The MLB newswires will be dominated by trade talk this week as the 31 July non-waiver trade deadline looms large for those teams looking to strengthen their roster for a playoff push. The sheer scale of rumours, more intense these days than ever before due to the blogs and Twitter feeds reporting furiously on every whisper, can almost overshadow the events on the field. Almost, but not quite, and any deals taking place this week can have a bearing on the line-ups that we will see.
There are eleven ‘early’ MLB games this working week starting before midnight UK time and we’ve already seen a major pre-deadline trade having an effect on the schedule. The Angels’ Joe Saunders was on course to face Josh Beckett and the Red Sox on Wednesday before being traded to the Diamondbacks late yesterday as part of a package for Dan Haren. The Angels have yet to decide when Haren will make his debut, although it’s possible that he will take Saunders’ spot. It should be a good game whoever is pitching, but a Haren debut would make it a little bit more special.
Elsewhere, Ubaldo Jimenez is scheduled to pitch on Thursday for the Rockies and he needs to bounce back from getting knocked around by the Phillies on Saturday, while David Price is set to take on the Tigers. Of course, the scheduled starters listed below could be affected by a trade or two over the coming days.
All times are in BST. Any updates will be included below, with notes in the comments box.
Monday 26 July
18.05. Colorado at Philadelphia (Jason Hammel – Joe Blanton)
Tuesday 27 July
No early games
Wednesday 28 July
19.05. Chicago Cubs at Houston (Randy Wells – Bud Norris)
19.10. Minnesota at Kansas City (Brian Duensing – Brian Bannister)
19.10. Cincinnati at Milwaukee (Travis Wood – Chris Narveson)
20.35. Boston at LA Angels (Josh Beckett – Joel Pineiro)
Thursday 29 July
17.10. St. Louis at NY Mets (Blake Hawksworth – R.A. Dickey)
17.10. Detroit at Tampa Bay (Rick Porcello – David Price)
17.35. Atlanta at Washington (Derek Lowe – Scott Olsen)
20.10. Pittsburgh at Colorado (Paul Maholm – Ubaldo Jimenez)
20.45. Florida at San Francisco (Anibal Sanchez – Madison Bumgarner)
23.35. LA Dodgers at San Diego (Vicente Padilla – Mat Latos)
Friday 30 July
No early games
All the above games can be followed via various resources on MLB.com (Gameday, At Bat with Gameday Audio and MLB.tv), while ESPN America’s MLB schedule can be found here. A complete schedule of MLB games can be found on MLB.com.
2 comments
It looks like Haren won’t pitch in the early game on Wednesday and instead he’ll jump straight into the Halos’ game tonight (Monday). Reports suggest Jered Weaver will keep on his normal schedule and start tomorrow, meaning Joel Pineiro, who was originally the scheduled starter in tonight’s game, will now pitch on Wednesday. Possibly!
In another update, Rick Porcello should start for the Tigers against David Price on Thursday.
Some of the probable pitchers have changed for Thursday’s games. Hawksworth and Dickey will meet at Citi Field, Scott Olsen will pitch against Atlanta and Mat Latos gets the start against the Dodgers. The main post had been edited to reflect these changes.