Braves and Padres closing on swapping resident woman abuser Hector Olivera for out machine iron glove extraordinaire Matt Kemp.

Ideally it'd be an even swap and the Padres can dump Olivera. Or even eat maybe half of Kemp's remaining contract. Meanwhile it opens the door for their outfield prospect Hunter Renfroe. Renfroe hasn't walked at all but he's got plus power and rates well in the field and on the bases. That's a huge improvement over lame duck Kemp even if Renfroe hits at an average clip.

Nationals-Prates trade:
Nats get Mark Melancon
Pirates get Felipe Rivero and a prospect (Taylor Hearn)


Remember Melancon being a huge bust for the Red Sox a few years ago and the only real bright side to his very short time there was the trade that brought Brock Holt to Boston. Good for him that his career rebounded pretty well since then.

Pirates did a nice job of getting quality for 2 months of a closer.

Anyone remember when Matt Kemp was a perennial MVP candidate?

No because he was only that for one year, then got hurt, and never got back to that level.

Thank God he's gone. And they're saving about half his contract. I'll take that.

On a good team that guy is useful. Low obp tho.

Lucroy to the Indians. Fuck.

Was sounding like the Mets were really close to landing him. I don't think he'd have turned this team around but he had a 2017 option so he'd have been a nice add and he'd have allowed us to dump the bust that is Travis d'Arnaud.

Oxymoron. It's different for a guy like Melvin Upton, who's a solid base runner with good defense. Kemp doesn't provide any of that and he's an out machine. Glad he's gone.

Indians continue to wheel and deal, trading for Andrew Miller. This comes just days after the Yankees refused Andrew Miller for Lucas Giolito straight up as the team felt Miller had more value given that he's signed for 2 more years.

Actually, that tells me there's about an 80% chance the Yankees already had a pocket deal in place with Chapman to re-sign him this offseason.

I don't think they're gonna resign Chapman. I'd have taken Giolito for Miller straight up.

Oh fuck Lucroy has vetoed the Indians trade!!!

Sandy get on the fucking phone RIGHT NOW.

YES! YANKEES ARE IN SELL MODE! Although sending Andrew Miller packing totally was unexpected.

Yankees getting Tyler Clippard back from the D-Backs.

Yanks are going to go balls out in a couple of offseasons. Harper, Machado, Fernandez. Maybe all three.

They've done a great fucking job of acquiring potential major league quality talent.

The a Mets already got denied on a deal for Lucroy. I thought you wanted them to just pack it up?

It's about damn time. It's taken a lot of convincing, but we can't win with what we got. Too old, ain't producing like we should be, ain't winning like we should be.


If you're 30 years old and younger, you're safe. Rest of the roster is fair game.

Just a different game. The Yankees can't buy a title anymore. They've needed to go back to developing a core of young controllable players to build around for a while. Seems like they've finally figured that out.

Lucroy is signed through 2017. If the Mets can get him without including Amed Rosario or Dom Smith I'd be all for it.

I don't think Lucroy is enough to turn around this putrid Mets offense but he'd be a really nice guy to have for next year. And if the Mets blow in 2017 you can always trade him.

Supposedly Lucroy nixed the trade because the Indians told him he'd be relegated to 1B, DH, and backup catcher next season. So he asked them to simply rip up his 2017 option so he can be a free agent and they refused.

http://i.imgur.com/SUZw5G3.jpg

Because clearly what the Indians already had is better than Lucroy.

fuck that

Lucroy is ballsy asking them to void his option. Why would they do that?

Tulo hurt his hand out and Jays lost the DH in a 2-2 game in the 8th

Hope they run out of bench players and pitchers

Droford you are just the worst lol

And the Orioles are back in first place.

People are calling 6'8 Logan Ondrusek from Japan Big Ondrusexy

https://41.media.tumblr.com/155bab02...i1k5o1_500.jpg

Well Lucroy's no-trade list consisted of: Indians, Tigers, Twins, Angels, Athletics, Padres, Mariners and Nationals.

It's such a random as fuck group that I can only assume he has his reasons for not wanting to go to any of those places. He clearly didn't want to go to Cleveland for the long-term, especially with them telling him straight up that Gomes is their catcher next year. I don't blame Lucroy.

Of course Jon Heyman just said that the Mets are totally out on Lucroy.

Fuck me with a pickaxe.

Everyone should tune in to ESPN tonight to see the Cubs reform yet another former Orioles pitcher in Brian Matusz. Good odds he throws an 81 pitch 27 k perfect game

If the Cubs win the World Series they better send Baltimore a thank you card

:D What an amazing comeback win by the Red Sox tonight. Down 0-3 with 2 outs in the 9th and scored 5 runs from back-to-back HRs.

Mariners-Os trade:
Mariners get a prospect (Ariel Miranda)
Orioles get Wade Miley.

Don't care what anyone says... AL East is awesome.

Hey matusz still sucks

Miley is signed next year for $9 mil with team option in 18 for $12 mil

Plus

Plus no one seems to think Miranda was going to anmount to anything considering he only avg 5.1 innings in AAA.

Wade Miley is the definition of replacement level.

That's still an upgrade over the backend of the rotation.

I'm still waiting for the Padres to finish wheeling and dealing. Been the most fun I've had during a deadline ever.

C'mon Yankees. 4 more hours to sell off some more bodies. Get to it.

Mets close to acquiring Jay Bruce. Makes no sense. They already have 3 corner outfielders already. And Bruce is not an upgrade over any of them. Really don't get this move.

It makes plenty of sense. Granderson has looked absolutely horrible this year. Conforto is lost at the plate and needs a long stint in Triple A. And Cespedes has been battling a quad injury for months, is playing by his own estimation at 85%, and isn't under contract next year.

I don't love Bruce as a player but he's clearly an upgrade over both Granderson and Conforto right now and at bare minimum he'll give them a controllable bat for next year if/when Ces leaves.

In a perfect world this doesn't preclude Cespedes from being re-signed long term and next year they open with Ces/Bruce/Grandy and they let Conforto play a lot of RF in AAA so they can eventually plug him in for Grandy. Then you have Ces and Conforto playing the corners for 2018 and beyond.

The Mets do have a deal for Bruce but it might fall apart because of the medicals of one of the Mets' prospects. The Reds pulled back a trade with the Jays this offseason for a similar reason.

They're also still working on Lucroy. Man if they got Lucroy AND Bruce I'd totally cum. They'll probably get neither of them though and I'll wind up checking out of 2016 baseball for good.

Cashman does it again.

Sends Beltran to the Rangers for Dillon Tate. The #4 pick in last year's draft.

Keep 'em going. Less than an hour to go.

If the Mets can't win the World Series this year I'd be fine with Texas finally getting one and Beltran getting a ring. Solidifies his HOF career. Never understood why Mets fans booed the shit out of him everytime he returned as a visiting player. He's the best CF the Mets have ever had.

Look at Cashman, being a GM.

HOT FUCKING STOVE

Marlins-Padres swapping 2 players from an earlier deal due to a recent injury with Colin Rae.

Rae goes back to the Padres and in return Marlins get prospect Luis Castillo back.

Because of this the Mets now had to trade Dilson Herrera for Bruce. AKA the second baseman they felt could become a multi-time All Star and the reason they were more than happy to let Daniel "Ted Williams" Murphy walk.

I was fine getting Bruce. Was even fine trading Dilson if it meant Lucroy. But for Bruce?? Sandy fucked up.

Rangers won the Lucroy sweepstakes.

MLBtraderumors can't keep up. Teams are really getting this done at the last minutes.

Nova's gone.

Overall value Bruce isn't much upgrade over Granderson or even conforto. And they're giving up a player they could use next year. And they still have a giant hole in center. I just don't care for the move.

Nova back on the clock, deadline approaching aaaaaaaaaaand SEE YA

What's the scuttlebutt on Scott Feldman? Good swing guy?

Niese back to the Mets

I fucking hate Jon Niese but I'd rather have him and his expiring contract than Bastardo's inflated 2017 salary. It's a crap for crap deal that makes sense for the Mets.

Jays get liriano, hopefully Russ Martin is the remedy for Lirianos problem.

Red Sox-Twins trade:
Red Sox get Fernando Abad
Twins get a prospect (Pat Light)


More bullpen help is nice but then again probably wouldn't have been needed if recent trades for pitching didn't end up being bad. Bit relieved Dombrowski didn't cave in and go after starting pitchers like Chris Sale since the White Sox were asking for too much. He hinted before the trade deadline he had around 5 offers in the talks but didn't take them due to the demands asked.

I'd figure some team would pay up and grab Chris Sale. Kenny Williams' price must have scared a lot of teams away.

Chris Archer's name was being tossed around. Would have liked the Yankees to make a play for him.

Yeup, White Sox were asking for too many prospects for a deal to get Sale. A rumored Red Sox deal would have involved them losing around 4 prospects with 3 being top tier just to get Sale.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">heard chisox and red sox recently talked on sale. scuttlebutt is CWS seek at least 4 guys from BOS, including 3 of best.</p>&mdash; Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) <a href="https://twitter.com/JonHeyman/status/760127443609026560">August 1, 2016</a></blockquote>
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The Orioles traded a future Cy Young winner for him 3 years ago

Cool. Mets blow two leads and lose to the Yanks. 3rd game they've blown a late lead in the last week.

Good thing they had to trade their 2B of the future for Jay Bruce.

John Gibbons has replaced Jesse Chavez with Scott Feldman right off the bat... and by that I mean the reliever he's going to abuse and hang out to dry. He literally threw 40 pitches yesterday out of the bullpen, and Gibby trots him out there in the 15th to pitch to his old team. Would have rather had Dickey come in, in that kind of situation.

What drives me nuts is Gibbons escapes the wrath of the media. Nobody ever points the finger at him. He's a nice guy, he is a man of character... but I just don't think he's equipped to be an elite manager. He is just not a thinker.

Sox win. Pull within 1 of the Os again.

such a dogfight in the east. Gonna be a stressful 2 months for all of us methinks.

Well the good news for the Jays and Red Sox is they'll both probably be the wild cards

you're rather arrogant for someone on a team without starting pitching.

Also, great job on the weekend from Baltimore taking 2 of 3 from the Jays.

....oh wait.

Yup. Lots of head scratching decision for sure.

The thing with Gibbs is that he's likely to see his club surge into the playoffs in back to back to years. And while that's largely independent from him, it doesn't give Toronto a reason to go another direction.

The more the games play out, the more it seems Russ Martin is managing the team lol

2nd best bullpen in baseball. Vs the Jays they pitched 16. Innings Outside of the disaster on Saturday 3.2 ip 4 er the rest was scoreless.

Let's also not forget that the Red Sox and Blue Jays starting pitching is also questionable so it's not like either of them have some huge advantage in their rotations. Plus the Blue Jays best starter is about to go to the bullpen for Scott Feldman lol. And the Red Sox traded for Pomeranz who has a 7.53 ERA in 14 innings over 3 starts..

The Jays starting rotation has the most quality starts in the league along with either the 2nd best or best ERA in the league. Yeah, there's the Sanchez question, but their starting pitching is better than Baltimore's.

All 3 teams have problems. Baltimore definitely has the best bullpen but plain bad starting pitching.

This is your problem, you're such a homer. I'm totally willing to talk baseball with you, but you're such a condescending little fuckwad about your home team. Get a fucking life.

Dude the GM for the Reds is so bad. I feel for the Reds. I really do.

The Orioles rotation is not that bad even when compared to the Jays.
Tillman and Happ are basically equal. Sure Estrada and Sanchez are better than Gausman and Gallardo now but when Sanchez goes to the bullpen and it's Estrada and Liriano it's a little less lopsided unless Liriano turns around with Martin as his catcher a la their time in Pittsburgh. Then you have Miley and Bundy vs Stroman and Rickey which I will call a wash

The Orioles had a sub .500 July on account of their offense going stone cold as they only scored more than 5 runs 3 times (6 runs each time) and not between July 7th and July 30th. The pitching was good enough to win games if they were scoring runs as even over that 3 week stretch they still managed to go 9-10.

Droford, you realize we now have access to endless information that makes what you're saying look completely foolish, and in turn makes you look like an idiot.

Toronto ranks number fucking 1 in the AL starting pitcher WAR with 10 WAR. Baltimore ranks 11, i.e bottom third.

Toronto ranks 1 in ERA. Baltimore ranks 13.

Toronto ranks 4th in fielding independent pitching. Baltimore ranks 12th. I.e., Toronto's starters are far more dominant and less reliant on luck and defense, while Baltimore isn't.

Toronto's starters also lead their league in accumulated innings pitched. Baltimore is dead fucking last.

It's not even close. Why are you so incapable of just telling it like it is. Baltimore has one of the worst starting rotations in the league.

Yes, the bullpen is better. But a bullpen is useless if your starters are going 5 innings and giving up runs left and right. Not to mention, we've seen it time and again that relying on your pen all season can disastrous.

The Orioles are 2nd in the AL in reliever innings pitched. They are surrounded by the Twins, Angels, Athletics and Royals. None of those teams are contenders. The Orioles lucked out in that their offense was able to bandaid over their pitching problems. But that's starting to crater. Boston and Toronto are on their ass, each 1game behind. Each making upgrades at the deadline and in Boston's case, having depth on the farm to bolster the roster.

The gap is closing for Baltimore.

He played Sandy Alderson like a fiddle.

It was supposed to be Brandon Nimmo and two pitching prospects for Jay Bruce. A reasonable trade. Mets already had Conforto so Nimmo was expendable especially with Bruce having another year under contract.

Instead they found some bullshit in the medicals for one of the pitchers the Mets were giving up and told Sandy at the last possible second that he can keep Nimmo and the "injured" pitcher if he throws in Herrera, and Sandy caved because he'd have gotten reamed for doing nothing.

Trading Herrera was such a mistake. Makes me sick just thinking about it.

Assuming the Mets don't re-sign Cespedes or Walker...which both seem highly likely. The Mets are gonna have something like this:

C: Travis d'Arnaud
1B: Lucas Duda
2B: Jose Reyes
SS: Asdrubal Cabrera
3B: David Wright
OF: Jay Bruce, Curtis Granderson, and a Michael Conforto/Juan Lagares platoon in the other spot

That's 5 players with expiring deals (Bruce, Granderson, Reyes, Cabrera, Duda) and 2 massive injury risks who aren't even guaranteed to play well at this point (d'Arnaud, Wright).

2017 might be a fucking rebuild year to get to the Amed Rosario, Dom Smith, and Gavin Cecchini "era". Having a rebuild so soon after winning the pennant is a fucking joke. I feel terrible for the pitchers.

This trade, yes. The Reds made out. However, they were fleeced in the Cueto and Chapman deals. They did get prospects, but they took quantity over quality. You look at how the Braves and Padres and even Yankees have boosted the strength of their farm by netting quality returns and it makes Cincy look really bad.

I wouldn't be surprised if Baltimore finished number one. Showalter is a great manager... albeit if fucking asshole. Makes better decisions than Gibbons. Their closer is a stud, and the rest of the bullpen is awesome, and they definitely have talent up and down the lineup. Plus the dingers, my god the dingers.

But to discount the 2 teams in the division that are literally right up their ass with 2 months in the season is homerism I cannot abide by.

I will say, #teamshatkins is doing the teams in the East a huge favour putting Sanchez in the bullpen. It will prove to be a cataclysmic decision, and proves amongst many other moves made, that this team is all about low risk, medium reward. I think it's hilarious that will all the experience between Shapiro and Gibbons that they think somehow Sanchez having started all year, will be lights out in the bullpen. He has to change his entire approach. Either let him keep starting or shut him down.

Kinda pissing me off some of the writers/analysts are saying that Yankees selling off was them giving up on the season.

No. Season was lost when we were sitting at .500 for the entire season so far and not gaining any ground. And, the Steinbrenners finally realized they weren't winning any championships with this old, veteran loaded team.

Wonder what happens to Toronto's pitching ranks when they replace Sanchez With Liriano who has an almost 5 ERA.
And The Orioles are 11th having started Ubaldo and his 7+ ERA and 1.95 WHIP 18 times. Essentially replacing him with Miley will be a huge improvement. It would seem to me that they'll even out.

But what if Stroman keeps rounding into form? He is seeming to be trending upwardly.

And Wade Miley while pitching better lately hasn't exactly lit the world on fire.

These are 3 very even teams with many different issues, but also many different strengths. Which is why there's only a fucking game between them, you gargantuan knobhead.

And keep in mind, Toronto's bullpen was by far the worst in the league for the first 6 or so weeks of the season. Now they have also rounded into form, with Cecil pitching better, Grilli filling the 8th inning gap and Osuna being very reliable as a closer. Benoit seems to be fitting in quite nicely, as the 5 or 6 appearances he's had for Toronto have seen his ERA drop almost 100 points lol. Joe Biagini hasn't given up an earned run in I don't know how long. I mean i'm not going to act like it's a pen that lights the world on fire for one second, but just the same as Baltimore has VERY SLIGHTLY improved a glaring weakness with their starting pitching, the Jays have actually much improved their leaky bullpen. A bullpen which was pretty damned sturdy against a frustrated Orioles team on Friday night.

I am still holding out on the head office pulling their heads out of their asses with Sanchez and letting him pitch the season out.

While Miley is an upgrade, he's not going to even out the entire staff. Even if you take Sanchez out of Toronto's rotation, they're still better than Baltimore. Adding Miley doesn't change that.

Dylan Bundy had a perfect game through 5 last Wednesday vs Rockies and has a no hitter tonight through 5 vs the Rangers.

Edit Bundy 7 inning 1 hit 1 walk 7 ks 88 pitches

The kids alright

If everything stays as is I'll get to see him pitch next Friday in San Francisco

Orioles have 3 solo homers off Darvish (plus another off the bullpen). Only other time the Os faces Darvish amazingly was the 2012 wild card game

Greatest team of all times.

Jays win 2-1 against Astros tonight. Greatest starting pitching, greatest bullpen and clutchest bats of all times. Going to sweep the playoffs. Baltimore may get lucky and get the 2nd wildcard spot.

At least the Sox lost. David Price went 7 scoreless and then have up 4 runs (3 off him directly) in the 8th. Abad came in for his debut and gave up a homer to the first batter (Cano) he faced.

Sox have bigger pitching problems than the Orioles. If it wasn't for Porcello theyd be really in a mess..

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/v9kRHhdzGyY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The one sad thing at this point in the season is that, despite the Cubs being the best team in baseball, the Washington Nationals have been completely overlooked. That is a heck of a baseball team. My mouth waters at a Cubs vs Nats NLCS.

Daniel Murphy has a legit stake in this year's mvp convo.

And no one is talking about it.

Honestly, i cant possibly make an argument for Bryant or Rizzo over Murphy right now. I'm the biggest homer ever and i cant make an argument.

He's literally putting on the greatest season any 2nd Baseman has ever had.

Joe, be a genie tonight

Murph will definitely win MVP. No Met has ever won MVP in history so of course a guy they fucking let walk away for nothing is going to win it.

Better year than when Pedroia won the MVP in 08 but I think the big factor is Pedroia played for the Red Sox..Murphy ain't winning the MVP

Also would like nothing more than os vs Nats WS because of the while lawsuit thing between the two and MLB

Only team I wouldn't want them to play is the Cubs just because I don't want the Orioles going in history as the team the Cubs finally beat..and theyd basically beat themselves with the trades to the Cubs and thats bad enough.

Cespedes misses like a week with a quad injury. Then plays tonight and hurts himself further in his last AB, meaning he now goes on the DL without the option of backdating it to a week ago.

The slimmest hope the 2016 Mets had of making the postseason is gone. The Bruce trade was fucking pointless and the team sure looks like it will be fielding a worse roster to start 2017 than they did in 2016.

Fucking kill me.

Don't look now, but Detroit has won 8 in a row and are tied with the Red Sox for the 2nd widcard.
Go Jays

:lol:

No, i'm pretty sure Murphy will win it.