FLIPPING DONALDSON FOR CANDELARIO. WAIT, WHO?

I love baseball insiders because they literally throw stuff against the wall and see if it sticks.  Enter Buster Olney. Between he and Jon Heyman, I feel like they need to co-author a book called "Fake News Baseball" and just list all the made-up stuff they come up with over the years. I know it works for their line of work, but they don't take several things into account when they write about potential trades that "make sense". 

Like for instance, if someone like Josh Donaldson absolutely sucks in the Bronx, clearly his value goes down.  So why in the world would the Yankees be able to trade them for a guy like Jeimer Candelario, a better hitter, maybe not as good defensively, but still a guy that will give the Yankees the win in that trade.  It's all bluster and speculation all so ESPN can have Buster come in to the head honcho's office  at the end of the month and they can say "Hey, you posted a lot of BS, but the readers are stupid and they all clicked, so you get to come back to work tomorrow."  I hate it, and trust me, I still click on these stories every day.  DAMN YOU, BUSTER!

Here's the latest made-up trade proposal from ESPN, and I'm stealing it from Fansided, because ESPN requires a subscription and there is NO WAY I'm paying for garbage like that.

"Olney lists that could replace Donaldson at third base is Jeimer Candelario of the Washington Nationals..."The infielder is having a nice season, with an adjusted OPS+ of 117 and a slash line of .256/.333/.446," writes Olney. "But he has only played third base this year. 'He might be a fit if [the Yankees] were ready to give up on Donaldson,' an evaluator speculated. Donaldson is hitting .143/.222/.464 in 18 games this season. Considering how thin the market is for position players, however, Washington GM Mike Rizzo might be inclined to set a high price tag for Candelario. 'Then you'd wonder: Would he be worth that?' an exec asked. 'Is he a difference-maker?'"

And Donaldson wouldn't be all, there is no question the Nationals would want more than just Josh and Cashman would need to think long and hard about who he would give up. But think about this for a second, while it might make sense, why bring a broken-down, sporadic player like Donaldson over from the Bronx, especially because he's really don't nothing this season and even though the Yankees will no doubt pay to get rid of him? Would the Nationals have those Orioles-type hitting coaches over there that think they can fix Donaldson? Having the Yankees pay for him to suck in the Nationals lineup is wasting a spot in that line up.  I just don't see it.

Look, it's a lot of chew on, and Olney does it better than most. I just don't subscribe to this kind of journalism (if that's what we call this) and I just don't see this actually being a thing. But, believe what you want.

Carry on.