Category: MLB

Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski said Sunday he won’t trade top prospects — specifically, pitchers Andy Oliver and Jacob Turner — to fill holes created by the team’s recent injuries.

"Other clubs look at us and say, ‘Well, they are desperate so maybe they will trade us Oliver and Turner,’ " Dombrowski told MLB.com. "Well, we aren’t. I’m not meaning to say that anyone is untouchable. I’m not going to give away blue-chip young players for a guy for two months. It just doesn’t make sense. Will we be active in talking to people? Yes. If there is a deal that we think can be made that can help us, will we? Yes. Are we going to mortgage our future? No."

Detroit lost right fielder Magglio Ordonez (broken ankle) and second baseman Carlos Guillen (calf strain) on Saturday and third baseman Brandon Inge (broken hand) earlier in the week. The team also is without reliever Joel Zumaya (broken elbow). The Tigers are third in the AL Central, 2 1/2 games behind the White Sox pending the second game of Detroit’s doubleheader with Toronto.

Rumors surfaced Sunday that the Tigers are looking at Nationals first baseman Adam Dunn, while reports Saturday said Detroit may have interest in Red Sox infielder Mike Lowell as a fill-in for Inge.

The Diamondbacks have traded right-hander Dan Haren to the Los Angeles Angels for left-hander Joe Saunders, two minor league pitchers and a player to be named.

The trade was announced today during Arizona’s game against the Giants at Chase Field.

Right-hander Rafael Rodriguez and left-hander Patrick Corbin are the minor leaguers headed to Arizona along with Saunders. The Arizona Republic reports 19-year-old minor league left-hander Tyler Skaggs, an Angels supplemental-round choice last year, is the PTBN. Skaggs cannot officially be dealt until he has been in pro ball for a year. He signed last Aug. 7.

Dan Haren returns to the AL West with Sunday’s trade to the Angels.

Haren was one of the top available pitchers ahead of the July 31 nonwaiver deadline. L.A. was not considered one of the favorites to land him — the Yankees and the Phillies were — but it met one of Arizona’s reported conditions by providing a major league starter in return.

Angels general manager Tony Reagins told reporters Haren is "a top-of-the-rotation guy that’s going to help us not just this year but years down the road. … The addition of Dan gives us five guys that are really talented." Reagins spoke with reporters in Arlington, Texas, where the Angels were wrapping up a series against the AL West-leading Rangers. A loss Sunday night put L.A. seven games behind Texas in the division race. 

Angels manager Mike Scioscia echoed Reagins’ statements about the long-term aspect of the deal, and he noted that Haren knows about pitching in pennant races. He made seven postseason appearances with the Cardinals (2004) and A’s (2006).

"He’s definitely a guy who has pitched in big games. He has terrific stuff and he’s a young veteran," Scioscia said. "This guy still has his stuff and it gives us a deeper front end of our rotation and that’s what every championship-caliber team is really striving to do."

Los Angeles’ acquisition of Haren helps counter the Rangers’ recent pickup of left-hander Cliff Lee, and it’s the second move in four days for the Halos. They acquired third baseman Alberto Callaspo from the Royals on Thursday.

And, Reagins said he isn’t done trying to add pieces. "There are still opportunities out there. We’re not done trying to improve our club," he said. FOXSports.com reported Sunday night the Angels may be looking at Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee and Pirates first baseman/outfielder Garrett Jones.

Haren, 29, is 7-8 with a 4.60 ERA in 21 starts this season. He leads the National League with 141 strikeouts. Saunders, 29, is 6-10 with a 4.62 ERA in 20 starts. Rodriguez appeared in one game for the Angels this season. Corbin was pitching for advanced Class A Rancho Cucamonga in the California League.

Haren is signed through 2012, at $12.75 million per year, and his contract also includes a $15.5 million club option for 2013 ($3.5 million buyout). He is making $8.25 million this year.

Arizona gets back an established starter, Joe Saunders, for Haren.

Saunders will be under the D-backs’ control through 2012. He is earning $3.7 million in 2010 and will be eligible for arbitration in the offseason.

"(Saunders) brings an element to our club that I think we need," Arizona interim GM Jerry DiPoto told reporters. "The prospects in the deal bring us talent that we need to build with. Therefore, I felt that this deal checked a lot of boxes for the Arizona Diamondbacks."

Saunders took a positive approach to leaving a contender for a team that’s on the road to rebuilding.

"I’ve been in trade talks in the offseason and stuff like that but you never really think it’s going to happen," said Saunders, who lives in Arizona. "They obviously think highly of me, so it will be a new challenge."

Haren, a Southern California native, had said he’d prefer to remain on the West Coast if the D-backs were to trade him.

"This point in my career, being on the West Coast has a lot of value for me," Haren told reporters after learning of the trade. "Being near family and going to a ballclub that’s dedicated to winning not just this year but for a lot of years, I’m very excited for the opportunity."

Haren also returns to the AL West; he pitched three seasons with Oakland (2005-07) before being traded to Arizona in December of  ’07.

Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.

MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan reports the Rangers are making a push to acquire Marlins infielder Jorge Cantu or Orioles infielder Ty Wigginton before the trading deadline to bolster their bench.

Cantu and Wigginton are both right-handed hitters with power who can play multiple positions. Sullivan reports Texas is looking for someone to primarily back up first baseman Chris Davis, a left-handed hitter, Sullivan reports.

A source tells ESPNBoston.com the Tigers are a suitor for Red Sox infieleder Mike Lowell. Detroit may be looking to Lowell as a short-term replacement for injured third baseman Brandon Inge.

"Tigers are interested" in acquiring Lowell in a trade, the unnamed source told the website. "Not sure how serious the interest since Inge’s injury is not as severe as they thought."

CBSSports.com reports the Tigers have "some" interest in Lowell.

Inge is on the disabled list with a broken hand suffered Tuesday. Lowell is on the DL with a hip injury. He was 4-for-4 with two RBIs Saturday in a rehab game for Triple-A Pawtucket.

Red Sox manager Terry Francona said he has gotten good reports on Lowell from Pawtucket manager Torey Lovullo.

"Torey said [Lowell] took a bunch of ground balls at third the other night, and actually looked really good," Francona said. "He moved around real well and threw real well."

Although the Diamondbacks say no team has the lead in the chase for Dan Haren, it’s clear they plan to move the right-hander, and soon. According to reports, Arizona wants to trade Haren before his next scheduled start, which would be Tuesday

The Yankees, Twins, Tigers, Phillies and Cardinals, who traded Haren to Oakland in 2004 for Mark Mulder, appear to be the teams with the most interest.

According to SI.com, the Yankees rejected a request from the D-backs to include right-hander Joba Chamberlain. Arizona also reportedly asked the Tigers for young pitchers Andy Oliver and Jacob Turner.

The Cardinals and Phillies seem, for the moment, more focused on acquiring Astros right-hander Roy Oswalt, although there was little movement on that front Saturday. AOL FanHouse’s Ed Price reported scouts from both teams, as well as from the Yankees and Dodgers, were in Houston on Saturday to watch Oswalt’s start against the Reds. Oswalt allowed six runs in five innings and took the loss in a 7-0 Astros defeat.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the Astros rejected a proposal from the Cards earlier this week that would have sent Brendan Ryan and one other player to Houston.

Astros owner Drayton McLane told MLB.com’s Brian McTaggert on Saturday, "Nothing’s imminent right now. We’re having a lot of discussions."

What to expect in the major leagues today:

Something has to give

The second half hasn’t been kind to the Mets and Dodgers, both of whom continue to see their respective division deficits climb. But there has to be a winner when the teams go head to head in the third game of their four-game set tonight at Dodger Stadium. The game will be especially critical for the Mets, as righthander Mike Pelfrey will attempt to bounce back from his nightmare outing Monday. Pelfrey allowed six earned runs in 1 1/3 innings against Arizona, throwing a whopping 74 pitches in the process. Since improving to 10-2 with a 2.71 ERA on June 25, Pelfrey is 0-3 with a 12.88 ERA.

A possible farewell

Righthander Roy Oswalt, the center of plenty of trade speculation, will make perhaps his final start for the Astros this evening at Minute Maid Park. And it could be memorable for another reason: Oswalt needs one win to tie Joe Niekro for the franchise’s all-time lead at 144. That win won’t come easy against the high-scoring Reds, who beat Oswalt in April. In that outing, Oswalt surrendered only three earned runs in seven innings while striking out seven. The big blow was Joey Votto’s two-run, two-out homer off Oswalt in the seventh inning.

Latos intolerant?

The "no pepper" rule definitely will be in effect at PNC Park tonight when Padres righthander Mat Latos takes the mound. Latos will be making his first start since coming off the disabled list with a sore side; he suffered the injury when he stifled a sneeze. The 10-game winner certainly has a favorable matchup in his return, as the Pirates rank near the bottom of the majors in runs scored, batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage. Latos leads all major league starters with a .193 batting average allowed.

Andre Dawson is the only player who will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame this weekend and will join 202 players who came before him with a bust in Cooperstown.

Dawson certainly deserves to be in the Hall of Fame based on the current criteria. In fact, if you compare his numbers to those already in the Hall, it’s a wonder it took the voters this long to get him in. But there’s just something about 203 players in the Hall of Fame – 292 members if you include managers, umpires, owners and other contributors – that seems a bit over-inflated. Can we compare everyone in baseball to Babe Ruth? Of course not, and I wouldn’t expect you to read something that in any way tries to make that argument. Certainly a player can be great without being the greatest.

The problem, of course, is that the run of inductees will never stop. There are 292 members now, and that number will certainly break 300 in the next two or three years. By the time our kids are bringing their kids to Cooperstown, we could be celebrating 500 people in the Hall of Fame.

Again, the point of this is not to suggest that the current 292 or the theoretical 500 won’t be worthy of honors and won’t be part of the very best in the history of the sport. But how many becomes too many to be considered historically "great"?

Baseball isn’t the only offender of the idea of opening up Hall of Fame doors for something less than the greatest of the great. The Hockey Hall of Fame boasts 244 players, 98 builders and 15 referees and linesmen. The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame has 290 members, which includes men and women’s players and all the Harlem Globetrotters. The Pro Football Hall of Fame has 260 members. That’s nearly 1,100 Hall of Famers in the four major sports, and that’s not including niche-specific halls like the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame – which introduced its 2010 class this week – the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame or any of the college halls of fame.

We sure do like to celebrate our athletes.

But maybe that’s the point of the Hall of Fame. It’s not, actually, the The Hall of Great. It’s the Hall of Fame, which means the criteria for induction could be nothing more than being the best at getting noticed. Heck, Chad Ochocinco may not have the numbers to be considered an all-time great wide receiver, but nobody can deny he’s made himself one of the most "famous" personalities of his generation. Keep in mind that Dick Vitale is in the Basketball Hall of Fame, after all. It’s semantics, perhaps, but it’s still worth noting that greatness is not necessarily a prerequisite for induction into a museum that celebrates "fame."

That sure felt like 450 words of complaining, didn’t it? How then, to turn this into something more than just writing a column to steal Andre Dawson’s thunder on a weekend when he absolutely deserves to be celebrated?

I can answer that with this: I worked in an athletic department for a major college for 10 years, and there were some years that way too many people got into the Hall of Fame. It was ridiculous, and started to marginalize the award for people who actually deserved to be in there. So, about seven or eight years ago, I suggested we create a universal roundtable for the elite Hall of Famers. If there are 292 people in the Hall of Fame, reboot the sucker and pick the 10 best and give them their own room. If someone comes along and deserves to be sitting at that table, they can be added to the room. Then, continue voting in those who deserve to be in the regular Hall of Fame under the current criteria, knowing that the absolute elite won’t get lost in the growth.

Of course, the politics at a college never allowed this idea to happen – mostly centered around the potential slight to those HOFers who may be willing to donate back to the department – but it could work for the professional sports.

Then again, when I suggested this idea to some friends in the industry it was met with "that’s a terrible idea" and "the Hall of Fame is fine how it is" and "didn’t Bill Simmons suggest this a few years ago?" Those points may all be true; it may be nothing more than a terrible idea that’s a re-tread of what’s already been written. Or, maybe you’ll remember the idea in 50 years when you take your grandkids to the Hall of Fame for the first time and have to walk past 498 other plaques to get from Hank Aaron to Ted Williams. (Note: I anticipate that in 50 years all old people will get around in some sort of space-age hover chair, but that’s a totally different column. The point is still germane.)

The greats deserved to be honored – and Dawson deserves his day – but we need to make sure it’s not eventually at the expense of the elite.

You can read/listen to more from Dan Levy at OntheDLpodcast.com and follow him on Twitter @onthedlpodcast

The Cardinals have the flexibility to add a front-line player such as Roy Oswalt, Cardinals president Bill DeWitt told Sporting News.

"I’m not getting into specifics, but I’ve said all along that we have flexibility," DeWitt said.

But he added, "just on that (Oswalt) subject, that’s highly speculative. There’s nothing imminent there at all. I’m not saying we wouldn’t. I don’t know how that word is floating around."

Taking on the remainder of Oswalt’s salary would require considerable flexibility. He is owed what is left of his $15 million salary this season plus $16 million in 2011. And he has a $16 million option for 2012 that he reportedly wants picked up if he accepts a trade. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, however, Oswalt has indicated he might defer the option if traded to the Cardinals.

The Cardinals already are on the hook for several hefty salaries in 2012, including Matt Holliday at $17 million and Kyle Lohse at $11.875 million. They hold a $15 million option on Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright at $9 million (plus more with possible incentives).

Then, of course, there’s Albert Pujols. He will be a free agent after 2011 and figures to command close to $30 million a season.

If the Cardinals were to keep all four of those starting pitchers plus Holliday and Pujols in 2012, they would be paying more than $95 million for six players. The club has said it wants to maintain a payroll of $100 million.

Another consideration is whom the Cardinals would send the Astros. Houston is looking for a first baseman and starting pitcher who can play in the majors. The Cardinals lack proven first basemen behind Pujols, but they do have a top young pitcher in Jaime Garcia. Including him in an Oswalt deal, however, would not make sense because Garcia is 9-4 with a 2.21 ERA and remains under club control for five more years.

Stan McNeal is a writer for Sporting News. E-mail him at smcneal@sportingnews.com.

Stan McNeal analyzes three hot topics in Major League Baseball: 

Jaime Garcia is a leading candidate to win NL Rookie of the Year.

STRIKE 1: Garcia is the top rookie starter
If you haven’t been paying attention to Cardinals lefthander Jaime Garcia, it’s time to. For a number of reasons, including:

• If the NL rookie of the year vote were today, Garcia would be the deserved winner. He is 9-4 with a 2.21 ERA and a .234 batting average allowed — all easily the best of any rookie who has been up all season (and better than one who arrived later; Washington’s Stephen Strasburg is 5-2/2.32/.216).

• You might be able to do what scouts haven’t so far and identify exactly what type of pitcher he is. Garcia isn’t a soft-tossing lefty, but he isn’t a 95-mph fastball guy. "He’s a pitcher," said one scout who watched Garcia beat the Phillies with a seven-inning, one-run performance Wednesday night. "He’s got a good curve — not an (Adam) Wainwright curve but a good curve. Good fastball, and good changeup. I’ve seen him since high school and he’s always had the feel for pitching."

Garcia on his repertoire: "I started throwing a slider last year and I’ve worked a lot on my changeup. I’ve always had curveball and fastball. Now my sinker, slider and changeup are better."

He hesitates to use the slider in crunch time but none of the others.

• Unless the Cardinals trade for Roy Oswalt — don’t hold your breath — Garcia likely will remain their third-best starter. Considering he had Tommy John surgery less than two years ago and pitched only 37 2/3 innings in the minor leagues in 2009, you have to wonder how well he will hold up in August, September and, who knows, October.

Garcia already has made 19 starts and worked 110 innings. The Cardinals have not said — publicly, anyway — what his max will be, but they will continue to closely monitor his workload. He has pitched seven innings in only five starts and topped 100 pitches in six starts.

Manager Tony La Russa said Garcia’s next start will be pushed back next week to allow him a sixth day of rest (which, because of an off day, would keep Wainwright on regular rest).

The scout says that Garcia has a smooth enough delivery to work 200 innings this season. Of course, the scout would not have to take the hit if Garcia injured his arm in inning No. 201.

Said La Russa: "You watch his arm come through and he’s not out there like (Greg) Maddux but he’s together, and (his delivery) is not that taxing."

As La Russa was talking on the field at Busch Stadium, Garcia ran past on his morning-after jog of four laps around the field in 90-degree heat. "He’s a worker," La Russa said.

One more reason to pay attention to him.

STRIKE 2: Jimenez suddenly looks human
Rockies righthander Ubaldo Jimenez has let his chance to make history fade away. In four of his past five starts, he has allowed at least four earned runs. His once-minuscule ERA is up to 2.38, fourth-best in the NL.

Why the downturn? It isn’t a loss of his fastball. Jimenez regularly was hitting 98 mph Monday at Florida.

Jimenez’s biggest problem is not a new one for him, either. He has had the tendency to get away from his fastball and become too dependent on his secondary stuff. He’ll fall behind in the count and instead of using the fastball, he’ll want "to try to trick somebody," says manager Jim Tracy."

Sure enough, against the Marlins, Jimenez tried to fool outfielder Mike Stanton with a changeup — but he didn’t. The resulting three-run homer ended Jimenez’s night after 5 1/3 innings, his shortest start of the season.

Jimenez’s secondary pitches are so good that he can’t be blamed for wanting to throw them. He admits that having so many pitches — at least six that he’ll use most games — "can be a bad thing because you don’t know which pitch to use."

Expect him to figure it out.

David Eckstein’s numbers aren’t great, but the Padres play better with him in the lineup.

STRIKE 3: Padres must continue without their leader
David Eckstein, the starting shortstop for two World Series champions, might have been the most underrated player of the past decade.

Or not.

His .349 career on-base percentage as a leadoff hitter, his limited range and his four-finger throwing style never have overwhelmed scouts or statheads. But these are the numbers to watch after the Padres’ second baseman went on the disabled list with a calf injury Wednesday: 4-16 and 37-25.

The former was the Padres’ record when Eckstein was on the disabled list last July. The latter: Their record after his return, which was just a half-game off the Rockies’ league-best record during the stretch.

BONUS PITCH: Wishful thinking?
Tonight is Adrian Gonzalez bobblehead night at Class AAA Portland. That’s Portland, Maine, the home of the Red Sox’s Class AA affiliate and not Portland, Ore., home of the Padres’ Class AAA club. Perhaps the Sea Dogs were being optimistic in thinking that Gonzalez would be on the Red Sox by now? Not really. Gonzalez enjoyed a strong season in 2002 when he and the Sea Dogs were part of the Marlins’ organization.

Stan McNeal is a writer for Sporting News. E-mail him at smcneal@sportingnews.com.

Sporting News Audio is a weekly series of conversations with Sporting News experts during the MLB season. In this installment, Chris Bahr discusses different possible trade scenarios as we approach the MLB non-waiver trade deadline.