Initially I thought that the Red Sox did a decent job of getting some talent in return for Nomar Garciaparra. But after reading some of the fine analysis around the Net–including a roundtable of All-Baseball’s best and brightest–it seems as if Boston acted out of desperation more than anything else. I love reading transaction analysis, especially because it doesn’t hold much interest for me as a writer. However, I am an avid fan of the guys who are “doing it, doing it, and doing it well.”

Joe Sheehan–one of the best reasons to subscribe to Baseball Prospectus–offered a characteristically sound take on the Garciaparra trade:

I do believe the Red Sox will be better defensively, but that’s a side point. I don’t think the Sox are a better team today than they were Friday, and it’s not close. I think they made this trade not because it makes them better, but because they didn’t have it in them to stand up to Garciaparra, who by most accounts had been a jackass since the Alex Rodriguez trade fell through. I rarely