Man he's got to be pissed! Trade Deadline Edition

[nicksaviking]

No not any particular fans.  I was just musing about some of the moves or non-moves and this thought keeps coming to me.

 

1. Torii Hunter

 

Details: Signed in the offseason with the Twins as what was percieved to be some kind of legacy deal perhape propelling him to future employment with the team.  Perhaps his next biggest suitor were the Royals.  The Royals are running away with the AL Central which isn't all that surprising.  What is surprising is the Twins are holding on to a WC spot by the skin of their teeth.  Upon leaving Minnesota, many veterans complained on and/or off the record that the Twins would never "Go for it."  Here Hunter is, once again back in contention with bullpen guys getting all across the league getting moved left and right and not costing a ton and the Twins lose yet another contest because their relievers are abysmal.  Even if the Twins do get some pen reinforcement, it probably should have been done weeks or months ago, as the current crew cost this team multiple games.

 

Man, he's got to be pissed! (full disclosure, I've been a total trade deadline buzzkill myself)

 

2. Drew Storen

 

Details: He was a 1st round pick of the Nationals in 2009 and made it to the big leagues by 2010, becoming the team's closer once the Nationals laughed their way through the Matt Capps trade.  He held the position in 2011 and into 2012 before an injury caused him to take a backseat to Tyler Clippard.  All was good in 2013 however when Clippard lost the closers job, oh, except the team signed and gave Rafael Soriano the closers gig for the next two years despite the guy being close to washed up and unable to strike batters out.  Things looked up for Storen in 2015 as he took his rightful place as the closer, until the team decided they needed to bolster the bullpen and signed the good, but inferior Jon Papelbon who had his own set of demands.  Those demands of course are that he became the defacto closer ($10 bucks says that can't legally be written into a contract) AND his option is picked up for 2016 as well.  Too bad for Storen that 2016 and 2017 are his final arbitration years and that closers get paid a ton more than set-up men.  Now he gets to sit next to Papelbon every day for the next year and a half knowing that a guy in his twilight years who has already made about $90 million in his career screwed him out of millions of dollars.

 

Man, he's got to be pissed!

 

3. Every traded vet and free agent signed by San Diego this off season

 

Details: Seriously

 

Man, they have to be pissed!

[Mike Sixel]

Funny, before I opened it I knew the first two would be there........

[kab21]

I really don't understand the Hunter one.  It was expected that the Royals would be good and the Twins would be bad.  He should be very happy to be playoff relevant this season.

 

How about Vincent Velasquez who got bumped from the Astros rotation with the kazmir trade?

[TheLeviathan]

Trevor May demands a spot.

[Shaitan]

San Diego is the new Miami in terms of how they treat new acquisitions (maybe not quite managers).

[kab21]

 

San Diego is the new Miami in terms of how they treat new acquisitions (maybe not quite managers).

Not really.  The Marlins got a bad rap for signing big contracts and even making promises to players about their commitment to winning.  And then they completely tore down teams (even winning teams) a year or two later in impressive firesales.

 

The Padres only signed one big contract and even that one basically bailed Shields out of a developing bad situation late in the offseason.  The rest of the players were traded for.  In a way they are doing the A's way (although not as well).

[Shaitan]

You may be right. It feels like they did the same thing 2-3 years ago, around when Black took over, but I could be wrong.