Russell Branyan traded to Seattle, Matt LaPorta up

[SpecialFNK]

Russell Branyan has been traded to Seattle for 2 minor leagues.
Matt LaPorta coming up to play 1B for Cleavland.
http://castrovince.mlblogs.com/archives ... iners.html

Russell Branyan is headed back to the Mariners, and Matt LaPorta is coming back to the big leagues.

The Indians pulled the trigger on the first of what could be several pre-Trade Deadline moves Saturday, sending Branyan back to the M's in exchange for two prospects -- Triple-A center fielder Ezequiel Carrera and High-A shortstop Juan Diaz.

The Indians will either pay the remainder of Branyan's $2 million contract or send the M's a player to be named later.

Clearly, the main incentive of this move, from the Indians' perspective, is to give LaPorta an everyday opportunity at first base. He was batting .353 with five homers, 16 RBIs and a 1.061 OPS in 17 games since his June 7 demotion to Columbus.

what are the expectations for LaPorta for the rest of the season?
Russell Branyan back to Seattle, will his numbers increase? decrease? stay the same?

[AussieDodger]

LaPorta had been awesome over 18 games in the minors.
Looks to be on the verge of busting out, might not be straight away but it's coming.

1.52 OPS vs LHP

[jake_twothousandfive]

I'm not sure I understand what Seattle's doing. Don't they have as much incentive to play for the future as the Indians do? They didn't exactly give up high profile minor leaguers here but they traded for a 34 year old first basemen with a 20 HR, .260 BA upside and a career K% of 38.2%.

So they're looking to sell Cliff Lee but they're also buying 34 year old mediocre 1Bs. Someone tell me what I'm missing.

[Skin Blues]

Maybe they'll deal him by the deadline, and they think they can get more than what they gave up. I can't see much reason other than that. Perhaps Branyan is a FA after this season and they could get a compensation first round pick or something. I don't know how all of that works.

I hope this creates more room for Michael Brantley to be called up, though, He's hitting the cover off the ball in AAA but curiously he's not swiping any bases.

[jackie hayes]

I'm not sure I understand what Seattle's doing. Don't they have as much incentive to play for the future as the Indians do? They didn't exactly give up high profile minor leaguers here but they traded for a 34 year old first basemen with a 20 HR, .260 BA upside and a career K% of 38.2%.

So they're looking to sell Cliff Lee but they're also buying 34 year old mediocre 1Bs. Someone tell me what I'm missing.

From an article at mlb.com:

This is the first of what could be multiple deals done by the Tribe before the Trade Deadline, as the already young Indians get younger and try to rid themselves of some veterans in the final year of their contracts. The Mariners' motives are much less clear...

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd ... d=11639170