WARNING! Off-topic! Do NOT read if you are at all offended by baseball threads!!

[ChuckElias]

Originally posted by Jurassic Referee
Manny can't be a happy camper though, even though you'd never know it. He has to know that the Sox have been trying to dump him and his humongous contract. Same with Nomar. I don't think that the Bosox front office did the smartest thing by even acknowledging what they were trying to do with these guys.

JR, I said the same thing in the "Is it September Already" thread, before it was cruelly cut down in the prime of its life. (It's a joke, it's a joke already.) If you want to move a player of that visibility, you quietly ask around. You "put out feelers". You don't just put him on waivers, especially when you have to know that nobody's just going to pick up $20mil/yr, not even the Yankees! I still don't understand that move. Unless it was supposed be a very specific message: "We know we can't move you, but we want to shake you up a little". But I don't think that was the point, although I certainly can't say for sure.

Nomar's situation is a lot different. He wasn't being dumped. He was being moved to make room for (arguably) the best player in the game, who also happens to play his position. While that's not a happy thought, it's not like the Sox didn't want Nomar. They offered him a huge contract before last season, and he turned it down. Now he won't get anything near what the Sox offered him.

If you were Nomar, would you play hurt for a team that was trying to trade you in your walk year?

Well, honestly, yes I would for the simple fact that it is his walk year. He has no contract for next season, not even an option. And as I said before, his market value is already way down (just b/c the whole market is down). So I'd be trying my best to put up whatever numbers I could before I became a free agent. Unless, of course, he's willing to settle for $6.5mil/yr instead of $12mil/yr.