The Cardinals were rumored to be looking for starting pitching depth at the deadline, but instead beefed up the relief corps in the form of Steve Cishek and Jonathan Broxton. As GM John Mozeliak and manager Mike Matheny told Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, adding quality relievers essentially becomes starting depth as it takes less pressure off the starters to go deep into games. The new arms also will help cut down on the workload of Kevin Siegrist, Randy Choate and Seth Maness, all of whom have pitched quite often this season. Some more from around the NL Central…
- Brewers GM Doug Melvin told Jim Duquette and Jim Bowden of MLB Network Radio (Twitter links) that he feels “the Mets have taken some unfair criticism about asking for money back in the [Carlos] Gomez deal.” Melvin explained that teams often for money in one form or another in deals, as “it’s all part of the GM landscape these days.“
- Brewers manager Craig Counsell isn’t sure how long his team’s rebuilding process will take, he told reporters (including Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), as “we’re always going to be trying to win a baseball game….But evaluating it from a bigger picture is part of our jobs as well.” Haudricourt wonders if the Brewers and their fans would be able to stomach a multi-year rebuilding effort as the Cubs did for the last few years.
- The Pirates stuck to their recent trend of making “modest upgrades while not giving away their top prospects,” writes Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. While getting an ace pitcher could’ve come at a big price for the Bucs and come with no guarantee of a playoff spot, Sawchik notes that the rotation is suddenly lacking depth with A.J. Burnett’s season now in doubt.
- Also from Sawchik’s piece, he argues that Jung-ho Kang deserves a regular starting job even when Josh Harrison and Jordy Mercer return from the DL. It’s hard to argue Sawchik’s point given how Kang entered today with a .299/.372/.460 slash line over his first 312 Major League plate appearances, giving the Pirates some badly-needed help given their injury-riddled left side of the infield.
Kang for ROY
Its a same that he won’t win it. He means more to the Pirates than Duffy, Bryant, Joc or Franco mean the their teams in terms of winning. All 4 of those teams wouldn’t be a whole lot worse if they had someone else at their positions. Without Kang, the Pirates would be in a real bad spot right now.
Without Duffy, the Giants would have given way more playing time to McGehee and Arias, probably the two worst players on their opening day roster. I doubt they’d be sitting in a WC spot without him.
Agreed.. I had serious doubts about how he would translate to the major league’s.. I guess most baseball executives thought the same thing as his posting fee was a modest $5 million or so.. I wonder if teams like the Yankees are regretting passing on him after seeing his production so far this year..
Randall Grichuk should be the favorite right now. Take him away from the Cardinals and the Pirates are probably leading the NL Central right now. He’s more than made up for he loss of Matt Holiday
Does he have rookie status? If so, he should definitely be in the conversation. Man, the Angels look bad on that trade.
Kang’s been tremendous and should be right in the thick of RoY voting. It’s a great field in the NL with the 5 guys you mention and Noah Syndergaard just tearing it up and getting better with every start.
Yeah but the ‘modest’ upgrades have worked. Both The bucs and Cardinals rarely give up top prospects (Kaminsky was the first since Heyward, and who knows how long before that.) And look where the both are, 1st and 2nd place. Because both teams refused to give up prospects like Cole, Polanco, Martinez, Wacha ect., when they were just coming up, they now have cost efficient young talent who are impacts everyday. Now look at teams who trade the farm away like San Diego. They struggle.
Totally agree.. Had the Padres left Byrnes alone for another year or 2 they would have been set to become the next Pittsburgh.. Granted they were a bit lacking in hitting prospects but they could have used someone like Wisler to bring one in.. Plus, Byrnes would have kept Turner.. He is looking more and more like the next Tulowitski.. I will admit I was all aboard the Preller bandwagon for most of the off season.. I jumped off when he made the Kimbrel trade.. Kimbrel had a big contract already so it wasn’t like he was getting paid peanuts.. But to pick him up and his entire contract plus the Upton contract for his best prospect showed he was way over his head.. I feel really bad for Padres fans.. Their wait was almost over and now they are set back at least 4-5 years while they run out the clock on all of those bad contracts..
Dint know if I would call Happ an upgrade. .. maybe side grade. Hopefully Worley clears and stays in the system.