Not the best game yesterday. Hank Blalock was scratched three days before the deadline, Michael Young broke a bone in his hand, and the team was resilient again but not quite resilient enough.
We have lots of trade speculation floating out there, just two days before the trade deadline. Richard Durrett says that Arizona, Tampa Bay and Detroit were among the teams with scouts at the game last night, though we must remember that Seattle is in the middle of the trade market themselves.
mlb.com decided that Michael Young and Ian Kinsler are who you want to ask about the club's plans for the deadline. Seriously, though, there are a couple of interesting quotes here, as Ron Washington appears typically out of the loop:
"I haven't paid much attention to it," Washington said. "Jon's said we're not in the same position we were a year ago. If something happens, they'll let me know."
...and pretty blunt on Gerald Laird's uncertain situation:
"I thought he handled himself well," Washington said. "He's in the lineup today. He'll be in there tomorrow. I guess we'll just have to see what happens up until the 31st."
To be honest, I much prefer Washington's approach here to what we used to see from Buck Showalter, who wanted to be intimately involved in these decisions.
Jennifer Floyd Engel has an interesting piece on Chris Davis and the change in plans he forced this summer. As she says, Davis playing lights out kept Texas from potentially making a pretty questionable move.
And Adam will be psyched to learn that Roy Williams is BACK, large and in charge this year.