I read an interesting blog post from the New York Times on Sunday entitled “Wild Card Is a Tease”, regarding the wild card and deadline trading intended to help clubs capture it. The author, Jim Luttrell, points out that only five of the 28 wild card entrants since 1995 were more than five games out at the non-waiver trade deadline.
The conclusion is that many teams further out in the standings that were making trades were wasting their efforts and perhaps hurting themselves for the future.
As the reader comments that follow point out, eight of the 28 reached the World Series and four of them won, a sample that is too large for my tastes. I am not going to go off on how badly the 162-game season has been devalued by a first-round best-of-five series. I won’t, but I would really like to. Well, maybe I will just a little bit.
A baseball purist at heart, I can begrudgingly acknowledge the value of the wild card for fan interest purposes. Still, the first round of the playoffs needs to be extended to seven games even if it means shortening the regular season. Further, the wild card must be put at a greater disadvantage (only one or two home games at most). (The first point caused an awful flashback to Ford Frick and his fricking 1961 asterisk.)
At any rate, Luttrell’s post left me wanting. The most important question was left mostly unanswered.
Which teams were not within five games of the wild card at the non-waiver deadline but still made trades that are most likely to do them no good?
I am not sure why the writer stopped short of the logical conclusion, so I will satisfy my own curiosity, focusing on the National League.
First and foremost, the St. Louis Cardinals were in first place by a half-game on July 31. The other NL Division leaders were Los Angeles and Philadelphia. The co-wild card leaders were San Francisco and Colorado. Other teams within five games of the two were Chicago, Florida, Atlanta, Milwaukee and Houston.
In other words, only six of the 16 NL teams were not either leading their division or sitting within five games of the wild card.
Somewhere Bud Selig is uttering “excellent” while tenting fingers together, even if he isn’t counting his money at the time. (Heading further astream, is it just me or can anyone else see the resemblance of a rug-free Bud with Mr. Burns from The Simpsons?)
Two of the “out of it clubs” are from each division. They are New York and Washington from the East, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh from the Central along with Arizona and San Diego from the West.
Pittsburgh dumped half their team. San Diego shipped off ace Jake Peavy. Washington jettisoned first baseman Nick Johnson. The Mets and Diamondbacks basically did nothing of substance.
That leaves the one schizophrenic seller-buyer-seller, the Cardinals current opponent, Cincinnati. Walt Jocketty’s Reds made three deals, the biggest in adding former Cardinals third baseman Scott Rolen from Toronto.
This trade probably won’t turn out to be quite as bad as the ill-fated deadline deal made by the Bucs two years ago when they inexplicably picked up Matt Morris, but is as equally puzzling. The Reds were 12 games under .500 at the July 31 deadline and have gone 3-5 since.
In a weird and unfortunate parallel with the Cards’ earlier acquisition of Mark DeRosa, the newest Red has been able to play in just four games for his new club. Rather than a wrist injury, Rolen’s problems have resulted from a beaning suffered a week ago Sunday at the hands of his ex-St. Louis teammate, Rockies pitcher Jason Marquis.
As Cincinnati falls further back in the standings, they made a waiver trade on Sunday sending reliever David Weathers to the Milwaukee Brewers. They had earlier sent infielder/outfielder Jerry Hairston to the Yankees. In other words, if the Reds were a buyer for one day last week, they were a seller immediately before and after.
So there you have it. Other than the odd trade of Edwin Encarnacion and two prospects for an aging, injury-prone and expensive Rolen, none of the NL teams considered too far back in the standings made any such questionable deals.
Maybe that is why the author didn’t bring his original post to its logical conclusion. At least in the NL, there doesn’t appear to be much of anything to say.
They were desperate to off Edwin E. He is trouble through and through. Jocetty is just mixing it up.
They’re finished and he knows it. Votto looked burned out.
Walt was NOT making a deal to compete in 2009, as suggested. Rather Walt was looking for a veteran who he respects for character and leadership, a mentor for young players. Rolen has a large salary, so this was not a cheap trade, so not made lightly. Walt wants to mold a better clubhouse and work ethic. Walt and Scott have been team-mates for years (01-07). They did not have a falling out, even if TLR was disagreeable, so Rolen asked out of StL. The Cards respected his wishes and obliged.
Rolen’s shoulder injuries have reduced his power, but he has adjusted to maintain a batting average. And unlike Troy Glaus, Scott Rolen has been able to contribute in 2009. Rolen is probably pleased to be re-united with Jocketty in a midwestern town not too far from his Indiana roots. Alls well that ends well.
Walt was doing two things here; first of all he was doing Scott Rolen a favor. Rolen had asked Toronto to trade him to a team close to his home so he could be nearer his family. So Jocketty did his ole pal Rolen a favor and made the deal for him. Secondly, as the other two gents have surmised; Walt wanted to add some veteran presence to a young team that desparately needs it. And yes, Joey Votto needed the help like Albert did. Votto carried the team all year in spite of the personal demons tearing him apart inside.
I would dearly love to have Scotty’s glove back at 3rd, but it was his own fault for leaving. TLR did the right thing in the playoffs because Rolen was doing nothing with the bat. The team comes first, not Scott’s ego. If Rolen had just sucked it up and realized it was the right move he wouldn’t have come off as being so selfish. Unfortunately for him, he only now realizes what a fool he was.
Rolen has an OPS above 800 this year, for perspective, above DeRosa’s performance with the Cards to date. I dont think the Reds are shelling out $7MM on Rolen for 2010 just to do him a favor. He can still play, unlike Mr. Glaus.
TLR is not an easy personality. Ozzie Smith was not favorably impressed. Walt tried to broker a meeting between TLR and Rolen, presumably because Walt did not believe Rolen was egotistically “selfish”, while TLR is selflessly perfect. Strong people can be strong enough to agree they cannot agree.
It seems like a good deal for both Toronto and the Reds. Toronto gets some players and dumps some salary, the Reds get a good player and a leader.
Maybe the veteran angle explains Kip Wells. Something must, the Nats had seen enough after all.
Red ownership seemed pretty profit oriented. They still have to sell tickets. They’re finished and they know it. They bailed some salary to pay Rolens in the last week. Jocketty is a player, that for sure.
With Welly going on the DL, will Boggs stay on in 5th starter role. A veteran seems better in that role due to lack of set routine.
There are a number of things implied in this move BB. Welly is, amongst other things now ” for sale”. He could be, or has been waved. This could also imply that the Cards are contemplating another move which is good. Mo’s comment that he only needs 4 or 5 days is the tell. Welly has been battling his elbow all year. It is very possible that in Saturdays pen, he freed up his motion a bit which looks good, but is and has been the source of his elbow inflammation. He is going along with all this because it better to deal “where ever” as a starting pitcher as opposed to a reliever. We have a few pitching problems to solve and he really isn’t the solution to any of them at this point. It will become more serious in a playoff scenario.
Are there any Troy Percivals out there ready come out of the rocking chair. Also, Brian’s hint about renting Billy Wagner for a couple months is not beyond Mo, he’s all in to win it all already.
bb, Boggs will stay in the rotation if he can be more efficient than he has to date. Too many pitches, too many baserunners, too few outs.
WC, I strongly disagree about Welle having any impact in a playoff scenario. Because of all the days off, no club needs five starters in the post-season. At this rate, he may be home watching on TV.
JS and Ax: Rolen is making a heck of a lot of money to just take on as a favor or to provide leadership. If they wanted additional leadership, they could hire extra coaches for far less money. The Reds need their young guys to stay healthy and step it up a bit, not someone like Rolen to show them the way.
Rolen for Encarnacion would make sense. Shipping prospects to Toronto as well was not so great for Cincy.
I’ll just finish by saying that I’m glad that the team I’m rooting for has Mo at the helm and not Jocketty this season.
Bad writing by me Brian. I was trying to imply that the problems he couldn’t solve, still needed to be solved by a possible move. With the actualization of Motte being no more than a mop up guy, it all goes to Hawksworth or Kmac. Miller and Reyes scare me a bit against a pitch hitting move with a playoff quality team. If you have to see those young guys in the seventh…….yikes. You know what playoff pressure does to the unprepared…………….. I hope this isn’t more bad writing. We need a vet arm for Welly in a wavier trade I hope.
I am not trying to disparage Rolen, who is a fine player by all accounts. But I ask if his reputation is more of a team leader or a inwardly-focused individual.
Q: What is the common thread among all three MLB teams with which Rolen has played?
A: He asked to be traded away from each.
WC, I’m not sure that I buy the fact that younger players will crumble in the playoffs. In particular, I recall a certain Mr. Wainwright performing quite admirably out of the pen in the postseason. I don’t think that most people should be expected to go the Ankiel route.
However, I share the worry over Miller and Reyes being exposed to right handers with a larger bench in the playoffs and I worry over a general lack of an upper tier setup man in both the regular season and the playoffs.
Anthony Reyes had his finest moment in the WS. Forrest was right, you never know what you’re gonna get.
Brian, you are certainly right about Boggs (“Too many pitches, too many baserunners, too few outs”), but I will take his 6 innings of 9 hits and 4 earned runs tonight over ANYTHING that Wellemeyer can possibly do in 5 innings! The difference tonight was with the run that Motte gave up. Aye, whenever the ball is given to either Motte or Wellemeyer, ugly things usually happen.
When the Cards traded Rolen, they honored his request.
Though some have liked to think of Rolen as injury prone, he has outperformed Glaus in 2009.
Some people are leaders via rah-rah hot air. Rolen leads quietly by example.
Rolen probably got under TLR’s skin. TLR has a sensitive skin. He likes celebreties stopping by, Bobby Knight and others, to pay homage to the great manager. It has to bug TLR that Scott Rolen did not kow-tow. Rolen is a pro’s pro, so within the fraternity of the game, its telling that Rolen did not want to be Tony’s team-mate, no matter how much money they paid him.
Jocketty knows Rolen. He liked Rolen to trade for him in 2002, he still wants him injuries later and is willing to shoulder his salary. Its like the deal for Larry Walker in 04, the Reds likes having positive role models who can still play. Its a good deal for Scott and Walt. Maybe there is a little message to Tony in there too.
CFS57, I favored starting neither one – instead giving Hawksworth the opportunity. But all of the sudden they believe he is irreplaceable in the pen – same thing they said about McClellan before. I still don’t get it as I’d rather have my best starting pitchers starting.
I hope Motte turns things around, but I am slightly amused that all those who wanted to put the closer’s job on a silver platter for him this spring based on 11 measly innings of September ball are pretty quiet now.
Colby gets on three times without hitting anything. Albert gets a center cut fastball that forces him to take it before he can pull off and he hits a home run. Everything else was off the end of the bat or worse. The three new guys with their closed stances and base hits and closed ears to Hal, just stare at the ineptitude. I wonder what they’re thinking sometimes having played with good hitting teams.
Where this goes I have know idea. Colby has stopped even trying to adjust. Yadi? Skipp isn’t a good lead off hitter. We have no 2nd, even though Ryan avoided his upper cut swing twice in a row.The Reds out played us to night, and out coached us. Where are the bunts. Why not force Dusty to use his closer by using Greene on top of the Ankiel insertion. What, just a hunch Tony that Ankiel was the man. Ankiel has lost his mojo again, Colby is a rookie, and Albert even though he made some adjustments, is in a terrible technical slump. We have to shake it up somehow. These starters aren’t going to hold these teams down every time. Against the pitching were seeing we lost another opportunity to gain distance in the division.
Hey Brian, I think I have to agree with you on Rolen; it’s all about him!
As for Hawksworth, what is it that Larussa likes to say to the press? Oh yeah ‘only the five best pitchers will be in the rotation.’ And out of the other side of Tony’s mouth comes the claim that Hawksworth is apparently so good that they can’t take him out of the pen. Well which is it TLR? Is he one of your best pitchers or not? Put him in the rotation where he belongs. Boggs is not the answer!
Cardinal fans seem to be so happy tonight that he went 6 innings and only gave up 4 runs, even though he clogged the bases with 13 runners. News flash people! An ERA of 6.00 is not good for a 5th starter, why do you think everyone hates Welly so much.
Nutlaw, let me first say, I can’t believe you’re from the same bloodlines as Brian. Younger writers…..er….players benefit a great deal from the guidance of the senior writers…..er…. players. Ask any of the rookie players and they will pretty much tell you that they couldn’t have done it without the help of the veteran writers……er……players. (Why do I keep doing that? It must be a Freudian thing.)
Jumbo; there’s no doubt that Tony is in love with himself and he does like to truck in the celebrities so we all know how great he is. While I give the devil his due and agree he is a great manager, I will never forgive him for back-stabbing Ozzie. NEVER!!! Ozzie did great things for the Cardinal organization, it’s fans and all of baseball for the matter and he did not deserve to be disrespected like TLR did to him.
Hey, Axcion! Since anything above a 4.00 ERA is mediocre, I ain’t happy at all about Boggs’ performance: I merely said that “I will take his 6 innings of 9 hits and 4 earned runs tonight over ANYTHING that Wellemeyer can possibly do in 5 innings!” I maintain that if Tony remains so hellbent on bypassing Blake and serving-up batting practice for our opponents (instead of a viable fifth starter), Boggs would represent the least of the evils. I also maintain that the difference was really NOT in the fact that Matt had failed to knock in Albert, but in the run that Motte had allowed. Were it not for that particular run, we would have at least gone into extra innings.
Jumbo said:
Only those who deal in facts over fancy. Over the 2005-2008 years, Rolen missed over 1/3 of his team’s games. Over those four years, Glaus averaged 142 games played; Rolen 106.
Even if Glaus doesn’t play a game this season and Rolen returns from the DL as soon as eligible, Glaus will still maintain the advantage in games played over the last five years compared to Rolen.
Scott Rolen was a fine player in St. Louis, but he has a long-standing problem with authority figures (as even Bernie Miklasz observed in print). Not the kind of “quiet leader” I would want on my team.
It takes two to tangle, and La Russa can be overly autocratic. It was a bad mix. It is over and done. Rolen is on his second team since then. We will see how long it takes him to get frustrated with losing in Cincy or Dusty Baker’s toothpick and wristbands or something else…
Axcion, none of us have all the details of the Ozzie situation, but I often reconcile these types of disputes through this old adage:
Players are paid to play and managers are paid to manage. Things can get messy when this very clear line is blurred.
Rolen is a man Walt Jocketty would want on his team, twice established.
Brian quotes the great sage, Bernie, who claims Scott has a problem with authority figures. (Wow. Ok.)
In their disagreement, Scott Rolen conducted himself much better than did Tony, who utterly lost his composure. Whereas Tony did an angry petty rant about Rolen to the media, Rolen quietly talked to DeWitt and Mo (the real authority figures) and only told the press he did not want to “dignify” Tony’s remarks. The Cards appreciated Rolen’s service to the team and respected his request.
Larry Bowa, the Phillies manager, was an abrasive hot-head when he was a player. No reason for Rolen to respect him. Tony is much better than Larry on many levels.
I don’t know Rolen was unhappy with management in Toronto. The team is stuck in the same division with the Yanks, Red Sox, and Rays; its an also ran and nearly doomed to be so. It was much reported the Blue Jays were looking to dump salary, so Rolen would know his trade could accomplish this. He could have volunteered he would be happy to go to Cinci, since he knows Walt and Jasper, IN is not too far away. This would hardly make Scott Rolen a malcontent or angry person.
Just because any player, in this case Rolen, becomes tired of Tony’s personality and discourtesies aimed at him as a team leader, this does not imply or establish that the player’s character is defective or his viewpoint mistaken. Mo realized this and honored Rolen’s quiet request. And I happen to respect Tony. I dont have to take sides and besmirch one or the other. It was just time for them to split up. This did them both a favor.
Jumbo, I agree with your bottom line conclusion, but earlier you cherry-picked data points to support your position. I think most would agree that the final episode of the TLR-Rolen saga began when TLR sat Rolen for one game in the playoffs. He did not tell Rolen first, and Scott reacted to the press, complaining of being “benched”. Two wrongs certainly do not make a right as TLR is also not above criticism here.
I referenced Bernie only to add support to my own clubhouse observations and opinion.
You guys might be over-analyzing the Rolen thing. He was made a multi-multi-millionaire a long time ago, and as such doesn’t feel the need to work for who he doesn’t want to work for, nor put up with what he doesn’t want to put up with. Why should he?
Fair enough, bb. Wouldn’t we all want a job like that? Instead, we come here.
I think also that the Skydome playing surface was hard for Rolen’s body , he prefers a grass field, in the USA, near Jasper Indiana . He knew that the Blue Jays wanted to dump salary–
Rolens is now just a mercenary. Walt brought him in for this series and he opts out with a headache? Don’t know him as a player, but he doesn’t appear to be a courageous teammate.
CFS57, sorry Bro! I wasn’t actually speaking of your comments. I had just come over from the Cardinals message boards where everyone seemed to be downright jubulent with Boggs performance. I have now read your comments and I agree with you. Motte and Welly don’t belong in major league uniforms at this point, but we all know Tony and he’ll never admit he’s wrong about anything. He definitely considers himself a genius and everyone else NOT. You, Brian and I all share the same opinion on Boggs. As for the loss last night, well there’s a lot of blame to go around there; starting with an offense that couldn’t beat a career minor league journeyman. A manager that assumed his batters would anihilate that same pitcher and did nothing to help. A thirdbase coach who thinks the player who leads the team in hitting into double plays runs like Vince Coleman. Boggs for not having the gonads to go after the hitters. (Everytime he comes up he says the same thing: I’m going to be more aggressive and attack the strike zone. He never does!) Motte for showing up at the ballpark and giving TLR that option.
I do apologize if you took my comments to be a shot at you. They certainly weren’t intended to be.
Brian and Jumbo, can you gents just imagine if every ML player who didn’t like his team or manager demanded a trade a la Rolen. It boggles the mind!
Just so everyone is clear on Rolen in Toronto. He had asked to be shipped closer to home a few months before it came out in the press and that was while the Jays were in the pennant race (Cincy too). Salary considerations were not an issue at that time, but Walt was willing to talk because it would help his young team make a run. Toronto just didn’t want to make the deal until they were sure their playoff hopes were gone. There was not one iota of talk of Rolen being displeased with Jays management.
Bigchief, the surface had nothing to do with it. He played on the dirt most of the time. HIs defense was top notch. He was on the hi-light reels on a nightly basis. The fast surface was probably helping his batting average a little. He was a huge fan favorite too. Personally, I think that Rolen felt his defensive heroics were not getting the publicity in the US that his ego commands. That and his offensive resurrection. Rolen wants to perform on the big stage, not off-Broadway.
Cincy is hardly the big stage of baseball these days. Not quite the backwater Toronto is but no way it’s an ego driven destination. Close to home is right on.
Photo of Shaq and Albert, from stltoday.com.
http://images.stltoday.com/stltoday/resources/pujolsshaq460aug12.jpg
Ankiel 3 at bats saw 5 pitches total. 0 for 3.
Axcion, having already judged your piquant personality to greatly complement your obvious baseball savvy, I only wanted to clear the air of any doubt that I am in league with you and Brian. Whenever our offense misfires as much as it did tonight (allowing us to gain only a 5 to 2 win over the impotent Reds), our cause is greatly served by the absence of Wellemeyer and Motte.