Dodgers acquire Darvish. Trade does not include Verdugo. The Rangers get Willie Calhoun, A.J. Alexy and Brendon Davis. 2B Calhoun is the big name there. He’s got a slash line of .298/.357/.574 at OKC. RHP Alexy is with the Class A Great Lakes Loons, and SS Davis has been with both the Loons and the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes this season.
Scott Van Slyke for Cingrani. Deal also includes Hendrik Clementina, a 20-year-old catcher who’s currently at Ogden in the Pioneer League (Rookie).
The Dodgers also acquired LHP reliever Tony Watson from Pittsburgh. They reportedly send IF Oneil Cruz and RHP Angel German to the Pirates. German’s been with the Class A Loons, as has Cruz.
Discuss in comments.
NPUT
A Gnatfan’s confession… https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/63fdb63ee2cbccc83edd4ac06fe12aeae745acfac140baa302d6f4616129bc96.png
Lots of fan concern, even alarm, over Darvish’s numbers this year. Last out, he gave up 10 ER in Miami’s 22-10 rout of his Rangers–the kind of thing that gets attention.
Turns out there’s a good reason his numbers are below his career norms. He’s been tipping pitches, FB specifically, with a bit of hesitation before delivering the pitch.
Jeff Passan
@JeffPassan
Two scouts and an executive said Marlins knew what was coming from Darvish. A slight pause with hands when he was throwing his fastball. 1:32 PM – Jul 29, 2017
Here’s Grant’s take:
https://www.sbnation.com/2017/7/29/16062878/yu-darvish-tipping-pitches-rangers-trade-rumors-serious-trade-rumors
Turns out 7 of his last 10 outings have been good, even tho. The other 3 can’t be ignored as they powered a season ERA spike from 3.18 to 4.01. All pitchers have occasional bad games. But pitch tipping in those 3 bad starts is a likely suspect.
http://www.espn.com/mlb/player/_/id/32055/yu-darvish
Here is a great line from Grant: “The Dodgers know as well as any team in baseball that October offers no guarantees and that the postseason sprays like a territorial cat all
over the house when it smells confidence on a team.”
Any guesses on roster moves to accommodate our bountiful additions? I imagine Darvish and Watson go on the twenty five with Ravin going down to OKC. I sure hope we keep Farmer, at least through the Atlanta series. Was Calhoun on our forty man?
As near as I can tell, Calhoun wasn’t on the 40-man, so they’ll need to free up a slot for Darvish (Cingrani replaced SVS, and Watson replaces Peter O’Brien, who was DFA). It looks like they could move Urias to the 60-day DL (he was in the minors when he was injured, so he’s not even on the 10-day DL), so that would do it, or they could move Gutierrez to the 60-day.
I also finally saw that they released Freeman, the infielder who made a brief appearance on the team this year.
Okay, that makes sense. He was still on the MLB.com version of the 40-man this morning, but it’s probably hard for them to keep up.
Understand that Farmer stays so that they can get the most out of Barnes, when he is not starting, and likewise Grandal, when he is not starting.
Mr. Paredes goes back to OKC and Watson is added to the 40-man.
Here’s quite a factoid.
It was a bold play.
And it wasn’t even close. The thing that most surprised me about Utley while watching him since he came to the Dodgers was how good a baserunner he is.
Take note: on the right sidebar I added a link under Non-Partisan sites for Joe Blogs, Posnanski’s website. I also added a timeline of Tweets from the Dodgers’ official site.
I think I agree with Grant on the Darvish trade. We simply had to try something else, and he was the best pitcher available. The post season is a bear for the ill equipped.
Posnanski on broadcasting without playing experience.
Heh. Joe Posnanski blogs about the intentional walk Bochy issued to Justin Turner in yesterday’s game.
Personally, I approve of the strategic intentional walk and, to some extent, Bochy’s move made sense even though it put the winning run on base (Turner might have homered to win it, while a minor league callup catcher is a potential DP candidate). I’m glad it backfired, though.
Farmer’s double was A Simple Twist of Fate.
Diana’s husband has a complementary view… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMu62de9PVQ
Dee Gordon breaks up the no-no leading off the ninth.
Now I’d like to see the Fish come back and win.
Didn’t happen.
I didn’t feel really strongly about it.
Through eight in Miami, Gio González is pitching an interesting game.
Gameday. Check MLB.TV in your area, too.
The trades should be appreciated by the players and if nothing else, make them feel that the team owner stepped up and believes in this year’s team. That is motivating.
Grant Brisbee’s analysis of the Darvish deal.
https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2017/7/31/16072142/sf-giants-trade-deadline-dodgers-yu-darvish
Watson trade analysis.
What might Honeycut do for Watson that Ray Searage couldn’t?
Cingrani trade analysis. He’s a lefthanded reliever, which would complement Avilan. LHP Liberatore is not coming off the DL anytime soon.
I’m hopeful SVS gets to play regularly in Cincinnati.
Cingrani’s a very hard thrower with potentially great upside.
More analysis.
In summary pretty happy with who we received and even happier who we didn’t lose in return
Definitely agree on the latter and impressed with Front Office —
“What do we want?” WORLD SERIES RING!
“When do we want it?” NOW! (and as many years after as possible)
More info about Watson and Cingrani.
Darvish is a rental and he’s having a junk year, so this can be questioned, and it probably will be.
I am going to think positive thoughts about this move.
Yes, let’s hope for the best. According to the story above, Calhoun, Alexy and Davis “are the fourth-, 17th- and 27th-ranked prospects in the Dodgers’ system, respectively, according to MLB.com.”
Kenley was very big on getting Yu. The team has to be pleased about executing these trades without in any way upsetting the team chemistry.
Calhoun could be good, but he was pretty much blocked at second base (and his defense there is suspect) and in the outfield with the Dodgers, so trading him was probably the best use of him as an asset. Darvish hasn’t been great this year but he’s still been above average (ERA+ of 114) and his peripherals aren’t very far off his previous seasons. It may be a little bit of an overpay for a rental, but Calhoun had no spot in LA.
Tony Watson was the Pirates closer, although he was having just an okay year. He’s been very good in the past. He’ll be a free agent at the end of the year.
Tony Cingrani had one good year as a starter a few seasons back, but he’s been a reliever since, and hasn’t been very good (5.40 ERA this year in 25 appearances). SVS seems like an overpay, but I wish him well. He should get the chance to play for the Reds, and he’ll hit some home runs at GABP.
Thanks for the information.