Trade activity

• The White Sox traded Nick Swisher and prospect Kaneoka Texeira to the Yankees for Wilson Betemit, Jeff Marquez and Jhonny Nunez. The Yankees get a Plan B first baseman in Swisher, and if they sign Teixeira, they give someone who gives them more flexibility in the outfield. Swisher should bounce back from a poor season in Chicago and hit like a league-average first baseman.
  The question here is what this does for the White Sox, who are presumably trying to win in 2009. Unless they just don't like Swisher's aftershave, it's hard to see what they gain here. Betemit can play third base, but that's not saying much. He's not the kind of guy you target to fill a hole. I think they just gave up on Swisher too soon.
  This helps the Yankees, since they now have a legitimate backup plan if they can't sign Mark Teixiera. They need Teixeira, of course, and if they get him, Swisher becomes a useful outfielder. It may also enable them to bench or trade whomever becomes the odd man out.
• The Cubs sent relief prospect Jose Ceda to Florida for Marlins "closer" Kevin Gregg.
  
  

Rockies 9, Padres 8

Wow.

I don't know if tonight's one-game playoff will go down as one of the most memorable in history, but it should. The Wild Card isn't glamorous, and neither are the Padres and Rockies, but tonight was an incredibly exciting game for a number of reasons.

I must say that I was in rehearsal this evening and didn't join the game until the 8th inning, when it was tied 6-6. Amazingly enough, it stayed tied into the 13th. Both bullpens did a pretty impressive job of keeping the runs off the board. If Heath Bell is an unlikely hero, Matt Herges is even more unlikely, but he threw 3 scoreless innings none the less.
I knew it couldn't go on forever, and when I saw Jorge Julio stroll to the mound in the 13th, I had the feeling that this might be it. Julio, who was as wild as you'd expect, walked Brian Giles and then fell behind Scott Hairston. He then grooved one to Hairston, who knocked it out of the park, giving the Padres an 8-6 lead. The Colorado faithful went silent, and I figured it was over. (The guy who caught the ball actually doubled 0ver in pain when he did, even though it didn't touch his stomach). Julio gave up a single to Chase Headley and then was removed.

Milestones

2007 has really been a landmark year for reaching statistical milestones. The end of Hank Aaron's reign as home run king is big enough, but add to that a new member of the 3,000 hit club (Biggio), two new members of the 500 HR club (Frank Thomas, A-Rod) with possibly more to come, and the charter member of the 500 save club (Trevor Hoffman). And Tom Glavine has become the newest member of the 300-win club (and the last for quite a while). With this in mind, let's take a look at these milestones, and see what they mean now and what they mean for the future.

Barry Bonds hits his 756th home run

There's not a whole lot for me to say about Barry's mark that I haven't said before. I certainly can't top what's already been said in almost every media outlet. Instead of revisiting a rant I've gone on before, I'll just say that, compared to his peers, Bonds' greatest accomplishment isn't his home runs, it's his ability to get on base.

Bonds' .445 career OBP is far and away the greatest of his generation. You could argue that it's the greatest of all time; the only other players in the top 20 whose careers lasted past 1960 are Mickey Mantle (.421) and Frank Thomas (.422). And even considering that Bonds played in an offense-heavy environment, that offense was primarily slugging rather than a higher batting average or OBP. Batting averages have actually been falling since WW2, making Bonds' numbers much more impressive when compared to those of John McGraw or Billy Hamilton. The only real challengers to Bonds' title of "greatest real OBP ever" are Ted Williams (.482) and Babe Ruth (.474). Even taking the era into account, it's hard to argue Bonds past Williams. So while Bonds is the best of his era, I guess he's not the best ever.
And he's certainly not the greatest slugger ever. As I said, when you compare Bonds to his contemporaries, his slugging exploits don't compare at all with those of Hank Aaron or Babe Ruth. And it's Ruth, especially, who easily holds the title of greatest slugger ever. He was out-homering entire teams in his day. Ruth hit 714 career home runs and the only player from his era to come close was Jimmie Foxx, with 534. Bonds has 757 HR right now, but there's another player from his era with more than 600 (Sammy Sosa), one who will soon have 600 (Ken Griffey, Jr.) and another who will finish with at least 700 or more barring catastrophe (A-Rod). That's not even including the lesser home run hitters. Here's how the two eras compare (take into account that the book hasn't closed on Bonds' era, with most of the players below still active):