Teeing Off: Top News from the Day
A lot happened today in the world of sports. The Blue Jays and Rockies got together for a trade-deadline blockbuster, the Royals got Ben Zobrist from the Athletics, and the Penguins (the NHL not wanting to be forgotten in the news) traded Brandon Sutter to the Canucks. The NFL got involved by announcing news on two suspensions: the one for Le’Veon Bell and for Tom Brady. Starting first with the trades:
Blue Jays and Rockies: The Blue Jays acquired shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and relief pitcher LaTroy Hawkins from the Rockies for shortstop Jose Reyes and three minor league pitchers: Miguel Castro, Jeff Hoffman, and Jesus Tinoco. In the short-term, I like this trade for Toronto. Tulo is an upgrade over Reyes and helps the Blue Jays strong offense get better. Toronto was also looking to add a reliever and while they may not be done with that aspect of the team, and are still in the market for a starter, Hawkins is a good person to start with. Even if the Blue Jays miss the playoffs this season, Toronto still has most of the team under contract for next season. Of the upcoming four free agents for Toronto, only SP Marco Estrada is the biggest loss. None of the offensive players are scheduled to hit free agency and, when including dead money and options that I believe will be declined (Dickey and Izturis), the Blue Jays have about 82.1 million dollars coming off of the books for the off-season. Sure, some of that will be used in arbitration raises, but Toronto could use that money to peruse a top starter (Price, Cueto, Kazmir, etc…). Toronto did this with a mind on the future and the present.
Colorado also gets a bonus from this, but more long term. When all is said and done, the Rockies shed about 50 million in payroll and added three prospects who add pitching depth, and promise, to an organization that has been devoid of such for years. That being said, Colorado is often where pitching prospects go to die. It’s a hard organization, and a hard ballpark, to throw in. And, apparently, Tulo isn’t happy with the trade or how it was handled (in the past, the owner said that Tulo wasn’t going to be moved this season and Tulo himself said he wanted to stay in Colorado) which might turn off future free agents from joining the Rockies. But money talks and Colorado has more of it now to use to add a younger position player (Heyward, maybe Cespedes?) and/or a veteran pitcher to help the coming influx of younger talent. But if the money isn’t well managed and the pitchers follow a long line of young pitchers who struggle at Coors Field, it’ll be a hard one for Colorado; especially if the Blue Jays win a World Series with Tulo in tow.
Royals and Athletics: Kansas City is on a tear right now when it comes to trades. They added Cueto and Zobrist to strengthen this team now without worrying about next season. The Royals know their window is small and don’t have many shots at a World Series so they’re going all in for this one. I liked the Cueto trade for the Royals and I like the Zobrist one as well. Zobrist can play the outfield until Alex Gordon returns and then second and outfield once Gordon does return, spelling Gordon when he needs a day off and effectively replace Infante at second. Oakland got a nice return in Sean Manaea who was Kansas City’s third rated prospect but did struggle this season when he was promoted to AA. Aaron Brooks has bounced between the majors and AAA this season and looks to be another bullpen piece for the Athletics. A throw in as Manaea was the headliner in that deal.
Brandon Sutter: Sutter and a 2016 third round pick left Pittsburgh to go to Vancouver for a 2016 second round pick, center Nick Bonino and defensemen Adam Clendening. Sutter had a cap hit of 3.3 million this season and, to replace him on the third line, the Penguins signed center Eric Fehr, who will have a cap hit of about 2 million this season. The stats are similar as well: Sutter had 21 goals, 12 assists, a plus/minus rating of six, and 14 penalty minutes last season. Fehr had 19 goals, 14 assists, a plus/minus of six, and 20 penalty minutes. Career wise, shooting percentages are quite even as well with Sutter at 10.3% and Fehr at 10.1%.
Le’Veon Bell Suspension: The Steelers running back had his suspension reduced today from three games to two. It happened quietly and easily, and was expected. Two games is the usual penalty for this type of incident and while I personally believe it should be more (he broke a law; not just in the NFL but in real life. And drove while doing it. And didn’t know it was illegal. That might be the worst part…) it falls within the precedent for the league. The Steelers will miss him as they open the season at New England and vs. San Francisco, two teams that might be trouble if the running game is non-existent for the Steelers, as the Ravens playoff match-up was.
DeflateGate: The saga continues: If you read my earlier DeflateGate series when the penalties and suspension were first handed down, you would know that I wasn’t a fan of such an abuse of power by Goodell, especially since he decided to rule over the appeal hearing. Well the ruling came in today and the suspension hasn’t been reduced one bit. Goodell is stating that the fact that Brady “destroyed his cell phone” on the day he met with Ted Wells to interview for his very… loose report. As expected, the NFLPA is going to appeal this in federal court, as they did with Adrian Peterson’s suspension (which they won) and the NFL is suing to keep the suspension active, even if this should go to a federal court during the NFL season. The drama is piling on with this saga and I am going to do a full article on this next. But for now, be content in knowing that I still think Goodell and this case is a sham and an abuse of power. And I also find it… ya know what? I’m saving it for my next article.
Personal Notes: Marvel’s Ant-Man was a great movie. Go see it. It’s not as funny as Guardians of the Galaxy and not as action-packed or serious as Avengers: Age of Ultron, but it was really good and really has me excited for the next round of Marvel movies coming up in the future. Excluding Fantastic Four. I still hold some trepidation about that movie.
Also, Billy Joel’s Glass Houses album is very good classic rock. Just saying.
Teeing Off: A few notes from the last few days
My One-Star Roster is in the works and filling in quite nicely. But a few things have happened in the last few days that deserve a few moments of everyone’s time. Starting in the MLB:
Final Vote winners were announced. One of my guys, Cardinals SP Carlos Martinez (who really took it to the Pirates on Thursday night; he had a little bit of luck, but a lot of skill) made the team as did Royals 3B Mike Moustakas. My other guy was Tigers OF Yoenis Cespedes. Moustakas deserves the spot as he is second in AL third basemen in AVG and a 2.6 WAR, but his stats aren’t page jumping the way Xander Bogaerts and Cespedes are. But the city of Kansas City did in the Final Vote what it did for the All-Star voting as a whole and just out-voted everyone. And I still can’t figure out why Brock Holt is an All-Star and Bogaerts isn’t. But I digress.
The All-Star Roster is rounding out nicely. It isn’t complete, yet, there is still two games left before the break and a player can get injured. Plus, there are always the pitchers who pitch Sunday to rule out. I do like the new blood in the All-Star Game, though. 15 first time players in the AL and 14 in the NL is a good look at the new, upcoming talent in the MLB. There are still 40 returners on both rosters combined, but it’s a good look. Also, it is an increase of last season where there were 25 first time All-Stars in the game.
The Pirates vs. Cardinals series has been grand in the two games so far. A potential playoff match up at the end of the season, it has illustrated why these two teams are the best two in the majors. SP Gerrit Cole gave another audition to start the All-Star Game by obtaining his MLB leading 13th win; RP Mark Melancon tied a Pirates franchise record for most saves before the All-Star Break at 29. That also leads the MLB and there are two more games that he can add to that total with. Matt Carpenter has shown to still be a thorn in the Pirates side as he crushed a two run home run last night.
It also showed some bad things for each team. Cole has struck out only eight guys in 15 IP in his last two starts which is the fewest of any back-to-back starts for Cole this season. The Cardinals are showing a lack of depth that could haunt them in the stretch due to the amount of injuries this team has sustained. Michael Wacha has already eclipsed his innings from last season, Jaime Garcia hasn’t thrown 100 IP in the last two seasons combined, and Lance Lynn couldn’t find the strike zone last night, lasting only 4 IP. Still a great team with a formidable roster, I just worry about how the pitching will hold up for them down the stretch. Finally, Mike Matheny confused me with his argument after Walker got hit with the ball. I understand he wanted a double play but the rule is that once it hits a runner, he’s out and it’s a dead ball. They can’t change it just because.
NFL:
The big news from the NFL is that Greg Hardy had his suspension reduced from 10 games to four. That really shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone. Given the precedents set by the Ray Rice case and the Adrian Peterson case, four to six games is what I was anticipating. Hardy missed all but one game last season for the Panthers, just like AP, and his incident happened after the discipline ruling was changed by the NFL, just as the Ray Rice case. And this reduction has nothing to do with domestic violence and everything to do with precedents. You can’t change the rules on a case-by-case basis. And Hardy had the charges against him dropped. I’m not saying that was right in any way, but it’s what happened. If you want to be mad at anything or anyone about it, be mad at the NFL for having such lax penalties regarding domestic violence and it taking top NFL stars having their incidents to bring the lack of a penalty to the forefront, finally forcing the NFL to update the penalty.
Sidebar: I wrote this while listening to the Avengers: Age of Ultron soundtrack. Worth the buy; it’s very well put together and the songs are exhilarating.
Cats In The Bleachers 
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