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So 4 p.m. ET Saturday has come and gone, and though teams are still able to make certain moves in August and even into September, we can close the book on one of the more active non-waiver trade deadlines I can remember. The trading season, encompassing the months of June and July, saw 33 separate deals of Major League significance, including a three-team trade swung by the Indians, Padres, and Cardinals on Saturday morning. While a number of big names rumored to be on the way out didn't get moved, a whole bunch did, dramatically changing the structure of some teams and the shape of the races.
A common thing to do once the deadline has passed is review the moves and identify some group of trade deadline winners and losers. This can either end up being as simple or as complicated as the writer wants to make it, but the theme is one that can be found on most any baseball website in the aftermath. This post belongs to the same class. You can consider this SB Nation's answer to one of early August's most oft-written articles, with the primary difference being that we're going to run down every team in baseball and assign an individual grade. That way, everybody's happy. Or unhappy, since the whole point of the Internet seems to be to find things to get angry about.
Grades will be assigned subjectively on a 1-5 scale, where 1 is worst and 5 is best. Rather than with numbers or stars, grades will be represented by the Cyrillic capital letter Ж, because it looks awesome.
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
-Acquired Dan Haren for Joe Saunders, Patrick Corbin, Rafael Rodriguez, PTBNL (Tyler Skaggs)
-Acquired Alberto Callaspo for Will Smith, Sean O'Sullivan
Stuck well behind the Rangers and having enough trouble getting by the A's, it wouldn't have made much sense for the Angels to buy short-term improvements. So they bought long-term improvements instead, landing five or six years of Dan Haren and Alberto Callaspo for players they likely won't miss. Callaspo isn't much, a fringe starter in the infield, but he's only 27 years old, he's cheap, and he can play a few positions. Meanwhile, Haren was the trade of the season, as the Angels grabbed one of the best starting pitchers in baseball for stuff they found in the cupboard. Haren is a difference-maker, and Haren is a big reason why the Angels can count on being right back in the race again next season.
Grade: Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж
-Traded Roy Oswalt and cash for J.A. Happ, Jonathan Villar, Anthony Gose
-Acquired Brett Wallace for Anthony Gose
-Traded Lance Berkman, cash for Jimmy Paredes, Mark Melancon
-Traded Kevin Cash for Angel Sanchez
In the weeks leading up to the deadline, the Astros were demanding blue-chip prospects and salary relief in exchange for Roy Oswalt. They wound up getting neither. In fairness, that isn't exactly their fault, as such a return was never realistic, but they shouldn't have set the bar so high when it was clear they'd end up disappointed. They did at least in part make up for an unimpressive Oswalt deal by dealing one of the pieces to Toronto for their new starting first baseman, but then they gave Lance Berkman away for nothing and handed Brett Myers a contract extension instead of trading him somewhere else. Drayton McLane and Ed Wade really mismanaged this one.
Grade: Ж
-Traded Eric Patterson for Fabian Williamson
-Acquired Conor Jackson for Sam Demel
As soon as Ben Sheets got hurt, there wasn't really much the A's could do or would have wanted to do, as they have a young, cheap team, a good deal of which remains under contract into the future. They could've sold Michael Wuertz, but his value isn't where it ought to be right now, so it's hard to be critical. This is the first of a handful of three-zhe grades for teams that didn't really do anything wrong or anything right.
Grade: Ж Ж Ж
-Traded Brett Wallace for Anthony Gose
-Acquired Yunel Escobar, Jo-Jo Reyes for Alex Gonzalez, Tim Collins, Tyler Pastornicky
This is a tricky one. On the one hand, the Blue Jays did very well for themselves in landing a talented shortstop at the trough of his value. On the other, they didn't get enough for Wallace, and more importantly, of all the in-demand tradable pieces they had on the roster, they moved exactly zero of them. Jose Bautista, John Buck, Scott Downs, Kevin Gregg, and Jason Frasor remain with Toronto. As does Lyle Overbay, but nobody cares about Lyle Overbay. Without having been in the room, it's impossible to know what Alex Anthopoulos was getting offered for his assets, but the fact that he didn't do anything while the Dodgers dealt two interesting young players for Octavio Dotel doesn't look very good.
Grade: Ж Ж Ж
-Traded Yunel Escobar, Jo-Jo Reyes for Alex Gonzalez, Tim Collins, Tyler Pastornicky
-Acquired Rick Ankiel, Kyle Farnsworth for Tim Collins, Gregor Blanco, Jesse Chavez
On paper, the Escobar/Gonzalez trade was a bad one, as Escobar is younger, cheaper, and more talented. In reality, there's been too much talk about Escobar's negative attitude in Atlanta for us to ignore. I think it was Buster Olney who Tweeted that, when Alex Gonzalez made his first entrance into the Atlanta clubhouse, he got a standing ovation. So it's hard to say how much leverage the Braves had in that circumstance. The Ankiel/Farnsworth deal gave away the most interesting piece of the Escobar trade, but it should answer two of the team's short-term questions. This was not an impressive deadline for Frank Wren. He did, however, manage to address three issues in two moves.
Grade: Ж Ж Ж
The Brewers didn't do anything. Or, rather, the Brewers spent days upon days on the phone, and didn't make any trades. Rickie Weeks was never really on the table. They didn't get enough for Prince Fielder to swing a deal. And while Corey Hart was attracting a ton of interest, he injured himself at the wrong time, and then this weekend up and signed an extension to stay in Milwaukee. Fans might be disappointed that they don't get to spend the next while discussing a mammoth trade return, but the pieces are there to build a contender in 2011. The Brewers never had to sell.
Grade: Ж Ж Ж
-Acquired Jake Westbrook, traded Ryan Ludwick in three-team deal
With Kyle Lohse and Brad Penny out of action, the Cardinals had been looking for a starting pitcher for weeks. And they found a decent one in Westbrook, a groundballer who's a perfect National League number three or four arm. The problem is that, to get Westbrook, the Cardinals gave up Ryan Ludwick, a talented all-around outfielder who's still under team control in 2011. Over the past four years, Ludwick has played good defense while slugging .507. The Cardinals believe in hot-hitting youngster Jon Jay and will find time for prospect Allen Craig, and to some degree that's sensible, but they still lost in value. Ludwick is a very good player.
Grade: Ж Ж
-Traded Ted Lilly, Ryan Theriot for Blake DeWitt, Kyle Smit, Brett Wallach
Once Roy Oswalt got dealt, the Cubs found themselves in possession of the most desirable starter on the market. They didn't do a ton with him, and they didn't do anything with the rest of their roster, but they did manage to turn a free-agent-to-be and an underachieving Theriot into four more years of Blake DeWitt. While DeWitt is no star, he's cheap, young, and he hits well for a second baseman, making him an attractive supporting piece.
Grade: Ж Ж Ж
-Traded Dan Haren for Joe Saunders, Patrick Corbin, Rafael Rodriguez, PTBNL (Tyler Skaggs)
-Traded Conor Jackson for Sam Demel
-Traded Chris Snyder, Pedro Ciriaco, cash for Bobby Crosby, Ryan Church, D.J. Carrasco
-Traded Chad Qualls for PTBNL
-Traded Edwin Jackson for Daniel Hudson, David Holmberg
-Acquired Dontrelle Willis for Billy Buckner
Not a good deadline for Jerry Dipoto and the rest of the DBacks organization, which turned a number of interesting players into a number of less-interesting players. Even though they were limited by Haren's desire to stay out West, they barely got anything in exchange, a grave mistake by a team that didn't need to move its ace when it did. Jackson, Snyder, and Qualls were straight salary dumps, and nothing more. The only thing that saves them here is the Jackson trade, which brought back a young starter who might be better than Jackson right now. It also brought back a talented 19 year old lefty, a piece Arizona didn't even need to get to win the trade. It's weird that Jerry Dipoto got more for fewer years of Edwin Jackson than he did for Dan Haren.
Grade: Ж Ж
-Acquired Ted Lilly, Ryan Theriot for Blake DeWitt, Kyle Smit, Brett Wallach
-Acquired Octavio Dotel for Andrew Lambo, James McDonald
-Acquired Scott Podsednik for Lucas May, Elisaul Pimentel
Make no mistake: in the short-term, the Dodgers got better. Lilly improves their rotation, Dotel improves their bullpen, and Podsednik improves their outfield depth. However, when the Dodgers made their two moves on Saturday, they were 4.5 back of the Wild Card, and to get a decent starter and two role players, they surrendered a pretty good young second baseman, a serviceable young big league-ready arm, a very talented outfield prospect, and two other pieces. The Dodgers didn't give up any prizes, but they didn't get any, either, and the price they paid for Dotel in particular was absurd. Too aggressive, not enough improvement.
Grade: Ж Ж
-Acquired Javier Lopez for John Bowker, Joe Martinez
-Acquired Ramon Ramirez for Daniel Turpen
-Traded Bengie Molina for Chris Ray, Michael Main
The Giants did well to get Main for Molina while opening up room for Buster Posey, but that was the easy part. The hard part was responding to improvements made by the Padres and Dodgers and getting better at the deadline, and all the Giants wound up getting was a pair of mediocre relievers. It's not that they traded very much away; it's more that they didn't really take any steps forward. Granted, injuries to prime targets like Corey Hart and David DeJesus didn't help, but the Giants were left on the outside looking in. We'll see if anything happens in August, as I'm sure Brian Sabean will be keeping an eye out for bats that clear waivers.
Grade: Ж Ж
-Traded Kerry Wood, cash for PTBNL or cash
-Traded Russell Branyan for Ezequiel Carrera, Juan Diaz
-Traded Jake Westbrook for Corey Kluber
-Traded Austin Kearns for PTBNL
-Traded Jhonny Peralta for Giovanni Soto
The Indians found themselves in a selling position without a whole lot to sell, so they're forgiven for not bringing a whole lot back. Kluber's probably the most interesting piece they got in return for anybody, and he should have a future at least out of a big league bullpen. The Indians traded what they could trade, and took what they could get. Pretty simple.
Grade: Ж Ж Ж
-Traded Cliff Lee for Justin Smoak, Blake Beavan, Josh Lueke, Matt Lawson
-Acquired Russell Branyan for Ezequiel Carrera, Juan Diaz
The Mariners only sold one piece, but it was the biggest piece of all, and they got back a solid return. Smoak is one of the top offensive prospects in baseball, Beavan is seemingly gaining velocity by the month, and Lueke is a future closer who is knocking on the big league door. Though it wasn't a colossal win of a trade the way the JJ Putz/Franklin Gutierrez move was two years ago, it was a good one, and the Mariners improved their future while surrendering a few months of a starter. They didn't move anyone else, but no one else was really playing well enough to get moved.
Grade: Ж Ж Ж Ж
-Acquired Will Ohman for Rick VandenHurk
-Traded Jorge Cantu for Omar Poveda, Evan Reed
With another one year of team control for Dan Uggla, two years for Leo Nunez, two years for Ricky Nolasco, one year for Cody Ross, and three years for Clay Hensley, the Marlins look good enough for 2011 that they didn't need to sell off any major pieces in 2010. Choosing to hang on to Ross with teams calling was a weird decision, but Ross doesn't have enormous value anyway. Just a very Marlins deadline all around.
Grade: Ж Ж Ж
The Mets did well to avoid the temptation to do anything crazy, which was the sensible decision given their place in the standings. Kudos to Omar Minaya for demonstrating some restraint at a time when it would've been easy to go a little nuts.
Grade: Ж Ж Ж
-Traded Matt Capps for Wilson Ramos, Joe Testa
-Traded Cristian Guzman for Tanner Roark, Ryan Tatusko
The Capps trade was a pretty good one, as the Nationals brought back a possible long-term catcher whose value has dropped from where it was at the start of the year. Between Ramos and Jesus Flores, one of the two should be able to take a step forward. The issue here is what the Nationals didn't do: move Adam Dunn. He's due to be a free agent. In order to get draft picks in return, the Nationals would have to offer him arbitration, where Dunn could make as much as $15m were he to accept. Talks about a contract extension have gone nowhere. Dunn was in high demand and journalist after journalist remarked that teams were growing frustrated because Mike Rizzo was impossible to deal with. Rizzo had arguably the best bat available, and he blew it.
Grade: Ж Ж
-Traded Will Ohman for Rick VandenHurk
-Traded Miguel Tejada for Wynn Pelzer
It's curious that the Orioles wound up keeping Ty Wigginton after his name spent weeks upon weeks surfacing in trade rumors, but it's not like he would've brought back a whole lot, and he's in the midst of a two-month slump. Outside of Wigginton, there just wasn't much for the Orioles to do. What a crap season.
Grade: Ж Ж Ж
-Acquired Ryan Ludwick for Corey Kluber, Nick Greenwood
-Acquired Miguel Tejada for Wynn Pelzer
-Traded Sean Gallagher for cash
The Tejada acquisition was a mistake if the Padres intend to use him with any real frequency, but the Ludwick get was a good one. Ludwick adds another powerful bat to the middle of the batting order while fitting in with San Diego's defensive priority. And to get 1.5 years of Ludwick, the Padres surrendered a decent AA pitching prospect and a finesse lefty in A-ball. They found a way to make themselves better in the short-term without really hurting themselves at all down the road, which, come deadline time, is difficult for a contender to do.
Grade: Ж Ж Ж Ж
-Acquired Roy Oswalt for J.A. Happ, Jonathan Villar, Anthony Gose
The Phillies were in the market for a starting pitcher, and landed one of the better arms in baseball for the same sort of unimpressive package they got for Cliff Lee last offseason. They won't miss Happ. They won't miss Villar. They won't miss Gose. They will enjoy Roy Oswalt, and they'll enjoy him for approximately half his cost since the Astros chipped in $11m towards his contract. Even if Oswalt doesn't help push the Phillies towards the playoffs this time around, he, Roy Halladay, and Cole Hamels are all under contract in 2011, forming perhaps the most intimidating front three in the league. Big win for Ruben Amaro, who came into the deadline looking uncertain.
Grade: Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж
-Traded Octavio Dotel for James McDonald, Andrew Lambo
-Acquired Chris Snyder, Pedro Ciriaco, cash for D.J. Carrasco, Bobby Crosby, Ryan Church
-Acquired Sean Gallagher for cash
-Traded Javier Lopez for John Bowker, Joe Martinez
It's amazing what the Pirates managed to pull off without even dealing Paul Maholm. In exchange for parts they didn't need, they brought in a fair bit of talent, including a new regular catcher, two guys who could start or relieve right now, and a highly-talented and troubled outfield prospect in Lambo who could boom or bust. When you're the GM of a rebuilding organization like Neal Huntington, your goal with every move is to bring more and more talent into the fold. Huntington managed to do it four times. A very good deadline for a team with a history of disappointing deadlines.
Grade: Ж Ж Ж Ж
-Acquired Cliff Lee for Justin Smoak, Blake Beavan, Josh Lueke, Matt Lawson
-Acquired Bengie Molina for Chris Ray, Michael Main
-Acquired Cristian Guzman for Ryan Tatusko, Tanner Roark
-Traded Jarrod Saltalamacchia for Chris McGuiness, Roman Mendez, PTBNL
-Acquired Jorge Cantu for Omar Poveda, Evan Reed
Amazing what the Rangers managed to do without any money. They got arguably the best starting pitcher in baseball, they got a veteran catcher, they got some help at first base, and they got some help in the infield. Of course, none of Cantu, Molina, or Guzman is the addition that matters, here. Lee is the addition that matters, and though the Rangers paid a hefty sum, it was a sum they could afford, and the guy they got changed the whole shape of the team. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say Lee is the sort of guy who can turn a good team into a Series contender, and that's definitely the case right here. The Rangers made themselves a team capable of competing with the Yankees and the Rays.
Grade: Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж
-Acquired Chad Qualls for PTBNL
The bad news for Tampa Bay is that, while they were in the market for another big bat, they came away without having made any offensive upgrade. The good news is that they're a very good, very deep team that at no point was in dire need of a major addition. It's hard to blame them for not being able to get anything done with Mike Rizzo. With the second-best run differential in baseball - +129, versus New York's +138 - the Rays have been amazing from the get-go. Some teams can afford to sit pretty, and this was one of them.
Grade: Ж Ж Ж
-Acquired Jarrod Saltalamacchia for Chris McGuiness, Roman Mendez, PTBNL
-Traded Ramon Ramirez for Daniel Turpen
The temptation must have been there for Theo Epstein to land a major piece. It must have. And, for all I know, he tried and tried until he could try no more. But at the end of the day, the Red Sox did very little, content to ship off a disappointing reliever while bringing in a potential catcher of the future when his value was low. I give big points to the Red Sox for avoiding the reactionary move, because, let's face it - their odds of catching the Rays are incredibly low. Restraint and responsibility are admirable qualities in an organization, and I almost want to give them a four.
Grade: Ж Ж Ж
How dull. Of course, by doing absolutely nothing, they still might've made a bigger deadline improvement than the Cardinals. In my mind, Cincinnati's big July acquisition was Edinson Volquez. He certainly didn't lose any stuff.
Grade: Ж Ж Ж
You have to think the front office was kind of caught off guard by an eight-game losing streak that changed everything. Before the skid, the Rockies were a half-game out of the Wild Card. Afterwards, they were back by 6.5 and in no position to buy. So they didn't do anything. It's not like they had much to sell, other than Joe Beimel, Aaron Cook, and maybe Brad Hawpe. Not an easy situation for Dan O'Dowd, so he took the easiest route and sat on his hands.
Grade: Ж Ж Ж
-Traded Scott Podsednik for Lucas May, Elisaul Pimentel
-Traded Rick Ankiel, Kyle Farnsworth for Tim Collins, Gregor Blanco, Jesse Chavez
-Traded Alberto Callaspo for Sean O'Sullivan, Will Smith
Nothing the Royals got is a big-name prospect, but nothing they gave up is a big-name player. Or, I guess Rick Ankiel is kind of a big-name player, but not for the usual reasons. In return for spare parts and a decent but unimpressive second baseman, Dayton Moore landed a fairly talented catcher, a fairly talented live arm, a potentially dominant reliever, a big league-caliber fourth outfielder, and still other parts of role-player use. Altogether not bad. One could be disappointed that they failed to move Jose Guillen, but Jose Guillen is bad, and he (and others) could still be moved in August. Might the Royals have direction? Might said direction lead the right way?
Grade: Ж Ж Ж Ж
-Acquired Jhonny Peralta for Giovanni Soto
-Traded Dontrelle Willis for Billy Buckner
You know, the Tigers should be commended for managing to turn Dontrelle Willis into something even moderately interesting. But anyway, the Tigers long looked like a potential buyer until they started getting hurt and falling out of the race as the deadline approached. So Dave Dombrowski took the safe route and made one minor addition while refusing to pay too much for an impact name. It was the smart course of action. What a disappointing few weeks it's been for a team with a very interesting blend of young and old talent.
Grade: Ж Ж Ж
-Acquired Matt Capps for Wilson Ramos, Joe Testa
Minnesota tried like hell to find a starting pitcher, and was heavily involved in talks for Cliff Lee. They wound up landing a good reliever instead, helping the bullpen but leaving them with uncertainty behind Francisco Liriano and Carl Pavano in the rotation. The team was always plenty good and wasn't in dire need of another starter, but one would've and could've helped them move past the damn White Sox. As is, it could be a photo finish. As is the case with pretty much every team in baseball, the Twins could still elect to try and make a move in August, but the impact would be lessened.
Grade: Ж Ж Ж
-Acquired Edwin Jackson for Daniel Hudson, David Holmberg
The White Sox tried and tried and tried again to land a big bat to slide in at 1B/DH, but couldn't get anything done. They apparently came close to landing Lance Berkman until Berkman invoked his veteran rights to decline, and that isn't Chicago's fault, but still, offensively, they came away empty-handed. And in the Jackson trade, they got a decent young starter in exchange for a cheaper, younger decent starter who might be better than Jackson right now, along with another very interesting pitching prospect. Rumor has it the Nationals were going to take Jackson for Adam Dunn until they annoyingly changed their mind, but that's just hearsay, and even if it's true, the Jackson trade itself was a bad one. Look for the White Sox to be active observers of the market this month as they could still really use a bat.
Grade: Ж Ж
-Acquired Austin Kearns for PTBNL
-Acquired Kerry Wood, cash for PTBNL/cash
-Acquired Lance Berkman, cash for Jimmy Paredes, Mark Melancon
What do you get the man who has everything? An excellent fourth outfielder, a volatile but talented setup man, and a declining but capable slugging 1B/DH for the low low price of pretty much nothing. The Yankees' offensive depth chart right now is absurd, aside from the Ramiro Pena part, since Ramiro Pena sucks. What's funny, though, is that the one trade that really could've put the Yankees over the top - the Cliff Lee trade - wound up happening with Texas instead of New York as Seattle management shifted course at the last possible moment. The Yankees were infuriated, and for good reason - they lost out on one of few additions that could've made a big difference on their roster. As is, they're the best team in baseball, but they're a team that still has some questions about the pitching staff.
Grade: Ж Ж Ж Ж