A Trade Deadline That Never Seems To End
- Wednesday, September 2, 2009 2:14 PM
- Written By: Darren Sabedra
For weeks and weeks, enough was said and written about baseball’s July 31 trade deadline to fill a Barnes & Nobles.
It was a daily soap opera, non-stop chatter, overhyped theatre.
Was Roy Halladay going to the Yankees, the Dodgers, the Phillies or Mars?
Who was going to get Cliff Lee? What about Matt Holliday?
On and on it went.
Well, when the dust finally settled, Halladay stayed in Toronto, Lee moved on to Philadelphia, the Cardinals got Holliday and the Dodgers acquired a late-inning reliever from Baltimore.
OK, great. Let’s play ball. Your best against their best, let’s see who wins the race to October.
Now, fast forward to this week, a month before the season ends. The wheeling and dealing, which really should end with the “non-waiver” July 31 deadline, heated up as much as it did a month earlier.
With teams given until Aug. 31 to make last-minute additions for potential playoff rosters, the Dodgers traded for Jim Thome and Jon Garland, the Giants acquired Brad Penny and the Rockies dealt for Jose Contreras and signed Jason Giambi.
Intriguing? Yes. Do I like it? No.
Sure, the moves were great for the team I’ve always followed -- the Dodgers. But it’s way too late in the year for hired guns. I’m perfectly OK with promoting a player within an organization. I remember the Dodgers bringing up Fernando Valenzuela late in the 1980 season and watching him nearly lead them to the NLCS. And just today, the Giants reportedly promoted all-everything catcher Buster Posey. Good for them.
My beef is with bringing in someone else’s players, or players off the street, with only a month left before the playoffs.
If baseball is going to continue to keep its waiver trade deadline at the end of August, why have a deadline? One month? Two weeks? One week? What’s the difference? Just let teams trade until the final days of the season.
Need some pop in the lineup? Deal for Arizona’s Mark Reynolds or Washington’s Adam Dunn. They’ll have some free time in October.
That’s how ridiculous the deals this week seem.
Maybe I’ll change my mind if Jim Thome hits the winning home run in the seventh game of the World Series at Yankee Stadium.
Until then, I’d prefer that the Dodgers and everyone else stick with the players who got them into contention in the first place.
