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Deadline-day aftermath Mets, White Sox, Orioles looking like big winners
Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci sat down with CNNSI.com's Larry Smith to discuss the deadline-day activity. Larry Smith: Tom, the usual flurry of trades right at the deadline, let's start with the St. Louis Cardinals acquiring Will Clark . What does this say about their concern for Mark McGwire's health? Tom Verducci: Well, I think it says a lot. McGwire has tried to test that knee and every time he has gone back to square one. There has been no improvement there. He talks about the pain being so bad that it hurts him when he hits the brake pedal of his car. So I think there is legitimate concern as to when McGwire can come back -- possibly some time late in August, but in this case they just don't know until Big Mac gets out there and starts swinging the bat again. And he still is a ways away from doing that. LS: Andy Ashby took about a week to prove his worth in Atlanta, where does B.J. Surhoff fit in with Atlanta? TV: That was a great pick up by Atlanta -- probably the pick-up of the day. Surhoff is a professional hitter. He gives you a good at-bat almost every time at the plate, he is tough to strike out, gives you enough power, puts the ball in play and besides that Surhoff is a real pro. And we all know the Braves have had a lot of trouble out in left field this year. Their production from their left fielders has been the worst in the National League. Surhoff is going to be a major upgrade in that position. He also gives them better balance now in terms of right-handed and left-handed hitters in their lineup. LS: The Braves are tired of hearing about the Yankees always beating them but not this time. The Yankees wanted Surhoff badly to fill the void in left field after Shane Spencer went down for the year. They missed out on him and failed to complete a trade with the Rockies for Pedro Astacio . TV: Yeah, I am surprised, too. If you told me that Rondell White and Surhoff would be traded today and neither one would wind up with the Yankees, I would have been surprised. The Yankees now have to go to the left field situation with Ryan Thompson and David Justice . Justice is not a full-time left fielder. They want to protect him from injuries and play him three to four times a week and not five or six times, so I am a little bit surprised that the Yankees did not wind up with those left fielders. There is still a need there. There are trades that are made after this deadline but they are not for impact players, only really role-type players and no one of the caliber that we saw traded today. LS: Speaking of White, what about the Cubs? They are the hottest team in the game right now, sure, but still 8 1/2 games back behind the Cardinals in the NL Central. What are they trying to accomplish? TV: That is a good question because this is really Andy MacPhail's team. He really had drifted into the background as the president of the team, but now in taking over the duties as GM he wants to show everyone that he is going to put his imprint on this team. He has been very active with four deals inside of two weeks. I think White can be a major upgrade for them if he stays healthy and that is one of the things that bothered the New York Yankees. They look at his medical history and obviously the turf in Montreal has taken a toll on White's knees and hamstrings and they were very concerned about that. They did not want to give up Alfonso Soriano in a deal for White. The Cubs think getting him on grass and playing everyday at Wrigley Field will ease that stress on his legs. When he is healthy, he's been a great player and especially this season. He has shown a very good bat. But the question is, can you keep this guy in the lineup a lot? His future in Chicago will depend on whether the grass can be as much as a tonic for him as it was for Andre Dawson in Wrigley Field. LS: Just about every team over .500 made a move in the past couple of weeks, but of all the dealing, you really like what the Orioles and Mets managed to do. TV: I really do, sometimes getting rid of players is as important as adding players and the position the Baltimore Orioles were in is the same position they've been in for the last few years. They really needed to get something done. The team was getting older and the farm system was not producing the way that they thought it would. They really needed an influx of younger, more athletic players and they've gone ahead and done that by moving players Mike Bordick , Charles Johnson , Surhoff and Clark. Of all the players they picked up I really like Luis Rivera . As much as I like the addition of Surhoff to the Braves -- and make no mistake that is a key acquisition -- I think, in time, Rivera will be an impact pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles. LS: And the Mets also, they didn't get Barry Larkin , but Bubba Trammell and Bordick proved big over the weekend in wins for the Mets. TV: Yeah, I did not think the Mets were a championship team with Melvin Mora at shortstop but I really like Mora as a utility player and all-around guy. He is a terrific defensive outfielder and good bat off the bench. But when it came to making those key plays that have to be made and do have to be made, in October especially, Mora was not that kind of championship shortstop. Bordick is as reliable as they come this side of Omar Vizquel and now this season he is having his best offensive season of his life and the Mets got themselves a real genuine bona fide shortstop and the kind that you can win championships with. LS: Interesting story in Cleveland, where the Indians were extremely busy this weekend starting both former Brewers pitchers ( Jason Bere and Steve Woodard ) hours after they arrived in the same doubleheader Saturday, but they didn't move Manny Ramirez . What happened? TV: If you asked me about a week-and-a-half ago or asked the Indians, they would have said that was a possibility. What happened is this team closed the gap in the wild-card chase when it looked like they were falling off the cliff. Now they changed gears and said listen, we might lose Ramirez, we probably will as a free agent at the end of the season, but with the hand we have here and a few more players like a David Segui , like a Wil Cordero , we are as good as anybody else out there in the wild-card chase. If Manny walks at the end of the year, well, we've been down that road before. Albert Belle did that before and they survived. I think the same scenario will play out here. The Indians are a wild-card contender. They probably won't lose Ramirez in the offseason. They know that and they are willing to pay that price. LS: Who are the other winners in this year's trade market? TV: Well, I really liked what the White Sox have done. They were really in desperate need of adding some experience in players who have been in pennant races and more importantly in postseason games before. They only had three of those players and Frank Thomas has most of that experience. Now they have Johnson and Harold Baines . Those guys are not your typical rah-rah leader types but they are guys that have played well in big games before. They have been in many different situations. I think Johnson, especially the way he handles pitchers, will help that team with all the young arms they have on that staff. And Baines has been through every war -- probably every war since World War II -- so he is going to add his experience to a team that I thought really needed it not so much to get into the playoffs but to survive. LS: Seattle picked up Al Martin , how does he help the Mariners? TV: The Mariners really needed a punch from right-handed pitching and Martin can do that for them. He has hit right-handers very well. He is not a very good defensive outfielder, but I think the Mariners would have been a much better team, and obviously they thought so too, if they could have gotten Juan Gonzalez from the Detroit Tigers. They came very close at one point. It seemed that they agreed to players with Detroit but Mike Ilitch , the owner of the Tigers, said he was not giving up his chance of holding onto Gonzalez. They still think they can sign this guy in the offseason as a free agent. Seattle really wanted Gonzalez, which is one team where he did not have trade veto power over. Martin is not in Gonzalez's class, but he will help. LS: What's still to come, who's watching the waiver wires the closest come August? TV: Yeah, this is not done yet. If you look at last year you did not have impact players traded in August but deals do go through. The Red Sox picked up Kent Mercker and Rod Beck last year after the deadline. Players like Brian McRae were traded after the deadline, as was Rich Becker and Carlos Baerga . These are complementary-type players that contending teams think they need. Not just to get into the playoffs, but also to flush out their postseason rosters. One team that might do something in August is the Cincinnati Reds. They stayed with a pat hand in these last few hours before the deadline because they closed the gap on St. Louis. They were not going to start dropping any more players. Watch out for Jim Bowden -- he has been a creative general manager all through his history in Cincinnati. He is the kind of guy who can get a player through waivers and get a deal done.
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