Given that Ellsbury is back and the Sox are more or less obliged to play Crawford, Ross is expendable, but seriously, what contender has an obvious need for Cody Ross? You’d need to match up with a team in the running who has a speciic need for a corner outfielder who hits some home runs but is playing a little over his head right now.
The Dodgers, perhaps?
Well I’ll happily admit I was dead wrong and underestimated Porcello greatly. Now if only i can be wrong again tommorow 
The Reds keep chugging away. 14 games over .500 now…and this in spite of Bronson Arroyo being on the roster and Joey Votto rehabbing from a knee injury.
Well 3 straight losses to the A’s is not good for the Yanks, but we retain a 7 game lead at least.
I would be thrilled to see Cody Ross on the Dodgers, but I don’t know what LA has to offer for him. Maybe bullpen help? There certainly isn’t anything in the minors that Boston would want. Also, if LA is able to find a competent everyday or even platoon 3B then they can play Harriston/Gwynn Jr in LF and they don’t need the corner help as badly. LF just isn’t anywhere as big a priority as corner infield spots are right now.
Ellsbury and Crawford are both fragile, and *somebody *has to play RF. Ross isn’t going anywhere as long as Boston has a chance, and most of the league does. Crawford isn’t tradeable due to his contract and to the possibility of his elbow popping at any moment - he’s already said he’s headed for a Tommy John. Ellsbury *might *go, since he has another year left and Boras for an agent and there’s a not prospect (Jackie Bradley) in AA ball, but it would take a big contract (Hanley Ramirez has been mentioned) in return. But all they really need is for Beckett and Lester to put down the bucket of chicken and start getting guys out again - Beckett in particular, with his 10.69 ERA in the first inning.
Umm, Bradley’s a hot prospect, not a *not *prospect. But that could change. 
Well, the Athletics just swept the Yankees, beating them by a total of three runs over three games: 4-3, 3-2, and 2-1. Giving up a total of six runs over three games to that hitting line-up is pretty impressive.
The Orioles continue to win enough to stay in second place. They are 5-4 since the All-Star break. They’ve won another couple of 1-run games in that stretch, taking their record in such games to 18-6. They are now a full 8 games over their pythagorean expectations, the most in the Majors (next is Cleveland, at 5 over).
This ranks as the most immediately prescient statement of pessimism on the SDMB this year. Lester gave up nine runs in the first two innings just hours after this was posted.
Correction: it’s a four-game series, so they still have one more to play.
Barry Larkin inducted into the HOF today. Much deserved.
Speech: http://cincinnati.reds.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?c_id=cin&content_id=23248943&topic_id=6003532
ETA: Oh yeah, and Reds win again! 15 games over .500! Whoop!
Dodgers go 12 with the Mets before spanking them 8-3, earning the first sweep against them since 2002 and going 7-0 in the Eastern time zone. Josh Wall gets the win in his first major league game.
Orioles sweep the Indians, winning another 1-run game in the process, although it shouldn’t have been that close. Baltimore led 4-0 going into the bottom of the ninth, but gave up 3 before finishing it off.
The A’s have come back from a 4-0 deficit against the Yankees to tie the game, and they’re now in the 10th. Go Oakland!
This was kind of neat.
While looking around the web for something else, I ran into the complete issue of Baseball Digest for February 1973. I was never a subscriber, but I did buy every copy around that time on the newsstand (well, at Walgreen’s), and read them till they fell apart. (I was about 12, the perfect age for such things.)
Anyway, the first letter to the editor is in support of one Celerino Sanchez, a name that is no doubt unfamiliar to most of you young’uns and many of you not-so-young’uns as well. “Mr. Vass obviously did not follow the Yankees during 1972,” the letter writer complained, referring to an earlier article claiming that the Yankees needed an upgrade at third and suggesting that Vass “do some research.” The Yankees, the writer explained, “had one of the finest third basemen in baseball since early June, Celerino Sanchez.” [Sanchez, just for the record, hit .248 with no home runs, no stolen bases, and 12 walks in 269 plate appearances.]
The letter was signed by one Keith Olbermann of Hastings-on-Hudson, NY. Yup, THAT Keith Olbermann, who was about 13 or 14 at the time.
[The link can be found at http://books.google.com/books?id=2TEDAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false. The letter in question is on page 7 of the issue.]
I barely remember Sanchez and that is quite cool.
The 4 game sweep of my Yanks, all by 1 run was brutal and apparently the only time it ever happened to the Yanks.
Tough weekend.
Well, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh stay nearly neck and neck while sweeping their weekend series and now they both go off to play the weakest clubs in their division. I’m also amazed at how close they are staying to Washington in the National League overall. It looks like Washington-Atlanta, Cincinnati-Pittsburgh, San Francisco-Los Angeles are in the race. With the extra wild card, only one will get squeezed out of the playoffs.
And that doesn’t include Baltimore’s 3 straight wins over the Indians, because their 4-game series finishes up today.
When’s the last time the Pirates were in the playoffs? When Bonds played there? What about the Dodgers?
The Yankees, despite being swept, still have the biggest division lead in baseball. The AL East also has the smallest gap between the second- to fifth-placed teams, with a total of 3.5 games separating Baltimore, Tampa, Toronto, and Boston. And there is still no team in the division under .500.
1992 for the Pirates. They have not made the playoffs since before the three-division format and the Wild Card were introduced. The Dodgers have made the playoffs four times in the last ten years, and went to the NLCS in 2008 and 2009.
If Baltimore continue their improbable run and manage to sneak into the playoffs it will be the first time since 1997. And the first time since i became a baseball fan. I’ve never even seen them have a season over .500, so that’s my first wish.