A Trade Deadline Review

The trade deadline has passed now and obviously their have been a few trades that will impact the Yankees playoff chances but as usual their weren't any major changes. Their were probably three important trades made this deadline.

1) Scott Proctor (to Dodgers) for Wilson Betemit (to Yankees)

The general reaction to this trade seems to be negative but I like it. Proctor was abused by Torre both this season and last season and was probably a big injury risk. Also, if you look at his defense independant stats you can see he`s really not pitching well. He has a K/BB of 1.28, a GB% of 25.4%, and an FIP of 5.52. I think a big part of that comes from the face that Proctor pitched so many innings. Wilson Betemit plays more positions than Miguel Cairo and hits a lot more. He has a terrible BA but he's walked a lot this season and has some power. I`m not sure if he`s 25 or 27 but either way he`s fairly young. I think he could play a pretty good first base and plattoon with Phillips. Overrall I like this move by Cashman.

2) Eric Gagne (to Boston) for Kason Gabbard, Engel Beltre, and David Murphy

Obviously this is bad for the Yankees but it doesn't matter a ton. We had a very small chance of catching Boston anyway and they gavc up a couple decent prospects. What annoys me about this trade is that the Rangers demanded either Melky Cabrera or Ian Kennedy for Gagne but the Red Sox got away with this package. Nice job by Cashman to not cave into the demands of an idiot. The Red Sox now have Jonathan Papelbon, Hideki Okajima, and Eric Gagne all in the bullpen. All of them could be closers on almost any team but the Red Sox have to get Gagne to shore up that "weak" bullpen with an 8 game lead in the division. I guess you can't blame them for taking advantage of that idiot in Texas but its still annoying.

Kenny Lofton (to Indians) for Max Ramirez (to Texas)

I think I have to say that the Rangers were by far the biggest winners at the trade deadline. Lofton is still a pretty solid player and will help Cleveland but it doesn't really hurt us to badly. It probably means less of Trot Nixon and Lofton is an improvement but its not really a huge deal.

Outlook: Overall the Yankees playoff chances probably stayed about the same. The Gagne deal doesn't matter since the division race is basically over anyway. Kenny Lofton isn't going to change anything. Wilson Betemit should help but not much more than Kenny Lofton will. The Yankees still are getting Jason Giambi, Phil Hughes, and Joba Chamberlain coming up soon along with possibly a few other pitchers. We need to figure out a way to dump Farnsworth still. We won't be sticking with a 5 man bench much longer either. Basak and Cairo should go for Hughes and a reliever but Torre loves Cairo and we might actually have to lose our hero Shelley Duncan instead. That would indeed be a tragedy. We're only 3 out in the WC and 7 out in the division. We're not dead yet.