El Guapo's Ghost Rambles on about the Red Sox

EVERYONE BUT EL GUAPO'S GHOST...

appears to be calling the Beltran/Garica/Damon rumor - just that a rumor and a foolish one.

“Yeah, I've been hearing about that,”Baird said. “I don't want to get in the position of confirming or denying every trade rumor. But I'll say this, we need Carlos Beltran to get back into this thing.

Don Theo had an even stronger tone,

``It's not true,'' Epstein said before last night's 9-3 Red Sox win over Toronto. ``I try to touch base with as many teams as possible, but there's nothing to that one.''

First off, Baird does not deny the report, which is a smart move. Anytime a club or player has a deal in the works with either the Sox or MFY, the non-superpower party should leak the story to bring the other AL East club to the table thereby increasing their leverage. Play the Sox and MFY off one another. If the Royals leaked the story to a Seattle paper instead of the local media, Baird deserves two gold stars. Secondly, Theo is certainly going to deny the rumor. The Sox gain nothing from confirming any discussion. Third, many folks have debunked the trade rumor due to its lopsided appearance, but the known quantities/major leaguers could only be the principals in the deal. Cash and minor leaguers would be worked out once the clubs agreed to the meat of the deal.

With that being said, my head tells me that this deal is not going to happen. It is to involved to get accomplished in the middle of the season and the leak will bring in the MFY or another club
in to trump any Sox-Beltran deal. My heart, Beltran is probably my favorite non-Red Sox player, wants this deal to go down so I can invest in a Sox home jersey with #51 on the back.

Other Ramblings
1. Sub-par defense again last night.
2. Dauber needs to get plate appearances while he is hot.
3. Foulke pitching with a six run lead in the ninth is defendable, since he has not gotten into a game in two straight days and Monday is an off day. Williamson's appearance is not. S.W. pitching three consecutive days makes him likely not available today and possibly for Sunday's finally. The eighth was a perfect time for Brown with Foulke as his backup. Tito, your club was up six runs; it was the best time for S.W.
4. The MFY have to be concerned with Mussina. He is only getting 5.21 K/9 with a 1.88 K/BB. Mussina's career numbers are 7.13 K/9 and 3.52 K/BB.

Jason Stark gets it right again.

Five months from now, when the regularly scheduled complaining begins about the baseball playoffs running past midnight in the east, can someone remember to bring up the NBA?

If baseball had a marquee series remotely resembling Lakers-Spurs -- and Game 6 was scheduled to start at 10:30 p.m. Eastern time -- we'd be reading columns from every TV critic in America about baseball turning its back on its fans. Not to mention 100 letters to the editor from fans saying they would never watch another baseball game.

But the NBA gets its usual pass. Just more proof of the double standard relentlessly applied to baseball, versus all those other sports. Got an explanation for that? We'd love to hear it.