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Hacksaw’s Monday BONUS Podcast
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“BASEBALL TRADING DEADLINE”

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The deals are coming within the next couple of weeks.

Teams dumping contracts
Teams trading prospective free agents they can’t-won’t sign
Teams looking for rental players to make a playoff push

This will be a busy two weeks for the Padres, the Dodgers, the Angels, whose emotional state ranges from hopeful to desperate to resigned to failure.

Questions worth asking about these 3-teams:

PADRES…Did they make mistakes on the contracts they gave out?  It sure looks like the decades plus deal for Xander Bogaerts is not going to work out.

The Juan Soto-Josh Hader-Blake Snell situations loom large out there, since free agency awaits Snell-Hader this November, and Soto a year and a half from now.

No one is talking to the media, but have the Padres made offers to Soto and Hader to lock them down, and if they leave and all you get is draft pick compensation, is that a good business model to operate with?

The biggest question is now, if this 10-game road trip leads to disaster, and it hasn’t started well, and they fall out of the last wildcard playoff spot, do you tear the team apart at the deadline, or stay with this group till you get to the offseason?

If there is no post season coming, do you trade Soto and Hader to the top bidder? Can you get enough prospects for the 5-for-1 deal you made to get Soto from Washington?  Hader has huge value but what is the value on an August-September rental closer?

And then there is the Preller model of doing business, dealing lots of minor league gems to get the right player.  There is pitching out there to trade for, but do you deal hot lower minor leaguers SS-Jackson Merrill or young live arm P-Rob Snelling to get a veteran like Lucas Gialito-White Sox or Shane Beiber-Guardians?

Go ahead Padres fans, give me an answer.
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DODGERS…Big bats have kept them in the race, in fact, helping them hammer their way into 1st place.  But the Blue are living dangerously right now with a battered pitching staff.

They have had 7-starting pitchers go on the DL this year, nagging injuries to very serious stuff.  There is no Dustin May-Walker Beuhler coming to rescue with the calvary.

Clayton Kershaw is ailing.  Noah Syndegaard has not come back strong.  And the bullpen is in disarray.  The kid starters from Oklahoma City have struggled.

The farm system is loaded with talent, so the LA question is, do you move a hot young prospect on the mound, to rent a proven veteran.  Mention Michael Kopech-White Sox, Justin Verlander-Mets, Zack Greinke-Royals or Boston’s James Paxton.  Those come cheaply.  Mention big names and the price is a blue chip prospect.

Everyone will ask about Bobby Miller or Ev Sheehan, untouchables as I view it. But maybe, if the right veteran is coming here, you shop Gavin Stone or Michael Grove, who haven’t gotten to the top and stayed, as possible trade bait for the right veteran pither, with the idea of of keeping whomever you get on an extension.  Shane Beiber is the right candidate.

Who can you get, who are you willing to give up?

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ANGELS…It sure looks like the era is over, the Ohtani-Angels relationship.  Agents are saving the Halos are taking trade offers for the iconic slugger-pitcher.  A Babe Ruth deal has to be made before I’d say yes.

It has to be a bonanza deal to move him.  It has to be a to a team that he wants to go to.  It has to be to a team you’d give a window to talk to his CAA agents about an extension now.

Dodgers, Yankees, Mariners, maybe the Padres.  He has to be willing to sign an extension and they have to be willing to give up a treasure trove of talent to make that deal happen.  The Dodgers and Yankees  seem to have that farm system depth.  The Padres might if Juan Soto was part of the deal.

I ask this though.  Did Arte Moreno make a state of the art offer, say 10Y-500M?  Did Ohtani reject the offer?  Has there been any talks with CAA about possible trade destinations?

A tough rubik’s cube equation to solve.

If Angels ownership decides they have to deal him before losing him, the next press release should be owner Arte Moreno deciding to sell that franchise.

Angels fans, have at it.

Quite a quandry for all 3-franchises.
Padres trying to save the season and maybe save front office jobs.
Dodgers trying to win another pennant.
Angels trying to salvage a losing tradition.

What do you think?
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