Transaction Tuesday

I was at the Giants’ game last night with Ken and Mark and Kevin and the Doc, and for those who know him, the Colonel, where we saw Andruw Jones rake a couple off Correia, who is undoubtedly headed back to Fresno today. Prediction: Rueter starts in this slot next week.

Chipper slapped one out to Barry-land, and hit two more to the track in his reappearance from the DL. He still looked hurt when he runs, but it looks like he can still swing, which Kevin, his owner, is happy to see.

And then there was Pedro Feliz, he of the “almost 60” (well, 52) RBI’s. The Giants should have knocked Jorge Sosa out of there early, but Feliz was able to push his LOB count for the night to an even half dozen, leaving the bases jammed in the 1st and 3rd. So Ken got a crappy little win out of Sosa, the Giants looked like the stinkers we’ve been watching all season, any my season record at SBC evened out at 5-5.

Rueter only gave up 1 hit and no walks in 5 innings. Come on, Sabes, this is going nowhere fast, just recycling the SOS in the starting rotation. And Michael Tucker leading off, and JT Snow batting third and Ray Durham batting 5th, what a sad little team. Who needs tickets?

It’s another transaction Tuesday in BABI today, with the Bums ending their FAAB holdout with the purchase of crossover Eric Byrnes for $47. We were sure the Lickers were going to get him, but the Bums are setting themselves up for some late July trading with Byrnes and Wagner and Schmidt and Wood and whoever else comes over from the AL this month (they’ve still got a league leading $103 in FAAB money).

We got dinged again, losing by a buck to Ken on the insanely hot John Rodriguez, who St. Louis called up to fill Reggie Sanders’ spot. We also missed on Abraham Nunez (saved $30 bucks in transaction fees, though) who was on the waiver wire but was claimed in front of us by the Rips. Mark: like Belisle, if we got him without giving up a player, we were interested. Don’t bother pitching him to us. Wasn’t that the same Abraham Nunez that the Bums traded for last year right before BABI cut down day who had that torrid spring training? A $2 Nunez with no starting position for a minor league draft slot, I believe. I have to admit it – I was interested too.

And speaking of Belisle, where are those saves for the Reds? Mark got Barmes, who has approximately equivalent stats to Belisle, and he also got Michael Tucker, who had a big series against the Dodgers. Mark’s answer to that question is “The Reds are shopping Weathers, and when they’ve moved him , he’ll be the closer. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.” Mark kept trying to sell him to us when we also bid $15 on him, but we figured he was worth money but not a keeper. Mark got an awfully good keeper for Belisle. Good for him.

Ken did bid the last of his FAAB money on Byrnes, to no avail. And we did make a point of bidding more than his $22 (now $8, thanks to his 2 pickups this week). And I see the Rips are down to 1 FAAB pick ($5) plus waiver claims. At the other end of the FAAB spectrum are the Bums and Cappers at $103 apiece, then we’re at $97, the Cartel is at $90 and HOBO at $83. What is interesting is that the trade talks all seem to have players going from the NL to the AL, with no significant rumors coming this way.

And since it’s Tuesday, we logged onto Larry Dot Net for a few minutes before 11am. We’re getting closer on a deal, but frankly, it’s tough to give up Cabrera, because his .337 BA is virtually impossible for us to replace. We are in desperate need of BA (and RBI’s). What we need is another Cabrera. So another week goes by, but Larry wants me to state categorically and on the record that he’s ok to deal with. Actually, as I told him, he’s almost impossible to deal with, but almost all of the trades he eventually makes are pretty reasonable. And kudos to the Falkuhns for not trading too much with any one team, though if Larry would just throw Andruw into our mix as well, we won’t complain.

Hey, maybe we’re the ones that are impossible to deal with, I don’t know. But our hesitation is if we’re going to give up a guy who helps us in 3 categories, we’ve got to get back those stats, plus some more stats for the contract. We’ll keep trying.

Hobo lost Reggie Sanders this week, so undoubtedly the Andruw talks will be revived. This is a close race, and injuries are going to make the difference. That’s why it hurt so badly to lose JD Drew just as he was really heating up. RBI’s, baby. That’s the category.

At the game last night the big question was “Will the Leaguers dump Pujols?” It’s not looking so good right now, with Mr. Leaguer sitting in 8th place, behind the surging (well, inching) Pounders. We predict he won’t be a seller, but he might not be a big buyer, either. It’s fun to be looking down at him in the standings, which a majority of the league can currently say on July 19. Will someone in the race bite and give him a couple of keepers for next year? Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, Milton Bradley will be back soon, maybe by the end of the week. We still like him.