NL East Fire Sale

NL East Fire Sales

Zach Cox

 Both the Phillies(45-57) and Marlins (47-55) find themselves more than 10 games out of the wildcard and have decided to call it quits at the trade deadline. Both teams were projected to finish towards the top of the NL East but both teams have fallen short. The Marlins participated in their third fire sale in the 20 years after big free agent grabs Jose Reyes, Heath Bell, and Mark Buehrle. Their first move was sending Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante to the Tigers in exchange for pitching super prospect Jacob Turner and solid prospect C Robert Brantly. Shortly following that was the deal that sent Hanley Ramirez and Randy Choate to the Dodgers for the #2 prospect in the Dodger's system P Nate Eovaldi and throw in prospect Scott McGough. On trade deadline day the Marlins worked out a trades with both the Pirates and the Cardinals. The Marlins sent relief pitcher Edward Mujica(0-3, 4.38 ERA, 2 SV, 36 H) to the Cardinals for 3B prospect Zach Cox who is hitting .254 at the AAA level this year. Cox is 23 years old and probably only a year or two away from the majors. I feel that the Marlins are the winners in this trade because middle relievers are not always consistent from year to year and Mujica isn't anything special this year. In a year when all is lost a veteran reliever does nothing and Cox should be able to help the Marlins for years to come.

Gaby Sanchez

  In the deal with the Pirates the Marlins sent off  one time all star 1B Gaby Sanchez and P Kyle Kaminska in exchange for the Pirates Outfielder Gorkys Hernandez. Kaminska seems to be just thrown in and most likely won't make a huge impact in the Pirates future as they are already stocked with young arms. Gaby Sanchez will replace Casey McGehee who the Pirates sent to the Yankees. Hernandez struggled with the big club this year and is doing okay in AAA after an above average year at AAA last year. He will most likely start off in the majors for the Marlins as Giancarlo "Don't Call Me Mike" Stanton is out for the season and Logan Morrison also on the DL.

Tommy Joseph

  The Phillies seem to have ended their era as kings of the NL East today by sending away their two best outfielders. Hunter Pence was traded to the Giants for OF Nate Schierholtz and catching prospect Tommy Joseph. Pence for Schierholtz straight up would be a great trade for the Giants and even with throwing Joseph in there it still is. The Giants have gotten themselves an elite right fielder that will help them beat out the Dodgers who have also been busy with deal. Tommy Joseph is the best catcher in the Giant's organization and #3 overall. The Giants will not be hurt too much by this because they already have Buster Posey and Andrew Susac is right behind Joseph in the Giant's system. With Carlos Ruiz aging the Phillies made a smart move by picking up a young catcher.
  Not to be outdone by the Giants, the Dodgers made a move of their own to pick up a solid outfielder. By giving up P Josh Lindblom and P Ethan Martin, they received Shane Victorino from the Phillies. Victorino is a career .277 hitter with a .776 OPS and should be expected to take over the starting left fielder role from Bobby Abreu. Abreu has slightly better numbers than Victorino this year but Victorino's speed and defense outweighs the older Abreu. Edit: Dodgers Designate Abreu for assignment.  Worse case scenario for Victorino is 4th outfielder but with plenty of playing time as Ethier and Kemp aren't the most durable players. The Dodgers gave up a package that is as valuable to them as Victorino but it is not great for the Phillies. Victorino means more to the Phillies than the Dodgers and they didn't get many prospects for him. Martin is at best a 3rd tier prospect while Lindblom is the#7 prospect in the Dodger's system. Lindblom has spent the whole 2012 season in the majors with 3.02 ERA in 47.2 innings.

Josh Lindblom

  The Phillies moved John Mayberry to starting center fielder status as a result of the trade as well as Domonic Brown. Mayberry will just be a placeholder in the organization as he is not young enough to be part of the franchises great next wave. The Phillies will most likely play out the rest of most of their contracts and then their prospects will be ready to make a run. The Marlins are in the same situation except that their players with heavy contracts have more years left and aren't quite as old. If the Marlins want to go back to rebuilding mode Reyes, Bell, and Buehrle will want to get out of Miami.

Issues with Olympic Gymnastics

            From generation to generation, the Summer Olympics have continued to dominate the global sports scene once every four years. Recently, there have been many rule changes to a variety of competitions and have changed the modern day Olympics. After a weekend of this edition of the Summer Olympics, there are issues that need to be commented on.

            In an extraordinary form of flipping and twisting, the women’s gymnastics competition began with a thrilling and beautiful sense of style and amazement. On the first night, squads fought for the top eight positions to advance while individuals worked to qualify for the 24 all-around spots. This is where the rules began to put a damper on women’s gymnastics. Instead of the logical format of advancing the highest 24 individual scores, there is a limit of just two gymnasts that can move on to the all-around final. The United States produced three gymnasts that would easily finish in the top 24 spots.  Olympic Trials champion Gabby Douglas, former World Champion Jordyn Wieber and upstart Aly Raisman were competing for those two delegated spots in the top 24 from the American team. In a stunning finish and wonderful floor routine from Raisman, Wieber was eliminated from the all-around competition and was forced to just help the team.

            The International Olympic Committee was trying to give the lesser nations’ competitors more of a chance in medaling by changing the rules. They wanted to diminish the amount of gymnasts from the larger, powerhouse countries and give those spots to the underdogs. In theory, the IOC was trying to create more interest from the small countries and introduce parity to a sport that is traditionally top-heavy. By trying to make a more competitive internal team round, the IOC actually makes the individual all-around final less competitive. The World Champion, Wieber, who easily qualified in the top 24, will not flip or twist for the all-around gold because she finished third on an ultra-competitive team.

            Judging has always been a controversial issue when it comes to gymnastics but this time a new rule continues the long line of frustrating gymnastics conclusions.

Fixing the Draft

  Professional sports in North America have been using drafts to disperse players ever since 1921 when major league baseball teams began drafting minor leaguers who had not already signed with a major league team. The NFL started the first amateur draft in 1936 when the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles was upset that his team was unable to sign any top prospects. The NBA's first draft happened in 1950 after its first season of merging with the National Basketball League. The NBA had a nice little feature in the draft in which teams had priority over local players. In 1963 the NHL held its first Entry Draft, all amateurs under the age of 20 were eligible. Prior to the 1963 draft NHL teams used a system similar to European soccer where teams would own junior players and sign prospects out of there. Baseball was the last league to implement the draft in 1965 after ridiculous bidding wars over amateur players. Drafts have done a good job of creating parity but I believe they cause more problems than they solve. Players should have some type of say in which team they will end up playing for, by having a draft that doesn't allow for player choice, it limits their ability to get the most economically out their ability as well as freedom in choosing their team. Since drafts determine their order based off of which team performed worse in the previous season (although some leagues have lotteries), some teams may tank during the last few weeks in the season. Sports such as baseball and ice hockey that allow for control of 200+ and 90 players respectively, also have way too much power over the lives of players. These following proposals will try to fix those problems.

Change the Number of players controlled by team

  Currently major league baseball can have over 200 contracts in their possession, that is ridiculous. On the other hand NBA teams can only have 15, a number that should be boosted although they do have the rights to draftees they have not signed. The NHL is almost as bad as baseball with 90 contracts when they only have a maximum of 2 minor league teams. The NFL has no limit because of their assortment of reserve lists. Under this proposal baseball teams will only have the control of 100 players and they would only have two minor league teams (This leaves open the door for those who want to see promotion and relegation in baseball, there will be more on this later) and a 25 man prospect list. No team would be allowed to have greater than 10 teams per graduating class. The players on the prospect list would be allowed to distributed to teams that are not affiliated with any other major league team(possibly teams inside the baseball pyramid) as well as college teams. This means that the NCAA needs to change their definition of amateur, players should be allowed to be signed to contracts and still play college sports. Teams will pay for the players education but not anything else. The current rules about 40 man rosters and and DL rules will still apply.

  NBA teams should have their contract limit set at 20, they are allowed 15 players to be selected for games as well as 10 prospects. Each team would be allowed two players per graduating class(ie. 2 Freshmen, Two Sophomores, Juniors, Seniors, Redshirt Seniors). A team is not required to carry all those players but if so they are allowed. NFL rosters should be expanded as well, They will keep their current active player and reserve list limits but will be allowed 3 players per graduating class to be under contract. Those players will be playing for college teams.

  The NHL would undergo changes similar to baseball, there contract limit would remain at 50 so that each team could field one minor league team. There franchise limit would be brought down to 65 with 3 players coming from each graduating class. European players will have their graduating class determined by their age if they did not finish high school or lived in a location that finished high school at age 16. 

Change the Draft Structure

  Teams should no longer be rewarded for finishing in last place but teams that do the best should not become stronger by getting the best talent. In this proposal the draft order will go like this. Teams that do not make the playoffs will have their first picks of the draft starting with the best record and ending with the worst. Then the playoff teams will get to draft towards at the end of the round with the champion picking last and the worst record of playoff teams going first. To give teams the option sign local talent as well as give players the opportunity to play for their favorite team, teams will have the ability as many local players as they are allowed prospects per graduating class. (In other terms, a team could sign 3 local players per graduating class if they are allowed 3 prospects in that graduating class).

 A local player can be signed by a team that's television market covers his hometown, birthplace, or college. Each team would rank their local players in order of how important they are to each team. If another team would draft a "local" player in a draft round higher than the rank given by the team that player signed with, the drafting team would have priority(If a player was given a rank of 4 but a team drafted him in round 3, the team that drafted him would get him. Another confusing part of this is that no draft has a set amount of rounds. Teams are only allowed to draft as many players as they have spots left on their prospect list. So if a team has 8 spots left they are allowed 8 rounds of drafting. They also still have to comply with the graduation class restrictions.

  Although all these changes may seem very confusing, they would make a difference in sports if ever instituted. Writing these rules would not be easy because teams would try to find loopholes in the rules so a legal team would be necessary. Teams being rewarded for sucking is not right, it gives the fans a poor game and wouldn't it be great to see your hometown compete for every game instead of calling it in. 

                                                                       

Reaction to Ichiro and Hanley Trades

  As I assume many of you may know by now the Marlins have begun there franchise tradition of fire selling. They have already traded away Hanley Ramirez, Anibal Sanchez, and Omar Infante, and there has been rumors that they are also willing to trade Heath Bell. The other big trade this past week has been the Seattle Mariners sending longtime face of the franchise Ichiro to the Yankees. Earlier this week Hawks Report posted about possible trades and while neither of these trades were proposed by us, we did assume the Yankees would get an outfielder and the Marlins would try to get rid of some contracts. While both the Hanley and Ichiro trades seem one sided now, I wanted to take a deeper look into what each team was getting and what they were giving up. I took a look from each team's perspective:

Miami Marlins

Nate Eovaldi

  Both trades the Marlins made just show that they are about to start another Fire Sale. The executives know that they just aren't going to win this year and with the trades they are making they don't plan on winning for a couple of years. Hanley was considered the face of the franchise after winning both a rookie of the year and a batting title but with the acquisition of Jose Reyes over the off-season pushing Hanley to third, he has not been on good terms with the franchise. He was due 31.5 million dollars over the next two years so the cash strapped Marlins made a good move by dealing him. LHP Randy Choate was also sent to the Dodgers in the deal. In return they received pitching prospects Scott McGough and Nate Eovaldi. Eovaldi was the #2 prospect in the Dodgers system according to minorleagueball.com and should be able to contribute in the top of the Marlins rotation for years to come. McGough was drafted out of the University of Oregon last year and was not considered one of the Dodgers top prospects but might make it as a reliever because there development and luck sometimes has a lot to do with luck.

Jaocb Tuner

  In the trade with the Tigers, the Marlins really took a "now" hit but there future actually looks much brighter afterwards. C Robert Brantly may never make it to the majors but there is just a good of a chance that he will, no one is expecting him to be a superstar but if things work out in his and the Marlins favor, he could be a quality major leaguer. The other prospect they received in that trade is Jacob Turner and he is considered to be a no doubt ace. He is only 21 years old and although is has a major league ERA of over 8, his minor league ERA has been just over 3.
  Marlins were able to dump the Contracts of Ramirez (2 years/$31.5 mil overall) and Infante($4 mil). Sanchez is due to become a free agent at the end of the season so the Marlins did the right thing by trying to get some prospects out of him. If the Marlins are going to start a fire-sale, I hope they go full blast, I'd like to see Josh Johnson who is about to make $13.75 million next year (while eligible fro arbitration at the end) go as he needs to be put in a situation where he can win. Heath Bell has to go as he was just a dumb signing and I am sure he can help out somewhere. Jose Reyes and his remaining 5 years $96 million need to be sent elsewhere. Johnson would make a good fit in Toronto who is trying to make a push for the playoffs while having the #1 rated farm system allowing them to make moves. Reyes would fit in at almost any playoff contender but I feel the Braves would be the best fit considering their shortstop problems. Every team in the majors needs a relief pitcher so Bell could find a home anywhere, the only problem is that he $18 mil over the next 2 years with a games finished option for 2015.

Los Angeles Dodgers

Randy Choate

  With the Dodgers two games out of the NL West and one game out of the Wild Card, it makes perfect sense to why they would try to improve their team. Although Hanley has not been having the best year of his career, he will surely be an offensive improvement over .196 hitting Juan Uribe at third.  The Dodgers will lose their #5 starter Nate Eovaldi but that is a hole they should be able to fill and in the long stretch relief pitching is very important and Randy Choate should be able to help out. According to mlb.com, the Dodgers are likely to start Stephen Fife, a 25 year old who had an impressive outing against the Phillies this year, Mattling has said that the pitcher will come from within the organization and it will not be Jamey Wright. McGough is a non-prospect and will not figure into much.

Detroit Tigers

Omar Infante

  Boy, the Tigers must be trying to win it all this year. They splurged for 1B Prince Fielder in the off season and are pretty much renting Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante. Sure Infante has next season under his contract so they will be getting 1.5 years out of him instead of .5. The Tigers are currently tied for the division lead but would be half a game out of the two wildcard spots. The addition of Sanchez makes the Tigers rotation a force to be reckoned with, Sanchez and his 3.94 ERA will be one of the best #5 starters in the league. Omar Infante is hitting .284 this season and will be a huge upgrade from Ramon Santiago who is hitting .216. The Tigers do give up a lot though as their #1 pitching prospect is now in Florida but if they are able to re-sign Sanchez they aren't going to have to worry about pitching for awhile. Rob Brantly, is not a sure thing but giving him up could not have been easy either.

Seattle Mariners

D.J. Mitchell 

  This is a weird trade because the Mariners aren't giving up much (Ichiro was only hitting .261) but they aren't really getting anything. On the other hand, the Yankees could revive Ichiro and get a lot out of him while not really being hurt at all. The Mariners are paying most of Ichiro's contract so they aren't exactly getting out of that. The one thing they get is a culture change, this is no longer the Seattle Ichiro's and they have a new target to build around, Felix Hernandez. RHP D.J. Mitchell has not had success at either the Major league or AAA level this year so if the Mariners get something out of him this year, it will be a surprise. He is 25 so unless he is a late bloomer, he has very little upside left but with how bad the Mariners are, I'm sure he will have a spot in the majors. RHP Danny Farquhar has been on waivers twice this season and probably won't pitch for the Yankees until September call ups if he ever does. He is most famous for having a name that is similar to the king from Shrek, don't expect anything out of him.

New York Yankees 

Dewayne Wise had to be
designated for assignment
because of Ichiro

  The Yankees give up two non-prospects for a guy that has been one of the most consistent hitters in baseball history while only having to pay him $2.5 mil. Sounds like a sure fire winner for them right? Possibly... Ichiro just hasn't been himself this year and if things continue to go down for him, they gave up two guys that might fix things up and become contributors. Everyone knew that the Yankees were going to get an outfielder (Hawks Report suggested Justin Upton, younger, more power, more upside), but no one really expected Ichiro. It shouldn't be that surprising because the Yankees love veteran players and very rarely take chances on young players and prefer prime to past prime players that they can get from other teams. Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano, and Brett Gardner are the only position players on the Yankees that are home grown. They Yankees were forced to designate Dewayne Wise for assignment, he has been used for defensive substitutions this year and is most famous for making the catch to save Mark Buehrle's perfect game.

No one knows which teams will turn out to be the winners and losers of these trades. It is safe to say that the Yankees will make the playoffs and they could have done it without Ichiro. The Dodgers and Tigers are fighting for their playoff lives while the Mariners and Marlins will continue to try to win 5 years from now.
  

What North America can learn from Europe: Playoff Edition

  Hawks Report will begin to suggest ideas to improve American Sports based off of the English Premier League. There is an understandable difference in the culture of the two countries towards sports. But the effort will be made to show that American Sports can be like English Soccer.

  Let's start by looking at the history of playoffs in both countries. Baseball's first playoff in the Major Leagues was a series between the winner of the National League and the American Association in the 1880s and the current World Series traces its roots back to 1903. Both series were contested between the regular season champions of each league without either league holding a playoff to determine their representative. The only time baseball used a playoff is when two teams ended the season with the same record. 1969 was the first season that each league held its own best of 5 game series to determine the world series participants. The reason for the playoff was that each league had two divisions and the teams played unbalanced schedules so it made sense for their to be a playoff. The Stanley Cup has had playoffs since 1920 to determine league champions. The season was divided into two halves and the teams that one each half would  go to the playoff, unless if one team won each half they would automatically become champions of the league. That playoff style was quickly abandoned for a style in which the top two teams faced off in a two game aggregate scoring series. The winner of the NHL would go on to a playoff with the winners of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association and Western Canada Hockey League until 1926. When the two other leagues folded the NHL took sole possession of the Cup and they adopted an expanded playoff system. The NFL did not use playoffs for the first decade of existence, they simply handed the championship to the team with the best winning percentage of games that did not end in a tie. In 1933, the NFL adopted a playoff system to adapt to their two division system. The NBA has had a playoff has had a playoff since its inception and has increased the amount teams fittingly with expansion.

  Meanwhile in England (our primary example), playoffs have never been used to determine the league champions but have been used to determine which teams get promoted or relegated. Typically the bottoms teams of a higher division would enter into a playoff with top teams of the lower division to see who would be allowed to compete in the top flight the next season. Most countries have domestic knockout competitions but the tournament has nothing to do with who is awarded the league championship.  Using the English Football League system. Hawks Report has the following suggestions for how each of the four major north american sports should decide their championships.

NFL
  The NFL is probably the closest to having a meaningful regular season. With only 12 out of 32 teams, teams cannot coast through the regular season like they can in the NBA and NHL and expect to make the playoffs. Of all the leagues, the changes that Hawks Report proposes are the least drastic and here they are:

Would Rogers have been
on the bench under
Hawks Report Rules?

  1. Remove the wildcard, by adding extra teams to the playoffs you increase the chances that the team that proved themselves to be the best during the regular season will not come home as champions.At the same time, you make the regular season that much more important, the NFL has a huge problem with teams sitting their star players during the last week of the season and by having those games mean more, star players won't sit out.
  2. Have the division champion decided by division record. By doing this, teams will not be able to complain about certain teams playing an easier schedule. This would not make the other 10 games in the regular season worth nothing because they will be used to seed the division champions for the playoffs. If there would be a tie within teams of the same division and they split their head to head series there would be a playoff game to decide who would make the playoffs.

NBA/NHL
  Considering each league pretty much as the same playoff system currently, Hawks Report has decided to give them the same advice. Since each team has 30 teams are aligned into 2 conferences that have 31 divisions, the playoff system would be a little strange. Each team would play a majority of their games against teams against their division along with games against other opponents just to make sure fans don't get bored of seeing the same teams. (subnote: the NHL is currently looking at a 4 conference system)
  1. The winner of each division would automatically make the playoffs(decided by division record) and like the NFL, if two teams in the division finished with a tied record there would be a playoff. The difference would be that there would be a best of 3 series to determine the division champion.
  2. The division champion with the best overall regular season record would have a bye in the first round while the other division winners play a best of 3 series to determine who would play in the conference finals. The conference finals and league finals would each be best of 7 occasions.


MLB

Boooooooooooo!!!!!

  Baseball needs to reverse its decision on moving the Houston Astros to the AL in order for this proposal to work because we are taking inter-league play out of baseball. By doing this, baseball will be taken back to the glory days when people actually cared about the sport. The NL would be split into two divisions of 8 teams while the AL would be 2 of 7, that does mean that it will be easier to make it out of the AL than the NL but they would be two separate leagues and allowed to have different policies. Everyone in the league would play the same exact amount of games against the other division as well as among the division. This creates a system in which no one can bitch about their schedule being tougher than someone else's. The majority of a teams game would be against their own division. The overall record will be the decider for division champion and each league's two division winners would compete in a 5 game series to decide who advances to the world series. The world series would be a best of 7 occasion with home field being decided by overall winning percentage instead of home field advantage. 


  Hawks Report knows that this would make the regular season worth less to teams that are not in contention to make the playoffs but it would make it that much more meaningful to teams that are in the race. Hawks Report also has a solution to the tanking problem that will be revealed in the next couple days. 

What should be done with the Penn State Football Program?

  With the NCAA about to hand down punishments on the Penn State Football program, everyone is guessing what types of probation as well as how many scholarships will be taken away. The ideas that you are about to read are not inside information or anything like that, they are just the punishments that I feel fit the crime. Some of these punishments would come from the NCAA or other organizations while others would come from the school itself. 

  Penn State is about to face what could possibly the harshest penalties in the history of college athletics. Some sources have come out to say that they could make the death penalty look lenient. These are just a few sanctions and actions that would make in this situation:

  1. Temporary Removal from Committee on Institutional Cooperation and from the Big Ten Conference 
The two organizations are pretty much one in the same. The Big Ten organizes athletic competitions between Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, and Wisconsin. The Committee of Institutional Cooperation represents the academic side of each institution as well the University of Chicago, a former member of Big Ten. The reason for the removal is so that the school will take a financial hit while still being able to field competitive athletic teams as well as diminishing the schools resources when it comes to academics. This action will not tarnish the academic reputation or inhibit the ability of graduates to find work, but would rather not allow them to research with other colleges.

  2. Clear all executives that were around during Sandusky era

The Source of all the problems

Although most of the University higher ups have either been fired or have resigned, but for people to think that the board of trustees and the board of regents did not know about the Sandusky allegations is ridiculous. It seems that almost everybody in University Park had an idea about what was going on and the very few people actually came out and said something about it. If this action fires innocent people then that is just an unfortunate situation. People that were in charge of the school at the time and did not do anything to stop Sandusky should not be allowed to continue to work.

  3. Allow football team to only play 3 home games
The point of this rule is to prevent the University of capitalizing on the football teams economic values. The team would be allowed to pick 3 games from their home schedule this year to keep at Beaver Stadium. In addition to only having 3 home games they will not be able to collect any money for away game appearances. This is fairer to the University and its current students than not allowing any home games because players are allowed the joy of playing in front of fellow students and the advantage it creates. Students will also be to take part in the great social activity that is going to Division 1 college football game.

  4. Allow each current Penn State Athlete one free transfer to any school of choosing
One would think that only Penn State football players should be allowed to transfer without sitting out a year since the problem was within the Football program but the whole Athletic Department was involved. If an athlete doesn't feel comfortable competing for a school whose former athletic director permitted a Pedophile to run rampant, they should be allowed to transfer.

5 Baseball Trades That Should Happen but Won't

  With the baseball non-waiver trade deadline approaching, teams are starting to sort themselves into two groups; buyers and sellers. This year very few teams are willing to give up on making the playoffs because of the added playoff spot, but it looks as if the Marlins, Mariners, Twins, Royals, Phillies, Cubs, Astros, Padres, and Rockies are out of it. Every other should look to improve their team as most division races are close, some of the trades proposed here might seem a little wacky, but both teams will benefit from them in the long run.

  1. Phillies send Cole Hamels (but only 2/3 of his contract) to BoSox for SS Jose Iglesias and C Blake Swihart
  For the first time in what seems like forever the Phillies are long shots to make the playoffs. There have been rumors that Hamels would be moved but no potential trades have been made public. The Red Sox are only 2 games out of the AL East which is quite an accomplishment considering they have the 19th best ERA in the Majors. Hamels would help bolster their rotation with his 3.07 ERA and 11-4 record. He also has the 12th best WHIP in the game at 1.09, the true measure of how effective a pitcher is. Hamels only has one year left on his contract and is set to make $15 million this year, the Phillies should cover at least 1/3 of the remaining money since the Red Sox need Hamels.

Jose Iglesias

  The Red Sox would be giving up two of their top 10 prospects but Jose Iglesias is the #2 SS in their system and Blake Swihart is their #2 catcher. Sure, both players could switch positions but the Red Sox are pretty set at both second and third so their isn't much room for Iglesias and Swihart is blocked by Ryan Lavarnway and Salty behind the plate and by Adrian Gonzalez at first. The 22 year old Iglesias is Major League ready at short stop and since the Phillies have a rapidly aging infield, they could try to move him to either third or second base. In 2012 so far he has hit .261 in 60 games at AAA and .333 in 10 games in the Majors. Swihart is a 20 year old catcher currently hitting .265 while slugging.393 at A, Carlos Ruiz is 33 years old and by the time Swihart is major league ready, Ruiz may be out of his prime.

  2. Marlins send 2B-OF Chris Coghlan and RHP Heath Bell and get C Hector Sanchez, RHP Heath Hembree, and LHP Mike Kickham
  Let's start off with what the Giants will be sending away in this deal, Catcher Hector Sanchez is only 23 years old and on their Major League roster, sounds like he is too good to give away unless you remember that the Giants also have Buster Posey on their team. Yes, Posey has gotten injured in the past but this is a high risk trade that could provide plenty of reward. The Giants also possess two other catchers in their farm system that could back up as well as current back up Eli Whiteside (who is a douche) who is filling in for the injured Sanchez. Hembree is currently in AAA for the Giants and has taken up the closer role. He has 13 saves in 32 appearances for the Fresno Grizzlies. His 5+ ERA might appear scary but opponents are only hitting .217 off of him. Mike Kickham is more of a long shot to make the major leagues since the Marlins are pretty solid in the rotation and Kickham isn't a top prospect but he could help in the bullpen one day. He has spent 2012 at the AA level and has been doing very well. He is 8-7 with a 2.71 ERA and at 23 seems to be soon ready for the Majors albeit with much upside.

Chris Coghlan

Hector Sanchez

  The Giants will be receiving two good players that have struggled recently but with a change of scenery their luck might change.  At 34 years of age, signing Heath Bell to a multi-year was very, very stupid. He has blown 6 saves for them this year but in the past he was an all-star. Sending him out west might be the best thing for him since he was successful with the Padres and maybe he is just a California type of guy. Chris Coghlan was the Rookie of the Year in 2009 but since then he has been sent down twice by the Marlins, now he is 27 and his career either needs to take off again or it might go down the drain. The Yankees could be another good possible fit for him but the New York pressure could get to him. He is very versatile and could fill in almost any where for the Giants. If this trade would go down, it could turn into nothing or it could win the Giants a World Series and revitalize the Marlins Franchise.

  3. Yankees Acquire RHP J.J. Putz and OF Justin Upton in exchange for cash(TBD), OF Mason Williams, and 3B Tyler Austin

Mason Williams

  What the Yankees get here is a flatout superstar in Justin Upton, he might not have been himself so far but he is still young (24) and has the potential to be great. The Diamondbacks are only 7 games out but have made it clear they went to get rid of Upton and they should also try to get something out of the 8.5 million they spent on him. Since the Yankees have lost both Brett Gardner and Mariano Rivera for the what looks like the rest of the season both their bullpen and outfield have held up well. This doesn't mean that they still can't upgrade. The Yankees are use to taking up old washed up players but this is a chance for them to get quality players at a quality age, Putz is 35 and at the tail end of his career but also the tail end of his contract while Upton still has a few years left on his deal. The Diamondbacks would need to find young talent to help replace Upton in the line up. Since the D-Backs already have plenty of pitching prospects (some are already in Majors) they don't need to receive a pitching prospect. Because the Yanks have money, they are loaded with prospects and even if they trade some away, they can always sign a free agent or go to one of their other prospects. Both Williams and Austin are at the tops of the Yankees system and Williams is 85 in Baseball America's Top 100 Prospects. Austin will soon be able to replace Ryan Roberts at 3rd and is quite a hitter, never hitting below .300 at any stop in the minors. Mason provides an average bat with above average speed as well as some power. Both are only in High-A so they are a couple years away from the show.

  4. Braves give up prospects RHP Zeke Spruil and SS Tyler Pastornicky and Receive Shortstop Marwin Gonzalez and if they can LHP Wesley Wright
  Yes, everyone knows that the Braves have a stacked bullpen but why not try to make it better. Venters is currently hurt and someone other than O'Flaherty has to help get the ball in to Kimbrel's hands. The Braves have a gaping hole at shortstop that they have tried to plug with Paul Janish but that will probably not work out. Gonzalez is only 23 years old and hitting just under .300 in his first year of the majors. He does not produce many homers but he can hit the ball with power in the gap for doubles. Wright would only be used against lefties as righties are hitting over .300 against him but he has held righties down to .185 and has a 4 to 1 K to BB ration against them. The Braves need to win the World Series and everyone in baseball would be happy if they did. Chipper Jones is a no doubt Hall of Famer and this move could earn him a ring.

Marwin Gonzalez 

  The Braves would be giving up quite a bit in this deal though. Pastornicky has already been in the majors and has the ability to turn into a great player, it's just that Gonzalez is one year ahead of him and the Braves need Pastornicky to be one year ahead because of the Jones situation. He hit .252 in 161 Plate Appearances in the Majors this year while hitting .268 at the AAA level. Spruill is in his 4th season out of high school and still appears a while away from the bigs. The second round draft pick has a 4.18 ERA in AA this year while possessing a WHIP of 1.263. Maybe a change of scenery will help this young man out since he could make the Astros better.

5. Cubs send Ryan Dempster to St. Louis and Matt Garza to Baltimore while building for the future up the middle
  Let's first talk about the Ryan Dempster situation, the Cardinals, Nationals, and Braves have all been said to be interested in the pitcher. The Nationals do not need to improve their team what so ever, they would only hurt themselves by giving up prospects to get him. It is understood that in a year they have a chance to win a ring they would go all out, but they have a team that could win it already and if they get him and miss, their future might be in doubt. Same thing goes for the Braves, they have to ask themselves, does this really make us that much better. The answer for them is no and they need a shortstop more than another pitcher. Both St. Louis and Baltimore are in contention for the world series and by picking up another pitcher.

Dan Klein

  The Orioles would be giving up a lot in this proposed trade as they would be sending their #2 and #3 pitching prospects as well as their #1 OF prospect. Robert Bundy is the older brother of the O's top pitching prospect Dylan Bundy, so maybe moving out of the shadow of younger brother will be good for him. He will not be a top of the rotation pitcher but could have good effect coming of out of the bullpen or being at the end of the rotation. Dan Klein is 23 years old and has an ERA of 1.11 between AA and High A this year, the only problem is that he is constantly injured. If he can stay healthy, there is no reason why he can't be the future of the Cubs organization. The Outfielder they would be giving up is Glynn Davis, this kid can run and he has an average stick, he will boost their defense by covering a lot of ground but he is only in High A and a couple of years away from the Majors. Some might say that this is giving up way too much for Garza but this might be the only year that everything falls right in their season.

Mitch Harris

  The Cardinals wouldn't have to give up as much because Dempster has the ability to become a free agent after this season unlike Garza, who is still bound by arbitration. They send away RHP Mitch Harris, RHP Trevor Rosenthal, and C Cody Stanley. Mitch Harris is a pitcher that the Cardinals drafted in 2008 but since he attended the Naval Academy he has been busy fulfilling his service obligation and the Cubs could use him for PR since an appearance by him would potentially increase attendance. Rosenthal has a 2.78 ERA in AA this year and if he keeps it up, he could end up in the show soon, but the Cardinal's door is closing and Dempster could help them win now. Stanley is not as hot of a prospect as he is 23 and struggled offensively  in A since being called up from Rookie Ball. In 4 years in the minors he has thrown out 41% of base runners so he has more upside behind the plate than at it.

All these trades have the potential to help one team win the World Series this year and another win it 5 years ago. In baseball, some players become worthless to one team because of either better players at their position or they simply don't fit into the system. Some teams in this trade are obviously winners over the other. Prospects are never a sure thing so teams do take a risk by sending away their star, but when you suck you have to do something.  It is almost 99% sure that none of these trades will happen, but you never know what will happen at the trade deadline.