Well I guess that ends all the Bartolo Colon trade talk. While fans on Boston sports radio were arguing whether or not the Sox should give up Shea Hillenbrand for Colon, the Indians pulled a blockbuster deal with the Expos. So Shea will be staying in Boston. It was very unlikely that he would be going anywhere anyways, but the only chance was if it was for Colon. Now we can focus squarely on the Trot for Thome rumors.

Jayson Stark tells us that the fight for Jeff Weaver appears to be between the Red Sox and Diamondbacks. Also, a blurb about the Sox sending down Casey Fossum so that they have some trade bait in the minor leagues. That seems a little bit foolish. Most teams know what Fossum brings to the table by now. Does his location really affect his trade value?

Bob Hohler has the Red Sox notebook. Rolando Arrojo is on the 15 day DL with shoulder discomfort. Sun Woo Kim was recalled from Triple AAA to take his place. Nomar was scheduled for a day off so the rainout helped him. He got his day off but won't miss a game because of it.

Pedro makes his intentions clear in the Herald today. Check out these quotes:
``Bartolo Colon would be good on this club,'' Martinez said last night, after the Sox' series finale against the Trading Post Indians was rained out. ``Jim Thome would look good on this club. You know what I want? I want us to go out and get the best team ever. I mean ever. Go get them all, and have them piled up in here,'' Martinez said. ``Whatever it takes.''
Is Pedro starting to see his window of opportunity of a championship closing? Maybe he is starting to realize that it is not a lock that he will be resigned here after his deal expires. Maybe he's realizing there is a decent chance he will be traded next season. And he wants to win a championship before all that happens.

Look at this picture in today's Globe and tell me with a straight face that the Sox don't need a new park. The picture is of the tunnel that leads from the dugout to the clubhouse. How long before a player steps on a nail sticking out of one of those boards?

Admittedly, I am not a very big Bruins fan or hockey fan. But what the Bruins are doing is despicable. Letting Dafoe go is strictly a money decision. Don't believe the baloney about how they are not happy with how he played in the Montreal series and that is why they aren't resigning him. Dafoe did not play well in that series, but the B's wouldn't have even been in that series without Dafoe playing as well as he did all year. This team without Dafoe last year is a 7 or 8 seed at best. It sort of reminds me of how Dan Duqette waited all year for the Sox to slide just a little bit so that he could fire Jimy Williams. Williams did not deserve to be fired, and Dafoe does not deserve to be let go. Bruins management has once again made a joke of themselves.

Continuing on the Celtics theme, it is disheartening to see that they already have draft pick Darius Songaila down on himself. Nice move by Chris Wallace to dent this guys confidence the first day they acquire him. Darius's agent is still confident that the C's will change their tune as soon as they see him play. He was told he would probably go at 28 to Sacramento, but it never happened. So here is a guy that was supposed to be a first rounder and you get him late in the second round. Sounds like a steal to me. Open your mind Chris.

Nice to see old friend Ellis Burks still doing well.

If you need directions to CMGI Field, the Herald posted them today.

So Pedro stopped the losing streak. Why don't I feel excited about it? Maybe I've been hoping all year that he would return to the Pedro of old at some point. Maybe I kept telling myself that as soon as he got over the injury and became confident again that everything would go back to normal. Pedro stopped the losing streak but only because his mates scored some runs. I still feel Pedro is one of the top 5 pitchers in the league. But he'll never be dominant again. I'll never again have that feeling I used to have when he pitched. It used to be when the Sox scored 2 runs, it was over. Pedro is mortal after all. I just don't think I've come to grips with it yet.
Bill Simmons wrote a great article about this very thing back on April 2nd.
Even the Indians know it.

Bob Ryan appears to contradict himself with his article today. Yesterday he was saying how Manny is not right and how the Sox are in trouble. Today he does a complete 180 as he tells everyone to calm down. Its not as bad as it seems he says. We get this quote.."The bright side is that Ramirez is back, and sooner or later he will hit. The bright side is that Pedro Martinez, Varitek, and Garciaparra, all of whom were absent from the roster at this time last year, are back.". Can you at least try to be a little more consistent, Bob?

The Celtics drafted Darius Songaila last night with the 50th pick(actually the 49th player taken). By all accounts this guy is a great player. He was slated to go a lot earlier but for some reason was still there when the C's picked. Now I understand the Celts plan was to draft a guy and send him overseas for a few years. But shouldn't that change since you were able to draft a guy like Darius? He is a 4 year college player, has European experience already, and appears ready for NBA ball. If he isn't ready now, when will he be? Will the C's just cut him and let some other team benefit? Again, Chris Wallace's comments are puzzling.
''[Songaila] will be here for summer league. But as far as on the roster, who knows? It's going to be a tight roster, 12 at most 13 players. We took our little shot with Darius [yesterday] and we'll see what happens.''
And this from the Herald...
``I don't want to rule out any possibilities, but our roster confines are going to make this a tough team to make for an outside player,'' said Wallace, who in the best-case scenario would have Songaila play overseas for at least a year while the Celtics retain his rights. ``But we don't have a commitment on that (whether he'd play overseas). We will have to cross that bridge later on in the summer.''
Doesn't this seem a little closed minded? Instead of insisting that he will go overseas, why not work him out here and see how he is in training camp, then make the decision?

Chad Ford of ESPN gives the C's an A minus for the draft. He notes that Darius should be able to step right in and help. Is Chris Wallace the only one who can't see this?

The Pats made a minor trade involving Kole Ay.

Bob Ryan checks in with his usual negative comments. With tongue in cheek, he blasts Manny and Nomar for last night's loss. Sure, Nomar had a bad night, but to blame him for anything is insane. The guy probably has 5-10 legitimate bad games a year. I'll take that anytime. As for Manny, he just got back, for crying out loud. He went 3-30 in Pawtucket, Bob. Do you think maybe he might need a few AB's to adjust to major league pitching? As has been documented here and on other sites, the only ones upset with Manny are the media. The fans gave him a partial standing O. So we can see where the problem lies.

Jim Thome doesn't want to leave Cleveland. It would be nice to have a lineup featuring Nomar, Manny, Jim, and Johnny though. Thome doesn't have any say in the matter, but makes it clear what his preference is.

Peter May has his final mock draft before the real one tonight. Shira Springer has a piece about the Celtics as well. You don't expect to get a good player drafting at #50, but even still some of Chris Wallace's comments are quite disturbing.
"You're just winging it, hoping to find something you like."
''If anybody has any nephews or great uncles who want to get drafted, let us know,''
''We're at the mercy of those other 48 teams. It is never irrelevant because you may get lucky and hit something, but let's say it's less relevant this year.''
Winging it?? Can't we do better than that? If you do your homework, you can get a good player, even drafting that low. There have been some very good role players drafted in that range. Look at Michael Redd for Milwaukee last year. The chances may not be that good, but I still don't like the comments coming from the GM.

Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent evidently got into a shoving match in the San Francisco dugout during last nights game. Kent yelled at Manager Dusty Baker, "I want off this team." Could the Sox use him?

Did I jinx Luis Castillo?

The Sox hope that Alan Embree can shore up their season long bullpen problems. Alan has a 0.94 ERA in 36 relief appearances for San Diego. This may open the door for sending Fossum back down to revive his career as a starter.

For those interested in the NBA draft, Michael Smith has a pretty good article about Caron Butler.

Nancy Marrapese-Burrell has a wrap-up of the Bruins draft.

Gordon Edes breaks from the norm for sports writers and is actually positive and optimistic today. Sure, the Sox have fallen into second place, but they are coming home now, with a new lefty, Garces supposedly healthy, and some guy named Manny will be back in the lineup. On top of that, they have a pretty easy stretch of baseball coming up. 28 of 39 against teams under .500. So things may be looking up.

It's nice to see Phil Mickelson win the tournament this past weekend. After Rick Reilly's article about him in SI a few months back, i'll always root for Phil. A genuine good guy. So what if he hasn't won a Major yet. Yet. He has the misfortune of playing at the same time as some guy named Tiger. Right now Phil is better than everyone not named Tiger. That's not too shabby a thing to be able to claim.

Looks like my question about Rolando Arrojo may have been answered. I guess he got bored yesterday.

I hate when the Sox have an off day. Especially with no Celtics to watch.