Finally, I can talk about baseball again.

I mentioned Wednesday that I didn't really suspect that much would happen. Not much did happen. With all that was discussed, there were only four trades. I think Steve wants to talk about Ken Griffey Jr. a little bit, though I mostly share the same opinion of some Sox bloggers. Huh?
The other two big trades since I last appeared here involved Manny Ramirez going to the Dodgers and Pudge Rodriguez going to the Yankees. In my opinion, the trade that will have the greater impact on their respective AL East team will be the Rodriguez trade.
See the Yankees got a lot better at a position in which they were deficient, and now they have at least 7 big bats in their lineup every night. With Jorge Posada on the DL, Jose Molina was the every day catcher, and they couldn't even put him in as the DH. Now, with Rodriguez (and to a lesser extent, Xavier Nady) positions that were an offensive liability are now bolstered. This was definitely an improvement, even if Kyle Farnsworth is gone.
As for the Red Sox, there is assuredly a drop off in the talent in left field. Bay is going to be around for an extra year and doesn't cause the club house problems Manny did. Additionally, Boston had something of a logjam in the outfield, so with prospect Brandon Moss also on the way out the door, Coco Crisp can be comfortable in his position in center field and maybe we'll get another Bobby Kielty sighting. Is it a downgrade? Absolutely, but not severe enough to disrupt the team. Also, it's an upgrade offensively, and the Red Sox strength this year is the pitching staff anyways.
Lastly, I would like to direct you to one thing. Look at the MLB guy's nose! My goodness, he could use that as a can opener.