Rafael is cool but crude

So, yeah, an awesome trade. Shit, even if Soriano's arm explodes on the first day of spring training it would still look good, as Ramirez maybe would've been non-tendered anyway.

Speaking of non-tendering, they better not do that to Giles. I don't understand why they can't get something of value for him; despite his down year, he's pretty obviously a better player than any of the 2b free agents around, except maybe Mark Loretta.

ALSO: this trade proves that any rumors concerning the Braves should not be taken too seriously. The last two days all you heard was LaRoche to Pittsburgh or maybe Anaheim. I didn't read a word about a Ramirez-for-Soriano deal until it had already been agreed upon. There's already rampant speculation that the highly publicized LaRoche for Mike Gonzalez offer was never serious on Atlanta's part, and played up to the media primarily to coax Seattle into fasttracking the Soriano deal. This is why, if LaRoche, Giles, Hudson, or Andruw do get dealt this off-season, I'm sure it won't be in any of the deals that've been rumored about thus far.

Also, Chuck James for Rocco Baldelli would be a good trade, but not necessarily for the Braves as currently configured. Yeah, they need to improve left-field, but unless it precipitates an Andruw deal I'd think this trade would damage the rotation more than it would help the line-up. I have no idea why the Braves would do it unless it led directly to Andruw going elsewhere.  ¶ posted by darkness at 3:04 PM