Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Bend It Like Beckett


Something I missed over Thanksgiving, and then neglected to comment on—the Red Sox made a tremendous trade.

The Sox get Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell "On Clearance" from the Marlins for minor leaguers. A giant thumbs-up from me. Getting a World Series MVP starter at age 25 and an All-Star third baseman (admitedly on the decline?) for prospects is huge. I'll miss Bill Mueller, but come on. Getting Beckett is nice, if for no other reason than it pushes the overwhelmed Clement back in the rotation. But the key to this trade might be Lowell. If he bounces back, he could be huge. If they can pick up some insurance for Keith Foulke, and they don't do anything stupid, like trade Manny, we are looking good for next year. All this without a GM...

The excellent Chad Finn has more, and so does Bill Simmons, who includes a nice list of "sure-fire" prospects that never panned out to counter the Bagwell Theory.

Unrelated to the Beckett trade, but things I stumbled across while reading up on it:

52 Reasons ESPN Sucks. With special attention paid to the abominable Chris Berman.

And a good story at Deadspin, "Athlete Run-In: Angry Tim Duncan." The story is good, but it's this comment that is a riot.

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