All-Stars on the move? Not this season
NEW YORK -- For all the talk about CC Sabathia and Rich Harden, they're not All-Stars. They're not here.
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| CC Sabathia's trade made a big splash, but don't expect any All-Stars to be dealt. (Getty Images) |
In fact, if you go down your handy On The Block list of players most likely to be traded this month, you'd be hard-pressed to find any actual All-Stars.
There might be some trade talk at the All-Star Game. But there's not going to be much trade talk about anyone who's actually going to play in the All-Star Game.
Well, not much.
"I play for the Rockies," Colorado outfielder Matt Holliday said various times Monday. "If something happens, it happens."
Holliday is the one All-Star who fits the mold of a player who gets traded in July. He's what Teixeira was last year, a player 1½ years from free agency with little to no chance of re-signing with his current team. And that current team sits 18 games under .500 at the All-Star break.
Let's make a deal? Not so fast, in part because that awful record has the Rockies on the edge of contention in the National League West (8½ games out), and in part because they would need such a huge haul of young talent in return to justify dealing a player they control through next year.
"At the end of the day, there's a good chance Matt Holliday doesn't get traded," said Clint Hurdle, Holliday's manager with the Rockies and also with the NL All-Star team. "We are not going to move people just to move them. I know we're not actively shopping him. We're not."
Holliday talks of helping get the Rockies back to the playoffs. He insists that trade talk doesn't affect him, and that he doesn't go to the ballpark in every city wondering what it would be like to play in that park every day.
"I try to keep my life pretty simple," he said.
If Holliday really wanted to keep things simple, he could theoretically just sign a long-term contract to keep him in Colorado. But the talk is that he wants Miguel Cabrera money ($21 million a year for his free-agent years), and his agent is Scott Boras, and. .. well, don't figure on that contract getting signed anytime soon.
So there's at least a chance that Holliday gets moved. What about the other All-Stars?
