Kuzul

It is Wednesday, August 1, and everyone in baseball knows what that means. The 2012 July 31 non-waiver trade deadline has passed, and any deals that hope to be done from now until August 31 will have to be completed by attempting to pass players through waivers. Not an easy venture.

So, as usual, 2012 saw its fair share of players switch uniforms over the past week or so. But which teams made the best trades? Which moves will most greatly benefit their clubs, giving them a better shot at reaching the postseason, or maybe just enhance their chances of victory once they get there?

I’ve come up with a list of 10 teams who have made the best of the trade deadline for themselves, and now I’m going to bring us all back to school. For every team listed, I will assign a grade on how well I think the move will work out for the club this season, and perhaps into the future as well.

Now, these 10 clubs all made good moves, so we’re not going to see any “Ds” or “Fs” here, but really, just look at which teams were smart this deadline, and which made honors, if you will.

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2012 has been an up-and-down season for the New York Yankees thus far. Some players have been surprisingly hot, while some have been uncharacteristically cold. The team as a whole has gone on hot streaks and cold streaks as well, usually coinciding with the offense.

Players like Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson, Nick Swisher and Raul Ibanez have been red-hot to start the 2012 campaign, and are really the only reason that the Yankees have managed a 20-15 record at this point in the season.  

The heart of the order has stumbled out of the gate, as has the starting pitching staff as a whole, and when Mariano Rivera went down with a season-ending ACL injury, even the Yankees’ greatest strength, their lock-down bullpen, took a major hit.

However, as of late, things have begun to turn around for a handful of key Yankees figures. If these guys can keep moving in the right direction and pick it up, then things are about to heat up in the Bronx.

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We’re a month into the 2012 season, and so far, it’s been a season full of surprises. The Nationals, Orioles and White Sox are all either in first place or a game or two out, Derek Jeter and David Ortiz are both hitting near .400 and Albert Pujols has yet to hit a home run in an Angels uniform.

A lot of players are playing at high levels so far this season, and oddly enough, a lot of them are in contract years. These players are playing like a bunch of guys with big paydays in their dreams, but for most of them, general managers would be wise to stay away. They all have some lackluster past records to their names and should not be trusted with a major contract. While some of them have the talent to keep up this elite level of play, other factors come into play that makes them a risk.

I’ll bet you’re wondering who these players are now, huh? Well, let’s get right into it, the nine players who GMs should steer clear of this offseason despite what they wind up doing this year.

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Every year since 1949, the most standout first-year player from each league has been awarded the Rookie of the Year Award.  More often than not, receiving this award is a result of a young player tearing onto the major league scene as if he had already been playing there for years.  

Some teams have had many players bring home the honor, and some have yet to earn one.  However, whether he received recognition or not, every team has had at least one player with an amazing rookie campaign.  

That is what I will be examining today; the players who had the best rookie seasons for each of the current MLB clubs.

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During the Steinbrenner era, the Yankees were not a team known for their patient attitude regarding their prospects.  They viewed these players as trading chips that could be used to acquire one of the games many stars; players that were already experiencing success at the major league level and were considered amongst the elite.  Yankees minor league players learned not to wait for the call to the majors, but rather for the call informing them that they had been traded.  After all, their chances of making the roster on one of the other MLB teams was much higher than the chance of making the Yankees’ roster.  They knew they were trade bait, nothing more.

Nowadays, it’s still the Steinbrenner era in the Bronx, but its Hank and Hal, not the late George, who are calling all the shots.  So far, they’ve been preaching patience, a word the most Yankees fans probably didn’t even have in their vocabulary until recently.  It’s not a very popular plan, but in the end, the fans may wind up being quite thankful for this new philosophy.  After all, it was already used once before in the Bronx, albeit most likely by accident.

In the early to mid-90s, a new Yankee dynasty was beginning that would change the face of baseball in the future.  The Yankees had a slew of talented minor league prospects that were all close to being major-league ready, and they all broke into the majors somewhere around 1995-1996.  The most prominent of these players were Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera, and of course, the now-beloved captain, Derek Jeter.  Together, these players led the Yankees to four World Series championships between 1996 and 2000, plus one more in 2009, sans Williams.

Presently, the Yankees have a new slew of talented young players already in the majors.  Such players include Brett Gardner, Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes, and Robinson Cano.  Gardner brings his speed and plate discipline to the team, as well as one of the best sets of outfield defensive skills in the game.  Chamberlain broke onto the scene as a dominant reliever in 2007, but the Yankees might have derailed a brilliant young player by mixing up his role over the past few years, going back-and-forth from starter to reliever (he is currently a reliever).  Hughes has become a valuable member of an otherwise less-than-satisfactory starting rotation in New York, making his first All-Star appearance in 2010 in his first full year as a starter. 

Then there’s the man most Yankee fans affectionately refer to as “Robbie.”  Robinson Cano has grown into one of the absolute best players in the game over the past few seasons.  With one of the most beautiful swings in the game today, he inspires fear into the hearts of opposing pitchers, as he can hit for both average and power.  He is also arguably the best defensive second baseman in the game, as he won his first Gold Glove last season.  He is probably at least in the top three in any discussion involving the best players in the game today, and is the best player on a Yankees team that includes such superstars as Jeter, Rivera, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, and CC Sabathia.  He has established himself into a perennial MVP candidate, and might be the man that leads a talented group of young players still down at the Yankees’ farm to multiple world championships during what could wind up being a new Yankee dynasty in the 2010s.

Many Yankees fans don’t even want to hear the word “trade” in the same sentence as “prospects” anymore, and who could blame them.  They don’t want to miss out on another player like Robbie Cano.

So here are those young players who have the chance to be the new jewels on the Bronx.  These are the Yankees current top 10 prospects.

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Now that the Kansas City Royals have dealt away their former Cy Young Award-winning ace, Zack Greinke, they really only have a handful of talented players left, and certainly not enough to compete in the near future. 

They have officially entered the rebuilding phase yet again, and for Royals fans that’s probably not too comforting, seeing as they have been chasing that elusive second World Series title since 1985.  In fact, they haven’t had a winning season since 2003, when they went 83-79, and haven’t even made the playoffs since winning their lone title in 1985.

The one true remaining star of the Kansas City Royals is their closer, Joakim Soria.  It would only seem logical that, in the aftermath of the Greinke trade, Soria will be the next to go.  The Royals are going nowhere, and Soria would most definitely net them a slew of talented prospects from some team’s farm system.  The question is, which one? 

Here is a list of 10 teams I believe may make an attempt to acquire the 26-year-old, two-time All-Star closer.

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The Chicago White Sox made a major move today, locking up free agent slugger Adam Dunn to a 4-year $56 million deal.

This provides the ChiSox with a huge power bat in the middle of their lineup who can possibly DH, backing up first basemen Paul Konerko if the White Sox captain re-signs with his long-time club.

Add to this lineup the possible re-signing of catcher A. J. Pierzynski, and the South-Siders could have a formidable lineup to back up one of baseball’s better rotations.

A possible lineup could look as follows:

1. LF Juan Pierre

2. SS Alexei Ramirez

3. CF Alex Rios

4. 1B Paul Konerko

5. DH Adam Dunn

6. RF Carlos Quentin

7.  C  A. J. Pierzynski

8. 3B Mark Teahen

9. 2B Gordon Beckham

The rotation would look like this once Jake Peavy returns from his injury, with rookie Chris Sale likely filling in until then:

1. RHP Jake Peavy

2. LHP Mark Buehrle

3. RHP Edwin Jackson

4. LHP John Danks

5. RHP Gavin Floyd

This team could make the AL Central THE division to watch in 2011.

With the Detroit Tigers improving by acquiring All-Star catcher Victor Martinez, and the 2010 Division Champion Minnesota Twins only having to re-sign Carl Pavano to keep their team intact, this could be a tight race all the way through next season.

The White Sox need to re-sign Paul Konerko and A. J. Pierzynski, or else this move will almost surely wind up being a bust.

Having to watch Adam Dunn man first base all year would be a painful sight to say the least, and replacing the high average and power of Paul Konerko with a low-average power hitter like Dunn would be a step down, not up.  

This signing has the potential to be a home run, but unless White Sox GM Ken Williams can retain his old, reliable players, it could be a swing and a miss—something Adam Dunn does a lot of.

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A year ago, Yankees fans were in an uproar regarding Brian Cashman’s decision to take a pass on free agent outfield slugger Matt Holliday, instead opting to go with the speedy Brett Gardner in left field for the 2010 season. 

The reasoning, so he claimed?  Simple.  Tampa Bay’s Carl Crawford would be a free agent at season’s end, and he was a much better fit for what the Yankees needed in their lineup— an excellent defensive outfielder with a high on-base percentage and average, who provided a viable speed threat on the bases.

So, the Yankees wanted an outfielder with a decent glove who could get on base and wreak havoc with his speed?  Sound familiar?

Brett Gardner did almost exactly in 2010 what the Yankees were looking for Crawford to do for them in 2011.  And even though he arrived at the party that is the Major Leagues five years later in his life than Crawford, Gardner is following the same trends now as Crawford in the early stages of his career.

Crawford broke into the Major Leagues in 2002 at age 20.  In 63 games for the then non-contending Devil Rays, he hit .259 with a .290 on-base percentage and 9 stolen bases.  Gardner made it to the Yankees in 2008 at age 24, playing in 42 games over two stints on a Yankees team fighting for their lives in the American League East (a fight they would eventually lose) against the Red Sox and Rays.  In those 42 games, Gardner hit .228 with a .283 OBP and 13 stolen bases.  So give Crawford the edge in batting average, Gardner the slight edge in steals, and just about a toss-up in OBP in each player’s first taste of the bigs.

Now we’ll move on to their first full seasons in the majors.  That would be 2003 for Crawford and, due to an injury followed by split playing time with Melky Cabrera in 2009, 2010 for Gardner.  In 151 games for the Devil Rays in ’03, Crawford hit .281 with a .309 OBP and 55 stolen bases.  In 150 games for the Yankees in 2010, Gardner hit .277 with a .383 OBP and 47 stolen bases. 

So, in their first full seasons of play, Crawford and Gardner are just about equal in batting average, with Crawford taking a slight edge in steals.  However, notice the difference in each of their on-base percentages.  Gardner’s was significantly higher than Crawford’s at the same point in his career.  In fact, Crawford has not once eclipsed Gardner’s 2010 OBP in his 9-year career.

Having arrived to the 2010-11 offseason, Yankees fans were ready to finally swipe the left fielder of their dreams from the division-rival Rays.  But Cashman has different plans for this offseason.  Instead of paying Carl Crawford $16-$18 million a year to man left field for the Yanks, he is going to pay Brett Gardner just over the league minimum to do the same thing, just at a slightly lower level.  This way, the Yankees have more money to throw at the man that they actually need to sign this offseason, left-handed ace Cliff Lee. 

Carl Crawford is already a proven elite player, all but guaranteed to hit north of .300 every year while swiping at least 40 bags.  Gardner is still an up-and-coming player, and although he is close in age to Crawford, his career has only just begun.  He still has much more room to grow as a hitter, and he has the potential to eventually grow into the same kind of player that Crawford is today, if not better.

With the right training and coaching, Gardner very well could be a .300 hitter someday.  He already has the speed that Crawford does.  In fact, Gardner and Crawford had an equal amount of stolen bases this past season, with 47 apiece. 

The plus side is that Gardner is already very far ahead of Crawford in some areas.  His on-base percentage is already superior to Crawford’s.  This is because he has much more plate discipline, leading all of baseball with 4.61 P/PA (pitches per plate appearance). 

As a result of seeing so many pitches, Gardner also edges Crawford in one of baseball’s most underrated statistics; the walk.  Last season, Gardner walked 79 times, while Crawford only managed 46 free passes.  Ever heard that age-old phrase “a walk is as good as a hit?”  Well if that’s true, then last year Crawford got 230 “hits” (184 H, 46 BB), and Brett Gardner got 211 (132 H, 79 BB).  Not such a huge difference, is it?

What will be a huge difference, however, is the amount of money these players will be earning next year.  Crawford could be making around $17 million more than Gardner in 2011, while only providing a minimal upgrade over a player like him.  So, while another team spends the big money to acquire Carl Crawford’s services for their team, the Yankees will fly under the radar and stick with their own home-grown talent, Brett Gardner.

And who said the Yankees buy all of their players?

On a side note, if the Yankees decide to move Gardner to the leadoff spot in the lineup, which makes the most logical sense anyway, we very well could see increases in some of his major stats due to an increase in plate appearances. He would make for a dynamic leadoff hitter with his excellent combination of high on-base percentage and speed.  Assuming Derek Jeter re-signs with the Yankees (which seems harder and harder to accomplish lately), Gardner would bump Jeter to the second spot in the order. 

Now, as much as Joe Girardi refuses to admit it, he switched Jeter and Johnny Damon back in 2009 because Jeter tends to hit into double-plays.  With Gardner, this isn’t much of an issue thanks to his speed.  If Gardner singles and steals second in front of Jeter, that turns Jeter’s would-be groundball double-play into moving the runner to third with less than two outs.  It just makes sense to make Gardner the leadoff man.

So tell me, would it have been worth going after Carl Crawford with a guy like Brett Gardner already in the fold?  I don’t believe so, and I think the Yankees will start seeing some payoff for their trust in Gardner real soon.  This kid’s got the talent to make it in the majors, and I have a feeling he’s going to prove it in 2011.

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