Per MLBTR.

The Pirates are basically giving LaRoche to the Red Sox for free. If you want to be picky, they're getting two profressional baseball players in return, but neither is going to be a regular in the majors. SS Argenis Diaz is a glove man who can't hit at all, sporting a Pena-esque .610 OPS in the AA Eastern League. The Pirates' AA affiliate in Altoona already has a shortstop, Brian Friday, who's doing well enough to keep his job but not really well enough to move to AAA, so I'm unsure whether the Pirates plan to send Diaz back down to A ball, bump Friday up to AAA, or perhaps move Friday to second base and bump out Jim Negrych, who's a good hitter for a second baseman, but who also isn't really a second baseman.

The pitcher, Hunter Strickland, is yet another command guy who doesn't strike anyone out (51 K in 83 innings in A ball) the Pirates can add to their gigantic collection of command guys who don't strike anyone out; the Altoona staff is already full of them. Daniel Moskos, Kyle Bloom, etc.

So the Pirates are effectively getting nothing, but in this case that's appropriate since the Red Sox aren't really getting anything either. LaRoche is a free agent after this season and not likely to be a Type A. He's hitting .247/.329/.441 in the NL Central; to be honest, I'm not sure he should be expected to even hit well enough to hold down a job playing first base in the AL East. To get there you have to argue LaRoche has been hitting poorly because he's depressed to be stuck in Loserville, an argument bolstered by LaRoche's general bitching and moaning at the Pirates management all season. He has the reputation of being a good clubhouse guy, but whether the Red Sox are getting any more than that is an open question.

One other thing you often hear about LaRoche is that he's an awesome glove at first base. He isn't. His defense is average at best; actually, plus/minus has consistently rated him among the worst defensive first basemen in the game for five years running. He may not be as bad as the stats suggest, but he's not very good. It's another cause of the Ausmus Effect: His bat is weak for the position, but he plays every day anyway, which makes people assume his glove must be awesome.

At the end of the day, though, the Red Sox gave the PIrates two guys that weren't going to make their 40-man roster in exchange for two months of a first baseman that won't be far, if at all, above the AL's replacement level, which at least frees up the Greek God of Walks to play third base full time. The only really interesting thing here is the question of what this means for the roster of the Altoona Curve, proud owners of the worst record in the Eastern League (and even that isn't a problem Argenis Diaz is likely to fix.)

Sometimes you just get really lucky, and the Baseball Comedy Gods give you a gem like this.

A New York Mets executive recently challenged one of club's minor league teams to a fight during a postgame clubhouse tirade, the New York Daily News reported, citing multiple sources with ties to the team.

Tony Bernazard, the team's vice president for player development, pulled off his shirt and challenged the Double-A Binghamton Mets in the tirade, about 10 days before the All-Star break. He in particular targeted middle infield prospect Jose Coronado, according to the report.

To be perfectly honest, my first reaction is I really wish someone on the Binghamton Mets had taken him up on his challenge and beaten him like a rented mule for his insolence. Like Lucas Duda, maybe. Bernazard had to have been drunk off his keester to even make that challenge while standing in the same room as Lucas Duda. I've seen him up close. I weigh 225. Lucas Duda, being 6'4" and all, has to outweigh me by at least 25 pounds.

But, you know, Lucas Duda is a prospect, and he has his whole career in front of him, and as gleeful and wonderful as the experience would be (and I'd buy his drinks if he ever walked into my bar), I guess it's probably just not worth giving up one's professional baseball future for it. And even a fellow like 30-year-old Eastern League veteran Jim Ed Warden knows his playing career is winding down and is probably counting on a scouting gig or somesuch if he keeps his record clean. (But really, who in his right mind screws with anyone named 'Jim Ed'? Trust me: It's a bad idea to screw with anyone named 'Jim Ed'. Especially if he's 6'7".)

So the lesson here is clear: Tony Bernazard is completely insane. Which raises the question: Exactly what the hell that's useful is he doing for the Mets, again..? In all candor, this kind of behavior is horribly embarrassing to the entire organization. It shows up the players on the Binghamton Mets (who were doing a fine job showing up themselves, thank you very much), and it especially shows up the manager and coaches there, and it generally just makes the entire Mets brand look bad. Which itself is something the Mets, to listen to their fans, don't need any help with.

I find it hard to believe Tony Bernazard does anything useful enough to justify not terminating his employment on the double.

I am watching the first game of the Angels-Royals doubleheader while working and the game is slowly turning into a slugfest with the score 5-5 in the top of the first and both starters Ponson and Santana struggling.

Mike Napoli hits a solo home run into the restaurant behind left field which inspires Angels color guy Rex Hudler to the following quote:

"Waiter, there is a flyball in my soup."

Steve Physioc and Rex Hudler have taken a lot of heat for their over-enthusiastic game-calling, but after a while, they kind of grow on you (at least on me). Now, I am actually happy when they are on and not Rory Markas and Mark Gubicza. Compared to many other broadcasters, Physioc and Hudler at least have their own unique style.

Update: The Angels are leading 8-5 in the bottom of the seventh. With the Angels pen pitching much better lately, this could be it for the Royals.

Update: Or not. After Oliver hits a batter, the Royals bring the tieing run to the plate in Mark Teahen.

Update: The Royals do not score and it's the ninth inning. I'll go to bed and watch the last inning plus the second game tomorrow, it's 2 a.m. here.

In the Colosseum, Brett Anderson has not allowed a baserunner through six innings. His opponent John Lackey has kept the A's off the scoreboard so far, too.

Update: Bobby Abreu singles with two outs in the seventh. Now lets see if he can keep up the shutout.

Sky Kalkman of Beyond the Boxscore has a little gem for the sabermetrics among our readers:

In case you're not following along, Dave Cameron has a stellar series going on over at Fangraphs.  He's running through the most valuable contracts in MLB, which you could also view as a raning of trade value, assuming all teams currently had the same financial and competitive situations. ...

If we had enough data, a project like this could be automated.  We'd need complete contract information and multi-year WAR projections just to start.  Unfortunately, I don't have any of that lying around (if you do, let me know.)  But it's still worth crunching the numbers player by player, especially if you disagree with any of Dave's rankings.  It's really not that helpful to get into a war of opinions, and bringing some data to the shouting match is a great strategy.

In that vein, I've put together a little spreadsheet you can download to help estimate a player's excess value to his team, based on expected future production and salary.  Pick a player, plug in the data, and post the results.  Disagree with someone's assessment?  Simply change the numbers and spit out your own analysis.  The download link and tutorial after the jump.

Now that should be fun. Next time I hear a trade proposal that sounds stupid to me, I'll run it by the spreadsheet.

After the 7-7 All-Star Game tie in 2001, Major League Baseball implemented a rule that gives home field advantage to the winner of the All-Star Game. Bud Selig insists this wasn't a response to the tie, but rather a way to draw more interest to the game.

So with home field advantage at stake, managers at the All-Star Game must make certain that both the players don't get hurt and their team wins. After all, teams with home field advantage in a seven-game series have the upper hand, if that weren't obvious enough.

But consider the many restrictions placed upon those managers. First, fans vote for the starters at the All-Star Game. It's great that the fans have the vote, and they usually pick the best player at every position. However, there are times they pick a guy like Josh Hamilton who has missed 35 games already this season due to injuries. Hard to justify that pick.

Second, opposing players and coaches get the opportunity to fill out the team. The players usually do a good job picking the right players, but the opportunity to make a mistake lingers.

Then the All-Star Game manager must choose players to make sure every team has a representative. Yes, even a National and a Pirate must go to the All-Star Game. Talk about limiting your chances of winning.

Buster Olney made a great point in his blog, as he does often on many topics, about teams not having lefty specialists. Sure, Fuentes could've filled that role in the eighth when Ryan Howard was hitting with Joe Nathan in trouble. However, it would've made much more sense to have a left-handed specialist, just like a regular team would have in its bullpen, to face him late in the game.

The National League had, I assume, Randy Wolf at its disposal for that task. He's killer on lefties, but he's not a one-out guy. Wolf can't get warm that quickly, and it wouldn't be wise to ask him to do so.

But here's the topper, as reported by Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times.

On Monday, Brian Fuentes said he was told he would pitch the sixth inning of the All-Star game. On Tuesday, he was told he would not, which Fuentes blamed on the commissioner's office.

"That bumped me from my inning," Fuentes said. "It's kind of crazy they would have their hand in making up the lineup."

Fuentes, the Angels' closer, did not pitch in the game. He said he was told in an American League team meeting Monday that he would pitch the sixth inning, and he shared that news with family, friends and Angels officials in St. Louis.

On Tuesday, two hours before game time, Fuentes said AL pitching coach Jim Hickey told him that there had been a "misunderstanding" and that AL Manager Joe Maddon had not been aware that the commissioner's office wanted the starting pitchers to work two innings.

So the commissioner's office has a hand in deciding how long the starting pitchers can go? Isn't that something best left to the manager to decide if he's trying his best to win the game?

If I were Joe Maddon, I would've lifted Roy Halladay in favor of a pinch hitter in the top of the second. No use making a pitcher hit when you've got superstars galore sitting on your bench, especially a superstar American League pitcher who could get hurt swinging a bat or running the bases.

If I were Charlie Manuel, I wouldn't have sent Tim Lincecum out there for the bottom of the second after his rough first inning. His control was a little off, and the National League bullpen did a much better job than Lincecum did in the first.

But the commissioner's office mandated each starter had to go two innings. And so both Halladay and Lincecum went two innings apiece.

Now I may be way in the wrong here or being overly cynical, but this ruling seems to be a heavy-handed design to insure one team doesn't run out of pitchers, as happened in 2001 and resulted in Selig being booed mercilessly.

(Would it also be overly cynical of me to say Selig instituted the "win-at-all-costs" rule as a response to the 2001 tie, even if he insists otherwise?)

Let the managers manage. After all, it's their job, not the commissioner's, to use the players as they see fit.