Sunday July 29th, 2012

Bernie Olshansky: Here are some of the latest key baseball trades that have taken place over the last 24 hours:

Francisco Liriano to the White Sox

After losing out on Greinke, the White Sox needed to make a move. Their pitching needed an extra boost. Chris Sale hasn’t been himself his last two starts, giving up five earned runs in each, and Jake Peavy has been on and off lately, going 1-2 in his past three starts. Although Liriano has for the most part had a terrible year, holding a 3-10 record with an atrocious 5.31 ERA, he hasn’t been all that bad in his last few starts (excluding his last start against Chicago—2.2 innings, seven earned runs),striking out 10 and 15 in the two starts before facing Chicago. The White Sox are hoping that Liriano will continue his turnaround and help them reach the playoffs. This could be tough for the White Sox though; the Tigers seem to have the makings of a playoff team to not make the playoffs, and the AL West looks like it could produce three playoff teams as of now. But, with all this, Chicago does look promising after the acquisition of Kevin Youkilis earlier in the year. Adam Dunn has returned to form, hitting more home runs and striking out just as much. It looks like the White Sox will have a good shot to play in October.

For Liriano, the Twins got infielder Eduardo Escobar, who only played in 36 games in the majors this year, hitting .207 with no homers and three RBI in 97 plate appearances. Minnesota also received pitching prospect Pedro Hernandez, who this year in Double-A Birmingham went 7-2 with a 2.75 ERA. With this deal, it looks like the Twins will be excited about Hernandez, and Escobar can be used as a backup/utility man. The winner of this trade will be dependent upon Francisco Liriano’s performance.

Chris Johnson to the Diamondbacks

The third base position for the Diamondbacks has been weak all year. With primary third baseman Ryan Roberts being designated for assignment and then traded to the Rays after hitting .250 with only six homers and 34 RBI, the team needed to fill the void. Chris Johnson is expected to do this after hitting .279 with eight homers and 41 RBI with the Astros this year. The Diamondbacks gave up prospect Marc Krauss, their second round pick in 2009, who has hit .283 with 15 homers and 61 RBI in 104 games with Double-A Mobile, and Bobby Borchering, who, in 81 games, hit .277 with 18 homers and 60 RBI in Single-A Visalia before being promoted to Double-A Mobile, and has hit .130 in 21 games. This will turn out well for the Astros, as they have added more depth to their minor league system. Arizona will benefit with Johnson at third base—he should hit for a higher average than any other option they have. It looks like the D-Backs could make a run in the NL West, as they are only 4.5 games back (as of Sunday morning).

George Kottaras to the Athletics

Kottaras was traded by the Brewers to the A’s for pitcher Fautino De Los Santos. Kottaras was hitting only .209 for the Brewers this year, and it puzzles me why the A’s would acquire him with current catcher Kurt Suzuki hitting only .213.I guess the A’s can use Kottaras as a backup to Suzuki. Current backup Derek Norris is hitting .205, so it looks like either Norris or Kottaras will be headed to Triple-A Sacramento. The Brewers get pitcher Fautino De Los Santos, who, in Triple-A, went 1-3 with a 7.25 ERA in 28 games. There’s really not much to say about this deal other than it doesn’t really help either team much.

***Today’s feature was prepared by Bernie Olshansky, Baseball Writer & Facebook Administrator.  We highly encourage you to leave your comments and feedback at the bottom of the page and share in the discussion with our readers.  You can also follow Bernie on Twitter (@BernieOlshansky)***

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