FanHouse RayDurham

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Since the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago Cubs are the two teams in the NL Central making all the moves, most people have begun writing off the St. Louis Cardinals as division contenders. It's pretty hard to blame anyone for feeling this way. After all, in recent weeks the Brewers have added an ace to their starting rotation in CC Sabathia, and just yesterday they added some infield depth when they picked up Ray Durham from the Giants.

I don't expect the Durham trade to be Milwaukee's last play, either.

Meanwhile, the Cubs have added Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin to their pitching staff, and there's talk they're thinking of adding someone like A.J. Burnett to the rotation, and Brian Fuentes or Huston Street to the bullpen.

The Cardinals? Well, for the most part they're just crossing their fingers that Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright can return in August and provide a boost to the ballclub. The problem with this approach is that the Redbirds may very well find themselves out of the race by then if they sit on their hands. That's why every game right now is important for the Cardinals, and the four game set they're about to begin with the Brewers tonight is huge.

When the Brewers traded for Ray Durham yesterday, the move was widely seen as the team's attempt to replace the weakest link in their offense and gear up for a playoff dogfight with the Cubs, Cardinals, Mets, and Phillies. The message sent to Rickie Weeks seemed to be along the lines of, "You're a great guy and our second baseman of the future and everything, but your .685 OPS just isn't going to cut it." Well, Ned Yost doesn't see it that way. From the Journal-Sentinel's Brewers Blog:

"Rickie's doing fine," said Yost. "I'll play Ray a couple of days a week, maybe. We'll just see how it goes. I'm not setting anything in stone. We'll take it day by day. Veteran, quality depth is what it gives us."

[...]

Yost, who routinely defends his players, whether they are producing or not, said it was unfair to have expectations too lofty for Weeks.

"I wouldn't say he has underachieved," said Yost. "He has never been a .300 hitter (in the majors), so who says he is underachieving?"

First off, Durham plays second base kind of like a poorly oiled robot while Weeks is a pretty decent fielder at second. So there's plenty of reason to keep giving Weeks time. Second off, if Ned Yost won't say Weeks is underachieving, I can find 100 people that will. Dude's hitting .216/.326/.365 after killing the ball at almost every level of the minors. If that's not underachieving, Mario Mendoza was an all-star.

We've already discussed the implications of the C.C. Sabathia and Rich Harden trades here on Fantasy FanHouse, but what about the other names that recently found new homes?

Joe Blanton
Much like Harden, Blanton's going to go through a whole new experience when he pitches in front of a boisterous packed house tonight. He's going to get a nice trial by fire as the Phillies face the Mets and Braves this week -- Blanton's a two-start pitcher. Look for the change of league to ignite Blanton. He was too good a pitcher to keep scuffling along with such a poor record (5-12) and ERA (4.96) anyway. Now is the time to trade for him, because his stock will never be lower. The ERA was a full run lower last season, and he had a nice 140/40 K/BB. This season he's partially having issues because of his control. He's only sporting a 62/35 K/BB in a little more than half the innings as last year. As I said, the change of league will help ... facing a whole batch of new hitters is always advantageous to the pitcher. His turn-around starts tonight.

Second baseman Ray Durham spent the last five and a half seasons playing for the San Francisco Giants. I say spent because as of this morning, Ray was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers. Of course, considering that the Brewers are about to finish up a three-game set in San Francisco, Ray won't have very far to go to join his new team.

Talks for Durham between the Giants and Brewers were first reported last night, and the deal was finalized this morning with the Brewers sending prospects Steve Hammond and Darren Ford to the Giants. As for what the Brewers plans are with Durham at the moment, they aren't saying.

Durham will probably start off as a utility reserve for the Brewers, but considering that he's hitting .293/.385/.414 it's very likely the 36-year old may replace Rickie Weeks at second base. Weeks is only hitting .218/.322/.367 on the season, and if he wasn't struggling so much, the Brewers would have never pursued this deal in the first place.

Also, the deal has not been officially announced because the Brewers still have to make a roster move to accommodate Durham's place on the roster. So, no, he will not be suiting up in a Brewers jersey today against his former team.

I understand that temperatures were at record highs this weekend. So, taking some time off of work or finding the shade was a good thing for everyone. But that doesn't make the Giants needing time off to rest their old bones any less humorous.

Giants manager Bruce Bochy will likely give some of his veterans a rest for Sunday's afternoon game with the Nationals since Washington's extreme heat and humidity will be a factor.

[...]Bochy said it's likely that Omar Vizquel and Ray Durham will sit while Burriss and Travis Denker should get a shot at starting while the older guys take a break.

By all means, sit them down. The last thing we need is someone collapsing on the lawn at AT&T. Still, when you consider Brian Sabean's penchant for inking veterans, it becomes pretty hysterical that his team has to sit several players because it's too hot for baseball. Which is played every year ... in the summer.

(Karmic aside: I should probably mention that the air conditioner just broke in my office. But you're still old, Giants.)

We've long known that Brian Sabean subscribes to the theory that you can't trust anyone under 30 but it's a bit disheartening to see that his views are coloring the local scribes as well. The San Francisco Giants, scuffling along at 20-31 today, refuse to play anyone with a future that might include the next decent team by the bay. That should be something they catch hell for but, alas, it's not to be.

Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle thinks that he's discovered a conundrum at play with the Giants roster. It centers on the continued existence of Randy Winn, Ray Durham and Rich Aurilla in the everyday lineup.
I'll bite. Because they aren't playing all that well.

Schulman uses their May numbers to "prove" his point but when you take both months of the season into account, it's not looking quite so smart. Winn has the highest OPS at 773 and gets on base at a good clip which is okay unless you're a corner outfielder who should provide power as well. He'd be a much more defensible choice if the Giants didn't have Nate Schierholtz slugging .503 in AAA.

Earlier this week, Josh Alper outlined several of the most attractive options the Yankees have in terms of finding a new third baseman. Well, add another name to the list: Robinson Cano. That's right, Brian Cashman confirmed that sliding Cano from second base to third is an option, albeit not their preferred one. From the Journal News:

Cashman saw Cano at the Stadium on Wednesday and mentioned the idea of switching positions.

"I informed him that I know he can play third base. I know it. I'm not saying he's going to, but I know he can do it," Cashman said.

"I'll make sure this doesn't become something different: I want Robinson Cano at second base. That's what I want. I'm going to enter this winter process trying to secure a third baseman. I'd rather not make one out of my second baseman. That's the honest truth."

If the Yankees don't acquire another third baseman via trade or free agency, Wilson Betemit is the team's only other option ... and Betemit hit just .229 between the Dodgers and Yankees last year. While there are a handful of legitimate free agent options, including snatching Mike Lowell away from the Red Sox, it may be easier to sign a second baseman (Orlando Hudson? Jeff Kent? Ray Durahm?) to replace Cano, instead.

The Giants needed to get rid of Barry Bonds.

It probably would have been the best thing for the health of the Giants franchise to get rid of Barry Bonds a few seasons earlier, but you can't expect the Giants to turn away millions in revenue connected to Bonds' chase for Hank Aaron's record. In the efforts to win in the present while Bonds was still an active part of the club, the Giants brought in a lot of older help in the forms of guys like Omar Vizquel, Ryan Klesko, Dave Roberts, Mike Matheny, Moises Alou, Steve Finley, Jeff Fassero, Benito Santiago and Andres Galarraga. Over the years, signings like those were probably in lieu of better, younger signings because the money that Bonds was making ate up a large percentage of their payroll.

The problem was that Bonds would frequently be pulled after the seventh inning for pinch runners to save his health. So you have $15 million dedicated to a guy who isn't going to be around past seven innings to potentially win ballgames, forcing the Giants to depend on some overvalued talent to carry the team the rest of the way.

Well, not only does $15 million come off the books with Bonds, but they also lose the salaries of Vizquel ($5.1 million), Pedro Feliz ($5 million), Klesko ($1.75 million) and Matheny. Nobody should be surprised if the Giants also get rid of guys like Rich Aurilia (.245) and Ray Durham (.215) who combined are making $10.5 million. And perhaps, as correctly noted by a comment here (thank you for the correction), the Giants could find a way to trade Roberts, who was signed to a three year $18 million deal before the season began. That would be a shade over $40 million to spend to make an old roster younger and energetic, and perhaps get some younger legs with some range to support guys like Barry Zito, Matt Cain, and Tim Lincecum. This is probably the first opportunity since 1993 for the Giants to remake their roster in a significant way, instead of putting band-aids on problems just to give Bonds some patchwork support.

Or, they could go get Alex Rodriguez, because you know that if he opts out of his contract, that speculation is going to start. A-Rod did say how much he loved San Francisco, didn't he? If the Giants want to keep their ballpark full, that would be the way to go. And that $40 million just might be enough to get him (he is, after all, a Scott Boras client). But to me, the smart money is to fortify their roster with fresh prospects and bullpen help to surround their starting rotation. The key for the Giants is to not let the bottom fall out for a few more seasons just because Bonds is leaving. If they're smart, it doesn't have to be that way.

Previously on FanHouse:
Barry Bonds is Leaving San Francisco
Alex Rodriguez Loves San Francisco

Henry Schulman questioned in the San Francisco Chronicle whether or not this is the year that the Giants blow up the team, as they struggle through a last place season. The deadline is only a month away, and the Giants are 11 games under .500, and 11 games out of first place. While it appears as if selling some parts is the smartest decision, Padres GM Kevin Towers is not so certain Giants GM Brian Sabean will throw up the white flag:

"I've never known Sabes to be a seller," Towers said. "The type of franchise here, year in and year out, is a perennial contender. It's built to win. If they end up being sellers, I don't see it happening unless, at the deadline, they're still 10 or 15 games out. Definitely I think their hope is to be buyers."

This would be the first time since 1996 when Sabean took over the Giants that they would be legitimately breaking down the club, becoming sellers. One problem though, as Brewers GM Doug Melvin points out, other clubs are reluctant to get rid of young talent because of the skyrocketing prices for free agents. Matt Morris, Noah Lowry, and possibly Ray Durham could be tradeable commodities at the deadline. Perhaps Grant at McCovey Chronicles most aptly captured the current status of the Giants:

I wish the Giants had the future of the Golden State Warriors. Sit on that one for a while.

We have now officially entered the twilight zone for Bay Area sports fans.

Armando Benitez may have taken the brunt of the blame for the Giants 5-4 extra-innings loss to the Mets last week, which eventually led to his banishment to Miami. But manager Bruce Bochy acknowledged that there was more than just Armando Benitez to blame for that loss. In fact, there are several players to blame for the Giants losses according to Bochy -- not for what they did on the field, but because of their failure to make it onto the field.

"You can't afford to go into a series against a team like the Mets and be two or three guys short," Bochy said. "Sometimes you can't do anything about it. Maybe on the preventative side or the maintenance side of treatment, we've got to eventually turn up the volume on how we do that."
...
"We've got a great medical staff here. (The players) have got to take responsibility for their health. You're paid on performance, and the best way to perform at your best is obviously by being healthy."

GM Brian Sabean echoed Bochy's thoughts:

Asked about a potential trade for a bat, an agitated Sabean said, "Ask the guys who can't answer the bell every day. Once we find out who is ready to play every day, then we'll have a better answer about what we have internally. ... We need guys on the field, and as usual, we're not getting it."

Dave Roberts has been on the DL since May 10th, while the likes of Ray Durham, Rich Aurilia, and Ryan Klesko have all nursed injuries recently. But honestly Brian Sabean and Bruce Bochy, did you really think you would get through an entire season without many injuries when your lineup is full of players who were born before the Truman Administration?

Previously at FanHouse:
Armando Benitez Officially Traded, Giants Fans Celebrate

Photo Credit: Getty Images