Probably.

Cespedes is a career .262/.318/.464 hitter who is slashing .256/.303/.464 this year. SLG is his biggest asset, by far.

Beane knows you can only start 4 guys in the playoffs right? I think pitching is more important than having a loaded lineup come playoff time so I like the idea here. This does mean one of the group of Kazmir/Gray/Chavez won't be a playoff starter though.

HEY DETROIT

1, 2, KC's comin for you

3, 4 better lock your door

Lester/Samardzija/Kazmir/Gray will be their playoff rotation. Will pwn souls.

Also, I can't remember the last time a contender traded away their #3 hitter at the trade deadline. What an interesting move.
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This. Kershaw vs Lester game 1. Gotta watch

I wonder if he's thinking about having to face Kershaw and Greinke. Have to get there first.
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Also, Jon Heyman reports the asking price for Marlon Byrd is very high. They apparently gave the Mariners a list of three top prospects and told them to pick two.
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A's send Milone to Twinkies

I would've liked to have been in on Milone.

They'll run some sort of platoon of Gomes/Reddick/Vogt/Moss through LF and RF and get even better production, likely, than they were out of Cespedes.

Obv a move because he's sick of losing to Det in October.


A note on Lester: he was the other option for Myers. Conflicting info on whether Boston decided to end those talks or if we got Shields first. Lester ranks as the 8th best pitcher on that FG list showing Shields/Hamels a short distance back. But we don't know (a) if his injury at the time which slowed him down a bit in 2012 would flare up or (b) if he'd have enjoyed being in a small market like Shields did.

At any rate we could be dealing off Lester ourselves now and fans would be crying about how Myers is kicking ass in Boston sitting in an iced tub in the locker room, injured.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Deal between <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Athletics?src=hash">#Athletics</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Twins?src=hash">#Twins</a> is straight up. Milone for Fuld.</p>&mdash; Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/statuses/494861590966321153">July 31, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Fuld was dumped by the A's at the beginning of the season.

@Ken_Rosenthal: Sources: #Phillies talking to #Royals about A.J. Burnett. No indication that deal is close.

Got to get through Miguel Cabrera and Mike Trout first.