jimmy no nose

It looks like the Red Sox gave up the better prospects along with paying Manny's salary. Bay's contract for '08 is a great deal though.

I don't understand how anyone says the Pirates lose in this deal. It looks like they played it perfectly and worked the AL East teams against each other and had the Red Sox scrambling to put something together to make sure they get Bay before the Rays did. Moss is just about Major League ready and probably won't hit like Bay right away (or maybe ever) but looks like he should be solid defensively and ready pretty soon. Hanson looks like he could turn into a major league caliber closer in a couple years the way he throws heat and can get the slider working. Morris is coming off surgery, but he was a first round pick just a couple years ago and has bounced back nicely. Andy LaRoche has struggled in the majors, but he's only played 60 games and has posted an OBP over .400 in his time in AAA.

yep, a bag of balls! The two players I idolized as a youth, Griffey and Thomas have now both been players on my favorite team. This is a good day. Even if he doesn't contribute much... this is a good day. Swisher to first, Griffey platoons at center with Brian Anderson, Paulie sits for a while. Occasionally Griffey DH's You think there's a legit chance Griffey plays center? I didn't think about it too much, but considering how he's struggled in right this year I just don't see him being an option there.

Where does Griffey end up playing for the White Sox? Quentin and Dye are having great years at the two corners and Thome's doing fine at DH. Maybe they want Griffey at first?

This could be huge: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/unfiltered/?p=966

Jason Bay to Tampa is looking more and more like it happens before the deadline. If it ends up going down they probably give up SS Reid Brignac, a starter not named David Price or Wade Davis, and probably something else. I don't see much reason for Tampa not to do what it takes to get this deal done since they're pretty stacked at SS and have a ton of pitchers who the Pirates would probably be interested in. It should keep them alive in the AL East battle, not that they wouldn't be anyway.

There are a couple rare exceptions out there though. I believe both Nate McLouth and Coco Crisp were originally drafted as second basemen and turned out to be pretty decent defensive center fielders. Don't know how they wound up being considered second basemen, but I don't think either of them spent any time there professionally.

I've seen a couple different reports now that say the big deal of the trade deadline might end up being Jason Bay to Oakland. Never saw that one coming.

I like the Indians move to take Reyes. I thought he might end up commanding a bit more just because I thought more teams would be interested in seeing if something was still there. Perdomo looks like he could turn out into a pretty decent reliever though, so the Cardinals may be pleased with the deal. I'm assuming the Yankees made Xavier Nady shave his not quite a beard when he joined the team. They still let Giambi walk around with that ridiculous mustache though.

According to today's reports that actually turns out to not be the deal. Yankees still get Marte and Nady, obviously, and the Pirates get Tabata and Ohlendorf, but the other two pitchers are now reported as being Jeff Carstens, and Daniel McCutchen. I don't know what happened between yesterday and today, but I'm assuming it's a new Pirate strategy where they announce a terrible, terrible deal, then make it a little better. If they do this then people will freak out on initial reaction, but then once they've exhausted their energies in bashing the wrong deal they are left to look instead at the positives of the players they actually end up receiving when compared to the initial report.

So much for those "the Pirates demands are too high" reports that were going around. There was actually a report that said those were being planted by other GMs to try to bring the Pirates demands down and that has to be the case. Tabata has potential to be a decent outfielder, but nothing else in the deal was even worth taking. Out of the other 3 players you basically get a 7th inning guy and maybe one 4/5 starter. Nothing you couldn't probably grab with the 2 sandwich picks you get for Marte at the end of the year. Maybe if the deal is just for Nady you take it, but this is clearly just same old Pirates under the new management.

Has there ever been a better second half/worse first half hitter than Adam LaRoche? I'm sure there are other terrible first half hitters who turn it on late, but this season is basically an average one for his career. He hit .160 in April, hung somewhere around .250 in May and June, and is now pushing .400 for July. He regularly struggles to hit .200 until about mid-June, but his season average always tends to end up at something respectable like .270. How long until someone grabs him and just leaves him in the minors for the first 3 months of the season then brings him up for the playoff push?

Has anyone else seen USA Today's Top 5 QB rankings? Apparently the third and fourth best QBs in the league are Donovan McNabb and Matt Hasselbeck.

Pitching matchup of the year so far Monday night in Houston. Pittsburgh John Van Benschoten 1-2 9.77 Houston Runelvys Hernandez 0-3 10.29 Fun fact: Van Benschoten actually has the worst ERA in MLB history for a pitcher who has made at least 10 career starts. Should be a good time.

I love Coors Field. Chris Iannetta broke his bat today and had the ball end up about 15 rows deep.

Even though the third error was questionable, Dan Uggla's performance has to be the worst in All Star Game history right? Actually that barely even seems like a question to me, maybe we can debate whether it was the worst in any game in history. Even if you ignore his defense, the 3 Ks and the inning ending double play are bad enough on their own.

I'm sure in context it didn't seem much different, but I just walked into the room and immediately heard "...no disrespect, but there's eight white guys here." I'm not really sure what the point he was trying to make was, but it was pretty funny just coming into the room.

It's pretty crazy how there have been leaks of I think 10 different tracks now and there are at least 7 or 8 other titles that have been going around forever that haven't leaked yet, but the song that they end up releasing here I don't think anyone has ever heard of or about. Looks like it's a Buckethead-written track based on this: http://www.bucketheadland.com/faq/faq2/FAQ_2_0.html#28

This year is probably the first in about 10 that I'm looking forward to tonight's Home Run Derby. I may even watch the entire thing. Longoria, Utley, Uggla, Hamilton, Braun, and Sizemore are all in it for the first time and I think Morneau only did it last year. For whatever reason this just feels like the most exciting group they've put together in a while.

Great line today for Houston's starter Runelvys Hernandez. 4 IP, 99 pitches, 13 H, 4 BB, 10 ER. The 3 pitchers to make appearances through 4 innings managed to each pick up a hit and an RBI so far.

Remember the old days when we thought there was a chance Oliver Perez could be that dude who pitched for the Mets today on a consistent basis?

As if anyone needed a reminder of how awful the Pirates have been for the past decade-plus, if you have a minute I suggest checking out this link. The Altoona Curve have been the Pirates Double A affiliate for 10 years now, during which the Pirates have had tons of high draft picks, trades of stars for prospects, etc. and just try to find a recognizable name who has ever played for the team: http://www.altoonacurve.com/fanzone/annivpoll/ Bronson Arroyo looks like the most successful product to come through the system.

After all the Hank Steinbrenner pitchers hitting talk last week I'd like to think it was intentional that the Pirates have walked the Yankee starters in 3 straight plate appearances, but I'm pretty sure it's just they can't pitch.

I swear the Toronto offense looks worse every time I get a chance to see it. They went against the Pirates who had the worst team ERA in the majors coming in and failed to score in 12 innings. Then of course they lost the game on what I believe went down as an unearned run.

I love the title track, Better, and Madagascar. I really don't dislike any of what I've heard, although I'm not a huge fan of If the World. This version of Rhiad is so much better than the live versions I heard. I never even noticed the guitar riff in the live tracks, but I'm really into it here. The lead part is great too.