The Arbitrary ChuckJerry

The Boston Red Sox traded Nomar Garciaparra to the Cubs yesterday and got Doug Mientkiewicz and Orlando Cabrera from the Twins and Expos, respectively. This was a hugely complicated deal, so I won't try to outline it, suffice it to say that th Red Sox were the catalyst of this deal.

The Sox needed desperately to shore up their defense. They look like the Bad News Bears from time to time on the field and Cabrera and Mientkiewicz are both solid defenders. I just can't believe how quickly the relationship between Nomar and Boston soured. I wish Jimmy Fallon hadn't left SNL because there would have been a great skit with Rachel Dratch and him either mourning his loss or dissing him or something.

Nomar was the next best thing to Larry Bird, Ted Williams, Cam Nealy, and Tom Brady in Boston. As soon as they were gonna get A-Rod, everyone forgot about him and was ready to sell him out. Even his own teammates were on ESPN talking about how they wanted A-Rod and they were ready for a future without Nomar (and without Manny Ramirez too, incidentally). How can you sell out a guy who hit .356 and .372 in consecutive seasons? That's unbelievable.

The Cubs are wild card favorites, all of a sudden. Between Sammy Sosa, Moises Alou, and Nomar, they've got some serious hurt in that lineup. If they can get Kerry Wood and Mark Prior healthy, they're gonna be unstoppable through September.