Renteria only had one good year, so I guess that hopefully, for the Sox, that all his bad years were an aberration, and his one good year was the norm. What's the chance of that happening?

Just think, if they were patient, the Sox could have picked up Eckstein, probably cheap, instead of overpaying $10M/yr on Renteria. Sure, Eckstein has 28 fewer Win Shares than Renteria over the past 4 years, but the Sox love those spunky players! And they'd save a LOT of money. The signings of Renteria and Cabrera are the two best signings of the year for the Yankees.

The Twins need a 3B and a SS. And since they signed Rivas, they need a 2B to replace his sorry ass.

Well, the Twins "need" a shortstop the same way Terry Ryan always "needs" a veteran over one of his talented youngsters.

But Jason Bartlett had a .262 MjEQA in AAA this year.

Hmmm...Signing big-name free agents, without regard for who is already on your roster, or what will happen to team chemistry.

A rookie-owner mistake that has been made in every sport by owners who want to show how "committed" they are to winning. When it works, it works well, but more often than not it fails, and fails spectacularly.

Well, as an A's fan, I hope more moves like this will keep coming for the Angels. They've spending a lot of money around the last two years. Granted that Vlad carried them to the playoff last year, but most of their other moves have been overpaying for older players.

Gotta agree on Renteria and his "bad" year in 2004. In fact, his 2004 year was pretty much in line with his career stats. His 2003 season was a wild outlier on the upside, very unlikely to be duplicated. His batting numbers may look a little more impressive at Fenway, but he won't really be any better with the stick. I look for at best a .760 OPS in 2005, followed by a steady decline in years 2-4 of the contract.

He's okay with the glove, nothing special. Don't know why anybody is real excited about this guy, except that he got a couple big hits in the postseason a while ago.

Yeah, I never understood why everyone was going ga-ga over Renteria. It still baffles me. I know there is a dearth of SS in the NL, but just because he's in the top half of them and he had one good year doesn't mean he's the end-all-and-be-all. Blech.

Well, I think the Sox started realizing they weren't going to have any other place to spend their money. Pavano was signed, Pedro's a lost cause that they really didn't want that much anyways... unless they were to make a play for Beltran, and I can't imagine that they are that stupid, there's really no reason to save money. It sort of gets to the point where you have to start overspending for those last few WS above average. Otherwise, you end up with extra money and a worse team than you could have otherwise have had.

I'm of the belief in overspending for elite pitchers and taking advantage of cheap but effective hitters. Problem is, there really aren't any elite pitchers to save money for.

And, one last possibility: Sox still haven't resigned Varitek, but everyone believes they need to. So any excess money floating around is just making Boras salivate that much more. So you almost may as well overspend for that little difference between Renteria and Eckstein, because if you save money with Eckstein, Boras/Varitek might just ended up taking whatever you saved thru leverage.

Eckstein isn't exactly Rogers Hornsby, but he'd look a lot better in pinstripes than Tony Womack. Maybe George can be convinced to pick him up if Cashman calls him a "warrior" and shows lots of clips from the 2002 ALDS. They can afford it.

Look for the Cardinals to go after Eckstein. The Cards are still looking to fill holes left by Renteria and Womack, and Eckstein seems like the prototypical LaRussa player.

I'd rather have Cora than Eckstein. Cheaper and a better fielder.

Jeter Rocks!

What Shawn Lee said. If I were the Cardinals, Eckstien, possibly even Eckstien and Cora are the answers to the Big Problem having Womack and Reteria leave created. Cheap answers that don't cost me a draft choice, too. I'd be in love.

Anyone who watched the ALDS knows why the Angels dumped Eckstein. He couldn't take two steps towards the hole and throw out David Ortiz. He seems to have deteriorated at the plate and in the field since '02. I doubt you'll see any contender sign him to play SS.

Here's my question. The SS's that played for Anaheim when Eckstein was injured, had how many win shares?

I'm asking, 'cause I'm thinking about those 70 extra games Cabrera has on Eck, and wondering if the Angels SS's have 5 or more win shares during those 70 games. If so, then one couldn't even make the argument that injuries scared them off Eckstein. I'd like to think that Eckstein is one of those players who's style of play inspires the guys around him to play harder...and if so, then Cabrera just won't be an ounce of an upgrade.

And why pay 32 million for just a handful of win shares? I know their division is tight, but com' on, you can pay them money to weaker position and probably get more win shares out of it then the added 5 you just bought yourself for that extra 70 games.

And you know, when you figure it all out... Eckstein gives them one win share every 10th game. Cabrera gives them one every 10.5 games. Over the course of a season, that actually works out worse for Anaheim by a few wins. So, that tight division just might be lost by them, due to this trade.

Wouldn't Eckstein rawwk on artificial surface? Lay down a bunt that rebounds high and combine that with his speed...I'm thinking a few extra batting average points if he plays for Minnesota.