I will analyze trades and rumored trades going down today, updating as news breaks. Latest news will be on top.

Red Sox acquire Eric Gagne from the Rangers for Kason Gabbard and minor leaguers David Murphy and Engel Beltre
I’m a big Kason Gabbard fan, so I think that the Rangers come out the winners in this one, especially given their desperate need for major-league-ready starting pitching. The Sox did avoid giving up any of their A-list prospects and moving Gabbard is helpful in the short term to clear room in the rotation for Schilling’s impending return, but they had to renegotiate Gagne’s contract to get him to waive his no trade clause, bumping up the price tag by several million, and they have consistently under-estimated Gabbard’s potential. If Gabbard ends up being a decent major league starter, the Sox may well regret giving him up for just two months and ~20 innings of Gagne.

Astros dump Morgan Ensberg on the Padres for a player to be named
The Padres continue their endless quest for a third baseman, which has been going on for more than two years now. No word yet on which minor leaguer the Astros are getting but it was probably nobody special since the Astros had designated Ensberg for assignment and had to trade him.

Padres get Rob Mackowiak from the White Sox for a player to be named
The Padres continue their search for answers in the outfield. Mackowiak is an even better option that yesterday’s acquisition, Scott Hairston, for the 4th outfielder role, so Hairston is probably headed to the minors. The White Sox are clearly sellers this year, so anything they can get for their impending free agents is a plus.

Braves get Octavio Dotel from the Royals Kyle Davies
This deal has been agreed to by both sides, but the Braves have to wait until the Teixera deal is finalized because Davies could potentially become the alternate player if the Rangers reject Matt Harrison for health reasons. This deal makes sense for both teams - the Braves have soured on Davies but the Royals would get a live arm to upgrade their ever-beleaguered rotation. There is speculation that Moore could have gotten a bit more for Dotel than Davies, but that his familiarity with Davies from his days in the Braves organization and his gut-feeling that Davies can be a star swung things in favor of the Braves.

Dodgers deal Wilson Betemit to the Yankees for Scott Proctor
At first glance this seems like a good deal for the Dodgers. Betemit had lost his starting job and had nowhere to play, and the Dodgers bullpen has been devastated by injuries and having to move Chad Billingsley, Mark Hendrickson, and Brett Tomko into the rotation to replace injured starters. However, Betemit’s low batting average of .231 conceals the fact that he has an extremely respectable OPS of .834, and by all rights should be starting at 3B over Nomar Garciaparra, who has a pathetic OPS of .690. Betemit’s OBP is .359; Nomar’s is .330. Betemit’s SLG is .474; Nomar’s is .360. Betemit has 10 home runs in 156 at-bats; Nomar has 4 home runs in 358 at bats. Meanwhile Scott Proctor has been one of the most abused pitchers in baseball since the beginning of 2006, and his peripherals are way down across the board since last year. So basically, this is a great deal for the Yankees. Betemit is a huge upgrade over Miguel Cairo as a utility infielder, and offers insurance at 3B should A-Rod opt out of his contract. Given a full year as a starter, Betemit should be able to hit 30 homers with a decent OBP.

Red Sox ship Joel Piniero to the Cardinals for a player to be named
This deal makes sense for both teams. The let’s-convert-piniero-to-a-bullpen-ace plan had been a complete bust for the Red Sox this season, so much so that they had busted Piniero down to the minors July 25. But for the Cardinals, Piniero immediately becomes something like their third best starting pitcher, so giving up a player-to-be-named seems like a pretty cheap price for a team with no starting pitching to speak of to gamble on Dave Duncan’s ability to help a player that is only 28 years old and has already started 148 big league games.

Let’s play everybody’s favorite game, Analyze That Trade!

This spring, the Braves traded 3B Wilson Betemit to the Dodgers for utility man Willie Aybar. A week ago, Aybar vanished and his agent has since admitted that Aybar is coping with drug addiction.

So that means the Dodgers got the best of the trade, right? Not exactly. So far this season Betemit has hit .133 with no home runs and six RBI. In other words, the Dodgers wish he would dissapear.

I’d say the trade has been a wash. Betemit has been so bad that the Dodgers are thinking about benching him. The problem is, they don’t have anybody who can play third.

From the L.A. Times:

Betemit’s struggles have the Dodgers considering options at third base — and there aren’t many.

They don’t think prospect Andy LaRoche is ready for the major leagues. LaRoche had a poor spring training offensively and defensively, and is batting .243 at triple A.

They are reluctant to move Nomar Garciaparra from first to third and plug prospect James Loney in at first because of the injury risk to Garciaparra, who has a history of leg and oblique problems. Third base requires more flexibility than first because of the increased throwing demands, and the stakes are high because Garciaparra is so valuable offensively.

An option the Dodgers have discussed is using backup catcher Mike Lieberthal at third base on occasion. Lieberthal, in his 14th season, is a .274 hitter with 150 home runs over his career, yet has only nine at-bats this season.

Playing Lieberthal at third base would be the most desperate move a team has made since Kevin Kennedy let Jose Canseco pitch the eighth inning. Lieberthal hasn’t played third since…well…not recently. He was a shortstop in high school, but that was a long, loooooooong time ago.

And the Dodgers can’t play Nomar at third because he might hurt himself. Moreover, if the Dodgers send Betemit to the minors for more seasoning, they would have to first place him on waivers and risk losing him to another team. Which, frankly, might not be the end of the world. But then they still wouldn’t have a third baseman.

Word on the street is the Dodgers just traded reliever Danys Baez and infielder Willy Aybar for Atlanta Braves backup 3B Wilson Betemit. I’m not seeing this on the newswires yet, so if your reading this soon after I post you’re almost certainly seeing it here first.

To me this trade is a wash at best at third base for the Dodgers, and a definite subtraction when you count the loss of Baez in the bullpen - a very usable part at a time when set-up men are commanding a premium. Aybar and Betemit are essentially the same player - you give up a bit of Aybar’s OBP to get a bit more power with Betemit - except that Aybar is two years younger and OBP is slightly more important (and harder to teach) than SLG.

So even if it were Aybar for Betemit alone I would be a bit unhappy as a Dodgers fan. Now when you give away Baez as well, it becomes a downright foolish trade, because you have to imagine that Baez could have gotten somebody pretty useful if he were traded on his own (considering how the Nats got Kearns and Lopez for two similar setup types).

I am quickly souring on on Ned Colletti as a general manager. He seems way too enamored of the “big names” as evidenced by the ridiculous contract he gave to Furcal and the decision to sign career downsiders Bill Mueller and Kenny Lofton when the Dodgers were rich with big-time prospects at those positions (Nomar was a big name that could have gone bust as well, but that gamble happened to work out so far). And for the past several weeks, he has insisted on playing “experienced veteran” Cesar Izturis (.601 OPS) at third base over Aybar (.770 OPS) or coveted triple-A stud Andy LaRoche.

Finally, at a time when the Dodgers should clearly be cashing in walk-year veterans to load up on young talent (They are 7 games out of both the wild card and the division), Colletti is insisting that the Dodgers are still in it and that he is going to instead do the opposite and trade away young talent for veterans.

Colletti is continuing the longstanding pattern that has led to the Dodgers only winning 1 playoff game since 1988 - no vision, no planning for the future, and constantly trading away valuable young prospects only to watch them bloom elsewhere while creaky veterans “help” the Dodgers limp to 85 wins each year.

As an aside, as I write this, Vin Scully has the call for the 1-for-their-last-14 Dodgers against the Nationals: “There’s a single driven up the middle, Martin goes to third, and the Dodgers are on the attack!” Pause. “Gosh, when is the last time I said those words?”