlanta Braves became the poster team for promoting from within rather than trading for outside big names. After 13 straight division titles, it looked like the Braves were going be home for October. Their starting pitching was no longer the dominant force it had been for years and position players were getting injured seemingly every day. Rather than bankrupt their farm system to obtain major league players, the Braves brought up a crew of minor leaguers and tossed them into the fire. Led by Jeff Francouer, Ryan Langerhans, Wilson Betemit and Kelly Johnson, none of whom had more than 200 at bats in a major league season before, this “kiddie corps” infused the Braves with their youthful energy and they won the division for the 14th consecutive year.
So, while every contending team would love to add Maddux, Zito, Abreu or Soriano to their 2nd half roster, their average salary for this season is $10.1 million, not to mention the added issues of no-trade clauses, additional years at high salaries or season-end free agency. Unless one of their teams is willing to lower their asking price as well as pay a portion of their player’s remaining salary, Shea Hillenbrand may remain the biggest name to switch teams and star minor leaguers like Arizona’s Stephen Drew can expect to be given a chance to show what they can do in the September heat of a pennant race.
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The trading deadline is just a week away, and ASM's Peter Doyle has the first last word on what might go down.
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Call it baseball’s annual rite of summer. Every year as Major League Baseball’s July 31st trading deadline begins to loom after the All-Star break, the rumor mill begins to churn. By the last week in July, every team in contention is mentioned as being interested in every high-priced talent available from also-ran teams looking to dump salary. This year is no exception as Bobby Abreu, Barry Zito, Alfonso Soriano and Greg Maddux are supposedly changing teams every day.
The problem with this rumor mill is that these deals no longer happen before the trading deadline. Since the team giving up the star player wants a grade-A prospect or two and to dump salary and the team needing the star player wants to not give up the minor league gems and to not drastically increase their payroll, getting a deal done is a tough task. Smaller market teams who were out of contention relied in the past on the richest teams (Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Dodgers and Braves) to relieve them of expensive proven talent in exchange for cheap, unproven minor league talent. The larger-market teams used to be able to lower their expenses by paying a portion of the salary of a high cost player as part of a trade to a contending team.
For the last few years, contending teams have been content to tinker with their rosters by acquiring role players and promoting their own minor league stars rather than making a big splash in the trade market. The Yankees are the most dramatic example of this shift in thought process. Historically the kings of free spending and prospect dealing, the Yankees big response to their starting pitching woes in 2005 was to acquire Shawn Chacon and his 24-45 career record for two marginal pitching prospects. They relied on two of their promoted minor leaguers, Chien-Ming Wang and Aaron Small to fill in the back end of their rotation. Together Chacon, Wang and Small ended up going 25-8 in helping the Yankees win the division, at a total cost of about five million dollars.
This year, the Yankees lost their two star corner outfielders, Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui, to injuries until at least September. In the past, the Yankees would not have hesitated to loot their farm system to get Bobby Abreu and his $13.6 million dollar salary. Thus far the Yankees have lived with 21-year-old Melky Cabrera and 37-year-old Bernie Williams as replacements and are 3½ games out of 1st place and 2½ games out of the wild card. The only outfielder they seem likely to trade for is 38-year-old Reggie Sanders and only if the Royals will take basically nothing in return. Whether the Yankees’ new thriftiness is due to George Steinbrenner slowly handing over the reins or the new collective bargaining agreement which requires the Yankees to share their wealth, it looks like its here to stay.
Since the other big-money teams no longer have to play “Keeping Up with the Yankees”, the price they are willing to pay for big-name, high-salaried players has dropped considerably. On the other side, the teams with the big name players do not want to be seen as getting nothing for their superstar, so they are reluctant to lower their asking price.
Other recent events have affected the way contending teams are reacting to the trading deadline. In 2004 in an effort to bolster their rotation, the Mets traded once-untouchable prospects Ty Wigginton to Pittsburgh for Kris Benson and, most infamously, Scott Kazmir to Tampa Bay for Victor Zambrano. Benson has since been traded to Baltimore and Zambrano is 8-14 with the Mets and is out for the season this year with elbow surgery. Wigginton is now on Tampa Bay and has 16 HR and 52 RBI in 87 games and Kazmir is an all-star with a 10-7 record, 3.40 ERA and 129 strikeouts in 121 innings. At the time, the Kazmir trade was ripped by Mets fans and media alike and the criticism has grown exponentially with Kazmir’s performance this year. Team executives are now petrified of pulling a “Kazmir”, so they are holding on to their minor league stars like pure gold. This year, outfielder Lastings Milledge and pitcher Mike Pelfrey, the crown jewels of the Mets farm system, have been the subject of repeated trade rumors, but the Mets instead have brought them up to the majors to fill in injury-related gaps and the team is running away with their division.
Last season, the Atlanta Braves became the poster team for promoting from within rather than trading for outside big names. After 13 straight division titles, it looked like the Braves were going be home for October. Their starting pitching was no longer the dominant force it had been for years and position players were getting injured seemingly every day. Rather than bankrupt their farm system to obtain major league players, the Braves brought up a crew of minor leaguers and tossed them into the fire. Led by Jeff Francouer, Ryan Langerhans, Wilson Betemit and Kelly Johnson, none of whom had more than 200 at bats in a major league season before, this “kiddie corps” infused the Braves with their youthful energy and they won the division for the 14th consecutive year.
So, while every contending team would love to add Maddux, Zito, Abreu or Soriano to their 2nd half roster, their average salary for this season is $10.1 million, not to mention the added issues of no-trade clauses, additional years at high salaries or season-end free agency. Unless one of their teams is willing to lower their asking price as well as pay a portion of their player’s remaining salary, Shea Hillenbrand may remain the biggest name to switch teams and star minor leaguers like Arizona’s Stephen Drew can expect to be given a chance to show what they can do in the September heat of a pennant race.
You can reach Peter Doyle at peter.doyle@atomicsportsmedia.com