I’m going to the start with the Red Sox because they’re involved in all of the blockbusters. At this point, it’s reasonably safe to say that if Roy Halladay is going to be traded, it will be to the Red Sox; if Victor Martinez is going to be to traded, it will be to the Red Sox; and if Adrian Gonzalez gets traded it’s going to be to the Red Sox. The Dodgers and Rangers are still players on the Halladay sweepstakes and the Mets and Rays are technically involved for V-Mart, but basically I think the Red Sox are the frontrunners for all three. But they will only get one of them. And they will get one of them. I will be shocked if the Red Sox don’t nab one of the three, it could happen, but I doubt it.

From what I gather, Adrian Gonzalez is Boston’s first choice. Gonzalez solves the problem shortage now and in the future, and plays an excellent first base. He also will be the hardest to get, but the Red Sox have spent all Wednesday negotiating with the Friars, as well as late Thursday night. But if they don’t get something done, they’ll turn their attention to Victor Martinez and the Indians. The teams are looking to include a third team in the deal, with Clay Buchholz going to the Indians in exchange for Martinez and prospects evening things out across the board with the three teams. As of yet no word on if they’ve found a third team, but things are definitely progressing, so if the Red Sox take this route I think they and the Tribe will get it done. Were the Red Sox to get V-Mart or Gonzalez, they would trade away Adam LaRoche as he would be of no value anymore.

As far as Halladay is concerned, I don’t think it’s going to happen. The Jays and every other team are at an impasse. As far as I can tell, the Red Sox made the best offer, and I’ve already explained why I think the Jays should ignore the division-rival aspect. In order to get it done, I think the Jays would have to approach the Red Sox or any other team and accept a previous offer or make a less demanding one. That all being said, the Rangers were talking to the Jays yesterday, though nothing came from it as far as we know.

Alright let’s move on to others. There is talk that if the Red Sox do get Adrian Gonzalez, they may take Heath Bell along too if they are willing to include Daniel Bard. Not sure if they’ll do that. The Angels and Marlins are the main suitors for Bell, though it’s not clear that he will necessarily be traded. The Padres made an offer to the Marlins yesterday but it was rejected.

Yesterday the Cubs traded prospects to receive Tom Gorzelanny and Tom Grabow from the Pirates. Just keeps the Bucs fire sale rollin’.

The Twins and A’s are getting closer to a deal for Orlando Cabrera it seems. No specifics have been released, but apparently progress is being made.

The Indians are looking to move Carl Pavano, and it may be to the one place he actually suceeded: Florida. If the Marlins aren’t going to get Heath Bell, they might get Pavano if they’re set on being buyers.

Update: Just now as I’m writing this, the Red Sox said they will be discussing Halladay with the Blue Jays this morning, so maybe it isn’t completely dead. Don’t know if the Sox would rather get Gonzalez or Halladay.

The lead story is that there are unconfirmed reports that Orioles reliever George Sherrill has been traded to the Dodgers. Apparently the Orioles are seeking something like Josh Bell in return. This makes sense, the Dodgers have been talking to the O’s about Sherrill for a few days, and need at least one more reliever.

In other news, the Reds have been talking about acquiring Scott Rolen from the Blue Jays for several days and things were progressing. Now it appears that the talks are dead and that we can probably rule out Rolen heading to Cincy.

The Red Sox and Padres apparently had lengthy discussions regarding Adrian Gonzalez yesterday. I’m assuming that Gonzalez is the Red Sox first choice of all of their trade targets (over Halladay and Victor Martinez) because he is young, has years left on his contract, has power, and is a good fielding first basemen. It’s a move that would be good for this season and beyond (Kevin Youkilis would likely become a more permanent third basemen).

In other Padres news, the Marlins are looking to acquire Heath Bell from the Friars. This news comes after the failure of the Marlins’ surprising attempt at trading for Roy Halladay.

The Mariners have said they will not be trading Jarrod Washburn, so the rumors linking him to the Yankees or Brewers can now be considered dead.

Things are silent with regards to Halladay, more and more expect he’ll stay in Toronto. I’ll keep updates coming.

A couple weeks before the pre-season, I was talking to a friend about my preparations for my upcoming fantasy baseball auction. I remember saying, “I really like Josh Johnson and Ricky Nolasco, I think they’re going to be great this year. I also like Andrew Miller as a high upside breakout guy. Actually, I pretty much just like any Marlins pitcher.” And it’s true.

Now, it really didn’t work out exactly as planned, except for Johnson. Nolasco really struggled, and spent some time in the minors as a result. Miller wasn’t reaching his potential. But actually, the Marlins offense carried them for awhile, going off to start the season, and it helped sustain them. Realistically, the Marlins offense isn’t amazing. It’s not bad either, it’s mostly just about average, though given how young it is, it naturally has places to go.

The thing is that the Marlins were able to hang around the division at just five or six games back while its pitching figured itself out. And then something happened. The pitching started to figure itself out. Ricky Nolasco came back, and he’s the Ricky Nolasco people thought he would be. He’s given up two or less runs in his past six starts, with three of those six coming against the strong offenses of Boston, Toronto and Washington.

Andrew Miller and Sean West have shown flashes of brilliance, most likely signs of things to come. If Chris Volstad can get his act together, this team will have a very strong rotation all-around. And because the Fish are such a young team, you can probably say make a safe bet that they will improve as the season goes on, which is a good sign for them considering we haven’t even hit the All-Star Break yet.

I still would call the star-studded Phillies favorites to win the division, but if you’re looking for a resolution to the question asked in the headline, the answer is unequestionably, yes.

There would be no reason for Nunez to be removed from the game. This was a mental error on the part of Fredi Gonzalez, but nothing that requires the entire move to be appealed. Say, Hermida had come in at the beginning of the inning, and everything else had remained the same, that would have sufficiently satiated Girardi’s desire for fair play, I assume. So then why is it that after one meaningless pitch (it was a strike looking to Jeter), is Girardi hellbent on protesting this to league offices? I feel as though Girardi is working the league in such a way that when he really needs a call, he can reference events like the one that transpired on Sunday as an example of when he didn’t get his way.

Let me mention, further, that at this point in the game, the Yankees were down 6-3, so they got a further two runs after the incident. If there had been a situation where Coghlan had made a miraculous catch on that 0-0 pitch, I would have understood Girardi’s position, but right now he is coming off as petulant and wasteful. Joe, how about you take a look at why your team is 4-6 in its last ten, and all of a sudden 4 games back of the streaking Red Sox. This as opposed to making jokes like “But I’d like to keep the two runs I got in the ninth,”. Haha Joe, haha…