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We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not quite halfway through the season, but teams are already taking stock of how 2010 is shaping up for them.<\/p>\nWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not quite halfway through the season, but teams are already taking stock of how 2010 is shaping up for them.<\/p>\n
Some teams are on the right course for a playoff place, many others can paint scenarios that will see them breaking into the October club, while several teams already have one eye on 2011.<\/p>\n
Whichever group a team is in, they will be looking at their roster of players, looking at the other twenty-nine teams and giving serious thought to making a deal or two.\u00c2\u00a0 The initial trade deadline is six weeks away and a lot can happen in that period.\u00c2\u00a0 A good or bad run of form can turn a team from being a buyer to a seller and back again, while the ever-present shadow of injuries can force a team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hand into going out and replacing a key player.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Acquiring a new starting pitcher in particular can make all the difference, either by acquiring an ace, such as the Phillies did with Cliff Lee last year, or getting a guy off the scrap heap as the Dodgers did with Vicente Padilla.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
You can never be certain how a deal is going to work out.\u00c2\u00a0 Jarrod Washburn went 8-6 with a 2.64 ERA for the Mariners during the first four months of the 2009 season and was much sought after on trade deadline day.\u00c2\u00a0 Detroit won the battle to acquire Washburn, but he was hampered by a knee injury and ended with a 7.33 ERA in his eight starts with his new team and is now a free agent and contemplating retirement<\/a>.<\/p>\n Still, that uncertainty is part of the fun as a fan (not so much for the General Managers).\u00c2\u00a0 Here are a few starting pitchers that could be joining contenders over the next six weeks.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n Cliff Lee<\/strong> didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make his season debut for the Mariners until 30 April, but he has been as excellent as expected in his ten starts.\u00c2\u00a0 He has gone at least 7 innings in all but one start and has thrown two complete games in his last three outings.\u00c2\u00a0 Seattle traded for him over the offseason in the hope that he would help them into the playoffs.\u00c2\u00a0 Those hopes don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t look like being realised so the Mariners are likely to shop him and, despite Lee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impending free agency, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be able to drive a hard bargain because Lee showed last season what sort of impact he can have on a team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s playoff chances.\u00c2\u00a0 He was simply outstanding for the Phillies down the stretch and in the playoffs and the contending team that adds him to their roster is likely to become the favourite to win their division.<\/p>\n Dan Haren<\/strong> isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t definitely available, but the Diamondbacks appear to be willing to listen to offers for pretty much everyone bar Justin Upton.\u00c2\u00a0 This hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been a vintage Haren season so far and historically he has tailed off in the second half (3.30 ERA in the first half, 4.21 in the second), but maybe this is the year that his season works the other way around.\u00c2\u00a0 Haren is under contract until 2012 (with a club option for 2013), which decreases the D-Backs\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 need to deal him unless they get a good offer, although he would be an\u00c2\u00a0excellent option for a team looking to add a quality pitcher for more than just the next few months.<\/p>\n Roy Oswalt<\/strong> has declared publicly that he is open to being traded, tired of the constant losing in Houston and lack of any semblance of a plan to change the team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fortunes.\u00c2\u00a0 Oswalt has pitched well for the Astros this season, while receiving an average of just 2.92 runs in support of his efforts, and would be a strong addition for a contender.\u00c2\u00a0 The stumbling block for any trade is that he is being paid $15m this year and is owed $16m next year, with a $2m buyout for 2012 (or a $16m option, although there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no way that is being picked up).\u00c2\u00a0 That could be a crucial factor because the team most closely linked to a potential trade, and who have publicly acknowledged<\/a> their interest recently, are the Texas Rangers.\u00c2\u00a0 The Astros\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Lonestar State rivals are going through a contracted and complicated ownership change, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcanother fine mess\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 by Tom Hicks, and their ability to take on Oswalt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s contract may be determined by whether the proposed new ownership group are in charge by the trade deadline.<\/p>\n Ben Sheets<\/strong> is included on my list as the Oakland A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s signing of Big Ben over the offseason was always likely to end in him being traded to a contender midway through the year.\u00c2\u00a0 The plan was for Sheets to settle into the season, having missed all of 2009 through injury, and then start showing his \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcace type\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 stuff before being traded for a prospect or two.\u00c2\u00a0 Unfortunately, if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still got that \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcace type\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 stuff then he is doing a good job of hiding it.\u00c2\u00a0 His nadir came in back-to-back starts at the end of April and beginning of May when he was marmalized by the Rays and Blue Jays for seventeen runs over 7.1 innings.\u00c2\u00a0 Apart from three eight-strikeout performances, he hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t looked too inspiring since then either and he sports a 4.95 ERA following his loss to the Cardinals on Saturday.\u00c2\u00a0 There have been some signs of a turnaround here and there, snapping off his knee-buckling curve for strikes in some starts, and Oakland\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hope now will be that he can find 4 or 5 good starts in a row from somewhere and a team thinks it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth seeing if they can catch lightning in a bottle.<\/p>\n The Baltimore Orioles traded for Kevin Millwood<\/strong> over the offseason to add an experienced innings-eater to their cast of young starters.\u00c2\u00a0 As with most of their plans this season, this move hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite had the desired effect.\u00c2\u00a0 Millwood had done a decent job over the first two months, despite being lumbered with an 0-5 record; however, things have gone downhill rapidly in June.\u00c2\u00a0 Even after gaining his first win of the season against the Padres on Saturday, Millwood has been hit for 23 runs in his four starts so far this month, pushing his ERA from 3.89 to 5.12.\u00c2\u00a0 Two of those games came against the Yankees and one against the Mets, so he wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t getting punted around by also-rans.\u00c2\u00a0 While no one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first choice, a quick return to pre-June form will make him a good option for some teams as the Orioles have no pressing need to keep hold of him.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Pedro Martinez<\/strong> is the wild card out there on the market.\u00c2\u00a0 He is working out in the Dominican Republic and his agent recently confirmed that he is looking to land with a contender in the second half of the season.\u00c2\u00a0 That plan worked out well for Pedro and the Phillies last year and there are sure to be teams who are confident that he can repeat the trick for them in 2010.\u00c2\u00a0 A return engagement with the Phillies would make sense, although General Manager Ruben Amaro Jr. is playing down those rumours (which doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not going to happen, of course).\u00c2\u00a0 Whether he returns to a former team (the Dodgers would be a great story) or dons a new uniform, the odds are good that Pedro will be back on a Major League mound this season and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always a sight worth seeing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not quite halfway through the season, but teams are already taking stock of how 2010 is shaping up for them. Here’s a selection of starting pitchers who could be moving teams over the next six weeks. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,4],"tags":[136,104,223,123,553,128,222,99,127,126],"class_list":["post-8328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-hit-ground-ball","category-mlb-2","tag-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-cliff-lee","tag-houston-astros","tag-mlb-2","tag-oakland-as","tag-pedro-martinez","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-seattle-mariners","tag-texas-rangers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8328"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8348,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8328\/revisions\/8348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}