Peter Gammons says the teams that trade their veteran players to eager contenders now instead of waiting until July, can ask for more in return, and often get it.
That is the way Cleveland's Mark Shapiro reasoned two years ago when he put Bartolo Colon into the market early and got three prime building pieces from the Expos in Cliff Lee, Brandon Phillips and Grady Sizemore. That was Ken Williams' thinking last year when he moved early on Roberto Alomar and Carl Everett; reliever Frank Francisco has already paid dividends for the Rangers, and right-hander Josh Rupe isn't too far behind. That was Theo Epstein's reason for moving quickly to do the Shea Hillenbrand-Byung-Hyun Kim deal, as Kim went 8-5 with 16 saves and stabilized the bullpen, enabling Boston to make the playoffs.
Lots of player movement speculation here, and with Gammons it's always credible.
Posted by dan at June 1, 2004 01:53 AM