First-place trade

Big trade yesterday between the two first place teams. Newark gave up Jimmy Rollins and Brandon Lyon and Philly gave up their second round pick and Rafael Soriano. Rollins immediately took over for the injured David Eckstein and started contributing: 1-3 with a stolen base in game one and 2-4 with a homer in game 2. Eckstein may return from the DL and find that he has no job left. In fact Eck's locker was temporarily moved to the janitor's closet when Rollins arrived. "They got no respect for me. Don't they know that I'm a scrappy fan favorite?" said Eckstein.

Pedro Martinez shutout Vancouver this morning on three hits, beating fellow legend Greg Maddux. Pedro improved to 9-3 on the season. Maddux and Pedro rank #1 and 2 on the all-time wins list. By the way, the loss was Vancouver's fifth in a row, sending them into fifth place overall.

Manny Ramirez's double in yesterday's game against Vancouver was his 400th, becoming only the sixth player in DMBL history to reach the feat. He is only a few behind Jeff Bagwell (406) and Larry Walker (407), both retired, so expect Manny to climb ahead to fourth by the end of the year. The all-time leader is Edgar Martinez (493).

Don't forget, we'll be off for the weekend and return Monday with a doubleheader.