The Commissioner's Office has been informed of a deal involving the Pirates, Red Sox, and Marlins. The Commissioner has to sign off on any deal involving cash considerations of more than a million dollars, and there was clearly going to be cash involved in any deal involving these teams. There's also some formality about Manny Ramirez waiving his 10-and-5 rights, and no-trade clause, and I'll admit not understanding the technicalities.

So here's what Pee Wee Herman would call the "big but": the teams, I am told, have not agreed on the specific prospects to be included in the deal. It's expected that in addition to the principals, the Red Sox would get John Grabow and give up two prospects, while the Marlins would get one prospect and give up two. There's still a lot of haggling but my scribbling notes make it look like the structure of the deal is:

Marlins get Manny Ramirez, one prospect (Red Sox), and cash (likely covering Ramirez's remaining salary)

Pirates get Jeremy Hermida and three prospects (two Marlins, one Red Sox)

Red Sox get Jason Bay and John Grabow

There is still potential for this to fall apart over the prospects, but things appear closer now than ever before.

Don't see many of them in the Bronx.

Farns, Pudge, and now (maybe) this???

God, I'll dance ten fucking jigs if Manny goes pretty much anywhere but California. Otherwise, it'll be glorious to be rid of him. If I never see him up again in a position to do us serious damage it will be too soon for me.

Wow.

Go on, Manny, go on!!!

Say more, say more!!

Giggety-giggety-giggety!

Nitey-nite >;)

Marlins get: Manny Ramirez, cash, prospect from Red Sox
Red Sox get: Jason Bay, John Grabow
Pirates get: Ryan Tucker, Jeremy Hermida, one prospect from Red Sox

Melancon, meanwhile, was outstanding. I can now see why his number of innings seems so high. The guy has to throw two innings to get one inning of work. He threw just 19 pitches, 15 for strikes.

"Honestly, my plan when I go out there is usually three pitches or less (to a batter)," Melancon said. "Let them put the ball in play and use the defense behind me. I know I'm going to get a lot of ground balls and if my location is there, you usually get outs."

i like this guy already. as a side note, i wonder if his efficiency has the yankees thinking about maybe stretching his innings limits a bit ...

Chad Moeller for The Batman - GM Brian Cashman had orders to spend whatever he needed to spend. The Batman, who's hot right now, made $300 million last weekend. His Yankees contract is said to be at least that.

The last thing, and I mean the last thing I want to see right now is a hot California club.

I have a sick feeling in my stomach.

When does Pudge suit up?

The Yankees have been getting calls on Carl Pavano. One unconfirmed rumor has the Mets interested.

Holy ish!

Cash has been turning aluminum into silver this week. If he manages to turn sh-t into plastic I'd be amazed.

Tigers-Tribe game is nuts.

Are Zack and I the only ones who think the Sox trading Manny is bad for the Yanks?

Forget that Manny is "scary", that he kills the Yanks. Look at the numbers. There is not that much difference between the 2 offensively this year.

Manny OPS+: 143 (421 PA)
Bay OPS+: 137 (454 PA)

Manny VORP: 38.1
Bay VORP: 33.5

Manny EqA: .309
Bay EqA: .320

Manny BRAR (Batting Runs Above Replacement): 34
Bay BRAR: 47

And the Sox get Grabow, who could help their crappy bullpen. And they rid themselves of the distraction that is Manny. And instead of having to sign a new LF in free agency, they get a guy under contract for $7.5M next year.

My last point. Here we are, adoring Cashman for his genius, turning Farnsy into Pudge. The Boston front office is pretty smart too. They've won 2 of the last 4 championships. They've built a great farm system. They've built a great team, a legitimate contender. They have a team that could, right now, win it all this year. They don't think trading Manny hurts them; they think its makes them better. Why else would they do it? This isn't Ed Wade or Bill Bavasi we're talking about. Shouldn't this worry us?

It makes them better in the sense that Bay will probably try to beat out ground balls to third and NOT make phone calls from inside the Green Monster while the game is going on..

Like others have said, though, NO ONE is scarier to the Yankees rotation than Manny, save for Ortiz. And with Manny gone, Papi better find himself a good shoe store, because he'll be doing an awful lot of walkin' for the rest of the year. :)

vs NYY: 1.282
vs TOR: .895
vs BAL .797
vs TB: 1.004

Averaged, that's .994, with most of the damage against the Yanks, against whom a win/loss will have more of an impact (for us).

Jason Bay's total 3yr OPS is .883, with most of his success coming against Cincy, COL, HOU, and the Nats. Forgive me if I'm not as frightened of him as I am of Manny Ramirez, defense (the Green Monster is a quirky beast) notwithstanding.

did you see any of the at bats manny took in the angels series? he's literally jogging down to first base on ground balls.

he's lighting the team up every interview he gets a chance to give.

he's pulling his version of "operation shutdown" and is publicly pissing on their rug ...

Bay a very good player, but Manny on a whole other level

operation shutdown only works if you don't suck.

Name to remember: Mark Melancon. Heard today that he has room on his innings limit. Cashman also spoke about players trying to force their way into the mix. That could well be Melancon.

So this neither scares me, nor do I think it's great for the Yankees.

However I do think that the I-Rod deal is awesome on a lot of levels, but according to Cash, it sorta fell into his lap, so I'm not sure we should be throwing a parade for him. Who WOULDN'T have made the deal? That's not to say I don't think Cash is the best GM for the Yankees, it's just to say that according to him, Dave Dombrowski sorta handed him this one.

cashman didn't do the heavy lifting on the trade, true, but it's his planning and perseverance that allowed him to make the deal with very little impact on the strongest part of a contending team.

what's the saying? opportunity favors the prepared?

"It is only after the white background is prepared that any painting is possible." - Confucius

and for the ladies...

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." - Sir Winston Churchill

>;)

"Luck is the residue of design." - Branch Rickey (being Branch Rickey)

But for this pennant race, I'm glad to see Manny leave the Sox. As others have said - he scares the crap out of me.

All I know is that, in the eloquent formulation of william, Manny scares the #%$#it out of me.

Like the bogeyman or Grendel's mother.

I'll be pleased to see him go, your voodoo doctoring "day is night and white is black" argument fails to move me.