What's the Buzz? 7/25/06

Another day, another trade in baseball. Two actually...First off, the Milwaukee Brewers are showing that they want to compete still as they sent pitcher Jorge De La Rosa to the Kansas City Royals for veteran utility infielder Tony Graffanino. Considering Brewers 3B Corey Koskie is still out with post-concussion syndrome and the team has no idea when he'll be back -- if he'll be back -- it was a good move for them. Graffanino will start at third and if Koskie comes back, the team will have great depth behind Koskie, 2B Rickie Weeks and SS Bill Hall. For the short term, he may have a little value, but that'll dissipate the more he becomes just a back-up. De La Rosa, who has been out with a blister problem will end up on the roster in Kansas City and should start in middle relief. He may get into the rotation at some point, but he still won't be worth much. As for Graffanino's spot, the majority of backup time should go to Esteban German, but unless he gets regular at bats, he'll be worth as much as De La Rosa.
The second deal, also involving the Royals, was Kansas City sending reliever Elmer Dessens to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for pitchers Odalis Perez, Blake Johnson, Julio Pimentel and cash considerations. The Royals did pretty well here as Dessens wasn't exactly blowing them away with his skills, and Perez can go right into the rotation. He may have some nice value in AL-only leagues as he looks to get off to a fresh start in a new league. Johnson and Pimental are both Single-A prospects , so don't expect to hear their names again for quite some time.

In other news...

The Braves are still trying to get back in the race, but are having some trouble as both 3B Chipper Jones (foot) and OF Andruw Jones (back) are both still out and still considered day to day. Chipper was able to pinch hit tonight, but Andruw's back seems to be getting a little worse. He probably won't be back until the weekend now.
More injury woes for the Nationals as they placed 2B Jose Vidro on the 15 day DL with a sore hamstring. Ever since this team made that trade with the Reds they have become the walking wounded. Damian Jackson, Marlon Anderson and even recent call up Bernie Castro should all see some time at second. None should have any major value until one starts to outshine the others.
I guess we have to consider Eddie Guardado day to day with forearm tightness. He said it was bothering him a few days ago and was apparently not available to pitch tonight when the Reds were in a save situation. Todd Cofffey and Bill Bray combined to finish off tonight's game. If Guardado needs time off or even a DL stint, the Reds would probably end up in a closer-by-committee. Still, Everyday Eddie declared that he would be ready to go on Wednesday if needed.
The Dodgers are reporting that Nomar Garciaparra will miss 5 games with a sprained knee ligament. I don't know if it's just real minor or if the Dodgers are downplaying it so not to look desperate in the trading market. Either way, an injury to Nomar's knee can't be a good thing. Unfortunately, you're going to have to wait, probably, the full 5 days before finding out if he's going on the DL.
And lastly, "Congratulations!!" to Phillies pitcher Ryan Madson who tied a major league record with four wild pitches in one inning tonight. As bad a feat as it was, and as bad as Madson looked tonight, he now sits in some pretty good company as he joins Walter Johnson, Phil Neikro and Bert Cunningham as the pitchers who are tied for the record. He'll be working on emulating the careers of those guys soon, but for now it looks like 1 more start and then it's bullpen city.

Catch you next time...