I think this is a good trade for both teams. The Marlins clearly don't believe they can win with the team they put out there last year. Beckett was about to get expensive and with the impending loss of AJ Burnett it seems like a good time for a small rebuilding year. I don't think we're going to see a '97 style fire sale. The Marlins have a handful of young players ready to contribute and just received two more. I expect they will be a very exciting team to watch in 2007.

The Red Sox who actually have a pretty deep farm system right now trade a shortstop who is talented but blocked by Renteria and Sanchez was considered third in the Papelbon/Lester/Sanchez big three. Lowell adds power at third and Youkilis moves to first. The Red Sox rotation of Schilling/Clement/Beckett/Papelbon/and eventually Lester should be strong for several years.

I really like it.

I think it is a good trade for both teams, too. Hard to argue from Boston's perspective and Florida apparently has little choice in the matter.

Ramirez has the tools but his offensive production thus far hasn't lived up to his status as one of the top prospects in baseball. As a result, his trade value may be at or near a high point right now even though he has only batted two times in the big leagues.

I'm not sold on Youkilis as the Red Sox first baseman of the present or future. A .275/.375/.425 type hitter doesn't fit the bill as a 1B at Fenway. He provides insurance for Lowell and makes for a useful backup at both corners, an occasional DH, and a PH for a championship-caliber team, especially at a salary of around $500K.

The Marlins could be a team to reckon with in a couple of years. They've run this play before and have a good nucleus of young talent to be competitive once again, provided that it has the revenues to plow back into its payroll.

I suppose this means Mueller is truly a free agent and has lost leverage with other clubs with Boston not interested. Might be interesting to see whether Damon changes his tune of "sign all of us if you want me". He said that with Oakland when Giambi and Izzy were approaching FA, and when the A's focused on Giambi and ignored him, he later said he didn't mean it and might have stayed if he got a good offer that meant the others left.
Wouldn't be surprised if Lowell picks up HR's at home even if less than average overall with the bat in 06.

Mueller would make a nice stop gap for a team like the Dodgers because they need a bridge to get to a player like Andy LaRoche in 2007. However, he'll probably find someone willing to give him two years.

Not to nitpick, but the Dodgers could have easily gotten Beckett w/what they've got in their farm system. How about Guzman, Billingsley and, if a third is needed after that, Kemp, Miller or Kuo.? That's a better package than what Boston offered for players of relatively similar experience and status w/in their respective organizations.

I'm not sure what Callis was getting at but a) Guzman is twice the player Ramirez is even if you reduce his value by moving him to 3B, 1B, LF or RF and b) the Dodgers system is flat out better than Boston's - the top players are better, the core is deeper.

most important is that the Red Sox immediately "forget" what they are paying Lowell, and use him as his performance dictates.

Well, Nolan, the Dodgers certainly had the MEANS to do something really stupid, like throw away Guzman and Billingsley for a perpetually-injured underachiever who can't pitch 180 innings a season and is a free agent in two years. But having the means to do something extremely dumb is not justification for doing something dumb. If Billingsley and Guzman are not traded away, the amount of value they will give the Dodgers over the course of twelve combined pre-free agency years far, far outweighs any value Beckett could possibly give them in two years. We can't be sure Guzman and Billingsley will live up to their hype, you say? Hell, Beckett has YET to live up to his hype (which is why the Marlins are trading him while he is still quite affordable for them), and Beckett has proven to be far more physically fragile than either Guzman or Billingsly. Three and a half years in the majors for Beckett, and he has gone on the DL on nine separate occasions. Amazing. The Marlins made a great trade dumping $18 million-worth of a washed up player and getting twelve pre-free agency years of the best shortstop prospect in baseball and a pitcher who profiles as a #2 starter in the majors for a sore-armed pitcher who would not have been with them past 2007.

I don't think the Red Sox would have traded Hanley Ramirez if they truly believed he was the "best shortstop prospect in baseball." He is a talented player and should be an upper-tier SS (meaning, in the top half) in the big leagues in due time. However, I would rank both Brandon Wood and Stephen Drew ahead of him. Ramirez may have an edge defensively, but Wood and Drew project to be much, much better offensively.

Rich, I offered MY opinion about Ramirez's relative ranking as a shortstop prospect, which has nothing to do with the prevailing opinion in the Red Sox organization, where I presume a few statheads still work post-Epstein. My position reflects the fact that I am not convinced that Brandon Wood or Stephen Drew will play at shortstop in the majors, or play it for long anyway, much the same way that Jim Callis told you "Joel Guzman is not a shortstop," notwithstanding that that is where he has always played in the minors.

Obviously Boston would not have made the deal they did if they thought they were parting with too much for what they were getting back. But in my comment above I clearly looked at the trade from Florida's vantage point, and I don't know how much you know about the Marlins' organizational philosophy, but I imagine you would be aware that they are easily the most hard-core "tools-first" organization in all of baseball. I am sure they don't care about Ramirez's stats. I am sure the Marlins don't care about how much he does, or does not, walk. Scouts love Ramirez, and think what he will do in future, offensively, is not reflected in his stats now. We will see in the coming years if the scouts, and the Marlins, are correct in their beliefs about Ramirez.

Richard - My point was not that the Dodgers *should* have offered Guzman and Billingsley but rather that, had they done so, it would have been a more attractive package than Ramirez/Sanchez. I was responding to the intimation by Jim Callis that the Red Sox were offering some sort of once in a lifetime deal that the Dodgers would not have been able to match. This just isn't the case. Guzman is better than Ramirez - Billingsley is better than Sanchez.

Additionally, the best SS prospect in baseball is certainly not Hanley Ramirez. Guzman, Drew and Wood (as Rich Lederer pointed out) are all superior. I even would go further by disagreeing with Rich Lederer that Ramirez is a top-tier prospect. He played poorly last year and is running on hype.

What about the trade that the Rangers were supposedly offering? Hank Blalock and a minor leaguer, I think it was? I would've taken that in a heartbeat over a bunch of minor leaguers, none of which have proven track records in the majors (and IMO, Hanley Ramirez doesn't seem that much like a super-prospect, nor does he seem ready for the majors)

I don't think Blalock would have been a good fit at all for Florida. His offensive statistics are inflated due to playing half of his games in Texas. Not only is Ameriquest a hitter's ballpark but Pro Player Stadium is a pitcher's ballpark. Blalock's numbers would look materially different if he played for the Marlins rather than the Rangers.

Check out his home/away splits last year:

        AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS
Home   .297 .361 .534 .895
Road   .231 .276 .335 .611

Moreover, this is not a one-time aberration either. To wit, here are his career splits:

        AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS
Home   .310 .379 .548 .927 
Road   .238 .296 .396 .692

By peeling back the onion skin, you can see that Blalock is one of the most overrated players in baseball. Ramirez is a much better option than Blalock AND cheaper to boot.

Hrmm... but it seems foolish to me, to be trading a guy like Beckett for three minor leaguers who have no experience at all. At least for Delgado, they're getting a guy like Mike Jacobs who's gotten a few at-bats at the major league level and has shown what he can do. Hanley Ramirez, even given his minor league numbers, seems barely above average offensively.

But it wasnt Beckett for three minor leaguers...it was Beckett and LOWELL. Lowell has a negative value of $10+ million dollars..so it was three minor leaguers and 10 million dollars for Beckett.