YFSF

Kyle Forever! ChiSox-Yanks Gamer I

Bag of balls? Kyle Farnsworth? Bag of balls? Kyle Farnsworth?

Kyle Farnsworth!

The Yanks' brain-trust used advanced metrics for this one, and Kyle lives another day. Who will he alienate tonight? How many hits will he give up in his 1 (or 2/3 or 1/3, or 0/3) inning of work?

Let's hope he doesn't pitch tonight, or in any meaningful inning again this season.

Speaking of tonight, the Yanks are playing the White Sox at the Stadium. Mussina battles the awful former Yank, Jose Conteras. Johnny Damon got a hit in his first at bat. Things are looking up. Go Yanks!

Waiting on Gagne: O's-Sox Gamer VI

Eric Gagne is expected to be in the Fens in time for tomorrow night's game against Baltimore. So this game the Sox will have to make do with their lousy old bullpen of Delcarmen, Okajima and Papelbon. Rough times.

Tonight's game (oh, they're playing tonight?) actually features a heck of a pitcher's duel, with two Cy Young candidates on the hill. Josh Beckett lost his last such duel, 1-0, against Fausto Carmona. This time he faces Erik Bedard, who is arguably a better pitcher than both Carmona and Beckett, but who plays for a terrible team.

Bedard has been on fire (cue old "NBA Jam" voice). Since allowing six runs in 5.2 innings to Chicago on July 2, he's been filthy -- tossing a two-hit, 15-K shutout against Texas, throwing another seven shutout innings against Chicago in a rematch, allowing just one run in seven against Oakland, and just one run in six innings against Tampa Bay last outing. He won all four starts and is now 10-6.

Beckett, on the other hand, has deserved better than he's gotten, notching quality starts in four straight outings as well, but losing two of them. He continues his quest for Win 14 tonight.

Comment away!

Early Verdict

Yankees trade:

• Scott Proctor

Yankees get:

• Wilson Betamit

Red Sox trade:

• Kason Gabbard
• David Murphy
• Engel Beltre
• Joel Pineiro

Red sox get:

• Eric Gagne
• Player to be named

Advantage: Theo

Behold! The 2008 All-Star Game Logo

You can imagine how the thinking went when they mocked this thing up: Pinstripes? Check. Balustrade? Check. MLB logo? In there. NYC in the correct type? Yup. Date: Got it. Yes, this baby's got all the elements required, but then again it doesn't seem to express the sense of fun that (supposedly) defines the midsummer classic. The many fans who see the Yanks as a humorless corporate steamroller won't be disuaded by this mark. The famous balustrade, once an integral part of the ballpark design, seems as tacked on here as it does at the Stadium, where it was reconstructed over the outfield retaining wall during the renovations of the early 1970s. Art imitates life. No word here, unfortunately, on who designed it. Anyway, it's not unclassy, we'll say that for it. It'll make a nice patch. Sometimes it takes a while to get used to these things. Whatever the case, it sure beats the heck out of that London 2012 design.

Rosenthal: Sox About to Land Gagne

Ken Rosenthal:

The Red Sox are on the verge of winning the Eric Gagne sweepstakes, pending his approval and a review of his medical records, according to major-league sources.

Gagne must waive his no-trade clause to Boston for the deal to be completed. It is possible the Red Sox will allow him to share the closer's role with Jonathan Papelbon.

The Rangers would receive right-hander Kason Gabbard and an additional player or players in the deal, sources say.

Can't find a Betemit

Sorry about the title. Anyway, Buster Olney is reporting that the Yanks have dealt Everyday Scott Proctor for Wilson Betemit.

My first take is that Joe Torre must be in a lot of pain right now. The second one is that I like this deal for the Yanks. I think Joba slides into Proctor's role and is better, and that Betemit offers the Yanks a viable option off the bench.He is much better than Miguel Cairo. Third, I have a feeling that in the next few years we'll be viewing this trade as a big steal.

300, 500, 755

To Paraphrase Bill James, what is so compelling about certain stats and numbers is that they have acquired the power of language among baseball fans.

300, 500, 755.

300 seems all the more remarkable these days. It's a dying number. How many more pitchers will reach 300?

500 shows how quantity affects quality. Remember when 500 meant more? But now so many sluggers are getting to that magic number, making 500 more like 400. Still, the man who will possibly reach the number tonight is only 32, a number remarkably low for such a feat.

755 suggests integrity and dignity, and their opposites.

By the end of the night, there's a possibility all three numbers will have been reached.

A Big Trade in Boston. Another One Coming?

Well, the Celtics must have gotten the memo meant for Theo Epstein that the trading deadline is today. There's no way the Sox will be making a deal containing a player the magnitude of Kevin Garnett, but apparently Jermaine Dye might have to do.

From Edes this morning:

Just touched base with one of my sources, and he told me the Red Sox are still waiting to hear back from the White Sox on Jermaine Dye. The ball is in the White Sox court, he said. Of course, it's an hour earlier in Chicago.

Edes reported in the print edition that the Sox had made a counteroffer that Kenny Williams was taking "under serious consideration." He also said one Major League source told him the Sox were close to landing Eric Gagne, but he seems skeptical.

The Yankees are also pursuing Gagne, but their problem seems to be the same as the Sox', namely:

The Sox are still unwilling to part with the Big Three, and the Yankees also are unwilling to part with any of their Big 500 -- as we've learned, all Yankee prospects are better than any Sox prospects and, frankly, we're ashamed to have even suggested that the Sox might have some pretty good minor leaguers in their own right.

Consider this your Deadline Day thread for anything that may (or may not) transpire.

Teixeira to Atlanta; No One to Boston; No One to New York

According to Ken Rosenthal, Tex is heading to the NL, where he will probably destroy that league's inferior pitching.

Where does that leave the Sox and Yanks? Well, the same place they've been -- looking at role players and rentals that can be had without giving up either club's Big Three.

We're not expecting any big news for our beloved (and hated) teams. A Bobby Kielty, perhaps. An Octavio Dotel at the most. Nevertheless, on this penultimate day of the trading season, feel free to comment on any and all rumors and happenings.

Update: Minutes ago, Gordon Edes posted word from one of his sources that "chances were 'pretty good' that the Red Sox would complete a deal with the Chicago White Sox for outfielder Jermaine Dye."

The deal would be Dye for Wily Mo Pena and a minor-league pitcher that is not Lester or Buccholz. (And hopefully not Bowden.) Color me skeptical. While Dye is an improvement over Pena, I'm still struggling to see how either he or Drew receives enough at-bats to be happy.

The Big Three Four of the Future?

For the first time in a long time, it looks like the Yanks are going to have a serious fight at the end of the season as they try to make the playoffs. The playoffs have come easily for so long it's hard to recall what this kind of thing even feels like. I hope we can enjoy the excitement (and a positive outcome).

In a terrific piece on yesterday's game and the probable departure of Kyle Farnsworth (to Detroit), Tyler Kepner reports that flamethrowing uberprospect Joba Chamberlain has been shifted to the AAA bullpen in advance of a likely callup to the big club in the next week. Philip Hughes and Ian Kennedy were also dominant in their last AAA starts. Chamberlain is still projeted as a starter (so his use in the pen would equate to what the Twins did with Francisco Liriano), and Kennedy is not likely to be a factor until next year, at the earliest. Still it's hard not to be feeling awfully positive about the addition of these two plus Philip Hughes to a Yankee rotation that already features Chien Ming Wang in the coming years.

Finally, we'd be remiss on this day not to issue a congratulations to Tony Gwynn (a career .338 hitter!) and Cal Ripken on their induction into the HOF. I didn't see a great deal of Tony Gwynn live, as he played on the opposite coast, but followed the career of Ripken closely, both in the Bronx and during my four years in college in Baltimore, when I lived just a few blocks from Memorial Stadium, then home to the O's. When I arrived in that city, in 1987, the Orioles were historically bad. In my dorm room, I listened to the wonderful voice of Jon Miller as the birds lost 21 in a row. Cal's streak wasn't much of a factor back then—there were already those wondering if he should take a rest and save himself, given the futility of the team. Over the years, it grew in the background, until, post-strike, it became the largest thing in the game. After it was over, he seemed a man on the decline, but then, in 2001, a decade after my graduation, there he was winning the All-Star MVP. His shadow still looms over the O's, and maybe that's not such a good thing. But Yankee fans can be grateful for the example of an oversized shortstop with offensive skills and a pristine image. We've got one of those, and soon enough, he'll be in Cooperstown too.