Biggest needs before the deadline

Tuesday, July 31, 2007 | Feedback | Print Entry

The hours are ticking down, and time is running out for contenders to plug holes without having to go through waiver hell. Here are some of the biggest needs, in the final minutes before the trade deadline.

BREWERS: PITCHING -- In the last week, the three relievers at the back end of the Brewers' bullpen -- Scott Linebrink, Derrick Turnbow and Francisco Cordero -- have a combined ERA of 15.00, with an 0-4 record. No wonder the Brewers have jumped into the talks for Eric Gagne, as Tom Haudricourt writes.  
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

    Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN

    Ask Buster a question: Buster's Mailbag

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