Trade, Trade, Trade

The Tribe has been busy the last few days. Three regulars on the roster, including two longtime Indians, have been traded prior to today's 4 p.m. deadline.

The most notable deal was just completed. As part of a three-team deal, The Indians sent ace Jake Westbrook and cash to the Cardinals. The Tribe received Double-A righty Corey Kluber from the Padres. Former Indian Ryan Ludwick was traded from St. Louis to San Diego, and San Diego sent minor-league left-hander Nick Greenwood to St. Louis.

Also today, the Tribe traded Austin Kearns to the Yankees for a player to be named or cash.

Wednesday evening, Jhonny Peralta became a Tiger, as the Indians dealt him for Class-A lefty Giovany Soto.

Overall, I can't complain about these deals. The post-All-Star winning streak was obviously a tease and we are quite clearly not going to be making a run at the playoffs, so we might as well get some prospects for some of the good players we have.

My only complaint is that I wish we could have gotten someone a little more definite for Kearns, who has been having a solid year.

I am glad Peralta is finally gone. How overpaid was he? He never lived up to the hype. He is the reason we got rid of Omar, who, at 43 years of age, is still a better ballplayer than Jhonny has ever been. Heck, Omar is hitting .285 this year and is still a wizard on defense.

I am happy for Jake Westbrook. He is a hard worker and has fought through Tommy John surgery, so he deserves to be with a contender.

EDIT: Make that four trades. Right before the deadline, the Tribe traded Kerry Wood to the Yankees for a player to be named or $500,000 cash. The team has until Oct. 15 to decide between the two options. The Indians have to pay all but $1.5 million of the more than $3.6 million remaining on Wood's $10.5 million salary this year.

So end two very disappointing and injury-plagued years for Kerry Wood in a Tribe uniform.

Oswalt to Phillies

Roy Oswalt, formerly of the Houston Astros, is now a Philly after waiving his no-trade clause.

The red-hot Phillies acquired the ace today in exchange for left-handed starter J.A. Happ and two prospects, outfielder Anthony Gose and shortstop Jonathan Villar.

Oswalt has been the talk of trade rumors for some time now, but his move to the Phillies is somewhat surprising, given his prior desire to be traded to St. Louis.

With the Phillies already breathing down the necks of the Braves, this makes the National League East race very interesting.

T.O. Misses Flight

New Bengals wide receiver Terrell Owens missed his overnight flight to Cincinnati last night. His press conference, originally scheduled for this morning, had to be rescheduled for this evening after practice, and it was unclear whether he would make it to training camp in time to work out today.

Given T.O.'s history with off-the-field antics, this leads me to wonder why he missed his flight. So, I am taking a poll, which will be rendered irrelevant once the real reason surfaces. What do you guys think?

1) He went clubbin'.
2) He fell asleep.
3) He went clubbin' and then fell asleep.
4) He was on the phone all night having a heart-to-heart and tearful conversation with Carson Palmer, his new quarterback.
5) He did it just to draw attention to himself.
6) Chad Ochocinco recommended he do it to draw attention to himself.
7) He was up all night thinking of touchdown celebrations.
8) He was running late for reasons beyond his control.
9) Any other ideas?

Tomlin Baffles Yanks in Debut

In his Major League debut on Tuesday, Indians starter Josh Tomlin pitched seven innings and allowed just one earned run against the Yankees, beating former Indians ace C.C. Sabathia 4-1.

Tomlin became the second Tribe pitcher to win his Major League debut in the last ten days. Jeanmar Gomez beat the Tigers on July 18 before being sent back to Triple-A Columbus. Tomlin and Gomez are the first pair of Indians to earn wins in their Major League debuts in the same season since Phil Bedgood and Dewey Metivier in did it in 1922.

Considering all of the disappointment this season, the Tribe's pitching has not been too bad overall, there are definitely some brights spots in the pitching staff and on offense that have me optimistic for the future.

But, as is usually the case with the Tribe, we'll make a run in the playoffs in a few years, fall short, and then get rid of all our good players. Such is life as a Cleveland sports fan.

Anyway, good job Josh and Jeanmar. Keep up the good work.

T.O. to Cincy

Terrell Owens just signed a one year, $2 million contract with the Bengals, with $2 million in possible bonuses. Owens will line up with Chad Ochocinco this season.

I'm trying to decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing for the Bengals. One one hand, they now have two of the most talented wide receivers in the league on their roster. On the other hand, these two have enough ego to fill an entire roster.

Ochocinco claims that their off-the-field friendship and respect for each other will make it easy for the pair to work together, but I'm not so sure. The thought of Owens and Ochocinco on the same roster is actually kind of scary, and if I were a Bengals fan, I would be highly nervous right now.

I foresee some drama in Cincy.

Correction to Tour de France Story

This is a comment from my friend, David, who is a big cycling guy. Apparently, my cycling knowledge is woefully inadequate. I thank you, David, for setting me straight. I apologize to my readers for not getting my facts straight.

Quotation from FairorFoul: "It is customary in cycling for other riders to wait for a rider to fix a problem for which he is not at fault, such as a mechanical failure..."

Not quite true, my friend. It is customary in cycling for other riders not to attack the race leader and gain time, if it is known that he has fallen under some duress (mechanical, crashing, etc).

From the race video, AC's domestique, Alexandre Vinokourov, led an attack when he perceived what appeared to be a moment of weakness by Schleck. As team captain, it was AC's responsibility to rein in Vino, if the attack was not warranted. That he followed immediately after Vino led me to suspect that Team Saxo-Bank's management may not have relayed to the other team managers that Schleck fell into mechanical duress. If that had happened, AC would have been obligated by race etiquette to slow the attack and allow the yellow jersey time to catch up.

Neither captain disclosed in the post-stage interviews whether that necessary communication took place. Schleck may not have realized on how much time he had lost, and thought that he could have caught up. Unfortunately, he couldn't and the time split remained the same between them until the final individual time trial, where AC demonstrated his greater superiority.

LOL. What people tend to forget is that this is AC's 2nd actual victory. His first one was a hand-me down from Landis having his title stripped for doping. Oh well, details.

David also reminds me that Lance Armstrong and his Radio Shack team won the team title (best aggregate time) in this year's Tour de France. At least Lance will retire on a high note after a race in which he could have fared better individually had he not been involved in a series of crashes in the early stages.

Coach Kelly at Cubs Game

UND.com has posted this video of Coach Brian Kelly's day at Wrigley field on Sunday for the Cubs vs. Cardinals game, culminating with his somewhat on-pitch rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."

I love how he was reading the lyrics as he was singing.

Way to go, Coach! 8-)

http://www.und.com/index-main.html#00