ESPN reports that the Tampa Bay Devil Rays have traded outfielder Delmon Young, infielder Brendan Harris, and minor-league reliever Eduardo Morlan to the Minnesota Twins for right-hander Matt Garza, shortstop Jason Bartlett, and minor-league outfielder Jason Pridie.
Headed to Minnesota

Serious catch-up mode here. Free agent center fielder Torii Hunter has signed with the Angels. The deal is 5 years, $90 million, which is just nuts for a 32-year-old with a career OBP of .324. Hey, at least it’s not my money.
(Guest blogger TD — thanks, bud! — covered this transaction while I cavorted about the Pacific and was similarly unimpressed.)
I don’t really see how the Angels were even players here given that they threw $50 million at Gary Matthews Jr. last winter to play Hunter’s position. Matthews had a nice little Damion Easley type season, which isn’t bad, but …read more

The 2008 CHONE projections for hitters are available. Here are a few key free agents lines:

Barry Bonds: .272/.446/.558
Alex Rodriguez: .303/.420/.588
Kosuke Fukudome: .283/.373/.465
Torii Hunter: .282/.345/.491
Andruw Jones: .246/.339/.472
Mike Lowell: .283/.346/.455
Aaron Rowand: .277/.343/.443
Mike Cameron: .246/.331/.435
Mike Piazza: .260/.321/.430
Sammy Sosa: .234/.303/.418
Julio Franco: .231/.307/.324

I hope Franco keeps playing till he’s 50. Anyway, download the whole dealio and entertain yourself for hours…
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Rich at Baseball Analysts has laid out a position-by-position look at the 2007-2008 free agent class. He’s done the hitters today and he’ll touch on the pitchers in a separate article.
There are a few bonafide studs available — Jorge Posada, Ivan Rodriguez, Alex Rodriguez, Bob Abreu, Mike Cameron, Adam Dunn, Torii Hunter, Andruw Jones — as well as a bunch of guys who are potentially useful. And of course, we’re all waiting to find out where Julio Franco ends up next year. My money is on the Lido deck, playing shuffleboard.

So many games to choose from on a Friday. What to do…
American League

Red Sox at Orioles, 4:05 p.m. PT — Not that the Red Sox need my help in the hype department, but a battle between Daisuke Matsuzaka and Erik Bedard could be a lot of fun to watch. Bedard has emerged in a big way this season. He’s fourth in the American League in ERA, first in H/9, first in K/9 (11.20!), and first in strikeouts. With all due respect to perennial favorite Johan Santana, Bedard and Oakland’s Dan Haren have to be the front-runners for this year’s Cy …read more

I understand the intent behind this, but the fact that Torii Hunter violated a rule by sending champagne to an opponent (the Royals, last October) for losing a game seems sort of, shall we say, quaint in the current era. From the article:
The rule, 21-b, regards misconduct and is titled “Gift for Defeating Competing Club.” It prohibits anyone connected with a particular team from offering a gift or reward to a person connected with another club for an attempt to defeat a competing club. The giver and receiver, without notification of the commissioner’s office, are subject to ineligibility for “not …read more

I managed to watch parts of five games yesterday. Not sure what that says about me, but there it is. Some quick impressions:

Brett Myers and John Smoltz both were in mid-season form yesterday. Smoltz in particular was making guys look silly with off-speed stuff. He seems like another one of those pitchers that could keep going strong well into his 40s.
Adam Dunn is a very strong man. That second home run he hit to dead center on the first pitch from Carlos Zambrano was a jaw-dropper. It must be fun to get a hold of one like that.
Johan Santana looked …read more

Justin Morneau and Torii Hunter have hit back-to-back towering homers off Baltimore’s Erik Bedard. It’s only the second inning, but with Johan Santana on the mound for the Twins, that could be the game.
Some impressive homers on Opening Day. Adam Dunn knocked a couple of serious bombs for Cincy, as did Edgar Renteria for the Braves.
Ah, baseball…
[Update: The Orioles have knocked three doubles in the fourth off Santana to take a 3-2 lead. The home crowd got real quiet.]