Wrapping up baseball’s trade deadline:
— Phillies acquired 2B Luis Arraez from the Giants, along with P Caleb Kilian, for a couple of young pitchers.
As a result, Phillies’ infield defense is going to be re-shuffled:
1B- Alec Bohm
2B- Luis Arraez
SS- Trea Turner
3B- Bryson Stott
RF- Bryce Harper
— Arraez has won three batting titles, has a good chance for a fourth one this year, but he has also played on a lot of different teams, for such a good hitter:
2019-22: Twins
2023-24: Marlins
2024-25: Padres
2025-26: Giants
2026: Phillies
— Red Sox traded for C Adley Rutschman, hoping to upgrade behind the plate; they gave the Orioles three of their top five prospects. Lot of people on social media, including some baseball pundits, were wowed by how much Boston paid to get Rutschman.
Rutschman is hurt right now; he hasn’t played since July 18th.
— Mets traded away 8 major leaguers, plus a minor leaguer; in return, they acquired 13 minor league prospects. Monday they added six minor leaguers to their 26-man active roster.
— Texas P Jacob deGrom exercised the no-trade clause in his contract, wouldn’t let the Rangers trade him away from Arlington.
Someone on ESPN suggested that deGrom gets taxed less than he would if he played home games in a different state (Florida? California?), which he why he put the kibosh on the trade.
— San Diego added a pair of starting pitchers, Robbie Ray from the Giants, Casey Mize from Detroit. Ray is 10-6, 3.08 in 21 starts this year; Mize was 4-6, 2.70 in 16 starts for the Tigers.
— Pirates fortified their bullpen, adding Luke Weaver/Kirby Yates. Weird seeing the team with the #2 payroll (Mets) trading a guy to Pittsburgh at the deadline.
— Cleveland added P Foster Griffin from Washington, OF Jo Adell from the Angels, and Nathaniel Lowe from the Reds. Little surprised to see the Nationals trade Griffin away; he is having a very good season.
— Cubs worked hard to hard to upgrade their pitching; they acquired starters Clay Holmes, Braxton Garrett and reliever Ryan Zeferjahn- they also acquired OF Tyrone Taylor.
— Tampa Bay improved its catching, adding Liam Hicks; they also acquired reliever Tyler Wells, as well as starter Freddy Peralta.
Rays now have a SS named Taylor Walls, and a P named Tyler Wells.
— Famous birthdays, August 4th:
Billy Bob Thornton, 71
Barack Obama, 65
Roger Clemens, 64
BJ Surhoff, 62
Clyde Simmons, 62
Abigail Spencer, 45
Brady Singer, 30
Henry Bolte, 23
— Cardinals 13, Bronx 7
Alec Burleson hit three home runs, had six RBI.
St Louis blew a 6-0 lead, then scored seven runs in the 8th inning.
New York’s bullpen gave up nine runs in six innings.
— Pirates 4, Brewers 3
Brewers are 1-6 vs Pittsburgh, 18-5 vs the rest of the NL Central.
Spencer Horwitz hit a three-run double for the Pirates.
Pittsburgh is three games out of the last Wild Card slot.
— Rays 13, Rockies 9
Junior Caminero hit two home runs, scored three times.
Rays had scored a total of 12 runs in their previous eight games.
Tampa Bay leads the AL East by 3.5 games.
— Phillies 6, Nationals 3
Trailing 3-0, Derek Hill hit a grand slam in the 7th inning.
Bryce Harper hit a two-run homer in the 8th inning.
Washington 1B Abimelec Ortiz hit his first major league HR.
— Cubs 10, Dodgers 5
Cubs hit four home runs; they led 6-3 in third inning.
Justin Wrobleski gave up seven runs in 4.1 IP.
Dodgers have lost four games in a row.
— Giants 5, Rangers 1
Jung Hoo Lee hit two home runs, had three RBI.
Logan Webb allowed five hits in six shutout IP.
Rangers have lost six games in a row.
— If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
AL: Rays, White Sox, Astros. Wild Cards: Bronx, Red Sox, Guardians
NL: Braves, Brewers, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Cubs, Phillies, Arizona
