:shock: The Cardinals are making huge mistakes. They traded Joe Kelly and Allen Craig to the Red Sox for John Lackey... IMHO, Kelly is one of the best young pitchers out there. Lackey is a good one for sure. I've seen him pitch, but I would rather have Kelly...
A's need more pitching, they limped out of Houston with their lumps, losing 2 out of 3 to the Astros and they needed a miracle rally in the 9th to save the 1st game. Samardzja took a few lumps in Minute Maid, Wed night but didn't get the decision.
2011 Cy Young Award winner: Justin Verlander. 2012: David Price. 2013: Max Scherzer. Wonder if any team is the history of baseball prior to this had a pitching staff that included the Cy Young winners of last three consecutive years.
Scherzer is gone after this year. Price is signed through 2015. If they cannot afford to resign Scherzer, I doubt if they will be able to resign Price. Both the A's and Tigers seem to be moving all of their chips to the middle of the table to win now.
Bobda is correct and don't forget the Angels obtaining Huston Street. Those three AL teams, the Tigers, A's and Angels are going to try to run the table this year. Any of those three could do it. They're stacked about as high as you can stack it...
Tigers, like last year have a solid starting staff. However, the bullpen remains their Achilles heel. Soria who was supposed to be the answer has pitched like he doesnn't want to be in Motown. He's had 3 appearances as a Tiger and given up at least 1 run in each. Today he gave up the winning run by hitting a batter with the bases loaded.
:x Ouch. Just remember that trading isn't over. There's still the waver wire and nobody is going to come up one player short. The Dodgers (as an example I'm familiar with) are loaded with over-paid relief pitchers. Most teams won't pick them off the waver wire, because that means assuming the player's full contract and losing a draft pick. Having gone this far, a team like the Tigers won't hesitate. They'll do what they have to do for one more player...
Coach!! Arguably they have one of the best GM's in the biz, and a small market budget....been to 4 WS and won 2 in 10 years.....that's acceptable. Kelly's #'s weren't there...and Craig wasn't producing. Now they can play Taveras daily, and the Cards are famous for waver wire pickups in the month of Aug. I remember George laughing when we picked up Jeff Weaver in 2006.
:idea: I agree with your high opinion of the Cards front office and their GM. They might be the best run team in MLB. I was simply stating my opinion that this time they might have made mistakes. Only time will tell if I was right, or if the Cards have struck gold again.