Bonjour, Monsieur Gagne

This was quite possibly one of the most boring trade deadlines ever. There was so much hype for so long, and now that it's over there were really only four teams that did anything significant. While some of you may accuse me as being a "homer" I'm crediting the Red Sox with the best move the trade deadline, although Atlanta comes in at a close second. We didn't really lose too much in this trade. As much as I love Kason Gabbard and as sad as it made me to see him go, I realize that it was a great move. This guy already has four elbow surgeries under his belt and only projects to be a back end of the rotation kind of pitcher. With several great pitching prospects in the pipeline (Bucholz, Bowden, and Masterson), losing Gabbard is definitely not a long term problem. David Murphy, while good defensively, may never play better than your average major-leaguer, and it's not like the Sox are short on outfield prospects with Jacoby Ellsbury and Brandon Moss only a year or so away from the bigs. The real piece in this deal for Texas was Engel Beltre, who scouts have compared to Ken Griffey, Jr. and Barry Bonds. Although, he's four or five years away from the majors so there's plenty of time for his stock to plummet. But now that we've talked about what the Rangers got, let's salivate over the fact that we now have three of the best bullpen arms in the majors in our bullpen. It really sounds like some sort of bad, baseball comedy with a Deep South Redneck being setup by an uber-cool, yet French-Canadian hurler and a ninja-like Japanese lefty. The unintentional comedy that these three guys bring to the fold is surely too much to bare, but what really counts is that all three are lights out, and the Red Sox have now made every game a six inning contest. Even Julian Tavarez might be able to thrive in this starting rotation, not that we need him, because the second biggest trade we made this summer was a Mr. Curt Schilling traded from the Disabled List for Lefty Lopez (sent to the minors), who will surely be back at some point with the alternately lights out and decrepit Mike Timlin still trolling around the Boston bullpen. Seriously, I dare someone to try and beat us. We have the best rotation in baseball, especially now with Schilling coming back. We have the best bullpen in baseball. We have one of the best lineups in baseball, because even now when not all our cylinders are firing, we're still sitting pretty atop the AL East. We've also proven we're better than all the other post-season bound AL teams. Detroit doesn't have the bullpen to get us, the Angels don't have the hitters to get by our rotation, and Cleveland doesn't have enough pitching, either in their bullpen or their rotation, to hold us down. The only team that scares me is the Yankees, and it's not because of the surge they're in right now, it's just because I'm a Red Sox fan and they're the Yankees and no matter our records, lineups, pitchers, or circumstances, those games are never predictable.

The team I award second place in the deadline deals to is Atlanta. They really earn a close second, because they failed to improve their rotation which will be the reason they don't make it to the end of October, unless they get performances not seen since Jeff Weaver forgot he was Jeff Weaver and thought he was Jered Weaver. There were some starters that were available, or at least one that was but I'll get to that eventually. Adding Dotel and Tex were huge moves. Atlanta now has arguably the best lineup in the NL East (reason to argue, the Mets if they're all every healthy at the same time), and one of the best bullpens in the entire National League, but I don't know if anyone is getting past the Padres starters. The NL will be very interesting to watch come October. I think the Padres are guaranteed a spot in the NLCS, with the other going to either the Cubbies or Atlanta. I think I like Chicago a little better than Atlanta in that matchup, since they seem like a more complete team (i.e. they're afraid of Lou Piniella like Whiffy Mo Pena is afraid of hitting singles), but San Diego's rotation really does scare me, from the standpoint of any NL lineup.

The third place award, which I'm renaming the "Oh Shit!" award goes to the Philadelphia Phillies. The perennial stretch run failures seemed to take a huge loss when Utley went down with a broken hand. In a very un-Pat Gillick move, the Phillie's GM traded for Tad Iguchi to replace Utley. Tad isn't the player that Utley is, but he's a clear step above any bench player that KFC Charlie could have thrown in there for the month, or so, that Chase will be out. Surprisingly, and I swear I'm not making this up, Manuel speaks Japanese, and it is hoped that will help Tad's transition onto the team. Stop laughing, and keep reading. I swear it, he really does speak Japanese. Add to the Tad trade the acquisition of Kyle Lohse. This is the pitcher I was hinting at with Atlanta, but I am glad to see the Phillies make a move to bolster the real part of their team that was in need of help: the starting rotation. They have offense, a good enough bullpen, but the Phillies rotation was holding them back all season. This isn't to say it still won't hold them back, but despite the lack of virtually any starters at the deadline, at least they didn't just stand pat. Sadly, the injury bug has been all over the Phillies like Manuel is all over a bucket of Original Recipe as the Flyin' Hawaiin Shane Victorino and speedy Michael Bourn have both gone down. I really think the Phillies season is over. I mean, even without all the injuries, any team that relies on Pat Burrel to carry them for a month is not a team I would ever put an ounce of faith in.

But I'm not quite done analyzing the Phillies just yet. If we look back on some of Pat Gillick's trades over the past few years, we see an interesting trend. Aaron Rowand, Tad Iguchi, and Freddy Garcia, all mediocre players, were all traded for by the Phillies. What else do these players have in common? That's right, they all won the 2005 World Series. Perhaps Gillick thinks that by adding World Series winners to his team, he can win one too. If I read in Truth and Rumors that Gillick has been showing interest in So Taguchi, Preston Wilson, Aaron Miles, or any other such players, I promise you I will find Pat Gillick and fire him. I'm not sure if he'll listen, but I think if I sound official enough and yell loud enough, he'll do anything I say. I'll just wear a White Sox 2005 World Series Champions t-shirt.