by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

Less than two weeks for the July 31 trade deadline, and there are a bunch of big name players that could be traded, like pitchers Cole Hamels(Phillies) and Johnny Cueto(Reds) those two of the most mentioned names available for the right deal. Philadelphia is where the teams can go shopping these next eleven days.

For the Oakland Athletics it looks like they will be sellers, and the two main names on tap are lefthanded pitcher Scott Kazmir and versatile player Ben Zobrist, those are the two proven players most marketable, that the A’s could send them packing for the right players in return, however nobody really knows what Billy Beane will do. In this same division the Los Angeles Angels will be looking for a left handed bat, outfielder, since the Matt Joyce acquisition during the off season from Tampa Bay did not bring the results they were expecting, that would be the main target for Mike Scioscia’s team who survived lots of turmoil during the first half, Josh Hamilton, now back with Texas and the departure of General Manager Jerry DiPoto. The Angels have also put their eyes on Jay Bruce and even Brandon Phillips, although Phillips could be very expensive.

The Texas Rangers are also looking at starting pitching and they could be in the hunt for a guy like Cole Hamels, the Seattle Mariners, who have played better lately, are stuck in a situation of winning now, and I do not expect them to make any big deals. The Houston Astros are very much in this picture for a playoff this season especially since they do have the very good young players than the other teams in this division (since they were not expecting to really compete this season) will they be willing to part ways with some of their young talent in return for a quick “fixer-upper” or are they going to stay with their original plan, that of winning in 2016.

For the San Francisco Giants another arm in the bullpen is not a bad thing at this time, and for them the race takes a different path, since it is looking more and more than in the NL western division only one team will advance(the one that wins the division)and aside from the Dodgers and the Giants the rest there are playing for 2016. But I believe the Dodgers are going to bring another starter to go with the best one-two of Kershaw and Greinke. The Dodgers are set with hitting, they lead the NL in home runs and their lineup, specially with the breakout year for Grandal is set up for the remainder of the season. Jonathan Papelbon is an interesting name that somebody will pick up as veteran bullpen help.

But there are always big surprises this time of the year, hold on, things could get very interesting. The A’s always keep trading, that is never a surprise, for the Giants to win again a World Series this year, that would be a surprise, after all they only win it every two years.

Happy trading!

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for the A’s and the Spanish radio voice for Angels TV and does News and Commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

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