Trade thoughts

I'd rather keep Bobby, but that wasn't meant to be. I'm not shedding any tears for Bell, Cormier, or Lidle (even if he did come out and rip the team). I'm overjoyed to see "Home Run" Franklin gone. We'll see what the kids can do down the stretch, but expectations are low.

That being said, there'd better be a watch for Pirates fans on the bridges downtown there. They gave away two kids I would have tried to build that franchise around, sending Craig Wilson (who couldn't find a position this year) to the Yankees for Shawn Chacon and Oliver Perez (along with Roberto Hernandez) to the Mets for Xavier Nady. New York made out like a bandit at Pittsburgh's expense, though this isn't nearly as bad as the Reds-Nationals trade a while back. But seeing a franchise give away a couple of young, talented players having bad seasons for an average player and a struggling pitcher takes a little sting off the Abreu trade. Then again, they also moved Kip Wells, but that's nothing really significant.

No other big deals to report on, but I suspect there'll be something significant in the waivers period.