OK, I'll try again here, 'cuz I'm not sure where to post it---

What does everyone (anyone?) think about the Oswalt trade? It seems like the Phillies stole him: Happ + two prospects in A ball.

What's the deal with the Yankees? They couldn't top what the Phillies offered without giving up Montero?

The Haren and Oswalt deals have convinced me that baseball passed me by.

I'm actually beginning to wonder if teams are simply refusing to deal with the Yankees at all unless the Yanks open the entire farm system.

As annoying as it is, those GMs have every right to charge the Yanks more than other teams for the same player; the Yanks can afford losing their top prospect more than most other teams can. And the Yanks have just as much right to refuse. I like that we're valuing top hitting prospects more than we used to.

[3] I think that's exactly what it is. Apparently revenue-sharing isn't enough, now the Yanks are supposed to share their prospects as well :-'

Speaking of holding other teams to different standards, in a perverse way, I'm real glad that the A's now can't trade Ben Sheets. I personally find acquiring a player for no other reason than to trade him a few months later far more objectionable than "buying" a championship. But Billy Beane is acting within the rules, and I've accepted that, much like I think fans of other teams need to do with the Yankees.

[4] I agree that they have the right, and it does not anger me. Rather, it perplexes me because teams are, then, willingly taking less in return for the stars that they trade. It simply makes no, or at least very little, rational sense.

But I do agree with you--I am more than pleased that the Yankees have (sort of) refused to offer Montero.

[6] Sometimes I think the ol' Billy Beane magic is wearing off. Or at least the act is wearing thin.

[7] Not that I understand it any better than you, but I conjecture that there is a "shoot for the moon" philosophy when dealing with the Yanks; at any given moment a top prospect could be up for grabs for the slightest notion... at least that's how it was when Ol' George was around... and like the blind squirrel you find the occasional nut. And if it doesn't work out, Plan B is not so objectionable in comparison.

Then there is the occasional auction in which the Yanks get ostensibly outbid; i.e. Justin Smoak looked like a readier prospect than Montero at the time, so the Rangers get Cliff Lee. That Montero has reacted just how you'd hope he would to almost getting traded (BOOM, I'll show them, BOOM!) while Smoak is doing what exactly? Just lucky, I guess. I mean, had Cashman not overreacted by getting Kei Igawa, would the Yanks have been better off getting so outbid for Dice K? How does that contract look now, even with the one ring?

Meanwhile, Buck Showalter is the new manager in Baltimore. That can only mean good things for them until Angelos chases him out of town. I'm almost sorry the Mets didn't give Buck a job, but that's an entirely different soap opera (maybe he turned them down...)