jim wrote:
I wonder just how much breaking news the breaking news thread will get. The line between buyer and seller used to be much clearer than today. When the format was different, if you were at .500 or struggling to get there you were a seller, pure and simple. But now? Heck .500 teams win divisions, and if you are a good winning streak away from .500 and in the correct geographic quadrant you probably are a buyer. Add to it the cost of established ballplayers and what prospects now mean to teams (some more than others) and it's an ingredient for some pretty blah trade deadline news.
I'm not sure this is completely accurate. I mean, in this year's trading season, we've seen last year's AL Cy Young winner traded (CC), one of the better pitchers in the AL traded (Harden), one of the better hitters in the NL traded (Tex), a future HOF'er traded (Pudge), and a couple rumored deals that have some pretty big names (Griffey, Bay, Manny, Hermida).
If anything, in the old, old days (pre-FA) you didn't have as much player movement, because you weren't worried as much about salary dumps and not being able to sign a pending FA. I don't remember the 80's being a huge marketplace each year either. Maybe I'm just not remembering correctly.
I read an article once that showed the decline of deadlines, although I can't recall where it was at. Maybe it's just the hype we get today. Frankly I find things that turn out to be 90% rumor incredibly mind numbing, so I pay just the bare amount of attention to it and watch the games.