Taking it?

Something to the effect of...Look for the possibility of a Millwood-like clause getting placed into this deal where if Mota spends significant time on the DL in 2006, then Boston has to send a conditional prospect Cleveland's way. Apparently Shapiro/Wedge were so incensed at the Boston leak... allowing fan backlash to gather, that they torpedoed the physical and increased their demands for Delcarmen.  

Boston was never going toss in Delcarmen, but it established a better negotiating leverage for Shapiro, that Boston might agree to a smaller concession, security (in the form of another prospect, probably a lesser guy) for Mota's arm.

Whether this is legal, or how the language in the contract works, I have no idea.  

Any way you look at it, Shapiro and the boys are playing this game of Liar's Poker beautifully.  I didn't think it was possible, but I've garnered even more respect for this regime.  

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/13728481.htm

We all wondered what would happen to the $4 million-ish freed up in Rhodes/Riske/Bard/Crisp for Michaels/Mota/Shoppach/Marte.  Another $2.5 million freed up if we did Westbrook for Kearns?

Well, now we know.  It goes to Jeff Weaver.  

That's still a lot ifs.  But if it comes to pass, I'm just stunned.  Scott Boras going to do the 1-year dance with Shapiro again?  I guess he's the one GM he trusts to protect his client for this type of arrangement.  

"My job is to make decisions that are sometimes hard for the fans to digest. We are not looking to be judged in the minute, but to be right in the end. Hopefully, over time you build up some trust with your fan base. Hopefully, we already have. We can't afford to have the fans impact our decision making. We have to make sure that we made the right choices at the end of the year... We can't worry about the other teams either, we have to worry about building our team to the best it can be."

1. Sizemore
   
2. Michaels/Hollandsworth
   
3. Peralta
   
4. Hafner
   
5. Martinez
   
6. Coco
   
7. Broussard/Perze
   
8. Belliard
   
9. Boone
   

sabathia
lee
weaver
byrd
j. johnson

it's not intimidating but i guess there's no real difference between westbrook and weaver.

Michaels age 30
808AB 134R 235H 21HR 100RBI 114BB 182SO   6SB .380OBP .442SLG .291AVG

Bard age 27
495AB 45R 118H 13HR 61RBI 38BB 77SO .289OBP .370SLG .238AVG

Shoppach age 25
15AB 1R 0H 0HR 0RBI 0BB 7SO  .063OBP .000SLG .000AVG

Rhodes AGE 37
75W   55L  4.26ERA  598G  26SV  61SVO

Mota   AGE 32
22W   24L  3.61ERA  386G   7SV  20SVO

* Riske   AGE 29
17W   12L  3.55ERA  287G  16SV  29SVO

it sounds like it makes sense for every side involved.  shaprio improves the pitching and the hitting this year, adds a tremendous prospect to the mix at a need position, and conveys to the fans that they want to win this year.  cincy gets a ground ball pitcher who would be a perfect compliment to that launching pad and a middle infielder who will take some of the heat off of ryan freel who is drunk every other minutes.

i would love to see it happen.  crossing my fingers.

"In exchange for the 36-year-old lefty, the Phillies sent utility outfielder Jason Michaels to the Indians just a week after they signed him to a one-year deal worth $1.5 million and was sentenced to 100 hours of community service to settle charges that he allegedly assaulted a city police officer last July.

With Michaels finally out of the picture, manager Charlie Manuel will use last season's International League play of the year Shane Victorino as the club's fourth outfielder."