Baby Bombers

The Yankees sold some major league talent at the deadline for the first time in a long time.  They were kind of hovering around the .500 mark before and still are but now they're exciting.  The playoffs are still in all likelihood a pipe dream, at 4 games out but this team is building on the fly for next year and after.  Aaron Judge and Tyler Austin went for back to back homers in their first big league at bats last Saturday, and Gary Sanchez already has six home runs.  These are exciting times in Yankee land and with September call ups around the corner there are more prospects coming with the likes of Clint Frazier, Justus Sheffield and Jorge Mateo amongst others. These guys are still giving us fans a reason to watch this season, we want too know what the kids are gonna do.
Hal Steinbrenner decided to pull the trigger on selling at the deadline and we are now seeing the feature Yankees.  George Steinbrenner would probably not have been as fast to pull the trigger because they were only five games out of the playoffs when they decided to sell.  With George Hals father they would always wait till the last minute for a trade believing they were still it.  George was all about winning and so is Hal but he is a bit more reasonable.  One could argue that George never rebuilt he was suspended for 15 months before the team won in '77 and '78 for pleading guilty to making illegal contributions to nixon's re-election campaign and he was also suspended on a lesser scale for two years in '90 for paying a gambler to dig up dirt on (his new high priced player) Dave Winfield, before their championship wins in '96, '98-'00.  Bob Watson and Gene "stick" Michael built most of that team in the 90's, they could have won in '94 when they had the best record at the strike and they lost to Seattle in '95.     

End of A-Rod

The often talked about, Alex Rodriguez will play his las game in pinstripes tonight.  From Seattle to Texas to New York Alex has come a long way.  He took Steroids, lied about it then interfered with a steroid investigation (could have taken them again) and was suspended 162 games.  Through all of his bad decisions off the field he was a three time MVP with two gold gloves and the Yankees do not win that '09 World Series without him.  After tonights game in the Bronx the Yankees will release Alex who is hitting just .199 with 9 home runs and 30 RBI's in 64 games this (before tonight) season.  Alex will finish his career 4 home runs from 700, if someone wants to sign him they can he is free after tonight.  The Yankees will still pay Alex the 27 million he owed through next year, any team that picks him up would only have to pay him the MLB minimum. Alex is a great baseball mind and will help evaluate the next crop of Yankees.  It seems as though there are two sides to releasing him the Yankees who are not playing him to give to new kids a chance to play who know its time to move on and the fans who want to see him.  I guess that why they announced they would release him last Sunday after tonights game, a little weird I though that when you release a player it was immediate but A-Rod got another four games.  Alex was a great player in his prime who has broken down through the use of performance enhancers and other bad decisions.  I was a A-Rod fan when he came over from Texas but I've gotten tired of him over the years with all the PED talk.  You are free to think what you want about the guy but he did help develop some good ball payers, he watches a lot of baseball and studies the game and the Yankees do not win their 27th Championship without him.            

Sellers

The New York Yankees were sellers at the trade deadline for the first time in almost 30 years.  Some guys didn't live up to the back of their baseball cards, so things had to happen because in all likelihood this team was not going to make a postseason run.  Over the weekend the Yankees traded away the likes of Aroldis Chapman followed by Andrew Miller and continued yesterday with Carlos Beltran and Ivan Nova.  Trading their best offensive player in Beltran might be an indication that the braintrust of this team, has all but lost hope of a major run this season.  This team had stared to play better since the all star break but that all came crashing down after the weekend series sweep at Tampa Bay.  Now that Major League caliber players are being shipped out for youngsters, it's the start of a rebuild.  The Steinbrenner sons are showing that they are not like their father.  With Judge, Sanchez, Mateo, Torres, Sheffield and Frazier amongst many more prospects now in the Yankee system they're setting themselves up for feature runs.  Now a couple sentences on Alex Rodriguez who is now a part time DH and taking up a roster spot that could be used for one of the kids.  A-Rod is down in every offensive category this year and is dragging this team down with him.  He used to be the type of player who could put the team on his back and carry them for a couple months but no more.  The Yankees should just cut their losses and sooner rather then later, I think do it after the game tonight and grant him his release.          

MLB trade deadline

Yesterdays non-wavier MLB trade deadline came and went with 18 trades being made between major league baseball clubs.  Some teams got stronger to try and go win a championship while others sold-out for next year.  The Chicago Cubs got some more pieces for the bullpen in Aroldis Chapman, Joe Smith and Mike Montgomery this might be the Cubs year.  They're good and Joe Madden is having fun tinkering over on the North side. The Texas Rangers got some more bats and now have a nasty lineup with the additions of Lucroy and Beltran, but I still don't know if Texas has the pitching and as we all know pitching wins championships.  The Cleveland Indians made a couple of moves to solidify themselves but on an off night I would worry about Cleveland.  We all know the San Francisco Giants like winning in even numbered years and they solidified things with the acquisition of Matt More from the Tampa Bay Rays.  A couple of other teams made some moves like the New York Mets acquiring Jay Bruce with will help their offense, I still don't know if they're a playoff team.  For the First time in almost 30 years the New York Yankees were sellers at the deadline, turning about four major league players into about nine prospects.

MLB Power Rankings:
1.  Chicago Cubs
2. Texas Rangers
3. San Fransisco Giants
4. Cleveland Indians
5. St. Louis Cardinals