What were They Thinking

A few tidbits from the recent Major League Baseball trading deadline which ended yesterday.



Kansas City traded closer Octavio Dotel to the Atlanta Braves for right-handed starter Kyle Davies. On the surface, this is a trade the Royals had to make since Dotel is a free-agent at the end of the season. But to only get Davies, who is 4-8 with a 5.76 ERA and was headed for AAA.

I would have liked to have seen the Royals hang on to Dotel until the end of the season with a possiblity of re-signing him for next year if, for nothing else, to bolster a young, talented bullpen that has shown remarkable improvement over last season. Davies will start Friday for Kansas City against the Yankees in New York. Welcome to the American League, Kyle!!



St. Louis definitely had me scratching my head as they acquired Joel Pineiro from the Red Sox for the proverbial "player to be named later". Pineiro was so ineffective for Boston that they sent him down to AAA Pawtucket a week ago. I don't know what the Cardinals see in this guy although I suppose they had to do something with their pitching staff in such dreadful disarray. Maybe Dave Duncan can work his magic with this guy. Heaven knows, the last couple moves (Mike Maroth and Kip Wells) have been total busts for the defending champs. Perhaps GM Walt Jocketty should have waited a couple days as former Cardinal, Matt Morris became available and was traded from San Francisco to Pittsburgh in the most confusing trade of the year so far.



It's anybody's guess if any of the trades will affect the standings the rest of the season. My predictions with two months of baseball left are:



AL EAST- Boston will continue to rule the East. They are much too deep and talented, especially in the pitching department. New York will miss the post-season for the first time in 12 years.



AL CENTRAL- Detroit and Cleveland will stay neck and neck down the stretch with the second place team securing the Wild-Card berth. This division will continue to be the toughest division in baseball for years to come.



AL WEST- Even though the Angels have struggled lately, they will coast into the post-season with a good, but not great pitching staff. Seattle is too young and Oakland isn't putting on their annual second-half run that they have been known for the last few years.



NL EAST- Atlanta positioned themselves to make a run at the New York Mets by acquiring Dotel and slugger Mark Texiera from the Royals and Rangers respectively. This division is up for grabs between the Braves, Mets, and Philadelphia Phillies. The team that can shore up it's pitching staff down the stretch will win the division. Though not a Braves fan, I think they will run down the Mets for the East Crown.



NL CENTRAL- Gonna go out on a limb here and say the Cubs will pass the Milwaukee Brewers. The Braves lost their ace, Ben Sheets, a week ago and even before he went down to injury, they were losing ground to the Cubs. Chicago is too deep and with Kerry Wood apparently coming back from injury, the Cubs have all the pieces in place to make a run at a World Series. Don't count any team out with Lou Piniella at the controls. St. Louis has too many holes to make a serious run at defending their championship.



NL WEST- You can pick from Arizona, San Diego, and Los Angeles to win the wild, wild NL West. Personally, I like the Padres again with the Dodgers taking the Wild Card out of this division.



And as crazy as this sounds, I like the Red Sox and Cubs to meet in the World Series in October.



Now that would be a series to remember.