I'm going to issue a preemptive apology, even though I know most of you don't really care. Three times a week, I try to sum up what's going on in the baseball internets over the past two days. I try to have some sort of flow from story to story so that it's more like reading a report than just a bunch of collected links.
But today, it's just impossible. So much has gone down on the trade deadline that there is no way I can "sum up the internet" without writing something the length and complexity of Game of Thrones. It's probably the wildest trade deadline in memory, although we'll have to wait until Monday's Bullets to find out what the final tally is. But I think I did a solid job anyway with what I had to work with.
- Here's just ESPN's index of all the July trades, so you can see for yourself if you missed anything.
- One you may have missed after you went to bed last night: The Giants acquired Mike Leake from the Reds.
- David Schoenfield thinks the Astros are the favorites in the AL West after picking up Carlos Gomez from the Brewers.
- The Astros may not be done dealing, as they are reportedly talking to the Padres. The Cubs are reportedly talking to the Padres too.
- But before all that, Carlos Gomez was reportedly going to the Mets. Everyone said it was a done deal. And it was until the Mets called off the deal because of concerns over Gomez's health. That's funny, because one of the two guys the Brewers were getting is still recovering from Tommy John Surgery.
- Scott Boras blasted the Mets, saying that Gomez was perfectly healthy and that New Yorkers just considered the Brewers medical staff to be "Cheesehead Medicine." Normally you'd say that's just Boras spouting off in defense of his client, but the Astros had zero problems with Gomez's medicals and they're the organization that didn't sign the number one pick in the draft over medical concerns.
- Michael Baumann goes over how absolutely surreal Wednesday night was, both with the Mets and other trades.
- Part of the surrealism was that Wilmer Flores found out that he was to be sent to the Brewers for Gomez, and the Mets never took him off the field. So he was seen tearing up on national television while in the field trying to play shortstop. Victor Mather talks about Flores' reaction and how it shows that there are real emotions that real people have to deal with at this time of year, even if they try to hide it.
- Flores, for his part, says the emotion just got to him and he's putting it all behind him. The Mets did apologize to him for not taking him out of the game, even though they (but apparently no one else) knew the trade was not finalized.
- Will Leitch thinks this was a failure of social media.
- Ken Rosenthal, one of the journalists who reported the Gomez trade (although not the first one), explains how this story went wrong. He's says that it's a price we pay for the immediacy of social media like Twitter and it's not going away, for better or worse.
- The Mets had to play again the next day, and their 24 hours went from bad to worse with a pretty unusual loss.
- The Dodgers, Braves and Marlins made an extraordinarily complex 13-player trade.
- In an ESPN Insider article, Keith Law says the deal makes the Dodgers better, might go either way for the Braves and allows the cheapskate Marlins to shed salary. ($)
- Marlins president Mike Hill hopes Marlins fans are "educated enough" to see what the team is doing. It's pretty clear what they're doing. They're saving money so they can make a bigger profit at the expense of putting a major league team on the field.
- Dave Cameron thinks the Dodgers pulled off a smart deal.
- The Dodgers have already cut Michael Morse, one of the Marlins players whose salary they agreed to pay.
- Jeff Sullivan says the Braves traded away several risky players and got risky players back in return.
- Cole Hamels got traded to the Rangers for five of their top prospects (And Matt Harrison and his salary.). Grant Brisbee explains how this deal can work for the Phillies.
- Jean-Jacques Taylor thinks the Rangers were big winners in the Hamels trade.
- The Phillies only traded Hamels to the Rangers after he made it clear he would not accept a deal to Houston.
- Tim Healy explains how their new teams are better for getting Hamels and David Price.
- Oh, did I forget to mention that David Price was traded to the Blue Jays? That's how crazy the past two days have been. Ben Lindbergh likes the deal from both sides, although he does point out that Toronto has a lot riding on 2015 now.
- Mike Axisa has eight things you need to know about the Price trade.
- In another ESPN insider article, Dan Szymborski looks at the playoff odds now and says the Blue Jays were right to roll the dice on Price. ($)
- Writing before the Price deal, David Schoenfield believes the Blue Jays need more pitching after the Troy Tulowitzki deal. Well, they got it.
- Grant Brisbee points out that if these deals don't get the Blue Jays into the playoffs, GM Alex Anthopoulos won't have to worry about the consequences. Because, you know, he'll be fired.
- Paul Swydan believes the Price trade isn't a sign of a rebuilding phase for the Tigers. Rather, he thinks they're hitting the reset button.
- Marcus Stroman found out the Jays got Price while he was in class. (He's going back to school to finish his degree while he recovers from a torn ACL) He apparently got a little excited and Tweeted out an apology to his professor.
- In all the confusion, you may have missed that the Yankees picked up Dustin Ackley from the Mariners.
- Rany Jazayerli thinks that Ben Zobrist was the perfect pickup for the Royals to make it back to the World Series.
- The White Sox can't decide whether to buy or sell.
- If they end up buying, they're reportedly interested in outfielders Yoenis Cespedes and Justin Upton.
- The Diamondbacks are waiting to hear back from the Reds on their offer for Aroldis Chapman. Because a closer is all that is keeping the DBacks out of the playoffs. I think we can remove the "genius" tag from Tony LaRussa now.
- Nationals fans are unhappy that new closer Jonathan Papelbon took Doug Fister's number.
- Rob Neyer says that most of these deadline trades don't change teams chances of making the playoffs much.
- I like Padres interim manager Pat Murphy. He pulled Justin Upton and Matt Kemp out of a blowout game just to mess with everyone's heads.
- Can we stop considering the Cardinals to be a "small market" team already?
- Joseph Stromberg wants robot umpires and explains why you should too.
- This is a pet peeve of mine, but it's an interesting read. Why do managers wear uniforms? There's no rule that they have to, yet MLB orders umpires to anyway. And Bobby Cox wore a cup while managing. I guess that's for protection while arguing with umpires.
- The Troy Tulowitzki trade ruined a Jeopardy question on Wednesday's show.
- And finally, the real-life Crash Davis, Mike Hessman, hit his 432nd career minor-league home run, tying the career record for the US-based minor leagues. And someone did tell the Sporting News.
And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. Because I'll be off "hug watch."