Sports

The rich get richer. It seems to be the theme this winter in the Baseball world. First the Yankees and now the Phillies. Heck even the Mariners have a great one two punch now. The three team blockbuster trade announced yesterday that sends Roy Halladay to Philadelphia, Cliff Lee to Seattle, and some top prospects to Toronto was finalized today with some new additions. Toronto is sending Philly’s OF prospect, Michael Taylor, to Oakland for Brett Wallace, a 1B/3B.
My first thought upon hearing the mega trade was why? Why is Philly shipping one of the best left handed pitchers in baseball away? Yes they get a phenomenal pitcher in Halladay but it’s also really nice to have a left handed stud on the mound for you. After further investigation I found that the main source is money. Oh how it always comes back to money. Halladay is willing to sign a deal below market value, where as Lee wants top dollar. Who can blame him though? And Philadelphia decided to part ways with the leftie and pick up the all star Halladay. Philly does give up their top two prospects but in return get some solid prospects from Seattle. So is this really a fair deal? Here’s the whole trade as reported:

* — minor leaguer

I’d have to say that on paper this doesn’t seem fair. Not only do the Phillies get what some say as the Mariners top two pitching prospects and a top OF prospect, they also receive 6 million in cash. Who knows how this deal will pan out in the long run. Only time will tell. If the prospects the Blue Jays picked up bust then it’s a horrible deal for them. If they help turn the Blue Jays team around then it’s gold. It will be interesting to see how all these prospects end up.
Seattle makes a big statement out there in the AL West with this addition of Cliff Lee. They now will have an outstanding one two punch with Lee and Felix Hernandez(who did wonders for my fantasy baseball team last year). The Angels need to get to work this off season if they want to continue their reign over the Mariners. Their former ace, John Lackey signed a five year, 82.5 million dollar deal with the Boston Red Sox, who also picked up Mike Cameron to boost their dwindling offense.
In other baseball news the Cardinals are pushing hard for Matt Holliday as they re-offered him a five year deal. The Mets continue to move strongly in signing Jason Bay.  And it appears the Braves are just sitting back quietly now after their early deals of solidifying the bullpen. They need to get things going and sign a big bat. If that doesn’t happen I look for them to perhaps trade Derek Lowe, which will be difficult since he has such a huge paycheck.
Who knew we’d be heavily talking baseball in December? Its America’s favorite past time and some teams continue to get stronger as others chances appear to slip away this winter. But there’s still plenty of time before the season starts and I’m sure lots more crazy deals will surface. Until next time…

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Welcome to WUOG’s first Bowl Madness Pick ‘Em contest! The bowls are all posted here. Copy and paste them into the comment section and capitalize who you think will win the game. You’ll get 1 point for each game. For the National Championship (The BCS one, not the SEC), also include a score which will count for 2 bonus points to whoever is closest. The winner with the most points will get an awesome prize. I haven’t secured it yet, so I won’t give anything away (read: it might be a picture of me). (more…)