A couple of Trading Deadline thoughts

This is the part where I ramble on about baseball:

After yesterday's trade deadlines, currently I think the three best teams in the American League, in no particular order, are New York, Boston and Seattle.

And since Boston is the only team with a jinx perhaps more famous than the Cubs', I'm tentative in saying that given the renewed strength of their bullpen, I'm thinking this could be Boston's year. I'm not sure that the Yankees improved themselves so much. Maybe with numbers...but Ventura was valuable to have in the Yankee clubhouse...but then, it's a team of leaders, so maybe it won't matter so much. I'll just say that I think the A.L. East may be just as interesting down the wire as the Cubs and the N.L. Central.

Is it an oddity to see a player getting attached to his team? It made me a little sad to see Aaron Boone so emotional at his press conference, after having gotten so close to his teammates, the media and the city in general. That just seems rare in this day where Hall of Fame caliber players just spend a year or two with a team, sometimes.

Maybe that's part of baseball's problem, nowadays...

As for the Cubbies: They've got a tough road ahead of them. Starting today, the next ten series pit the Cubs 2 series against the Diamondbacks, 2 against the Dodgers, 2 against the Astros and 2 against the Cardinals, 1 against the Brewers, in Wrigley, where the Brewers always seem to play tough, and one against the Padres, who aren't the throwaway team they were even a month ago, with Nevin back and Rod Beck saving everything in sight.

Makes me wish the Cubs had just put Beck in at the beginning of the season, and we'd have one fewer question about the bullpen.