{"id":7974,"date":"2010-07-29T13:45:26","date_gmt":"2010-07-29T20:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=7974"},"modified":"2010-07-29T13:45:27","modified_gmt":"2010-07-29T20:45:27","slug":"luke-warm-july-29-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=7974","title":{"rendered":"Luke Warm: July 29, 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Landestoy Luke<\/p><\/div>\n

By Landestoy Luke<\/p>\n

Luker\u2019s just going to throw some random things out there today. No real format, free flowing\u2026just how the L-man likes to roll.<\/p>\n

James Loney\u00a0isn\u2019t the answer for the Dodgers at 1B. He\u2019s going to start getting expensive and his 2007 season where he OPSed\u00a0\u00a0.919 is looking like an aberration. Middling power with average on-base skills and overrated defense all adds up to someone the Dodgers should trade while there is still the perception that he has value.<\/p>\n

The Brewers have talked of trading\u00a0Prince Fielder. He\u2019s going to be a free agent soon and will be in a position to demand a contract similar to what\u00a0Mark Teixeira\u00a0got from the Yankees (8 years, $180 mil).\u00a0Milwaukee\u00a0can\u2019t match that kind of contract, nor should they. Big players generally don\u2019t age very well. In fact, they flat out just fall off cliffs later in their careers and Prince isn\u2019t exactly the picture of fitness. He can go on all the diets he wants, but his body type is still his body type. He may be fine for the first couple seasons of the deal, but after that, the Brewers won\u2019t be getting their money\u2019s worth. They can move him and make the team better at a number of different positions.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s probably time for Angel fans to give up on any hope that\u00a0Howie Kendrick\u00a0is ever going to be something more than an average player. For all the talk about what a great swing he has, he\u2019s been nothing more than your run-of-the-mill filler at 2B. He\u2019s going to start getting expensive, and in that regard, he\u2019s the Angel version of Loney.\u00a0The Angels\u00a0could look into trading him, but given the lack of viable alternatives at 2B, they\u2019re more likely to hold onto him past his expiration date.<\/p>\n

The good news for Yankee fans is they\u2019re most likely going to make the playoffs. Bad news is, the Yankees are hurting depth wise. With\u00a0Andy Pettite\u00a0and\u00a0AJ Burnett\u00a0hurt and\u00a0Phil Hughes\u00a0and\u00a0Javier Vazquez\u00a0struggling, the rotation has a lot of question marks after CC Sabathia. The bullpen, outside of\u00a0Mariano Rivera, is a mess. They\u2019ve talked with other teams about relief help, but the asking price always starts with prized catching prospect\u00a0Jesus Montero\u00a0and the Yankees won\u2019t deal him.\u00a0Derek Jeter\u2019s poor year has been masked by\u00a0Robinson Cano\u2019s breakout, but the lineup doesn\u2019t have anyone readily available to step in should someone get hurt.<\/p>\n

Finally,\u00a0Stephen Strasburg\u2019s injury may be a blessing in disguise. He\u2019s thrown more pitches this season than in any other season in his career and with the Nationals out of contention for anything, it might be best for him to just sit. Yeah yeah\u2026old schoolers will think he\u2019s being pansied, but old schoolers don\u2019t have millions of dollars and the future of a franchise invested in this kid. Climb back into your moth balls and keep your mouths shut while the people still gainfully employed make real decisions.<\/p>\n

Landestoy Luke is a former semi-pro baseball player in the California-Nevada Independent League. Luke had a bit part on the television show \u201cSmall Wonder\u201d, portraying \u201cBaseball Player #3\u201d. After spending some time as an advance scout in the Mexicali League, Luke now spends his time as a freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Landestoy Luke Luker\u2019s just going to throw some random things out there today. No real format, free flowing\u2026just how the L-man likes to roll.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7974"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7976,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7974\/revisions\/7976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}