Baseball Trade Talk + Redskins vs. Bears

Bears +3 @ Redskins: There is not much to get excited about here. Two bad teams who had hoped to be in the playoffs this year match up after a short week. The week was especially short for the Redskins who buried their teammate on Monday.

Incredibly, at 5-7 both teams are still in the playoff hunt being 1 game out of the 6th seed. The loser of this game can kiss the season goodbye but the winner is right there. The Redskins had a great chance to win last week until they gave up a game winning field goal as time was running out. This came after Joe Gibbs, who's mind is clearly not on football, called back to back timeouts and gave the Bills a chance to attempt a 36 yard field goal instead of a 51 yard attempt. The Bears also blew a 4th quarter lead to the Giants after they had a 9 point lead at home. We know the Bears offense is terrible but their defense is almost equally as bad ranked among the worst in the league. Jason Campbell can move the ball for the Redskins but he makes too many mistakes to kill good drives.

Tonight I look for an ugly game filled with turnovers, missed opportunities and a lot of field goals. I can't see how the Redskins had any time to prepare for this game and therefore, I can't see how they win this game unless they shut down Devin Hester and score points on defense.

Bears 23 - Redskins 16

Baseball Trade Talks:

The hot topic of the week is Johan Santana. Will he be traded? If so when? And to who? The Red Sox, it seems, only jumped into the mix to get the Yankees to give up more of their prized prospects and young pitchers. Since Hank Steinbrener was stupid to set a deadline (who knows if that is serious or not), the Yankees have "officially" backed out of the talks. Since no one else either a) can afford to sign Santana, b) want to pay Santana, or c) is willing to part with their best young pitchers or prospects, it seems as if the Red Sox are the only team left. If I were the Red Sox, I part with Ellsbury, Lester and throw in some mid-level prospects. They still keep their better young pitcher in Bucholtz and they get another ace in their rotation. They would become a dynasty and be favored to win the World Series for the next 6 years (so long as their pitchers stay healthy).

Tha Yankees CANNOT let this happen. I would like to keep Phil Hughes. I think he will be very good, maybe even great, and he is very young (and cheap for the next few years). However, if the Yankees can get an ace to match Beckett, Carmona, or Verlander, they have to give up Hughes. Melky Cabrera is an okay player and I'm not interested in other prospects. The Yankees will always be a "now" team and getting Santana would put them over the top. This is a must-make trade and the Yankees would be making a grave mistake in passing up the opportunity.

As a side note, I think the best case scenario is for the Twins to hold onto Santana and then trade him in July, or better yet, maybe he finishes the season with the Twins if they are contenders. The the Yankees could try to get him without giving up Hughes, or anyone for that matter. I guess we'll see what happens....stay tuned.