Jul 30th 2008 8:55PM by Andrew Johnson (author feed)

- The Marlins are the forgotten team in the NL East race, but they have a very real chance at making the postseason and are the most active team less than 24 hours before the trade deadline. Florida is looking for everything. The club is believed to be close to dealing for Mariners left-handed reliever Arthur Rhodes. The Fish have also made inquiries with San Diego about Josh Bard and Toronto about Gregg Zaun as they try to shore up the catcher position with Matt Treanor injured.

Most surprisingly, they might be at the head of the pack for Boston slugger Manny Ramirez. A proposed deal would send either left fielder Josh Willingham or right fielder Jeremy Hermida to the Red Sox in exchange for Ramirez, with Boston picking up the remaining portion of the $20 million owed to the disgruntled slugger. The Marlins would also have to agree not to pick up Ramirez’s option at the end of the season. Florida is often accused of being cheap. You can’t say it isn’t trying this year.

- The Jason Bay market appears to be heating up. Both the Rays and Cardinals have had serious discussions with Pittsburgh about acquiring the left fielder. Tampa Bay would seem to have the upper hand since it has the better farm system and does not play in the same division as the Pirates. GM Neal Huntington is believed to have asked for shortstop prospect Reid Brignac and pitching prospect Jeremy Hellickson, with Hellickson believed to be the sticking point. There is also late word that the Red Sox could jump into the Bay talks as part of a three-way deal that would send Ramirez to Florida, prospects to Pittsburgh and Bay to Boston.Continue Reading

Jul 31st 2008 12:30PM by Will Brinson (author feed)
Word on the street is that the Boston Red Sox are quite interested in Braves middle reliever/could be setup guy/ Harry Carey impersonator Will Ohman. Well, either that or Daniel Bard slept with Theo Epstein’s ladyfriend.

Bard, a former first round pick and teammate of Andrew Miller’s at Carolina (boo), is almost certainly headed out of Boston today. One scenario has him rolling to the ATL, or Mississippi as it were.
Besides the Red Sox, five other teams are discussing Ohman with the Braves, who are looking for a pitching prospect in return. A logical name that might surface in trade talks with Atlanta from the Red Sox farm system is Double-A pitcher Daniel Bard, who is 2-1 with a 2.63 ERA in 37 2/3 innings pitched for the Sea Dogs this season.
Of course, the other scenario is the increasingly likely Manny Ramirez Three Way (ew) deal between Pittsburgh, Boston and Florida. That freaky deal between such unlikely suitors would end up sending Bard to Pittsburgh in a package that would swap out Jason Bay and ManRam.

The Ohman deal sounds pretty freaking good for the Braves — the middle reliever is a free agent after this year anyway, and it’s unlikely the Braves would actually retain him. So picking up a pitcher of Bard’s potential would be a nice follow up to the Teixeira trade by Frank Wren (I’m sorry, I just feel like they could have gotten more).

Wren might be putting the press on Beane, and he should, but the problem that moving Manny is the first priority will likely remain until later in the afternoon.

Jul 31st 2008 9:08PM by Andrew Johnson (author feed)
Take a deep breath, baseball fans. The dust has settled after another trading deadline, and what a deadline it was. Three future Hall of Famers were moved. So was a reigning Cy Young winner and two former All-Stars. And we haven’t talked about Rich Harden yet. Undoubtedly, 2008 was the most entertaining trading season in recent memory for baseball fans.

Truth be told, it will take years before we know who helped themselves or hurt themselves at the 2008 trade deadline. That’s just the way it is when boom-or-bust prospects are involved. But here’s an educated (and roughly ordered) guess anyway at which teams won and which teams lost now that the July 31 deadline has come and gone.

Winners

With a double-digit lead in the AL West, the Angels didn’t to do anything to get to October. They went out and got slugging first baseman Mark Teixeira anyway, and it’s nothing short of a coup. For all the praise heaped upon Mike Scioscia’s throwback run-at-all costs strategy, it hasn’t done much for Los Angeles in the postseason. The Halos have scored 17 runs in their last eight postseason games dating back to 2005, and they don’t have single regular slugging over .500 this year. They needed a bat to go all the way in October, and that’s just what they got in Teixeira.Continue Reading

Aug 2nd 2008 12:30PM by Pat Lackey (author feed)

On Deck is FanHouse’s look at the day’s most intriguing baseball matchups

Oakland Athletics (53-55) at Boston Red Sox (62-48)- 7:05 PM EST
As debuts go, making two nice catches and scoring both of your new teams’ runs in a 2-1 win that helped end a slide of 5 losses in six games is a pretty nice way to start off a career with a new team. That’s exactly what Jason Bay did last night with the Red Sox. The thing is, anyone that follows the Red Sox can tell you that it’s going to take a whole lot more than that from the guy that’s replacing Manny Ramirez in the lineup.

Tonight, he gets his second start in left field at Fenway while the Red Sox try to stave off the Yankees (who they’re 2.5 games up on) and/or catch the Rays (who they’re three) games behind. Whatever happens to the Red Sox down the stretch, Bay’s going to play a huge part in it.Continue Reading

Aug 3rd 2008 12:55PM by Tom Fornelli (author feed)
When the Braves learned they’d have to put Tim Hudson and Chipper Jones on the disabled list, it pretty much put an end to any hopes of winning the NL East this season, so they went ahead and traded Mark Teixeira to the Angels to make sure of it. Little did they know at the time that they would already be behind in the 2009 season as well.

That’s because Tim Hudson has finally given in to reality and knows he has to undergo Tommy John surgery, which of course will end his season.The veteran will have the surgery late next week. Dr. James Andrews will do the procedure, and Hudson faces a 12-month rehabilitation period.

“I just needed to convince myself,” said Hudson, who on Wednesday was advised by two orthopedists - Andrews and Dr. Xavier Duralde - to have the surgery. “I needed to throw one more time, to convince myself of what needed to be done.”If there’s any good news for Hudson, and there isn’t much, it’s that he’s got plenty of teammates who have already had Tommy John surgery so they’ll be able to prepare him for what he’s going to go through. Of course, the bad news is that 12-month rehabilitation period.

Maybe the Braves can call the Angels and see if they want Casey Kotchman back in exchange for a starting pitcher.

Aug 5th 2008 6:15PM by Jon Bois (author feed)

Skip Caray, longtime radio and television voice of the Braves, passed away Sunday.

There was no better place and time for a baseball fan than Atlanta during the 1990s. There are several reasons for this, but Skip’s contribution to those halcyon days cannot be overstated. He called Sid Bream’s slide, Otis Nixon’s catch, and Marquis Grissom’s Series-clinching grab. Those of us who remember him best, though, appreciated him for other reasons.

The man knew so much about baseball that he grew bored. Once, without provocation, he turned to his booth mate and asked, “How are our governmental relations with Spain? Do you happen to know?” He would sometimes relate traffic reports or insult whichever poor fan happened to be within the idle shot of a television camera. He endlessly harped on pitcher Jung Bong and delivered family-unfriendly word plays. I’m sure your favorite broadcaster loves the game of baseball. But my favorite broadcaster expressed his love for it with the sort of genuine, subtle, creative, grumpy manner that we would not have otherwise heard.

I’ll continue to use the word “baseball” to describe this game, but when Skip Caray was with us, it meant something just a little bit different to me.

Today’s Dugout is after the jump.Continue Reading

Aug 10th 2008 10:00AM by Mullet (author feed)

Barry Bonds returned to the Giants last night. Somewhat.

He made a surprise appearance at a celebration of the Giants best outfielders of the last 50 seasons as part of their anniversary season in San Francisco. He made a Schwarzenegger type “I’ll be back” proclamation when he stood at the podium, pointed at Joe Torre and said: “You heard me Torre, I beat you before and I can beat you again. I haven’t retired. Thank you.”

Could Barry Bonds make another surprise appearance at the ballpark today? As a pinch hitter? Somehow, I doubt Torre is worried with the Giants eight and a half behind them.

Continue Reading

Aug 17th 2008 2:26PM by Tom Fornelli (author feed)
On Thursday of last week, Tom Glavine returned to the mound for the Atlanta Braves for the first time since June 10th. Things didn’t go very well, as the 300-game winner gave up seven runs in four innings, and still felt pain in his elbow after the game. It’s because of this pain in his elbow that we now know Glavine has pitched his last game in 2008, as he’s going to be shut down for the season.

The real question is, will Thursday’s start against the Cubs be the last of Tommy’s career. He’s scheduled to visit with Dr. James Andrews next week, and the results of his tests there will determine what Glavine decides to do.”All the discussions I’ve had, and the MRI I had before, were that it’s my flexor tendon,” Glavine said. “The soreness I have now is the same soreness I had then. You can pinpoint a needlehead as to where the pain is, and it just puts me through the roof when you touch it, so it’s very similar in that regard. There have been some discussions about what my ligament might look like, but I think there’s a very low percentage that there might be something wrong with my ligament.

“And if there was, honestly, I’d leave it alone and I’d be done. I wouldn’t come back from that kind of surgery now. I’d fix the flexor tendon and leave the ligament alone and live the rest of my life.”Continue Reading

Aug 19th 2008 6:45PM by Jon Bois (author feed)
When I was a kid, I had a poster stapled to my bedroom wall. Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, and Steve Avery, all stone-faced and holding baseballs.

In retrospect, Avery sort of served as abstract representation of the obligatory placeholder. First it was him, then it was Denny Neagle, then Kevin Millwood. They were not individuals; they were the nameless rabble of exploding drummers from Spinal Tap.

If Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz end up retiring this year, and hit the Hall of Fame ballot simultaneously, what becomes of Avery? Bizarre gardening accident?

This evening’s Dugout is after the jump.Continue Reading

Aug 21st 2008 12:15PM by Matt Watson (author feed)
Earlier this week, Tom Glavine admitted that he’d rather retire than undergo Tommy John surgery. After being examined by Dr. James Andrews on Wednesday, though, the possibility of playing one more year remains open. He still needs surgery for a torn flexor tendon, but his ligament remains intact, meaning Tommy John is no longer in the picture. From the :
“On one hand, I didn’t want my career to end this way,” Glavine said Wednesday evening. “If I chose to end it, that’s one thing. It was a relief in that regard. And it was what I thought it was, and it was what the doctors thought it was, so that was good.”
Tommy John surgery requires at least a year of rehab, but flexor tendon surgery usually takes a mere 4-5 months, meaning he could be completely healthy by the time spring training rolls around. He’s set to undergo surgery today, though he still hasn’t officially decided whether he wants to play one more year. The Braves paid him $8 million to return this season, but after posting a 5.54 ERA in 63.3 IP, he may have to accept less money in 2009.