It's a busy day today, which marks the non-waiver trade deadline. Today alone has seen Victor Martinez to the Red Sox, Jarrod "The Dolphin" Washburn to the Tigers, George Sherrill to the Dodgers, Orlando Cabrera to the Twins and several other minor deals as well (where my Claudio Vargas fans at?!). I'm sure you're all keeping up with Sky over at BTF, so I'll try to keep my box score limited to the longer perspective this afternoon.
What are the lessons we can gain from the trade deadline? Well, we know that Joe Torre can crack a good joke about unnamed sources:
"It’s embarrassing their parents didn’t name them."
But seriously folks, he'll be here have Matt Kemp batting eighth all week.
On a more sober note, Fire Jim Bowden reminds us that sometimes the best trade is the one not made:
Also, sometimes you make a dumb decision and you get lucky. Like not trading Soriano and hitting on Zimmermann.
Certainly, emotions at the trade deadline can run high. Take, for example, the Seattle blogosphere. It all started when Seattle Times writer Geoff Baker declared the Mariners in sell mode and even went so far as to hint that they might want to trade King Felix:
I'd be very surprised if the Mariners at this point don't concede to reality, shift their efforts fully to "sell" mode, and proceed accordingly during these final days before Friday's 1 p.m. (Seattle time) trade deadline.
That led fellow Mariners beat writer Larry LaRue (of the Tacoma News-Tribune) to (obliquely) call Baker a "chicken little":
So remember, when you're looking for information online, there are serious journalists like Arnold and Stone out there, and then there are the Chicken Little Live! blogs that have no credibility.
Burn. To be fair, I can't quite tell exactly what Jack Z's plan is, having traded away Washburn but acquired Wilson and Snell. What do you think?
As the story of the 2003 positive steroid tests by Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz continues to have legs, I hope you're all listening to Craig Calcaterra. He wants the leakers found:
I want the judge to get good and angry and sic the feds on the matter to suss out who's doing it. Short of that, I want someone in the investigatory side of the media to take it upon themselves to find out who's leaking.
Breaking a federal seal is a serious offense and the leaker could face several years of jail time if found. On the other hand, Maury Brown has reversed his stance and would like the entire 2003 list to be made public:
While the PA and others should work to uncover the lawyers leaking the names with every resource available, it’s time to release all the names from the 2003 Survey Test. Yes, this will be like a nuclear blast. Yes, it will no doubt come with much consternation from the players that came up positive at the time, but at this stage, getting it all out in the open prevents the protracted and painful parade of leaks, stops reports from the likes of The New York Times, and gets the story off the front page and into the history books.
The list is still under seal and there are a number of obstacles to making it public. Additionally, Craig Calcaterra objects:
The listed players have had at least two legal duties owed to them breached and two legal rights entitled to them violated: the fiduciary duties owed to them by their union, the contractual duties owed to them by baseball and the testing lab, their Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure, supposedly guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, and the right to have their medical information kept private, guaranteed by HIPAA.
I gotta say I agree with Calcaterra. 104 wrongs don't make a right. What do you think?
Finally, to cleanse the palate after the sugar rush of deadline news and the bitter aftertaste of steroid arguments, Seamheads posts an excerpted list of reasons to love baseball:
Reason no. 3,756,842: Rickey Henderson’s suit at the 2009 Hall of Fame inductions
I have never been happier to have an HDTV. I happily basked in the Rickey’s suit in all its knee-length-jacket, fifty-two-button, silver-thread-embossed, three-piece glory. Rickey had it custom made almost ten years ago. Simply fantastic.
And for some comic relief, I give you this. Now I'm a big Star Wars fan, and a bigger baseball fan, but I can't for the life of me figure out why someone would want to own a baseball bat painted green (as if that somehow made it look like a lightsaber) that was signed by a bunch of Padres. In fact, I think the promotion reminds me of the Padres themselves: parts of it are intriguing and seem like they should have value, but when you put it all together it turns out confusing and nobody wants to buy any of them. But hey, at least it's for a good cause.