In years past, nothing got baseball fans more excited during
the long summer months than the drama of the trade deadline. Fans would watch
ESPN anxiously for hours to see which desperate teams would trade their no
longer affordable stars to teams looking for that extra boost come October.
Who would overpay? Who would get a steal? Who would make
their team significantly better? These were the questions that baseball fans
loved to ask before and during this unofficial holiday of sorts.
But something has happened recently. The trade deadline just
does not seem to have “it” anymore. Look at some of the names that were dealt
in the last few days: Bud Norris (from Houston to Baltimore), Justin Maxwell
(from Houston to KC), Jake Peavy (from Chicago WS to Boston), and Alberto
Callaspo (from LAA to Oakland).
Yawn.
For weeks, us fans were tempted with names such as Michael
Young, Giancarlo Stanton, Jimmy Rollins, Curtis Granderson, and Cliff Lee all
being potentially available. Those names would have made real waves in the MLB
had they been moved. But why do so many teams seem so reluctant to sell despite
having average to below-average records?
The answer is simple: the implementation of the new wildcard
postseason system.
With that extra wildcard slot open, even teams with little
to no hope (*cough* Yankees and Phillies!! * cough *) can sleep at night knowing that one crazy five/six game
win streak could make them serious postseason contenders in a matter of days.
This gives those teams added incentives to keep their sellable assets, which
unfortunately trickles down to affect the trade deadline in my opinion.
Now in closing, I am in favor of the new postseason system
since my Yankees would basically have no hope without it. But I do still have
to blame it for hurting one of my favorite annual baseball traditions…
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Aaron
J. Coleman is currently a sport management major at Drexel University in
Philadelphia, PA minoring in Communication (with a focus in Public Relations).
He was born and raised in Upper Marlboro, MD, a suburb outside of Washington,
DC. He is currently a supervisor for Drexel’s Intramural Sports program and
also an intern for the Arena Football Legaue’s Philadelphia Soul franchise. He
covers the Chicago Bulls, New York Yankees, and Washington Redskins (his
favorite squads along with the Washington Capitals and Drexel Dragons) for
sportsfansnews.com. Follow Aaron on Twitter @shutupCole.
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