Friday, August 10, 2007

THE BIGGEST LIE IN SPORTS

Posted by Reverend Ref + at 9:55 AM

Every year this comes around, and every year people who care about such things are thrown into a tizzy trying to determine who wins, who loses, who improved and who messed up. And every year there is a pseudo-countdown to the final moments, like some sort of warped sports version of Left Behind.

I'm talking about MLB's "Trading Deadline." In the days leading up to July 31, analysts and baseball fans were going nuts about who should be traded where and what teams need what players to improve. All while having a ticking countdown clock in the background showing how many hours, minutes and seconds until the so-called Trading Deadline.

And yet . . . while reading about the Mariners incredibly successful and productive series against the Orioles, I read this blurb at the end of the story: "Before the game, Baltimore traded LHP John Parrish to the Mariners for minor league OF Sebastian Boucher and a player to be named or cash."

Did you catch that? Today is August 10. The game in question was August 9. There was a trade. It happened 9 days after the "deadline."

How is it that a trade can be made after the trading deadline?

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1 comments:

Dawgdays | 11:53 AM, August 10, 2007  

7/31 is the "non-waiver" trade deadline. Some of the news outlets have been better about adding that qualifier.

After the deadline, the player to be traded must clear waivers prior to the trade. When a player is put on waivers, another team can make a claim (within 72 hours, I think) by offering to pay a $50K waiver fee. There are two things that can happen:

- The claiming club gets the player and assumes the responsibility for the remainder of that player's contract.

- The waiving club pulls the player off of the waiver line

If the player "clears waivers" (no claim is made,) then the trade can continue.

It's more complicated than that, but that's probably enough.

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