The state of the trade market

A little surprised Rangers are the only team this topic has generated discussion on. No fans of other teams have any opinions on whether the listed buy/sell possibilities would be good or not?

I already commented on Teamnasty's Mets anaylisis and disagreed with it to a certain extent. He thinks they need/are after a C, 2b, SS and RP. I believe they need a bat(or two) but at the positions of SS,3B, 2b or Corner OF and really will not pursue a catcher or any RP. With Mejia coming back, Parnell already back and the returns of Carlyle, Blevins and Goeddel off the DL in the second half, they have no need to overpay for a short term rental for their pen. And I'm sure they think d'Arnaud will be back for most of the second half, though that remains to be seen.

As for the hitters, as I stated before they will take any player that's an offensive improvement at 2b, 3b or SS and plug Murphy and Flores into whichever two holes remain and religate Tejeda to the bench. This is why Zobrist is of interest and is believed to be the player Alderson was referring to when he said the Mets were wiling to "overpay".
I'd dearly like them to get a LF, and jettison Cuddyer who clearly is struggling, whether because of age, expectations, or just being away from Coors, matters not. point is he needs to go. Justin Upton would be a nice fit, as would Revere (I do not see the Phillies dealing with the Mets though). Revere could lead off and allow Granderson to move down in the lineup into a run producing slot and take some pressure off Duda.
And of course the "big move" would be if they could swing Tulo, but my guess is the price will be more than Alderson would be willing to pay, though If they would be willing to part with Harvey, Syndergaard or Matz with another high end prospect( Conforto??) maybe they could get it done.

The real problem with any action on the trade front though is the standings. Take a look at them. You have 20 teams within two and a half games of being .500 and in most of those cases that means they are only 2 or 3 games out of a wildcard spot. The only real runaway team at the moment is the Cards. With so many teams so close, there's too many buyers and not nearly enough sellers. I think it will be a VERY slow market and will remain so with two wild card teams in both leagues. Perhaps if MLB allowed the trading of draft picks it might open some things up, but until they do I don't think the trade market will ever be very robust under the current playoff format.

A little surprised Rangers are the only team this topic has generated discussion on. No fans of other teams have any opinions on whether the listed buy/sell possibilities would be good or not?

I already commented on Teamnasty's Mets anaylisis and disagreed with it to a certain extent. He thinks they need/are after a C, 2b, SS and RP. I believe they need a bat(or two) but at the positions of SS,3B, 2b or Corner OF and really will not pursue a catcher or any RP. With Mejia coming back, Parnell already back and the returns of Carlyle, Blevins and Goeddel off the DL in the second half, they have no need to overpay for a short term rental for their pen. And I'm sure they think d'Arnaud will be back for most of the second half, though that remains to be seen.

As for the hitters, as I stated before they will take any player that's an offensive improvement at 2b, 3b or SS and plug Murphy and Flores into whichever two holes remain and religate Tejeda to the bench. This is why Zobrist is of interest and is believed to be the player Alderson was referring to when he said the Mets were wiling to "overpay".
I'd dearly like them to get a LF, and jettison Cuddyer who clearly is struggling, whether because of age, expectations, or just being away from Coors, matters not. point is he needs to go. Justin Upton would be a nice fit, as would Revere (I do not see the Phillies dealing with the Mets though). Revere could lead off and allow Granderson to move down in the lineup into a run producing slot and take some pressure off Duda.
And of course the "big move" would be if they could swing Tulo, but my guess is the price will be more than Alderson would be willing to pay, though If they would be willing to part with Harvey, Syndergaard or Matz with another high end prospect( Conforto??) maybe they could get it done.

The real problem with any action on the trade front though is the standings. Take a look at them. You have 20 teams within two and a half games of being .500 and in most of those cases that means they are only 2 or 3 games out of a wildcard spot. The only real runaway team at the moment is the Cards. With so many teams so close, there's too many buyers and not nearly enough sellers. I think it will be a VERY slow market and will remain so with two wild card teams in both leagues. Perhaps if MLB allowed the trading of draft picks it might open some things up, but until they do I don't think the trade market will ever be very robust under the current playoff format.

the second wild card has many teams thinking they are still in the hunt
only 5 teams in the AL are more than 3 games out ranging from Cle 4.5 back to Oak 6.5 back

in the NL there are 6 teams more than 5 games back and some are definitely long gone.

I don't think the Twins will be doing any selling, the only one I could see them moving is Plouffe now that Sano is up. Right now Sano is DH but I assume they want to start getting him some games in at 3rd. The call up (and subsequent injury) to Buxton seems to have ignited a fire under Hicks, so I could see them keeping him and having a 4 man OF rotation with Buxton, Rosario and Hunter. Hunter has been a godsend to the squad, he is still playing well, been hitting for power, and most importantly has been a leader and mentor in the clubhouse to the younger guys (which is something Mauer will never be because of his milktoast personality). Ervin Santa pitched great in his 1st game back after the 80 game suspension. Hughes has been better of late, but Pelfrey has regressed back to where he probably should be. Milone and Gibson need to keep pitching well enough to be solid 4/5 starters. Relief pitching other than Perkins is also suspect, moving Trevor May to the pen should help. Danny Santana is the x-factorr, he's already been benched by Molitor and has been dreadful at SS this season. Dozier has had a strong season, but probably won't make the All-Star team in the 5 player vote off. Altuve and Kipnis deserve to be there, just too many quality seasons at 2nd in the AL this season so far. I am pleasantly surprised how well they are doing, but a lot of advanced stats are saying their record is better than they have been playing. They should stay below 90 losses this year and maybe eclipse .500 if the pitching holds and they can generate more offense.

We will know a little more about Rangers status after tonight. Matt Harrison makes his first start coming back from his last back surgery. I was skeptical he could pull this off. If he can return to pre-injury form it could help improve outlook for team.

Also hearing Perez will be returning shortly after the all star break. He was not quite as good as Harrison yet but showed a lot of promise before getting hurt. If he gets back to where he was that is a second good addition to rotation. Or if either falters they could move to bullpen where team has been so desperate for LH options they keep running Detweiler out there in spite of an ERA over 7, even choosing to keep him and designate Feliz. In my opinion that was poor roster management by Daniels.

Difficult angle is may be difficult to say if they will return to form or not until well after the trade deadline. So being either a buyer or a seller has potential to be disaster. I would rather they err on the side of being sellers because I am high on some of the prospects they have on the way. Do not want to mortgage any more of the future for any rental players.

The Rangers real problem is that, like the Reds, they are "built for now" but just aren't very good. So it's hard for them to just tear it all down yet "trading for now" probably just deepens the hole. The sooner they realize that it's time to do a painful tear down and sacrifice a couple years the better. At this point they might as well wait a week or two to see if they can make a move in the standings. It's highly likely they won't, but might as well. They have some bad contracts that'll be really hard to unload. Might wanna eat some money and dump Fielder while he's still playing well. The ship has sailed on Choo tho.

I'd say just the opposite. I think the Rangers window is now, and they need to do all they can to win this year. Houston will just get stronger and stronger over the next 5-8 years.

I agree that their window is now, they are the classic "win now" team. Built around veterans with huge contracts. But they just don't measure up to the class teams in the AL. So they are in a quandary.

I would really like to disagree with teamnasty but sadly he has a point.

I think they have painted themselves in to a bit of a corner with the large and multi-year contracts of Choo and Fielder. Their current roster being what it is they may be in a win now position. In a couple years those contracts combined with player ages will make it difficult to maneuver. And with potentially 3 good starters returning from injury the rotation after the all star break will be quite different and possibly much better than first half rotation. So there is some logic in going for it now, especially if they can land a big RH bat at catcher, CF, or DH.

But when I look at the overall organization I think their best team is a couple years out. Eight players from their AA Frisco team made the midseason all star team. Most of that group barring injury have potential to be solid major league players in 2017 and a couple maybe even next year. Rangers finances have improved dramatically since Hicks gave up team. But they still cannot compete with NY and LA and other top tier revenue teams if they try to slug it out with FA contracts. Bulk or their team has to come from smart player development so they have quality seasons coming from cost controlled players. A big part of that is avoiding rentals who have little chance of being difference makers.

Cliff Lee was a difference maker. The Tex trade and Lee trade solidified Daniel's reputation. But the Dempster and Garza trades severely eroded my confidence in his ability to make the right decision on the buyer/seller trade deadline situations. Some seasons are a win now situation. Most are not. And teams like the Rangers cannot be win now buyers every season. Eventually you arrive at seasons like last year and early this year where you have a few injuries and your lack of depth kills you. Rangers depth is still at the AA and A levels. Much prefer team being in a restocking mode.

The Rangers showing last week prior to break would seem to eliminate them as buyers. Radio said lost 6 of the 7 games which I think is correct.

Most telling though was how they closed out that week. I was at the game Sunday (Michal Young bobblehead promo) and it was hard to watch. Ground ball off Moreland's glove gets by Odor and Choo stands watching until too late to prevent a TRIPLE! Even Beltre who I have come to expect leadership from lined one in to the left field corner and did not run full speed. With the play completely in front of him he slowed down and went in standing. He missed being thrown out by inches. I thought he was out until I watched it on TV after getting home. Call was challenged so got to see it multiple times. His foot stopped inches short of the base and kind of slid to the bag as the tag was being applied. Being undermanned is one thing. But this team has the look of having given up.

Maybe watching some of those replays will embarrass them and they will come out of break a different team.

Is there any chance Jose Fernandez winds up on a new team?