2011 MLB Regular Season Thread

[dfreely]

Looks like a couple of trades involving the Blue Jays just happened.

First, the Jays trade Jason Frasor and Zach Stewart to the White Sox for Edwin Jackson and Mark Teahan.

Then, the Jays trade the just-acquired Edwin Jackson along with Octavio Dotel, Corey Patterson and Marc Razasomethingorotherski to the Cards for Colby Rasmus, Trever Miller, Brian Tallet and PJ Walters.

That's a whole lot of nobodies involved in the trade, but what it boils down to is that Toronto gets Rasmus for next to nothing.

[dfreely]

So a Beltran trade happened. He's going to the Giants for prospect pitcher Zach Wheeler. Don't know much about him, but reports say he's got a fastball up to the mid-90's with good movement but poor control. They also say he varies his breaking balls very well, but throws them in such a way that it causes more stress to the throwing arm. He's not a surefire thing, but he sounds about right for what's essentially a 2-month rental of Beltran.

[coolmoors]

Braves got Bourn, without giving up their major pitching prospects, so good trade.
The Phillies grew their lead to 9 games over the Braves.

[dfreely]

Definitely a good trade for the Braves, Bourn is very underrated and they didn't give up much to get him. I think actually picked the Braves to take the division before the season.. never thought Uggla and Heyward would do this bad. The Phillies gave up a couple of top prospects to get Pence, which makes sense, since it's not like they have a top prospect who can play RF. As lucky as they've been these past few years, they've gotta crash soon and it isn't going to be pretty.

The Pirates also made a couple of decent trades for Derrek Lee and Ludwick without giving up much. I thought that might have been enough to keep them hanging out in the NL Central race, but they're now on a 10-game losing streak and have fallen 10 games out of first.

[dfreely]

Twins made another confusing trade - they sent Delmon Young to Detriot for a Class A pitcher and a PTBNL. Strangely enough, the Twins and Tigers are currently playing each other, and Young homered in his first AB for his new team against his old team.

Young's been a huge bust, but he's 25, and the pitcher he was traded for has like 50 walks in 100 innings in single A. I've got to be missing something here because this trade makes no sense.

[dfreely]

Exciting last day of the regular season.

Cards win to take the wild card. Braves had a 10 game lead on the Cards about a month back and completely blew it.

Rays came back from 7 runs behind to win the wild card. Really awesome game as Dan Johnson hit a game-tying home run with the team down to their last strike, and then Longoria hits a walkoff bomb a few innings later. Like the Braves, the Red Sox had about a 10 game lead a month ago and blew it in epic fashion.

Johnson's homer also hit a fan in the crotch. Insert Johnson/johnson joke here.