The Portland Rosebuds tightened their grip on first place at the end of July, portending a long, jot, dry August for the Wolverines and Dragons in their increasingly desperate struggle to stay in the hunt for the EFL championship.
We’ll look at each team and what the end of July trade deadline did for their hopes in 2016 and beyond. There were 17 deals just on Monday, plus about that many other relevant ones the rest of July — including the biggest selection of EFL-able deadline deals I can remember.
Note: The Deadline for accepting any of these deal is midnight tomorrow, Aug 2. If you have any questions, or feel like I left anything out, send me a note — but copy everyone else. I am at Disneyland with my family and will be unavailable in large chunks of time. There are others in the league who understand the rules as well as I do (Mark Johnson, for example) and can answer your questions.
EFL Standings: July 2016 FINAL
| EFL | ||||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB | RS | RA |
| Portland Rosebuds | 67 | 38 | .641 | — | 543.9 | 401.8 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 66 | 38 | .634 | 0.9 | 550.0 | 416.6 |
| Haviland Dragons | 66 | 40 | .622 | 1.9 | 514.1 | 403.4 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 62 | 40 | .603 | 4.3 | 542.0 | 442.1 |
| Peshastin Pears | 58 | 47 | .551 | 9.5 | 501.4 | 444.8 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 56 | 49 | .533 | 11.4 | 482.7 | 444.9 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 51 | 53 | .491 | 15.8 | 454.1 | 462.2 |
| Cottage Cheese | 48 | 56 | .465 | 18.5 | 494.5 | 526.2 |
| Kaline Drive | 46 | 60 | .434 | 21.9 | 516.3 | 594.3 |
| D.C. Balk | 37 | 68 | .350 | 30.6 | 430.0 | 591.6 |
Portland: L, 3 – 3. Portland already accepted Aaron Hill’s trade for minor leaguers it didn’t keep. This will give the Rosebuds a nice drafting budget at the next managers meeting.
Old Detroit: DNP, (-5) – (-2). The biggest trade deadline deal for the Wolverines might be the resurrection of Tyler Skaggs, who snuck in another 5.3 scoreless innings just before the end of the month (an effort partly wasted because the Blue Jays coughed up their AL East MLB lead, depriving the Wolverines of their last game of July). Otherwise the returns for the W’s from 7 pre-deadline deals are skimpy:
* Wade Miley went for Ariel Miranda, whoever that is, just as Miley seems to be righting his ship.
* Colin Rea was too entangled with Andrew Cashner for his trade for Carter Capps, Jarred Cosart, Luis Castillo and Josh Naylor to work. But then Rea got hurt, and was traded back to San Diego for Castillo. Castillo is thriving in high A minors, but he’s already 23.
* Rich Hill was traded for a raft of Dodger prospects, but had Josh Reddick as baggage from the Oakland side, making the trade unavailable to Old Detroit.
* Francisco Liriano, who has stunk all season, the player I most wanted to be traded, was traded (with minor leaguers)… for Drew Hutchison, a Tornado who hasn’t played practically all season. I’d do that deal if Flint Hill wanted to take a gamble on Liriano returning to form next year.
* Matt Moore went for Cottage’s Matt Duffy and two prospects deep in the minor leagues. No, Cottage, I’m not trading Moore for Duffy — it would be contrary to both our teams’ interests.
And, of course, Jeremy Hellickson didn’t get traded. So that went well.
The only deal the M’s will accept immediately is Michael Montgomery and a minor leaguer for Dan Vogelbach and another minor leaguer, who will be dropped.
The W’s will spend the next 24 hours trying to decide if Wade Miley is worth keeping over Ariel Miranda and the $1.5 million OD would save, and giving the Tornados a chance to see the light on Liriano.
Haviland: W, 8 – 4. The only deadline deal involving Dragons was for Andrew Susac. The Dragons propose to accept the Susac (and minor leaguer Phil Bickford) for Will Smith deal, then trade Smith for Bickford. Each piece of that deal is legal — the question is whether putting them together is legal. I will need to research this, but I don’t have time right now to think it through. My proposed ruling will come later this evening.
Pittsburgh: W, 5 – 2. The Alleghenys can trade Abad for Pat Light if they want. Light would come as a rookie. He’s a deb, so if the A’s don’t use him this year his rookie status would expire in 2021; otherwise it would expire in 2020.
Peshastin: W, 6 – 5. The Pears could trade Frankie Montas for Josh Reddick, if they can figure out how to afford Reddick’s $6,575,000 2016 salary. They’ve already accepted the Burns for Eibner deal.
Canberra: W, 3 – 2. The Kangaroos could have won a haul of prospects with Jonathan Lucroy — but he was yoked with Jeremy Jeffress in the MLB deal, so that trade is unavailable to him. I thought I saw something about Rymer Liriano being traded, but I can’t find it now.
Flint Hill: W 1, L (-1); 5 – (-1). Besides the potential Hutchison for Liriano deal, the Tornados had a chance to trade Alex Meyer — except Ricky Nolasco is linked to Meyer, making the deal unavailable. The Tornados already accepted the Pomeranz for Espinoza deal, and the much bigger Andrew Miller for four prospects deal.
Cottage: L, 5 – 9. After all their whining about Jay Bruce not getting traded, he did — for another Cheese, Dilson Herrera! But in a face-saving grace note, that deal also included someone named Max Wotell, whoever that is, so the Cheese could accept the Bruce – Wotell deal. That gives THEM a ton of money for the last managers meeting. Unless the Cheese want to beat their heads against the Wolverines’ Matt Moore wall, there may not be anything else for them in the trade deadline deals.
Kaline: L, 1 – 3. If the Drive is tired of Bud Norris, it can dump him for prospects Caleb Dirks and Philip Pfeifer, or for one of them, or for none of them. Jarred Cosart was part of the big Rea/Cashner deal, but he was yoked to Carter Capps (a former Drive, if I remember right) so Andrew Cashner and Tayron Guerrero are not available to the Drive.
D.C.: W, 9 – 6. Ah — here’s Capps! So Cashner and Guerrero would be available to one of the Drive or the Balk, if they can swing a deal to put Capps and Norris together on the same team. That would be fun to try to negotiate before midnight tomorrow! The Balk could also trade Hector Olivera if they can figure out how to afford Matt Kemp’s $21,500,000 through 2019. I think there was some cash in that deal, but I don’t think it’s going to make it affordable.
| AL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 66 | 38 | .634 | — |
| Baltimore Orioles | 59 | 45 | .567 | 7 |
| Toronto Blue Jays | 59 | 46 | .562 | 7.5 |
| Boston Red Sox | 57 | 46 | .553 | 8.5 |
| New York Yankees | 52 | 52 | .500 | 14 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 51 | 53 | .491 | 14.9 |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 42 | 61 | .408 | 23.5 |
| NL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Washington Nationals | 61 | 44 | .581 | — |
| Miami Marlins | 57 | 48 | .543 | 4 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 56 | 49 | .533 | 5 |
| New York Mets | 54 | 50 | .519 | 6.5 |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 48 | 59 | .449 | 14 |
| Atlanta Braves | 37 | 68 | .352 | 24 |
| D.C. Balk | 37 | 68 | .350 | 24.2 |
| AL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 62 | 40 | .603 | — |
| Cleveland Indians | 60 | 42 | .588 | 1.5 |
| Detroit Tigers | 57 | 48 | .543 | 6 |
| Chicago White Sox | 51 | 54 | .486 | 12 |
| Kansas City Royals | 49 | 55 | .471 | 13.5 |
| Minnesota Twins | 40 | 64 | .385 | 22.5 |
| NL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Chicago Cubs | 63 | 41 | .606 | — |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 56 | 49 | .533 | 7.5 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 52 | 51 | .505 | 10.5 |
| Cottage Cheese | 48 | 56 | .465 | 14.6 |
| Milwaukee Brewers | 47 | 56 | .456 | 15.5 |
| Cincinnati Reds | 42 | 62 | .404 | 21 |
| AL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Haviland Dragons | 66 | 40 | .622 | — |
| Texas Rangers | 62 | 44 | .585 | 3.9 |
| Houston Astros | 55 | 49 | .529 | 9.9 |
| Seattle Mariners | 52 | 51 | .505 | 12.4 |
| Oakland A’s | 47 | 58 | .448 | 18.4 |
| Los Angeles Angels | 47 | 58 | .448 | 18.4 |
| Kaline Drive | 46 | 60 | .434 | 19.9 |
| NL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Portland Rosebuds | 67 | 38 | .641 | — |
| San Francisco Giants | 61 | 44 | .581 | 6.4 |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 59 | 46 | .562 | 8.4 |
| Peshastin Pears | 58 | 47 | .551 | 9.5 |
| Colorado Rockies | 52 | 53 | .495 | 15.4 |
| San Diego Padres | 45 | 60 | .429 | 22.4 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | 43 | 62 | .410 | 24.4 |