Saturday night tidbits

Throw Another Log on that Old Hot Stove

curtis-granderson-stealsSo far, the biggest trade was the three-way deal involving the Yankees, the Diamondbacks, and the Tigers.  New York got All Star centerfielder Curtis Granderson, enough said, they got the best player in the deal.  Arizona got starting pitchers Edwin Jackson & Ian Kennedy.  While Detroit landed centerfield prospect Austin Jackson, starting pitcher Max Scherzer, and a couple of lefties for their bullpen Phil Coke & Daniel Schlereth.

The Texas Rangers traded starter Kevin Millwood to the Orioles in exchange for reliever Chris Ray and Rule V selection Ben Snyder, the move was designed to free up money so Texas could sign free agent starter Rich Harden.  The Rangers had enough money left over to acquire thirdbaseman Mike Lowell for catching prospect Max Ramirez from the Red Sox.  Boston is interested in signing free agent thirdbaseman Adrian Beltre.

Pirates reliever Jesse Chavez has to be wondering whether it’s safe to unpack his bags, as he’s on his third team this offseason.  He was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays, who just dealt him to the Atlanta Braves for reliever Rafael Soriano.  The Braves no longer needed Soriano, since bringing in Billy Wagner & Takashi Saito.

The Chicago White Sox brought in former Seattle Mariners closer J.J. Putz to replace Octavio Dotel, whom they chose not to retain.

Bonehead Brett

Indians Blue Jays BaseballIn last night’s baseball game between the Red Sox and the Blue Jays in Toronto, rookie lefty Brett Cecil did something so stupid, Little Leaguers were shaking their heads.  The umpires were so stupifide that they had to meet before deciding what to do.  Cecil had just walked Jason Bay when he noticed a scuff mark on the baseball, so he wanted a new ball, most pitchers would rather just use the scuffed baseball to their advantage, making the ball do pretty much what they wanted it to do, but that wasn’t even the dumb part.  Rather than asking the umpire for a new baseball and exchanging spheres with him, Brett simply rolled the live ball into the Jays dugout, without getting timeout.  The umpires originally sent Bay to secondbase, but after meeting, decided he should be awarded thirdbase.  Jason would score on a one-out single by Mike Lowell through a drawn in infield.  Everything seemed to fall apart from there as Toronto committed three errors, as Boston went on to win 8-1.