Friday, August 1, 2008

Which Division Outcomes Will be Affected by Trades?

After all the excitement of the last few days, will any of the big trades change the likely outcomes of the division races?
-Will the Dodger acquisition help them beat out the Diamondbacks in the NL West? The Dbacks have better pitching, especially since the Dodgers don't have their closer Takashi Saito anymore.
The Brewers may have thought CC Sabathia was going to help them pull away from the Cubs (first they'd have to catch up) but the Cubs quickly strengthened their own rotation by trading for Rich Harden.
-The NL East is a three-way race that will probably keep us all watching through September. The Mets did not upgrade this week but they have a superior lineup and the Marlins and Phillies have questionable pitching rotations.
-In the AL Central, the White Sox were not expected to do as well as they have this season but their pitching has been surprisingly good and they have a lot of offense. The Twins? Same thing, go figure. They are surprising to everyone and they did nothing at the deadline.
-The AL East- The Rays did nothing this week, while the the Yankees made considerable improvements. They got Pudge, Xavier Nady, and Damaso Marte without giving up much- Kyle Farnsworth and some middling prospects. The Red Sox will probably continue to do well, especially with the added psychological boost of unloading Manny.
-The Angels got 1B Mark Teixeira and a 12.5 game lead in the AL West. What else do they need?

No comments: