Red Sox confuse Twitter, end up with Erik Bedard and Josh Fields

I forget what the Major League Baseball trade deadline was like before Twitter, but I’m going to guess it was a heck of a lot less stressful.

Saturday night, Twitter broke the news that the Red Sox had traded Lars Anderson and a PTBNL (Player To Be Named Later) to the Oakland A’s for oft injured starting pitcher Rich Harden. A few hours later, Twitter broke the news that the Red Sox had NOT traded for Rich Harden.

Then, on Sunday, the 4pm trade deadline came and went without a Red Sox trade.

Then, all hell broke loose.

First, there were reports that Erik Bedard had been traded. Then we learned that Double-A catcher Tim Federowicz had been pulled from his game in Portland. Then reports surfaced that Erik Bedard had been traded to the Red Sox.

So we put two and two together, and decided that the Red Sox must have sent Tim Federowicz to Seattle for Bedard. If only it were that easy.

In 20 minutes, there were about 2,436,561 different reported trades. Most involved the Dodgers as a third team. Some resulted in the Red Sox getting Trayvon Robinson from the Dodgers, some resulted in the Red Sox getting pitching prospect Josh Fields, some had the Red Sox somehow landing Robinson, Fields, and Bedard.

The whole thing led to this hilarious tweet by @TomCaron:

#RedSox reportedly get Bedard for 3 minor leaguers. Or 4. 1 is Asian. Might be Chiang. Or Lin. Trayvon Robinson coming. Or going. Who knows.

In the end, the Red Sox ended up trading Federowicz, outfielder Chih-Hsien Chiang, and pitchers Stephen Fife and Juan Rodriguez for Bedard and right-handed pitcher Josh Fields, a former first-round pick of the Mariners. Fields made the deal more attractive to the Red Sox because it gives them another prospect they can either develop or build up and trade.

Bedard immediately steps into the number 3 starter role. The hope is that he can give the Red Sox a couple of months of quality starts, and maybe a playoff start or two if Clay Buchholz can’t get healthy. If he can stay healthy, Bedard has shown the ability to dominate, even in the AL East. And, while definitely an injury concern, he’s definitely more likely to be able to pitch for two months than Rich Harden.

In all, it’s about the best the Red Sox could have done. They didn’t give up any real prospects, and they got a guy who should be able to help them down the stretch. Meanwhile, the Yankees did absolutely nothing.

So, to recap, the Red Sox, who were already better than the Yankees, got better while the Yankees stayed the same.

Sounds good to me.

Patriots fans, media pounce as Albert Haynesworth misses first practice

Well, that didn’t take long.

Patriots fans and media alike have pounced on Albert Haynesworth already. Given his history, it was bound to happen. But, people, can we at least wait until he does something wrong while employed by the New England Patriots before we give up on any chance of rehabilitation?

Haynesworth was expected (by fans and media) to be on the practice field Saturday. He wasn’t. We don’t know why. We don’t even know whether he was even supposed to be on the field. We just assumed, since the trade was made official, he’d be out there.

But he wasn’t.

Nobody from the Patriots has said anything about why he didn’t practice, or if he was even supposed to be practicing in the first place. Belichick, in his normal Belichickian way, refused to give any reason for Haynesworth’s absence.

“He’s not quite ready,” Belichick said. “When he’s ready, he’ll be out there.”

The belief is that he's not hurt because he passed his physical prior to the trade being completed There's no reason to believe it’s a salary thing, since as far as we know his contract was not modified after the trade.

So we’ll just start speculating that he failed the conditioning run.

Of course, were I a betting man, I’d have bet that Haynesworth would have failed the conditioning run. But, frankly, we don’t even know if he’s attempted it yet.

Like I said yesterday, I’m OK with people being negative about this guy. He’s a class A jerk. He’s been a problem everywhere he’s ever been. I get it.

But until Belichick says Haynesworth is a problem, or he releases him, there’s no reason to believe he’s done anything wrong while a member of the New England Patriots.

Happy thoughts, people. Until the Haynesworth experiment is a complete and utter failure, it’s significantly healthier to assume it’s working.Why stress yourself out? Training camp just started...

Like Belichick said, when he’s ready, he’ll be out there.

Philadelphia to New York: Kiss My Asomugha (and don't forget Cliff Lee)

New York Jets fans had already begun purchasing custom-made Nnamdi Asomugha jerseys. They had visions of the greatest cornerback duo in NFL history leading their football team to the promise land for the first time since Broadway Joe made good on his guarantee.

But, apparently, Nnamdi Asomugha had different plans.

When the Asomugha sweepstakes began, the question was when, not if, the Jets would be introducing their new cornerback. Other teams jumped into the mix for Asomugha, but they jumped out almost as quickly as they jumped in.

The Bucs were interested, then they weren’t. The Texans were interested, but Asomugha wasn’t interested in them. The Cowboys were reportedly interested, but Asomugha’s agent claimed they weren’t in the running.

All signs pointed to the New York Jets.

Then, just a few minutes after the start of free agency on Friday, reports surfaced that the Jets had backed out of the Asomugha sweepstakes. A mystery team had swooped in and stole their free agent prize.

For the second time in less than a year, a New York sports team had a free agent stolen out from under them by a Philadelphia sports team. Just about eight months ago, every Yankee fan on the planet assumed Cliff Lee was going to be a Yankee. Lee ended up shocking everyone by choosing the Phillies. Eight months later, Asomugha shocked New York again by choosing the Eagles.

And, really, he didn’t even get ridiculous money.

Asomugha got a 5-year, $60 million contract ($25 million guaranteed) from the Eagles. The Jets offer had to be in that same ballpark. I wouldn’t be shocked if it were higher. After all, Johnathan Joseph got $23.5 million guaranteed from the Texans, and he isn’t in Asomugha’s league.

The biggest winner here, aside from the New England Patriots, is Antonio Cromartie. Cromartie’s the best cornerback left on the market, and his former team is suddenly desperate. The Jets may end up having to give him close to Asomugha money, or risk going into the season with Kyle Wilson as their number two cornerback.

What I’m trying to say is, Friday was a really, really bad day for Rex Ryan and the New York Jets.

Just to rub some salt in the wound, here's a highlight reel of the guy the Jets missed out on:

In retrospect, Patriots decision to cut Ty Warren wasn't all that surprising

The New England Patriots released defensive lineman Ty Warren on Friday in what was yet another relatively surprising move in what has been an extremely surprising couple of day.

But was it really all that surprising? Maybe we should have seen this coming.

Ty Warren was carrying a cap number of $5.878 million this season, which made him the 4th largest cap hit on the team behind only Tom Brady ($13.2 million), Logan Mankins (franchised for $10.1 million), and Chad Ochocinco ($6.2 million).

Warren, while a pretty good player, simply isn’t worthy of a cap hit like that.

But it couldn’t have been just a cap issue, because the Patriots likely could have convinced Warren to rework his contract to lower the cap number. Warren told the Boston Herald that the Patriots “choose to go in a different direction” defensively. That doesn’t sound like a salary issue, that sounds like a team getting rid of a player they no longer felt fit their system.

The thing is, when healthy, Warren is the perfect fit for their system. He’s a very good run-stopping 3/4 defensive end, and those types of guys don’t grow on trees. With him on the roster, the Patriots have some insurance if Albert Haynesworth proves to be too insane for Bill Belichick. Without him, Haynesworth becomes a key player for the Patriots.

But Warren had fallen out of favor with Belichick and the front office over the last year and a half or so.

Back in March of 2010, Warren decided to skip the Patriots “voluntary” offseason workouts to return to school and get his degree. Belichick definitely wasn’t happy about this decision, and he had every right to be upset.

The Patriots were paying Warren a tremendous amount of money to play football. Under the best of circumstances, Warren would likely only play until his mid-30s. There was going to be plenty of time post-NFL for Warren to finish his degree.

When Warren finally showed up, he decided to have season-ending hip surgery instead of playing through pain for the 2010 season. The Patriots front office reportedly wasn’t too happy with this decision, especially since had he been with the throughout the offseason they may have found the injury earlier and fixed it in time to get something out of him in 2010.

It was believed that the hard feelings that developed during the summer of 2010 had blown over, but perhaps they resurfaced a bit after Warren came up lame during his conditioning run earlier this week.

The history of injuries, what the Patriots considered a lack of commitment, the late decision to have season ending surgery in 2010, the failed conditioning run, and the huge cap hit made releasing Warren an easy, and in retrospect quite obvious, decision.

**Thanks to PatsCap.com for the salary cap information.

Chad Ochocinco trade caps off a busy day for Bill Belichick

After Patriots Nation spent most of the day on Wednesday complaining about how boring their team’s approach to the offseason was, the New England Patriots had an unexpectedly busy day on Thursday.

And it definitely wasn’t boring.

First, they shocked everyone by trading a 5th-round pick in 2013 to the Washington Redskins for Albert Haynesworth.

Then, while everyone was still trying to wrap their head around the Haynesworth deal, they traded a 5th-round pick in 2012 and a 6th-round pick in 2013 to the Cincinnati Bengals for Chad Ochocinco.

Chad Ochocinco is not a reclamation project. Ochocinco is still a quality wide receiver, he’s just been stuck on a terrible, terrible team.

Ochocinco may not put up Moss-in-2007 numbers, but his career is going to be revitalized in a similar fashion. Ochocinco can still catch, he can still get open, and he still loves to play the game. Pair him with Tom Brady and the sky’s the limit for the outspoken and generally entertaining wide receiver.

Ochocinco’s been decent even with the declining Carson Palmer throwing him the ball over the last couple of seasons. In the last two seasons, Ochocinco has 139 receptions, 1878 yards, and 13 touchdowns.

The Bengals offense has been bad, so people just assume everyone on it is bad. Truth is, the quarterback play was erratic at best and the coaching staff is an abomination. Ochocinco did as good as could be expected given the situation.

Bill Belichick and Chad Ochocinco have had a good relationship going back to the 2007 Pro Bowl. They’ve both openly discussed their good relationship in the past. Now they can see if that good relationship can translate into winning football.

The Patriots are definitely a more talented football team than they were 24 hours ago. They’re definitely a more interesting football team. It remains to be seen whether they're a BETTER football team.

But they're definitely not a boring football team….

Albert Haynesworth: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

In case you're not familiar with the newest member of the New England Patriots defense, here is a quick video reminder of exactly what Albert Haynesworth can do.

The Good: A motivated Haynesworth is almost unstoppable:

The Bad: An unmotivated Haynesworth is extremely stoppable:

The Ugly: Motivated or not, Haynesworth is completely insane, and insane people do insane things:

Patriots get bad guy, potentially great player in Albert Haynesworth

The New England Patriots just got a little scarier. The question is whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock somewhere, you’ve heard by now that the Patriots have dealt a 2013 fifth round draft pick to the Washington Redskins for troubled defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth.

Haynesworth has been described as freakishly talented, scary, lazy, selfish, crazy, and a bunch of words that aren’t fit to print, none of them good. He was given a ridiculous amount of money by the Washington Redskins and basically refused to play. His interest in the game of football has been questioned. He has an ongoing sexual assault case. He once started a brawl during a training camp practice by kicking one of his teammates. He curb-stomped Andre Gurode. He’s being sued by a bank for defaulting on a $2.38 million loan. He’s being sued by a stripper for impregnating her and not paying up.

Basically, the guy is a piece of garbage.

Even former Boston Herald scribe Kevin Mannix would concede that Haynesworth is an even more duplicitous variety of pond scum than the most arrogant and megalomaniacal media-hating NFL head coaches.

But I still love this move.

The Patriots gave up (basically) nothing to get Haynesworth. None of his remaining money is guaranteed, so they could cut him tomorrow if he acts up. Haynesworth has always had nice things to say about New England, specifically Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, whom he seems to respect.

“I'm actually a big Tom Brady fan,” Haynesworth said after a preseason matchup with the Patriots back in 2009. “ I'm a big Patriots fan. I've always like the Patriots, I've always liked Coach Belichick. I just like the way [Brady] is.”

A motivated Haynesworth is one of the most dominating forces in professional football. Giving up a fifth round pick in the 2013 draft to take a shot at trying to revive that guy is a gamble worth taking.

I mean, who’s going to run on a defensive line that features Haynesworth, Vince Wilfork, and Ty Warren?

Plus, a motivated Haynesworth gives them the inside pass rush they’ve been missing since they traded Richard Seymour.

And if he’s not motivated, they can cut him without paying him a dime.

I understand if you can’t bring yourself to swallow your humanity and root for a guy like this. I understand the negativity. But, personally, I just want to see the Patriots win. I don’t care if the guy sacking the quarterback is a jerk Monday through Saturday, as long as he’s a force on Sunday.

And when he’s right, nobody is a bigger force than Albert Haynesworth.

In a world where Tomas Kaberle gets a day with the Stanley Cup...

The NHL has this cool tradition where the every player on the Stanley Cup winning team, no matter how minimal his contribution, gets a day with the Stanley Cup. Even defensemen who spent only four months hovering between useless, invisible, and detrimental get their day with The Cup.

But someone needs to explain to me how this was allowed to happen:

Maybe if Tomas Kaberle was allowed to wear that get-up during games he wouldn’t be so scared of contact. I’m not sure what this article says, or even what language it’s written in, but I imagine Kaberle allowed himself to be photographed like this as an apology to the city of Boston for trying (unsuccessfully) to destroy the 2011 Boston Bruins.

Is anyone else worried that the Carolina Hurricanes dumped Joe Corvo so they could sign Kaberle? Could Corvo actually be worse than Kaberle? 

Corvo, I’ve been told, is essentially Kaberle with a better shot. He's an offensive defenseman whose defense can accurately be described as offensive. The Bruins have the depth defensively to absorb an offensive defenseman who is a wreck in his own zone. They did just win a Stanley Cup with Kaberle getting regular minutes.

But I still can’t get past the fact that Corvo was released because another team thought Kaberle at $12.75 million over three seasons was a better option.

There's also the whole "Corvo beat up a woman in a bar a few years ago" thing. Then again, if it were Kaberle, the woman probably would have beat him up.

So there’s that…