All because of money. The Yankees, Indians, Braves and Mets all helped themselves considerably in the countdown to the trading deadline. Granted, the Mets got the right shortstop in Mike Bordick and two very useful players from Tampa in Rick White and Bubba Trammell . Granted, the Yankees struck first, and right down to the end were working the phones trying to get better. Granted, the Diamondbacks were able to trade four players to get Curt Schilling to try to win now and halt their declining attendance, even if it left them precious little in the farm system.
Money drives the trading But what happened at the trading deadline was baseball as it is today.
The Red Sox got Rolando Arrojo . But, let's face it, there are a lot of trust funders living high off the hog on Nantucket, drowning granddaddy's money every night in drink at the local watering hole, The Chicken Box. That four-way deal would have been great. Tigers GM Randy Smith has denied that he had a Juan Gonzalez deal done with the Mariners only to have it quashed, but he is being a loyal soldier to owner Mike Ilitch. But it got killed.