Perhaps Werth experienced an epiphany of self-actualization, or perhaps the Dodgers were simply preoccupied with other matters. Manny being Bannied and all that.
Bard, a former first round pick and teammate of Andrew Miller's at Carolina (boo), is almost certainly headed out of Boston today. One scenario has him rolling to the ATL, or Mississippi as it were.
Besides the Red Sox, five other teams are discussing Ohman with the Braves, who are looking for a pitching prospect in return. A logical name that might surface in trade talks with Atlanta from the Red Sox farm system is Double-A pitcher Daniel Bard, who is 2-1 with a 2.63 ERA in 37 2/3 innings pitched for the Sea Dogs this season.
Of course, the other scenario is the increasingly likely Manny Ramirez Three Way (ew) deal between Pittsburgh, Boston and Florida. That freaky deal between such unlikely suitors would end up sending Bard to Pittsburgh in a package that would swap out Jason Bay and ManRam.
The Ohman deal sounds pretty freaking good for the Braves -- the middle reliever is a free agent after this year anyway, and it's unlikely the Braves would actually retain him. So picking up a pitcher of Bard's potential would be a nice follow up to the Teixeira debacle trade by Frank Wren (I'm sorry, I just feel like they could have gotten more).
Wren might be putting the press on Beane, and he should, but the problem that moving Manny is the first priority will likely remain until later in the afternoon.
With the trade deadline right around the corner, our MLB editor brings you the top five rumors every day until July 31.
- The Marlins are the forgotten team in the NL East race, but they have a very real chance at making the postseason and are the most active team less than 24 hours before the trade deadline. Florida is looking for everything. The club is believed to be close to dealing for Mariners left-handed reliever Arthur Rhodes. The Fish have also made inquiries with San Diego about Josh Bardand Toronto about Gregg Zaun as they try to shore up the catcher position with Matt Treanor injured.
Most surprisingly, they might be at the head of the pack for Boston slugger Manny Ramirez. A proposed deal would send either left fielder Josh Willingham or right fielder Jeremy Hermida to the Red Sox in exchange for Ramirez, with Boston picking up the remaining portion of the $20 million owed to the disgruntled slugger. The Marlins would also have to agree not to pick up Ramirez's option at the end of the season. Florida is often accused of being cheap. You can't say it isn't trying this year.
- The Jason Bay market appears to be heating up. Both the Rays and Cardinals have had serious discussions with Pittsburgh about acquiring the left fielder. Tampa Bay would seem to have the upper hand since it has the better farm system and does not play in the same division as the Pirates. GM Neal Huntington is believed to have asked for shortstop prospect Reid Brignac and pitching prospect Jeremy Hellickson, with Hellickson believed to be the sticking point. There is also late word that the Red Sox could jump into the Bay talks as part of a three-way deal that would send Ramirez to Florida, prospects to Pittsburgh and Bay to Boston.
With the trade deadline right around the corner, our MLB editor brings you the top five rumors every day until July 31.
- Mark Teixeira is off the board, leaving a bunch of lesser players in the rumor mill. The best non-Teixeira rumors continue to surround Manny Ramirez, despite the fact that he is unlikely to be moved before the July 31 deadline. The Red Sox might be more reticent than ever to deal Ramirez with Teixeira off the table. He was the most obvious replacement for Ramirez's production (with Kevin Youkilis moving to left field in a potential deal). But Boston seems so fed up with the slugger it might move him anyway. So the question is, where?
Manny Ramirez, Red Sox Buzz: Boston is exploring possible deals for the slugger, but it remains unlikely he'll be moved before the deadline. The Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Phillies and Mets are believed to be the teams interested in the slugger.
Christian Petersen, Getty Images
Jose Guillen, Royals Buzz: Though he just signed with Kansas City last winter, Guillen is reportedly unhappy with manager Trey Hillman and would like a trade.
G. Newman Lowrance, Getty Images
Will Ohman, Braves Buzz: Mark Teixeira probably won't be the only player leaving Atlanta before the deadline. Ohman, a left-handed reliever, will probably get moved as well.
Drew Hallowell, Getty Images
A.J. Burnett, Blue Jays Buzz: With the Blue Jays back over the .500 mark, Toronto is planning to hold on to Burnett. A deal now looks like a longshot.
Jonathan Daniel, Getty Images
Jarrod Washburn, Mariners Buzz: The Yankees are stuck in a holding pattern as they try to acquire Washburn. New York is interested in him as a salary dump, but Seattle would prefer quality prospects. With the remaining money on his deal, the southpaw could sneak through waivers in an August trade.
Otto Greule Jr, Getty Images
Matt Holliday, Rockies Buzz: Colorado is believed to have pulled Holliday off the market as it attempts to make a push in the NL West.
Doug Pensinger, Getty Images
Brian Fuentes, Rockies Buzz: The Rockies are unlikely to trade their closer as they try to make a push in the NL West.
Doug Pensinger, Getty Images
LaTroy Hawkins Buzz: Hawkins, who was released recently after struggling with the Yankees, is drawing interest from both the Twins and Tigers.
Nick Laham, Getty Images
Jason Bay, Pirates Buzz: With Pittsburgh's asking price for Bay high, the market around the outfielder seems to have cooled. The Braves were reportedly on the verge of a deal this weekend for the outfielder, but it was nixed by Pirates ownership.
Nick Laham, Getty Images
Brian Giles, Padres Buzz: Giles is an on-base machine and a solid defender who could give a contender looking for a corner bat a boost. The Mets are one of the teams that may have interest in the outfielder.
Doug Pensinger, Getty Images
The Dodgers have moved to the front of the line for Ramirez, offering an outfielder in return -- believed to be either Matt Kemp or Andre Ethier and perhaps prospects. When Teixeira was still available, it was believed they would spin those players to Atlanta for the first basemen, but the Red Sox could hold onto someone like Kemp, who could equal Ramirez's value when you account for defense. The Diamondbacks are unlikely to make a move for Ramirez, especially considering GM Josh Byrnes' familiarity with the slugger (he worked under Theo Epstein in Boston). Ditto for the Phillies. The Mets are very difficult to read, with the team claiming they have no interest and media reports saying otherwise.
- The Royals could infuse some late life into the outfield market if they decide to make Jose Guillen available. Guillen signed a three-year, $36 million deal with Kansas City this winter, but there are rumors that he's unhappy with manager Trey Hillman. Guillen has denied the reports, but he is not known as a great clubhouse guy and he had a very public and messy feud with Mike Scioscia in his last days with the Angels. On the other hand, he is only 32 and is still productive. After hitting .183 in April, Guillen has hit .288 since.
With the trade deadline right around the corner, our MLB editor brings you the top five rumors every day until July 31.
- The elephant in the room four days from the trade deadline is Manny Ramirez, who once again is on shaky ground in Boston. In a perfect world, the Red Sox would love to rid themselves of the near-constant headache that Ramirez provides. In practice, they are still very much in the hunt for their third World Series in five years and would need to replace his production in step with any deal. That makes the completion of any trade unlikely in the next few days.
Joel Sherman and Mike Puma of the New York Post run down the potential list of suitors for Ramirez, and because of Boston's desire to ship him out of the American League, it is a very short one. The Dodgers, Diamondbacks, Mets and Phillies are the teams with both the need and the financial wherewithal to pick up the tab for Ramirez's $20 million deal. Because the left fielder has 10-5 rights (10 years in the league, five with the same team) he can veto any deal the Red Sox put together. That leads Sherman and Puma to conclude that Ramirez would only accept a deal to Philadelphia, where he would be reunited with manager Charlie Manuel, who was his hitting coach in Cleveland.
As we all sit around and wait for the blockbuster deals involving Johan Santana and Miguel Cabrera to take place, there have been a couple of smaller trades going down the last few days.
Ascanio is a hard-throwing 22-year old righthander with limited big league experience. He has a mid-90's fastball, and in his 16 innings with Atlanta out of the bullpen last season, he was 1-1 with a 5.06 ERA and 13 strikeouts.
Anybody who's familiar with the Cubs knew that Will Ohman wouldn't be back with the team this season after spending most of 2007 parked deep in Lou Piniella's doghouse. After being demoted to the minors in August, Ohman said that the team knew of his sore shoulder that was responsible for his performance, while the club said they had no idea he was injured.
Ohman later admitted he was mistaken lied about it.
It's the second time Omar Infante has been traded this winter, as he was just acquired by the Cubs from the Tigers in the deal for Jacque Jones.
September call-ups are usually boring. They're especially boring for teams in pennant races because those teams rarely want to trust a division title to minor league players trying to get a foothold in the bigs. That won't be the case in Chicago when Will Ohman makes his return to the Cubbies on Saturday.
If you're unfamiliar with the backstory, Ohman was demoted to AAA less than a month ago and when he was, he blamed the Cubs medical staff for not doing anything about a shoulder injury. Unfortunately for him, trainer Mark O'Neal is quite popular with the Cubs' players and they were none to happy to hear Ohman's remarks. Still, he went down to Iowa and pitched well and the Cubs are bringing him back up tomorrow, mostly because every contender can use a potential shut-down lefty in their bullpen. Jim Hendry had this to say:
''Will's no different than anybody else who's made some mistakes,'' general manager Jim Hendry said. ''He's been around here a long time. If he was a bad guy, we'd have gotten rid of him a long time ago. He's gone down to Iowa and handled himself well. [Assistant GM] Randy Bush saw him in Iowa and had a couple conversations with him. I don't think there's anything that can't be handled in a day or two.''
Situations like this are easy to figure out. If Ohman pitches well, everyone will forget it. If he doesn't this will follow him around for a while.
As if one wasn't enough, Barry Bonds straight up outdid himself with a second home run against the Cubs on Thursday. The first one came in the first pitch of his first at-bat off Ted Lilly for no. 752 in his career. Now the latest, No. 753, came in the top of the 7th, a three-run shot off Will Ohman that brought the Giants within a run -- 9-8 Cubs. The fine fellows at Comcast also added a great note following Barry's second home run that tied today's two-homer game together with another landmark game for him: Barry's first career multi-home run game came June 20, 1987 at Wrigley Field.
What was also interesting is that Comcast SportsNet ran a poll question: Do you want Barry Bonds to break the home run record? 80% said no, 20% said yes. That's pretty intriguing considering another poll was presented this week saying that 40% of fans wanted Barry to break the record. For some reason, 80/20 seems about right to me.
UPDATE: The Giants still lost 9-8 and Barry finished 3-for-3 with two home runs, a walk, and six RBIs. He's two away from tying Hank Aaron, and three away from setting the all-time record.
Earlier in the year, commenter brosallman wondered, jokingly, how long it would take before new Cubs manager Lou Piniella unleashed one of his famous tirades thanks to the stresses of being associated with Cubdom. If you gussed nine games into the season, you were, sadly, correct:
"I can start to see some of the ways this team has lost ballgames," said Piniella, who has, up until that moment Friday afternoon in the interview room, refused to address the failures of the past 98 years. "I can see it. We've got to correct it, obviously."
Pressed on exactly what was wrong with this team, Piniella exploded.
"What the hell do you think isn't working?" he screamed. "You see the damn game."
Piniella has a history of temper tantrums, but if any game was worthy of the blowup, today's was probably it. The Cubs surrendered a 5-0 lead when the Reds scored six runs in the fifth inning. Zambrano gave up four of those runs, and then reliever Will Ohman gave up the rest, and Piniella was not at all impressed with Big Z or Ohman:
"This guy is your ace," Piniella said, his voice growing louder by the word. "You've got a 5-0 lead with the [Reds'] eighth and ninth hitters coming up. You feel pretty good about that inning, then all of a sudden it turns into a six-run inning. Then I bring in the reliever who's throwing 30-, 40-foot curveballs."
And Ohman? "I don't know," Piniella said, then paused for 11 seconds, shrugging his shoulders and flipping his hands up in the air. "I don't know. What do you want me to say? Lot of balls didn't reach home plate."
Eesh. It's been a frustrating beginning of the season for the Cubs, but still: nine games in. That sure didn't take long, huh? Anyway, welcome to the Cubs, Lou. See what you got yourself into?
On Tuesday night, the Phillies' Jayson Werth singled off Dodgers pitcher Will Ohman in the seventh inning, then stole second base, third base, and home plate. By my count, Werth is only the fourth player since the Ty Cobb era (after Paul Molitor, Eric Young, and Chris Stynes) to straight-up steal his way around the basepaths. He came as close as a baserunner can get to stealing a home run.
Word on the street is that the Boston Red Sox are quite interested in Braves middle reliever/could be setup guy/ 
With the trade deadline right around the corner, our MLB editor brings you the top five rumors every day until July 31.
With the trade deadline right around the corner, our MLB editor brings you the top five rumors every day until July 31.
As we all sit around and wait for the blockbuster deals involving 
September call-ups are usually boring. They're especially boring for teams in pennant races because those teams rarely want to trust a division title to minor league players trying to get a foothold in the bigs. That won't be the case in Chicago when 
Earlier in the year, commenter brosallman wondered, jokingly, how long it would take before new Cubs manager Lou Piniella unleashed one of his famous tirades thanks to the stresses of being associated with Cubdom. If you gussed nine games into the season, 
