Printer-friendly

Contact Author

July 31, 2006

Will's Mill

The Mill Closes -- 5:00 P.M.

by Will Carroll

Monday, 5:00 P.M. ET

The Mill closes up with a flurry of deadline deals, but no "big" deals. Alfonso Soriano is still a National, Miguel Tejada is still an Oriole, Brad Lidge and Roy Oswalt are still Astros, and the Angels...well, they'll be praying, I guess.

The Nationals went quiet Monday afternoon, playing chicken with the deadline. Though I was told that there was a deal set to be announced that involved more than two teams, the deal didn't happen. It will be interesting to see if it fell apart due to Soriano refusing to sign long term with the acquirer. Some sources have indicated that the Players Association was suggesting that Soriano test the market.

The Angels final offers for both Tejada and Soriano were the same: Ervin Santana and Erick Aybar. Dallas McPherson was discussed but never formally offered. Both deals failed to happen. The Tejada deal was killed by his insistence on playing shortstop, something confirmed by a team official. The Angels feel like they tried on several deals, but came up as the second-best option in every case but Soriano.

How bad is it in Pittsburgh? Chris Duffy, who took a month off after getting sent down, was angry to be called up! He was expecting to be traded. "I don't like it there," he told Pirates officials. "I did all this hoping to get traded."

Thanks to all the readers and sources for this year's Will's Mill. Now, I turn it over to the analysts. Once a year full of rumors is enough; it's better to deal in facts.