The Messages Sent by Making Moves
TOWER GROVE — Los Angeles Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti called Manny Ramirez the “caliber of player” who is “tough to turn down at this time of year”, but added there was an additional benefit of making a blockbuster move.
It was the message an appreciative front office sent to its players.
“It’s important to give (something to) the players who have played all year long for you,” Colletti said. ”This time of year, the front office has a chance … you show them you care. You show them that you’re serious and you show that you appreciate all they’ve done and what they’ve left on the field.”
Colletti’s Dodgers are two games behind NL West-leading Arizona after a loss to the Diamondbacks last night. Ramirez is scheduled to arrive and play today for the Dodgers, instantly and radically changing a lineup that lacked a power threat before yesterday’s last-minute deal. Colletti said the motivation for acquiring Ramirez was the “dimension” the All-Star brings to the lineup, but that he also wanted to reward a roster that had weathered injury, inconsistency and increased expectations to remain … well, in the NL West … in contention.
How other teams feel about that message depends on what they did at the deadline.
There apparently are two ways to spin actions (or inaction) at the deadline:
- Merit-based: They deserved a move of support from the front office.
- Confidence-based: This team is good enough to win as it is.
A search, using the Google News page, on the words ”baseball” and “deadline” and “stand pat” netted 186 hits. The headlines range from “Rays Stand Pat as Trade Deadline Passes” and “D-Backs Stand Pat After Whiffing on Teixeira”. The comments have the same variety as the headlines.
“We’re in first place … we control our destiny,” said Andrew Friedman, Tampa Bay’s vice president of baseball operations in this AP article. “We have a lot of faith in the guys we have. … I feel we have the talent on hand to continue to do what we did the first two-thirds of the season.”
“We were looking for anything, but something better than what we had,” New York Mets’ general manager Omar Minaya told reporters, as recounted here in The Daily News. He also added: “Hopefully, the guys we have will get the job done and some of our minor-league options also.”
“All we can control is what we do,” Toronto general manager J.P. Ricciardi told reporters during a telephone conference, as written in The Globe and Mail. “We’ve got … 54 games left and we’ve got to play our best baseball in these 54 games if we want to leapfrog some people in the wild card and catch anybody else in the division.”
A GM makes a move and he’s rewarding a team by saying, hey, fellas, you’ve played well enough to merit augmentation. A GM doesn’t make a move and he’s patting his lineup on back saying, way to go champs, love what you’ve done, keep battling — you’re the best guys for us, nobody better. Got it.
The sense in the Cardinals clubhouse and around the team was that they were hoping for the former. Reading between the lines of the comments made — especially those in the Philadelphia Article by senior baseball writer Joe Strauss – it was clear that the Cardinals and coaches felt they had earned a move. They had played beyond expectations, had entrenched themselves in contention and were deserving of the chance to improve via a trade.
“In my mind, if you didn’t have expectations and you were (lousy) July 1, it’s a wash,” manager Tony La Russa told Strauss and other reporters in Philadelphia. “But whether you had expectations or you didn’t, when you get to July 1 like we have, then I believe since you play the year you’re playing and don’t take anything for granted, your goal should be to improve your chance to win right now.”
La Russa, in subsequent comments, stressed that moves made to help the present should not be done at the expense of the future. He wasn’t advocating “wild, illogical” trades he said at one point in the past couple weeks. But he was saying it made sense to add to the team, to fortify it. This team had played itself into being worthy.
It wasn’t expressly said, but it was conveyed that this team merited a move.
Without one, the message shifts to the team as it is — with the recent addition of Chris Carpenter and forthcoming return of Adam Wainwright, that is — is good enough to contend. Way to go.
“I think with what they’ve accomplished, you’re starting to see day in and day out they’re very much capable of doing it,” GM John Mozeliak told Strauss in this morning’s post-deadline wrapup. (And, yes, that was one of the 186 from the Google “stand pat” search.)
So, the Dodgers were deserving of a move. The Cardinals, and many others, were complimented by no move. And while the comments are probably genuine, really the truth is somewhere inbetween. The comments are more revealing of what teams did at the deadline, not the motivation behind what they did. And what they did at the deadline is more revealing about the pressure on the team or the GM — Milwaukee in a must-win mode; the seat is hot in LA; whereas the impetus is different in, say, Tampa Bay or even with the Cardinals. (Think the Mets weren’t moved to make a deal?)
It’s never as simple as the spin.
Mozeliak said as much back at Shea Stadium when he acknowledged : “We’re going to need a lot of things to go right if we’re going to finish strong.”
Remains to be seen if one of those things was an addition at the deadline.
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Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
“Sometimes the best moves are the moves that you don’t make”.
I think Moe deserves a lot of credit for not making a “splash” move at the trading deadline. Stand pat and then pickup a “rental or two” off the waiver wires in August. He was taught by the master – Walt Jocketty – and he needs to put that experience to work now.
In my mind, the biggest question mark to the Cardinal season from here on out is about Izzy. Will he have “it” now that he’s back on familiar ground (closer’s role) or will he continue to implode? If he’s back, the rest of the bullpen falls into place. If he implodes once again (ala 2006), moving Wainwright back into his 2006 role as closer makes sense.
With Carp back in the rotation, my biggest question mark there is Joel Pineiro. Is it time to swap him for Brad Thompson?
Big Bat needed – just give AB’s to Joe Mather. His showing at the plate in the Atlanta series is just scratching the surface of what he has to offer the big club. With Mather in the lineup, along with Ankiel and Ludwick, your seeing a group of young players who could put up 30/100 numbers (HR/RBI) over the next few years.
Next on my wish list – quietly get together with Scott Boras and ink Kyle Lohse to a 3 year deal. Add him to Carp, Wainwright and you have the foundation of a strong starting staff in 2009. Sprinkle in a few youngsters like McClellan, Garcia, Mortensen & Todd. And I’m excited at what could be taking shape for 2009/10/11.