I figure it'll be slow for news over the next few days, so hopefully this MYOR thread will suffice.

Well, I was gonna ask him where he came from, when we heard the bullets fly
Comin’ through the brush, and all around our ears
It was then I saw this big marine light a fire in his eye
And it was strange, but suddenly, I forgot my fears

Anything interesting going on?

Rotoworld is reporting a trade between the Boston Red Sox and the San Diego Padres.

Dave Roberts, a fourth-outfielder type heads west. Jay Payton and his 3.5 million dollar salary (according to Dugout Dollars), infielder Ramon Vazquez, pitching prospect David Pauley and 2.65 million dollars (that's right for the "cash-strapped" Red Sox).

Instead of using my own laziness as an excuse, I'm so cold that I can barely type. What's out there in Blue Jays news today?

As you may have read, the Jays were in the hunt for pitcher Matt Clement until the last minute. (Or maybe the fourth-last minute. Or maybe 11:07 or something.) The question: how much would Clement have helped the team had he been signed?

We now know that Matt Clement won't be a Blue Jay, as he signed a 3 year, $25 million dollar deal with the Red Sox. At that price I'm quite happy the Jays didn't try to top Boston's offer.

Saturday Roundup:

We're generally looking to cut back on the roundball talk hereabouts, so there won't be many Boxing Out threads. But today's news that the Raptors have traded Vince Carter to the New Jersey Nets for Alonzo Mourning, Eric Williams, Aaron Williams and two first-round draft picks merits an exception. Who won? Who lost? Who wants to start a pool on the when Vince rips the organization/teammates/city/fans in the New York press? Have fun.

You know the drill.

Pedro to the Mets. Tim Hudson to Atlanta. Troy Glaus to Anaheim, Adrian Beltre to the Mariners, Corey Koskie to the Blue Jays. Maybe even the Big Unit to the Bronx. It's been a pretty amazing off-season already, and we still haven't seen where the likes of Carlos Beltran will end up. We'll ask this question later again this winter, but for now:

QOTD: Which trade acquisition or free-agent signing will be considered the best investment by the end of the 2005 season, taking into account salary, length of contract, and player and team performance? Which will be considered the worst?

You know that NFH is a poor substitute for the regular Rounduppers when he makes you do all the work yourself.

You may've seen the crawl on ESPNews or even read it in another thread a few minutes ago, but New York Newsday is reporting the Yankees have finally acquired Hall of Fame lefty Randy Johnson in a bizarre three-way deal.

The Yankees send Javy Vazquez and the last vestiges of the Yankee farm system in catcher Dioner Navarro and third baseman Eric Duncan to the Dodgers, with L.A. flipping pitchers Brad Penny and Yhency Brazoban and former Jay Shawn Green to Arizona.

That's right, Tim Hudson traded today and it's not the top pitching storyline in the news. Thoughts on the deal? Discuss.

Update by Joe: The deal is not as "done" as some were reporting.

Okay, if you don't watch Charmed, you don't get the headline reference. No big deal. Anyway, with Edgar Renteria signing with the Red Sox for approximately seven billion dollars over thirty-five years, it brings to mind the fact that not long ago, there was a clear and obvious "Holy Trinity" of shortstops -- A-Rod, Nomar and Jeter, probably in that order. With that no longer the case, here's today's ...

Question of the Day: What is the current top trio of shortstops? Without regard to a limiting number like three, who are the best shortstops in the game today, and in what order? What will the new top trio be in 2008? At that time, what, if any, new names will we need to add to Mike Green's Hall Watch: The Shortstops feature?

Remember the old, time-honoured tradition of slowly building a team up, from bad to less bad to mediocre to pretty good to great? Remember the Success Cycle, and how every team eventually finds itself on a wheel that spins from good to bad and back (hopefully, anyway) to good again? That tradition might always have been as much myth as reality in the free-agent era. But over the last couple of off-seasons, a few teams have been doing their level best to blow the entire legend to smithereens.