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I will say one thing about Minaya-- he's got balls. He brought Bartolo Colon and Cliff Floyd to Montreal to try to get them into the playoffs (and gave up some prospects in the process), and he's made some bold moves with the Mets (Pedro, Beltran). He's not afraid to take a chance to make his team respectable. Some might call that impatient (I might also call it that), and two guys he gave up for Colon (Cliff Lee and Grady Sizemore) are playing well in Cleveland, so those deals didn't work out for him. I wouldn't be surprised if he turned around and tried to trade Cameron for another middle of the order type hitter in the near future. He may also be interested in a closer (because if he's interested in Sheffield, he obviously sees his Mets as a competitor NOW), so he'll be out there on the open market. Both the NY teams should be interesting to watch over the next month

and A-Rod, who's tearing up the league with his bat, deserves to go. I get very dissapointed when I see guys like Bellhorn and Millar even CLOSE to the top of the All-Star voting. I don't think there's a first baseman in the game worse than Millar, and Bellhorn's useful, but is he an All-Star? NO. Renteria-- not an All Star Mueller-- not an All Star (as much as I like him) These guys don't deserve votes. I BEG YOU. Stop making Red Sox fans look bad by voting for the above Red Sox who don't belong in Detroit this year.

Wow Joe. I have to jump on the Joe-bashing bandwagon here, because, well, those ideas are even worse than mine. I come up with some crazy ideas, and take a LOT of crap here because of it, but at least I have SOME logic behind my ideas. OK, Foulke and Embree I can understand, but Francona (despite some controversial decisions) is doing just fine. Hindsight is 20/20 my friend. Vazquez-- doesn't get enough playing time to stay sharp. The man plays once every two weeks, and you wonder why he strikes out. Shoppach-- is a kid brought up to fill a whole created by an injury. Sure, he went 0 for 11, but is that a reason to banish him from Boston forever? HELL NO. He's a great defensive catcher and he struggled during his MAJOR LEAGUE DEBUT. Give the kid some credit here. Miller as closer-- Already commented on, bad idea. Millar at 2nd base-- This could quite possibly be the stupidest idea I've ever heard. The man's below average as a first baseman, how in the HELL could he possibly play second? We'd be the laughing stock of baseball. Yes, Doug Mientkiewicz played ONE GAME as a second baseman last year, but the team was desimated by injuries, and this was a gold glove player... AND that experiment ended quickly. Nixon's the heart and soul of this team (along with Varitek). What does replacing him with Payton accomplish? (Especially if you want Nixon to hit second). I agree with Olerud getting more playing time at first, and I can see the logic behind batting Renteria 6th, but your 6 horrible ideas negate your 2 decent ones.

OK, Damon deserves it, but who's the knucklehead who voted for Millar, Bellhorn, Renteria, or Mueller? It's not like you pick the top 3, and NONE of these guys are at the top of their positions-- yet they get hundreds of thousands of votes. WHY?!?!?!?

The problem with this is-- do you think another team wants any part of this guy? He basically warned the baseball world that if he's traded from the Yankees, he "won't be happy." He even went so far as to say something like: "You don't want me in your clubhouse if I'm unhappy." Any logical GM wants to stay the hell clear of this guy, especially after those comments. He's a very talented hitter, and he doesn't cripple the team defensively, but why would you want to insert a guy with that attitude into your clubhouse?

So all Boston sports combined have fewer athletes (4) than JUST the Yankees (6). It's still not even close.

My only reservation about waiting until after the All Star Break would be that it'd be awfully nice to get him a start in the bigs BEFORE he'd have to face the Yankees. He could make a start during the weekend series at Baltimore, and still be able to make a start against the Yankees on full rest. Of course his minor league starts are partly to get him tuned up, but I'd hate to see him pitch against the Yankees and not be sharp.

The Yankees will make changes. The one thing they have that other clubs don't is the ability to take on salary. This gives them the power to get big-money players despite their lack of talent. Granted, I don't see many salary-dump options out there right now, so it will be interesting to monitor exactly what happens. If the Yankees improve their outfield defense, that will go a long way towards making the pitching staff look better. Maybe I'm just scarred from all of the Yankee comebacks, but They're not far out of the race and I can easily see them getting hot and putting themselves right back in the race. Yes, the Red Sox will be an improved team after the All Star break even if they don't make any deals (with Schilling coming back) but the Yankees are only 6 games out despite getting poor performances from Johnson, Mussina, and Pavano so far, and if those guys turn it around they could make it interesting. Zenny's stats are convincing, but I just can't count these guys out.

I'm curious-- how many Red Sox on that list? Manny's got to be on there at the very least-- and Schilling does tons of comercials.

Sheffield's a jerk, but I respect his ability to play baseball. Despite all that crap he's said in the past (and the controversy he seems to create everywhere he goes), he's still one of the most feared hitters in the game. I know I don't feel comfortable when he's facing the Sox. It's hard to get a feel for who initiated this deal. Some articles say the Yankees were "dangling" Sheffield, others say the Yankees were approached by the deal and said "No thanks." Either way, after Sheff's comments, it looks like this deal isn't going down. If I were the Yankees, I'd trade Sheffield for Cameron and Cairo. Cameron is a gold glove centerfielder (Something they need), and Cairo was very good playing every day for the Yankees last year. Cano has been good offensively, but inconsistent with the glove. A trade like that would really improve the defense, which this team needs. Yes, they'd be out a right fielder, but Juan Encarnacion would be available and like I said before, WAY better than Womack. An outfield of Matsui, Cameron, Encarnacion is better in my opinion than Womack, Matsui, Sheffield. One interesting report on the Yankees (I guess this'll become the official Yankee rumor thread) is that Quantrill and Stanton are no longer with the team. Are they released? Traded? The article doesn't say. Stay tuned: http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20050630&content_id=1109371&vkey=news_nyy&fext=.jsp&c_id=nyy

Toronto scares the crap out of me. Probably because they've played so well against us, but they're a decent team, and no doubt would love to beat up on us and get themselves back in the race. Hey-- they're only 6 games out-- same as NY.

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20050629&content_id=1108456&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb OK, not a Red Sox rumor, but this could be a pretty big deal: Gary Sheffield to the Mets for Mike Cameron and Miguel Cairo. Not a bad deal for the Yankees if you ask me. Cameron's pretty good in center and Cairo fixes their second base issues (He was good for them last season). The other Yankee rumor: Paul Quantrill to Florida for Juan Encarnacion-- also not a bad deal.... considering Quantrill's been pretty bad this year. Encarnacion is an average offensive outfielder with a good glove-- would absolutely be an upgrade over Womack (who wouldn't). Sounds like the Yankees could be in for a facelift-- and soon.

That Cleveland team is pesky. Got to give them credit even though we're 4-2 against them, they played us tough all 6 games. Timlin got the save but even he looked shaky. The bullpen looks pretty bad right now.

double crap. Crisp singles, first and third with the big boys coming up

crap. Peralta doubles and is on second with 2 out and the top of the order coming up for Cleveland.

Cora grounds out. Peralta up with 2 down.

Mike Timlin in for the ninth. No doubt Terry Francona will be questioned about this after the game, and no doubt he'll say it was because Foulke threw 40+ pitches yesterday. I hope Mike gets it done.

Mantei before coaches visit: 6 pitches, 6 balls. 1 walk Mantei after coaches visit: 8 pitches, 1 ball. 3 outs (1 K) Does Terry bring in Foulke for the ninth? I say he does, and I'm already nervous.

I just want to point out that John Olerud is 2-4 today, making him .405 for the season. So far, he's looking like a good pickup by Theo.... Mantei's on in relief of Wake (who made another tremendous start today) and he walked the first batter. C'mon Matt!

HR Mirabelli. 4-2 Sox. I'd say with our bullpen we need at least a 10 run lead to feel safe.

Sox tie it 2-2 with a Trot Nixon double. Nixon's on third with Mirabelli up.

Um, is anyone here? Sox get out of a jam via the double play. Still trail 2-1. Offense not doing much against Elarton

Last night's more horrible than most. At least the offense (with the exception of Monday) is chugging along nicely, with 8 runs last night against a tough starter and the bullpen (still ranked among baseball's best). We're still in first place We're still winning without a dominant closer, or an ace, or even a respectable bullpen. As RedSoxRooter would say-- We're still World Champions Wade Miller will get better (Won't he?)

At the very least can we option this guy to the minors so he can pitch often-- and get himself straightened out?

What he said.