Funkerstation » on an injured rig

Call the cops. Call the FBI. Call the CIA. Tell them somebody kidnapped all the aces, because if youre trying to trade for one at this years trade deadline, hey, good luck.Over and over, we hear the same grumbling from one club official after another. If this isnt the worst deadline starting-pitching market ever, its definitely in the argument.If youre a team that desperately needs a starter, one NL executive said this week, its a tough year to try to find one who can make a difference.Oh, there are names out there, another NL exec said. I mean, you can call the White Sox about Chris Sale and they wouldnt hang up. You can call the Rays about Chris Archer. They wouldnt hang up. I just dont feel like theyre really as available as the kind of pitchers who were available in the past. Those guys in the past, they were getting moved. I dont see that this year.If Sale and Archer dont get traded this week, and with Drew Pomeranz already off the board, its likely that, if you check the major-league ERA leaders, NOBODY in the top 40 (among qualifying starters) will get dealt between now and the deadline. And the only qualifying starters with ERAs under 4.00 who are showing up in any legitimate rumors at the moment are Jeremy Hellickson (3.65), Ervin Santana (3.93) and Matt Shoemaker (3.99).Now compare that with the big-name starters who filled up the transactions column at previous deadlines:2015 - David Price, Cole Hamels, Johnny Cueto, Mike Leake, Scott Kazmir 2014 - Price, Jon Lester, Jake Peavy, John Lackey, Jeff Samardzija 2013 - Peavy, Matt Garza, Ian Kennedy 2012 - Zack Greinke, Ryan Dempster, Francisco Liriano 2011 - Ubaldo Jimenez, Doug Fister 2010 - Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, Dan Haren 2009 - Lee, Peavy 2008 - CC Sabathia, Rich HardenHeard of those guys? Great. Now lets put all those names in better perspective. Over the last eight deadlines, there were nine trades that involved former Cy Young Award winners. And the only year in that span that didnt include a deal involving at least one former Cy Young was 2011.But even 2011 featured the trade of Jimenez, a top-three Cy Young finisher the year before who was still a big-name guy at the time, one exec said. So to find the last deadline as bereft of impact starters as this one, youd have to journey all the way back to 2007, when Kyle Lohse, Matt Morris and Joel Pineiro were the only veteran starters who changed zip codes.At least this year there is more depth to the market, with Hellickson, Santana, Edinson Volquez, Rich Hill, Hector Santiago, Andrew Cashner, Ivan Nova and the Tampa Bay buffet line of Matt Moore, Jake Odorizzi and Drew Smyly all realistically available. But that still doesnt compare with the guys last year, an AL exec said.So how did it come to this? What forces have converged to produce this shaky a market? Lets take a look.1. A lousy free-agent classThe trade market, one of the execs quoted earlier said, is a direct reflection of the free-agent market. And this free-agent market isnt good.With Stephen Strasburg?signed through 2023 in Washington now, the best free-agent starters aged 32 or younger this winter are likely to be Hellickson, Nova, Cashner, Brett Anderson, Jon Niese and Clay Buchholz. All employable, but nobody youd confuse with Price, Greinke or Cueto.Hill, Volquez and possibly Kazmir (who has an opt-out) are attractive in the 33-and-up group. But the only current starters, at any age, who rank in the top 40 in ERA and are definitely heading for free agency are Fister and 43-year-old Bartolo Colon. So thats severely limiting the group of rent-a-pitchers you can trade for right now.If you look at past deadlines, how many guys were rentals? another exec wondered. Im betting its a lot.That would be correct. Of the five biggest deals involving starters last July, the only trade for a pitcher under control for multiple years was Texas deal for Hamels.2. Not enough sellersGet ready for that annual chorus of folks screaming that its time to move back the deadline, because too many teams find themselves in limbo in the last week of July. Its a tradition right up there with Mark Rzepczynski getting traded about 12 minutes before every deadline.There are still so many teams who are still in it, an AL exec said. With that second wild card, you have more teams than ever who think theyre still in contention. And this is one of those years. There just arent enough sellers.Heading into Tuesday night, there were 18 teams within six games of a playoff spot, versus only 12 that were clearly out of any sort of race. Then again, even that wasnt so clear.A year ago on July 26, Texas and Toronto were both more than six games back in both their divisions and the wild card. And we know how their seasons turned out. So even teams like Kansas City (8 1/2 out in the division, seven in the wild card) arent ready to sell the way clubs used to in the pre-wild card game era.This might not be the best explanation for this particular market. But its a factor.3. Bad teams have bad pitchersOK, we exaggerate. That isnt totally true. But if you peruse the list of teams at least 10 games under .500, theyre not exactly overflowing with starters to move -- either because theyre too young or too mediocre.A lot of these bad teams, you knew going in [to the season], they were going to be bad, an executive from one contender said. Theyre rebuilding, so theyd already sold off a lot of their guys.Hard to argue. The Phillies traded Hamels LAST July. The Braves moved Alex Wood at last years deadline and Shelby Miller over the winter. The Reds did their unloading, of Cueto and Leake, last year this time. Etc., etc.Those teams have already moved pretty much everything they had, another exec said. So theyre basically tapped out.4. R.I.P. the old-fashioned money dumpWhat used to drive the trades of legends and Cy Youngs at the deadline? Money, of course. What else? Life was so much simpler then -- for the rich teams. You had your haves. You had your have-nots. And they each knew their roles so well.But we dont live on that planet now. In a $9 billion industry with massive revenue-sharing, every team can afford to sign at least a handful of its best young players. And almost no club arrives at July obsessed with just clearing dollar signs off its books.Its not the same, one exec said. No team in the game has NO money. Some teams have less money than others. But no team has no money. It used to be that the teams with no money knew they had to move guys at the deadline. That basically doesnt exist anymore.To find the last legitimate midseason money dump of an ace, youd probably have to ride the time machine all the way back to 2008 and 2009, when the Indians sold off two Cy Youngs (CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee) at back-to-back deadlines. Thats a long, long time ago.The death of the good (or bad) old-fashioned money dump was a great thing for the game. It just wasnt a great thing for the late-July editions of Rumor Central. And the lack of top-of-the-rotation forces available here in July 2016 is pretty much all the proof you need. New England Patriots Pro Shop . Pettersen, winner of last years Evian Championships, had nine birdies and three bogeys, holding off a series of challengers led by Marion Ricordeau of France. The second-ranked Norwegian made her season debut after missing the LPGA Tours opening event last month in the Bahamas because of a shoulder injury. Wholesale Patriots Jerseys .S. hockey team after paying his dues as an NHL general manager for more than three decades and giving up a lot of his free time to help USA Hockey. https://www.patriotsjerseysale.com/ . -- In a span of seven Washington Redskins offensive plays, Justin Tuck sacked Robert Griffin III four times. Fake Patriots Jerseys . -- Jacksonville wide receiver Cecil Shorts will likely be a game-time decision whether hell play Sunday in the Jaguars home game against the San Diego Chargers. Stitched Patriots Jerseys . With the first unit struggling of late and Amir Johnson - one of the teams iron men - hobbling on an injured right ankle, Patterson knew he could get the nod in a challenging matchup against one of the leagues up and coming players at his position. Defending champion Todd Frazier and current home run leader Mark Trumbo headline the participants in the 2016 Home Run Derby. The field was announced on Thursdays SportsCenter.The derby, which will take place Monday at San Diegos Petco Park, will follow the bracket format that began at last years event.?Matchups were seeded based on home run totals through Wednesdays games.Trumbo, the Orioles right fielder, leads the majors with 26 home runs and will be the derbys No. 1 seed. He will take on No. 8 seed Corey Seager, who has 17 homers with?the Los Angeles Dodgers?in his rookie season.Frazier, the White Soxs?third baseman, is the No. 2 seed this year and is second in the American Leaague with 23 home runs.dddddddddddd. He will take on No. 7 seed Carlos Gonzalez, who has 18 homers this season with the Colorado Rockies.Frazier won last years derby, defeating the Dodgers Joc Pederson in the finals.In the other matchups, No. 4 seed Robinson Cano of the Seattle Mariners (20 homers) is paired with No. 5 seed Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins (19 homers), and No. 3 seed Adam Duvall of the Cincinnati Reds (22 homers) matches up with No. 6 seed Wil Myers of the host?San Diego Padres (19 homers).The All-Star Game will be played Tuesday. ' ' '