Larry Mahnken of the Replacement Level Yankees Weblog lost his home and most of his possessions in a fire earlier this week. Donations to help Larry can be made via his PayPal account (click the link on his homepage).

Marlins sign Delgado. "A deep position just got deeper, as Delgado joins Jim Thome, Albert Pujols, Derrek Lee, Jeff Bagwell, and Todd Helton in the NL first base club. Some good players are going to miss out on some all-star berths over the next few seasons." (The Transaction Guy)

Have a ball: Mientkiewicz sent to Mets, ball headed to Boston.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Doug Mientkiewicz is bringing his good glove to the New York Mets. The ball is going to Boston, at least for a year.

The Mets acquired the former Gold Glove first baseman from the Red Sox on Wednesday for minor league first baseman Ian Bladergroen.

The 30-year-old Mientkiewicz won the 2001 AL Gold Glove with Minnesota and caught the final out of Boston's World Series sweep of St. Louis last October, the first Series title for the Red Sox since 1918. He kept the ball, which the Red Sox want back.

Mientkiewicz said Boston asked to have it for one year, he intends to comply and the sides expect to reach an agreement within days. He caught the ball when it was thrown to him by pitcher Keith Foulke in St. Louis on Oct. 27.

(Yahoo!)

It's raining prospects! "In addition to all the top rated prospects the Mets jettisoned last year for mediocre major league pitchers, they now trade their fourth-rated prospect (according to the Daily News AND scout.com) for a slick fielding, no hitting first baseman, Doug Mientkiewicz, from the Red Sox. Ian Bladergroen hit .342 with 13 HR and 74 RBI in A ball. In ADDITION to being hoodwinked by the Red Sox, the Mets sent an undisclosed amount of cash to the Sox!!! So they are taking on a useless first baseman AND PAYING THE SOX TO DO SO. Holy guacamole!" (The Greatest Game)

Billy Beane Back in AN Part II.

Blez: This may be a loaded question, but has George Steinbrenner gone completely mad? $200 million dollars? When you look at the Red Sox and the Yankees, they seem to be the only two teams that can play on that level in the American League. They're in a different stratosphere because of their inflated budgets. Is there a problem in baseball with that?

BB: It seems like I have that question or some derivative of that question every year. First of all, you can never criticize because they've been a very successful franchise and they're spending what they have available to them. Good for them. At some point, situations like that create opportunities for clubs like ours. It might sound crazy, but they, teams like us are still playing with 25 men on the roster. Sometimes they need to move very good players off their roster and it creates very good opportunities for us. This isn't a high profile situation, but because of that, we were able to get a great pitcher who was very effective for us last season, Chris Hammond, and he cost us 15 cents on the dollar. An opportunity was created because of the situation in New York. I don't view it as frustrating as many fans do, I view it as something that will create an opportunity somewhere along the line if you look for it. Instead of looking at it as an excuse and complaining about it, I look for the opportunities it creates for us.

(Athletics Nation)

Billy Beane Back in AN Part III. (Athletics Nation)

Prospectus Triple Play: Los Angeles Dodgers, Minnesota Twins, San Francisco Giants. "While Beltre has had one BIG season, in the three years prior to 2004 he had struggled to keep his OBP above .300 (the new Mendoza Line) and his SLG was stuck in the low .400s. Drew, on the other hand, has posted OBPs above .400 three times in the past five years. The knock on him is durability; prior to last season, he had never played more than 135 games. But if he's healthy (no small if, admittedly), Drew figures to be more productive for less money." (Baseball Prospectus)

The Other Four. A look at what the Yankees have done to address their 2B, CF, 1B and DH needs. (Clifford's Big Red Blog)