Holmes wrote:-= original quote snipped =-The team has been hovering below and at .500 for a while now. We have a nice hot streak now but we lost 4 out of 5 before our 5 game winning streak. This is pretty much the story of the season. We treadmill at .500 and something has got to give. Instead of fielding prospect offers for Troy Glaus, J.P. could be looking for additional help for the offense that has been nothing short of inconsistent this year. There has to be added pressure on J.P.. I still believe that both McGowan and Marcum single-handedly saved J.P. and Gibbons job at the moment.
Your right that J.P. has never really made a big splash at the deadline. But its the 2007 trade deadline. We've been average for 4 months now. A solid winning streak can renew thoughts about achieving a better record than last year which I think J.P. desperately needs in order to show he didn't flop the past offseason. We play NY and Boston a combined 16 times the rest of the way. Instead of injecting a couple of much needed prospects into the system we could be doing the opposite.
It can be very likely that J.P. does nothing. But at the very least the mindset of J.P. at the deadline could be altered by a winning streak.
I don't think the winning streak has done anything. Ricciardi has been pretty adament that he feels this current roster is good enough and that he's prepared to go with the same group next year. Everyone, with the exception of Stairs and Clayton, is signed or within the team's control for next season too. Last season he had five free agents (Cat, Molina, Shea, Lilly, Speier), and only traded one of them because he was forced to (Shea). Given his non-existant trade deadline history, and his need to finish +.500 to save his job, I think it's clear this deadline will come and go with the team at status quo. We might see a minor trade (Towers for example), but that's it.
Realistically, this team is a short-stop, a LH bat, and a league average 200 inning starter away from being a legitimate 90-95 win calibre team. It's much more likely/feasible to fill those holes in the off-season. So I don't expect "buying" this week, nor did I ever expect selling.
You're right in that the development of McGowan and Marcum saved Ricciardi's job, but at the same time, it has made the team a lot more attractive for 2008. I think that's the way Ricciardi is looking at it. Fact is, if this team ever does a firesale, it will be after Ricciardi is canned.
