It's 115 degrees and nothing is on TV
Let me tell you something, Summer is a grind. The month of July is never easy for a sportswriter because there isn’t much to talk about. I could be talking about the Diamondbacks but, a) They suck and are devoid of any compelling story lines, b) I do that at Fanster anyway (the reason you never see any D-Backs posts here). With nothing to say I end up having to introduce cartoon football characters or relying on YouTube cop outs.
Yup, these are the dog days of summer. They aren’t easy (especially with the fact its been 115 degrees outside recently) but we all have to deal with them. We are only a month away from the football season, which will gives us all much more to talk about. It will be much easier to blog then, but until then I apologize if posts are a little sporadic. I will start myPac -10 preview soon, so that will give me something to write about until the season starts. Until then I am going to touch on a few topics going on in the sports world that have Arizona ties.
Brett Wallace Goes to Oakland
The former ASU star and gem of the St. Louis Cardinals’ farm system got traded to Oakland for Matt Holliday. I’m liking this trade for both teams. St. Louis needed someone who can hit behind Albert Pujols and protect him. One can’t tell from the numbers, but Pujols needed protection. National League teams were going to go into full “walk Pujols at any opportunity” mode in the second half, now they can’t with Holliday’s bat behind him. The Cardinals did have to part with their best offensive prospect, but Holliday isn’t an old player and will be around for a few years.
Wallace may be a rising hitting star, but he can’t field. He is better suited to be a DH in the American League. This is part of the reason St. Louis traded him and part of the reason it is a good trade for them. Young minorleaguers that can hit but don’t really have a position are the type of players Oakland covets. I still wonder why Oakland traded for Holliday in the first place, knowing they weren’t going to keep him. Maybe they thought they could get better prospects for him at the deadline this year than they had to give up for him.
Eric Byrnes for Julio Lugo
The Byrnes for Lugo trade was rumored to happen but never did. This would have been the classic “let’s swap crap contracts” trade. Lugo was actually hitting .283 this year, he can play a position the D-Backs need (2B, more on this later) and would probably have been their best candidate to hit lead off. Considering EricByrnes has done nothing in two years, can’t hit, can’t stay healthy and has become a horrid defender, this trade made sense for the D-Backs. However, they were never going to trade forLugo because of his attitude. He is a bad dude, back in 2003 he allegedly slammed his wife’s face into the hood of a car. Eric Byrnes may be a completely useless player but at least he is a much better guy than Lugo, and since Lugo wasn’t going to be anything more than average on this team I don’t think the trade made sense.
Who’s On Second?
With the D-Backs trade of Felipe Lopez there has become a giant hole at 2B. It looks like Ryan Roberts is going to get first crack at the position. Roberts peak is probably Craig Counsel production, but if he hustles every day and plays good defense he is the man for the job. Roberts, you know him from the dozens of tats that decorate his body, has never gotten a chance to play everyday before so he has the rest of this season to make his case. I will be rooting for him. Other options include AugieOjeda and minor leaguer Rustry Ryal. Ryal is raking in AAA this year, he has 16 homers and .521 slugging % so far this year. I have no idea if Ryal is a good defender and considering he is a 26 year old career minor leaguer I don’t think he is the option. I am sure we will see him during September call ups. Ojeda is a fan favorite, but he isn’t the every day option.
Here is hoping we can survive the dog days together.
Aaron and 
Tommy Football are discussing. 
CW are discussing. 
A Desert Ball favorite, Orlando Hudson, 
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