What were the odds that the trade deadline would come and go without us making a single move? I mean the team is exactly .500 for the 15th time this season. I wonder what the record is for most times at times at .500 durning a season? With the number of players in the last year of a contract, you would have thought we'd make at least a couple of moves, maybe try to build some depth? Anyway none of it happened.

In other news, Dustin McGowan had surgery on his arm and all went well.

"It's encouraging news," Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi said. "He should be ready for Spring Training [in 2009]. We might have to bring him along a little slower in Spring Training, but everything looked good, went good and he's on the road to recovery right now."   

This line does worry me:

An MRI exam showed a slight tear in his rotator cuff, but Toronto's medical staff determined that the damage wasn't the main concern.

'Slight tear' and not the 'main concern' seem like terms that might could come back to haunt us.

The trade of Manny to the Dodgers looks like a good one for all concerned. The Dodgers added a great bat and are in a division where none of the teams at very good. Adding a great bat to the middle of a poor lineup might be enough to allow them to pull away from the rest of the crappy teams in the division. Watching him play defense in that huge outfield in LA should be great fun.

Jason Bay is a heck of a bat too....his numbers are not all that different from Manny's this season and his defense will be better and, of course, he is more likely to care about winning. Bay is hitting .282/.375/.529, Manny's numbers .299/.398/.529, so the offensive difference might not be as big as you might have guessed.

The Pirates are getting pitcher Craig Hansen and outfielder Brandon Moss from the Sox and third baseman Andy LaRoche and minor league pitcher Bryan Morris from the Dodgers. So they didn't do too badly either.