The rest of the AL East at the Trade Deadline

The All star break generally marks the unofficial halfway point of the MLB season with all teams having played more than 81 games. as of right now the standings are thus:

AL East	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
New York Yankees	52	33	.612	—	25–16	27–17
Baltimore Orioles	45	40	.529	7	22–20	23–20
Tampa Bay Rays	45	41	.523	7½	24–19	21–22
Boston Red Sox	43	43	.500	9½	22–24	21–19
Toronto Blue Jays	43	43	.500	9½	23–19	20–24

The Yankees are a full 7 games up on the Orioles but the rest of the division is very close to one another and they all suffer from a lot of problems and only the Yankees have been over .500 the last 10 games. I talked about the Yankees necessary moves earlier.

Baltimore Orioles
The Fighting Showalters came out of the gate on top and their pitching had been decent which is a big step up from absolutely horrible which had been the norm. Their bullpen ERA still ranks as the second best in baseball but their starter ERA now ranks 26th with no starter being particularly good with Chen and Hammel having fallen back down to earth. Their offense hasn't fared much better as of late as they have fallen down to 19th. They traded for Jim Thome and have been linked to Zach Greinke, but quite frankly buying big pieces would be a bad idea for Baltimore. The Fighting Showalters have played way above their heads and their -36  run differential shows that. Dan Duquette has the right idea with investing in pitching but the team isnt one pitcher away they are three pitchers away from contending. The crap the Orioles throw out there for 3 out of five games is awful, Brian Matusz was the best of the three before being demoted and his ERA was 5.42! Their pitching is almost as bad as Boston and Toronto's and their offense is worse than Tampa Bays, you cannot win with that and I doubt it will get better. The Orioles should give every opportunity to their young players and maybe try and swing a deal for a starter who is under team control such as Matt Garza or Wandy Rodriguez. I'd love to see the Orioles make the playoffs but I think they finish .500 at best.

Toronto Blue Jays
I did not realize how good the Jays offense was this year until I looked it up which shows just how bad their pitching has been. The Jays are in the top three and Bautista and Encarnacion are both crushing the ball as is the rest of the lineup but that pitching staff has been devastated by injury and they relied too much on their internal pitching. The Jays have a real shot of making the postseason if they can assemble a decent pitching staff but like the Orioles they do not need one pitcher as much as they need three fifths of a rotation. Toronto is really close but I think what they need to try and do is extend Encarnacion and possibly Johnson and if they cannot then trade them. The Blue Jays have some really good pieces in Morrow, Romero and Alvarez but they need some solid inning eaters and should target some team controlled pitchers. Garza is a really good fit for Toronto as he has experience in the AL east and is a solid pitcher who eats innings and is a top of the rotation pitcher. Jason Vargas is another possibility and Alex Anthopoulos loves making trades.

Tampa Bay Rays
Unfortunately for the Rays they came into the year with a lot of expectations and alot has been going wrong for them. Pena has been mediocre, Longoria has been hurt, the signings of Luke Scott and Hideki Matsui have not worked well and to top it all off they are 29th in attendance which is just wrong. Sorry Tampa Bay, I know your stadium is crap and that it is actually in St.Petersburg but you have made the playoffs three of the last four years and if you don't go then you don't deserve an MLB team. The Rays are considering selling but they also have arguably the best rotation in the MLB and are still definitely in contention. Even on a down year the Rays could get a ton for James Shields but thst might also kill their chances of winning this year. The Rays need offense and they really can't solve that problem through free agency with their lack of fans. If the Rays want to win this season then they should try getting interesting with some trades, try getting the Cubs to pick up almost everything of Alfonso Soriano's contract for prospects or trade BJ Upton for a shortstop or catcher. Unfortunately for the Rays the team they match up with the best is probably the Toronto Blue Jays as they have both Catcher and Shortstop to spare and desperately need a solid starting pitcher who can eat innings and is under team control, which is James Shields to a T. Even without any moves the Rays should be in the thick of the playoff race.

Boston Red Sox
The thing that people in New York have the biggest trouble understanding is that in Connecticut we have non pink haters here who still think that the Red Sox are this gritty underdogs. The fact is that the Red Sox are a top-5 big market team and have the same pressure from their fan base to always win that the Yankees do. The Red Sox are in a situation right now where they do not have the money to pursue what they need which is a good starting pitcher and do not have the balls to make a big move. They made bad moves in signing Lackey and Crawford and now they are totally handcuffed by these moves. The biggest problem for the Sox is that they have a bunch of mediocre starting pitchers who are getting paid a lot of money and have no real depth behind them, just to point out Felix Doubront is their best starter with an ERA of 4.41. That being said this team is not hopeless but they do rank 27th in terms of starter ERA and have honestly been facing a lot of crappy teams. Fans seem to want to blow the team up and you could definitely get a big haul if you blow it up, but you need to improve that rotation and get some good bullpen pieces as that bullpen is not as good as it appears.  I seriously doubt that the Sox have the balls to make any big trades that shake things up, I mean it took them how long to trade their declining, soon to be free agent third baseman despite already having his replacement?

The end result is that every team in the AL East except the Yankees have giant holes that they need to fill with anyone of them being possible buyers or sellers at the deadline.

Best Moves for the AL East!

The AL east is the best division in baseball and it has possibly the three best teams in all of baseball. In the last ten years an AL East team has won six American league pennants and three world series. With the exception of the Orioles all the teams are competitive and if the last four years prove anything its that any of these teams could wind up winners.

Baltimore Orioles
The Orioles are really bad and they are years away from competing again. They have not posted a winning record since 1997 and it seems all of their top prospects have fallen short or been injury riddled. The Orioles office and fanbase must be distressed to see the success of the Tampa Bay Rays who have fewer resources but have been competitive due to building on excellent player development. The Orioles really could use a complete reboot, but the organization is such a mess that multiple people have turned down the job to be the GM of the Orioles. They now are going to be moving forward with Dan Duquette as the GM, who last was the GM for Boston from 1994-2001. The Orioles will be futile for the next few years and the better move for them would be to try and build on undervalued pieces much like the Rays did in the beginning and focus on drafting and player development because their current system has not worked for them. The Orioles will however again overpay for a DH like Vlad Guerrero or Johnny Damon and could target a big name free agent, which is not what they should be doing right now. Blowing it up could be an option but I doubt that will help, because the issue seems to be player development, not a lack of talent. The best move may be to try and trade for some pitchers who can eat innings like they did with Tommy Hunter. A good pitcher for them to target would probably be Wandy Rodriguez as he pitches a lot of innings and does so with a sub four ERA in the last four years. That's a much better idea for the Orioles than trying to sign Prince Fielder. This is a long term project, which is unfortunate considering their lack of winning in the last 15 years.

Toronto Blue Jays
 The Jays have a nice crop of young players in the majors and in the minors and they currently posses an above average offense that will be boosted with the additions of Colby Rasmus and Brett Lawrie over a full year. The Jays seem like a middle market team but they are actually a big market team on par with the potential to be on par with Boston and New York. The reason the Jays aren't contending right now is that they are not quite ready for prime time as their pitching staff after Romero is still developing despite a plethora of young talented pitchers. There has been a lot of talk about the Jays trading for Votto and while it is very enticing for the Blue Jays to have a pair of talented young Canadian players at the infield corners, I think that trading for Votto will be more of an option next off season. The Blue Jays could be a breakout team for this season but I think 2013 is a much more likely possibility for them, as this year should be focused on developing their starters and figuring out what they will do at Shortstop, Second base and Left Field. The Jays currently have Yunel Escobar at Shortstop, but they have Adeiny Hechavarria who is number nine on the top ten shortstops prospects in baseball. For this reason the Jays will likely try and resign Kelly Johnson to a one year deal before transitioning Hechavarria or Escobar to second. Some people think that the Jays will pursue David Ortiz but they are much more likely to stick with Edwin Encarnacion at DH due to Encarnacion being under contract for 2012 for just $3.5 million and Ortiz's production likely to decline in the next few years. The Blue Jays could be in the market for a mid level starter and left fielder like David Dejesus or Edwin Jackson, but the only big name free agent I see them pursing is a top flight closer like K-Rod or Ryan Madson, but they could end trying for a bounce back closer like Joe Nathan or Jonathon Broxton. If the Jays spend big it could very well be for a Japanese import and they very well could be the best suitor for Yu Darvish as they have the monetary resources and less pressure to succeed immediately as he would in New York. The Jays will likely be active on the trade market as they have been part of three big trades the last two seasons and their plethora of prospects haven't been diminished through any of them. The Jays have a protected draft pick due to failing to sign their 1st round draft pick and so signing a type A free agent is a possibility but its more likely they develop their prospects for a serious run in the next few years.


Boston Red Sox
The Red Sox were the ultimate chokers last year as they completely fell apart in every aspect in September. On top of that their rotation is now full of question marks as is the bullpen who just lost Jonathon Papelbon to the Phillies before they even had time to make an offer. Even if they move Aceves to the rotation then they open up another hole in their bullpen and still need to add another starter. They also are reportedly pursing Carlos Beltran and while this isnt a good move it may be the best option for them. Signing Beltran would be risky and they may be better suited to putting Josh Reddick in Right Field, but I think they will feel the need to make a big splash and signing Beltran could be that move. Reddick could very likely prove to be a valuable trade piece especially since the Boston farm system was proven to be not nearly as good as Boston had been claiming. The idea of Reddick for Wandy Rodriguez has come up and it could be a very good one for Boston to make as Wandy has pitched at least 190 innings for three years and the Astros are looking to move him. The good news for Boston is that they do not need to pursue top of the rotation arms, but they need to find a pair of back of the rotation arms and build depth because they have zero depth options in AAA as last seasons collapse proved. The Red Sox AAA depth is so bad that if D.J Mitchell had been with them he would have been the best rotation candidate by far and its possible that he will not even have a rotation spot at the Yankees AAA this coming season. The Sox will be looking for a bounce back year from Carl Crawford and a healthy year from Kevin Youkillis but will need good depth because neither is guaranteed to happen and Youkillis's health is even more in doubt. The Red Sox will likely have Jed Lowrie and Marco Scutaro for Shortstop and infield bench help, so the focus will be almost entirely on their pitching. While the Sox could try and sign the top free agent pitches, it would probably be better for them to invest in several low risk High reward pitchers like the Yankees did with Colon and Garcia.The Red Sox will also need to hope that Buchholz and Becket can stay healthy because they really can not afford anymore losses to their rotation and they both had trouble staying healthy. The Red Sox will want to have a good year and make the playoffs or else they will be looked at the number three team in the division behind the Yankees and Rays.

Tampa Bay Rays
 The Rays have been able to build a consistent contender with a limited payroll, no fan support and a bad stadium. The Rays actually have too much pitching depth and will likely trade one or more starters to try and boost their offense. The Rays could sign a veteran DH like they did with Johnny Damon but a better option may be for them to trade for options offense rather than sign it. The best fit is probably the Kansas City Royals who have 1st/DH prospect Clint Robinson who really should be in the majors but there is nowhere for him with Eric Hosmer and Billy Butler blocking him. A trade of Wade Davis or Jeff Niemann for Clint Robinson would seem to be ideal to me as he would provide the team with six years of a cheap DH rather than spending $5 million a year on older players. Also as good as B.J Upton is the team will probably look to move him for prospects and the team that will likely be the most interested is the Washington Nationals who could prove especially enticing if the team does not resign Casey Kotchman as they can trade prospect Chris Marrero who would also be a young cheap player under team control for several more years. The Rays could try and lock up Kotchman but that would depend on their beleif that this was a breakout year for Kotchman and that he can hit for the average that he did this season over the course of the deal. It may be better for the Rays to take the money they would give to Kotchman and a free agent DH and instead focusing on trying to extend David Price and Matt Joyce. The one problem for the Rays if they do trade B.J Upton then they will need to decide if they trust Brandon Guyer as the everyday left fielder because otherwise they will be having Sam Fuld take a lot more AB then he should. If the Rays can improve their offense then they could easily be the division favorites with the best rotation in the AL East. The biggest concern for the Rays however will continue to be how to get people through the door as consistent contention and three playoff appearances in the last four years hasn't been able to do it.

New York Yankees
The Yankees won the division despite the nearly universal assumption that the Red Sox would win. The good news for the Yankees is that they have no real holes and instead will be focusing on upgrading their rotation and possibly finding a LOOGY. Several options have been raised for the Yankees rotation but the two best are probably signing Yu Darvish and/ or trading for John Danks. The Yankees have a plethora of back of the rotation arms and they should definitely let Noesi, Warren and Phelps compete with Burnett and Hughes for their spots in the rotation. The Yankees want a top of the rotation arm and either could be that option but neither is guaranteed. People tend to bash Asian pitchers but just because Kei Igawa and Dice-K failed does not mean you should forget about players like Hiroki Kuroda who has been great since coming over. Its also entirely possible that the Yankees could retain Freddy Garcia and stop there but that would be a little surprising for them to skip out on the top pitchers two years in a row. The Yankees also have a lot of trade pieces that they will likely try to move as they are starting to create a logjam behind the plate and in the AAA rotation. The Yankees will almost definitely try and move Austin Romine or Francisco Cervelli this off season and will have to either move somebody to the bullpen or trade them. They could end up trading for prospects, bench or bullpen help or make a big deal for Starter or a Right Fielder. The best move for the Yankees after adding a starter would probably be to put Burnett on a short leash and if he starts to consistently struggle to move him to the bullpen and give one of the prospects a shot in the rotation, it sucks but the Yankees shouldn't be putting out a bad pitcher every five games if they have a better option. I would also recommend letting Joba try starting again as he comes back from Tommy John surgery because the worst case scenario is he doesn't seem to have it and you move him back to the bullpen while he rehabs, but I do not expect the Yankees will do this.

There is no clear favorite for the AL East this season and as we saw last year being the favorite means nothing. That being said how much better will the Sox and Yankees be if Carl Crawford, Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira can have better years? And how good will the Rays be with Matt Moore, James Shields, Jeremy Hellickson and David Price all in the rotation?

4/3 Yankees and other notes

The Yankees failed to sweep the tigers as Hughes and Colon both got roughed up by the Tigers 10-7. The two teams combined for 14 HR, with 7 of those coming in today's loss. Here are some notes on the Yankees:

• Burnett looked okay, but he was apparently sick during the game so hopefully that means he will be even better next time around as he should likely be facing off against Francisco Liriano and the Twins.
• This first series was utterly forgettable for Brett Gardner and Derek Jeter as both combined for 4 hits and those all came in Saturdays game. But it is only 3 games so should be nothing to worry about.
• After Eduardo Nunez's error in Saturdays game I already want Ramiro Pena back.
• Russel Martin is hitting .455, A-Rod .400 and slow start Tex has 3 HR and 7 RBI's after 3 games. (He had 9 RBI's all last April) check it out
• I know its one start and its one start against one of the best offenses in baseball, but I am really concerned about Phil Hughes. He looks like he did last year after the all-star break and his velocity is still down. He gave up 5 runs on 5 hits in 4 innings. He could not put batters away racking up 1 K in 90 pitches.He needs to make a change NOW because his next start is against the Sox in Fenway.
• Bartolo Colon was a mixed bag with 5K's in 4 innings, but he gave up 4 runs and 6 hits in 4 innings. Mitre did better than that. However its only April, but I still would prefer Aceves.(who is in Sox AAA to start the season)
• The Sox got swept by the Rangers and while both teams offense's looked good the Red Sox pitching was very poor and their $142 million dollar man got bumped down to 7th today. Dropping Crawford in the order from 3rd to 7th really surprised me as its the 3rd game and they just payed him 142 million small market scrappy dollars and i wouldn't want to start off 7 years by dropping him down after two games.
• Bad news for the Rays as Evan Longoria was put on the DL for an oblique strain and he will miss at least 3 weeks according to Joe Madden. Also Manny and Damon have combined for a grand total of 1 hit and Damon was scratched today due to calf tightness.
• O's are in first, Toronto and the Yankees are both tied for second and the Sox and rays are on pace for 0-162 seasons.
• All that confidence that Brewers fans about this season was crushed by the Big Red Machine. Its only April, but the Brewers looked really bad in Cinncinati and so does my pick of them to win the NL Central.
• Matt Holiday had an appendectomy. Could the Yankees try and trade for Chris Carpenter?
• The Astros look awful. Is Brett Myers as good as that one start suggests and could the Yankees target him?
• The Yankees play the Twins for the teams only meeting in the Bronx this season. Lets hope the Yankees take over from where they left off in the ALDS.

The Rest of the Division

Lets take a look at the rest of the American league East and how they did this off-season and how they hope to fair in 2011. Every team in the division made some big moves and signing this off-season and it looks like the east could become more and more competitive as time goes on.

Baltimore Orioles: Key additions- Derrek Lee, J.J. Hardy, Mark Reynolds, Vladimir Guerrero, Kevin Gregg, Jeremy Accardo, and resigned Koji Uehar.
Key Losses- Ty Wigginton, Kevin Millwood

With the late signing of Vlad Guerrero as well as the additions of Derrek Lee and Mark Reynolds the Orioles offense has made up for their loss of Ty Wigginton and added some real pop to the middle of their lineup. They have also improved their pitching with the addition of Kevin Gregg and Justin Duchscherer. Buck Showalter has really turned the Orioles around and while at best they will be contending for third place in the AL East, Showalter has been able to maximize production from the Orioles and he could do a great job developing the team  for the next few years until they are hopefully able to contend in the division. There are some negatives for the Orioles and the main one has to be that while the team improved its pitching and offense, they are still likely the worst team in the east in every category. Also by signing Vlad they take Luke scott out the DH role and so he will be competing with Pie and Winn for the left field spot and it seems to me that it should be more important for the young orioles to get as much playing time as possible than for them to sign Vlad, because the Orioles need to build a team that will compete in the future and signing Vlad for a year doesn't really seem to help them do that.


Tampa Bay Rays: Key additions- Manny Ramirez, Johnny Damon, Kyle Farnsworth and Joel Peralta and a lot of other small pieces
Key Losses- Grant Balfour, Jason Bartlett, Randy Choate, Joaquin Benoit, Carl Crawford, Matt Garza, Dioner Navarro, Chad Qualls, Carlos Pena, Dan Wheeler, Rafael Soriano


The Rays lost a lot of players and traded away Bartlett and Garza, but this team made some good pic ups and some very surprising ones by adding old superstars Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon to go along with their current superstars Evan Longoria and David Price. Some have said that the Rays will be able to contend this year and that remains a remote possibility, but the signing of Manny and Damon should show people what the rays are trying to do. The Rays new coming into this year that it would be very hard for them to compete this year if they did well or awful, I actually remarked to my friend (a sox fan) that the Rays would likely lose all their free agents and trade a starting pitcher no matter how they finished the year. The Rays picked up Manny and Damon in order to keep people in the stands and let their prospects develop more in the Rays fantastic farm system. The Rays have showed in the past that when everything is clicking they are one of the best teams in baseball, but when one part of their team struggles the team runs into trouble as a whole, keep in mind this team has been no hit three times since July of 09 and two of those were perfect games. The Rays don't have the payroll to keep their big time free agents and unlike the Royals they know that when they are building they need to keep their fans interested and that is what the Rays are trying to do this year as you can note with incentives in Damons deal.


Toronto Blue Jays: Key Additions- Frank Francisco, Rajai Davis, Octavio Dotal, Jon Rauch
Key Losses- Vernon Wells, John Buck, Scott Downs, Kevin Gregg, Shaun Marcum

The biggest note from the Blue Jays was their dumping of Vernon Wells massive contract that had crippled them since 06. They got Juan Rivera and Mike Napoli from the angels and they promptly traded Napoli to the rangers and are looking to trade Rivera. They also traded last years opening day starter Shaun Marcum to the brewers for infield prospect Brett Lawrie. The Jays acquired Rajai Davis to take over in Center field and the rest of their additions are to try and keep their bullpen at the same level it was last year despite not having a true closer. Unfortunately they missed on Russel Martin and as a result lack an established starting Catcher, but they do poses J. P. Arencibia who is the top Cathcing prospect for the Jays and they failed to get a Starting 3rd Baseman so that they could move Jose Bautista to Right Field. With Vernon Wells Mega contract gone the Jays now have some financial flexibility and they showed that when they signed Bautista to a 5 year $65 million deal, which if he produces like last year will prove to be very team friendly. The Jays will be unlikely to be in the playoff race this year and at the trade deadline they could be looking to buy some cheap pieces to fill the holes. The first thing that the Jays are gonna want to do is get fans to the game which despite Bautista's 54 HR the average attendance actually fell by about 3,000 from 2009. Go to the game people of Toronto at the very least the Jays will hit a lot of Home Runs and its a lot more entertaing than watching the Maple Leafs suck year after year.

Boston Red Sox: Key Additions- Carl Crawford, Bobby Jenks, Adrian Gonzalez, Dan Wheeler
Key Loses- Mike Lowell, Victor Martinez, Adrian Beltre, Bill Hall

Many Red Sox fans still think that they are underdogs to the Yankees which is laughable and all you Connecticut Yankees/non-Sox fans know especially well that Sox fans will forever operate under this delusion that they they believe themselves the constant underdogs no matter their payroll. The Red Sox failed to make the post season and their ratings dropped 36%, so ownership knew that they need to win to keep current sox fans happy. My friend the Sox fan has been trying to justify to me how the Sox are still the underdogs despite their $142 million 7 year deal for crawford. The Sox have put a lot of faith into Crawford being able to keep his speed until his mid 30's and only time will tell if that faith is justified. The other big deal that the Sox had was their Trade for Adrian Gonzalez, the Sox have put off signing Gonzalez to an extension to avoid more luxury tax, but they will have to and they will have to hope that he comes back 100% from his shoulder surgery and if he does he will be a monster in Fenway. The Sox also appear to have accepted that Papelbon will have another shaky year and so they acquired Dan wheeler and Bobby Jenks to assist Daniel Bard (who could have been a Yankee) in moving on from him. Despite the claims that this will be the best Red Sox team ever they have to hope that a lot of things go right. Last offseason the Sox signed Lackey for 5 years $86 million and extended  Becket for 4 years $68 million. Neither of these guys pitched well, Becket due to Injury and Lackey due to being overrated and sucking, but the Sox seem to think that both these guys will bounce back and be fine, but he never looked good after his May injury last year and face it Lackey was overrated. Dice K only had 153 inning pitched and posted an ERA worse than Ivan Nova's and he also has a history of Injury problems and so the Red Sox are looking at John Lester and Clay Buckholtz to repat their great 2010 seasons. I'm not saying that the Red Sox pitching staff is bad I'm just saying that Dice-K, Beckett and Lackey will sink the Red Sox but its a lot to say that they will just miraculously be better. The Red Sox offense also has a lot riding on speculation, Yes if Gonzalez comes back 100% he will be fantastic, but their is also the concern about Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Ellsbury all staying healthy and Ortiz being productive and Saltalamacchia and Ellsbury hitting above .200. If the Red Sox stay healthy then they could run away with the division but 162 games is a long time and if the injury bug strikes again they could find themselves playing golf again in October.

To top it all off not a single spring training game has been played and anything can happen during a season let alone before it even beings.

MLB Offseason Update

Well no sooner did I wright my article yesterday about the remaining top free agents that two more signed a deal today. The Rays signed both Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez making them teammates again since their days together on the Red Sox from 2002 to 2005. Damon's deal is worth $5.25MM plus a potential $750K in bonus money based on attendance; Damon lives in Orlando and would have to make a difference at the gate. He would get $150,000 each for every 10K people after 1.75 MM, in home attendance.  Ramirez's deal is worth $2MM and he will undoubtedly be the DH while Damon will be the starting left fielder, after posting a .298/.409/.460 slash line in 320 plate appearances in 2010 Ramirez will definitely earn that $2MM if he puts up similar numbers. Damon's incentives will be hard to earn as he would have to keep attendance the same from last year to earn even the first level of his attendance bonus and his $5.25 base salary essentially offsets the salary they saved in trading Garza and while his offense is much better than Ben Zobrist's .230 his defense is very questionable. Both of these deals are pending physicals and have yet to be announced.
Vlad Guerrero is also apparently nearing a deal with the Orioles for a "humbling" 1 year deal. This would be a sure bargain for the O's after  Vlad hit .300 last year with 29 HR's and 115 RBI's and he would undoubtedly be the O's DH. No exacts on the amount but i would say probably between $2.5MM and $4MM. I have to question whether this deal is true or not as yesterday a similar story came out and was soon declared false.

In other MLB news The Blue Jays traded Vernon Wells for Juan Rivera and Mike Napoli, Wells still has four years left on his massive $126MM deal. The deal has earned praise for Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos and left many Angels fans scratching their heads and personally I don't understand the deal either. There really doesn't seem to be any upside to this deal for the Angels as they add a lot of salary for another old declining outfielder and they lose their starting catcher who hit 26 HR's last year and right now are looking at Jeff Mathis as their starting catcher when he IS the worst backup in the game. This deal could affects two of the three Molina's as it would seem that Jose Molina is out of the back up job unless Napoli is viewed as a first baseman by the Jays.  Don't feel to bad for Jose because he or his brother Bengie or even Chad Moeller are all better options at starting catcher than Mathis. The Angels have also said that they could still be in the market for a lead-off hitter but I doubt they will replace Peter Bourjos in the outfield and I don't see where they can add another player. The one positive of this trade for the Angels is that it makes the Angels outfield arguably the best defensive outfield in baseball and the best in a very good AL West. 
I would not be surprised to see Scott Podsednik sign with the Jays soon as he was an option for lead-off for the Jays and they now have a glaring hole in center that either he or Fred Lewis could fill.

Nothing new from the Yankees but they are still looking for another starter who could still end up being Andy Pettitte. I will be writing soon about the Yankees options for a fifth starter and their options for a fifth Outfielder. It is only 23 days until Pitchers and catcher report.