Plus, it's starting to fluster J.A.(y) Happ, who seems destined to head to Toronto if the Phillies can manage to throw enough Future into the pot. Then ESPN's A.J. Mass trots out this theory: the Phillies are awesomer than awesome right now and do not need Halladay to be awesomest. (I'm paraphrasing.) Mitch Williams is convinced the Phillies can repeat if they land Roy. The Phillies are reluctant to part with both Kyle Drabek and J.A. Happ. Take one, just not both they say, even though as Jayson Stark sagely points out, neither one of those guys will ever be Roy Halladay. Thank you, you hair-helmeted beacon of reason.

The worst thing the Phillies could do here is dick around too much and then end up overpaying for Cliff Lee, Zach Duke, or Jarrod Washburn. That would be disastrous. Oh, and whatever happened to Mike Grace?

4 p.m. came and went without a last minute blockbuster. Then, like the majority of the baseball media community, they still got scooped. Not even ESPNdeportes could help them. At approximately 4:12 p.m., Linda Cohn was frantically shuffling through papers on her desk until she got the one she had to read: Manny Ramirez traded to Dodgers details to follow... Cohn looked like she the paper she was reading off of was covered in vomit, as now, after three hours of wall-to-wall coverage with some of the most entrenched baseball writers in the country sitting next to her (including a visibly annoyed Peter Gammons video conferencing from what appeared to be a library in an elementary school) she was alone. It wasn't her fault, but there is a question as to how so many of the big media people got so blind-sided by this trade? Did SI's Jon Heyman just make one more phone call past deadline to make sure? Did he have better sources? Actually, to be fair, Boston Globe writers Gordon Edes and Nick Cafardo, appearing on NESN, announced the trade about twenty minutes before Heyman did, according to one reader.

Worse than ESPN's on-air and on-line boners were MLB.com, whose last two reports at the end of their day of wire-to-wire blogging were about the long-dead Jason Bay-to-Devil Rays deal then, curiously, "Bay To Dodgers?" at about 4:04.

Considering how evolved the world of media is supposed to be at this point, it was an amazing occurrence that knocked so many of the big boys back to the teletype age, reduced to piggy-backing off of each other through most of the day. It's especially odd given that so many of the experts and trade deadline hawks were given assurances that something last-last minute could conceivably happen. But why wasn't everyone looking at the Red Sox come 2:45 p.m., when the Dodgers supposedly swooped in to make the deal, to triple-check to see if something was still afoot? It was odd.

Yet, ESPN.com, of course, still had the gall to use the phrase "first reported by Amy K. Nelson" until they finally removed it earlier in the evening. Maybe they were giving Nelson credit for handing Jon Heyman's report to Linda Cohn?

Red Sox Send Ramirez To Dodgers, acquire Bay in three-team trade [SI.com]

There's still hope for everybody — but Peter Gammons seems completely exasperated by the Manny talk — that the blockbuster involving Manny Ramirez, Jason Bay, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, some bat boys from the Devil Rays, the Marlins athletic trainer, and about 14 other permutations will come to fruition at some point, but it appears the only significant move at the trade deadline post-Ken Griffey to the White Sox was:

Arthur Rhodes to the Marlins.

Of course, there might be some backdoor dealings that aren't being picked up and other significant non-waiver stuff throughout August, but other than that, the trade deadline is officially over. Hope it was fun for everybody. Jayson Stark, you can finally crack your knuckles.

UPDATE: Manny Ramirez traded to Dodgers.

Boston.com is down. The world is imploding.

UPDATE: MLB.com says Jason Bay to Dodgers. Honestly. People.

MLB Trade Deadline Blog [ESPN]

Several sources, including the Palm Beach Post and Baseball Prospectus, are reporting that the three-way deal involving the Red Sox, Marlins and Pirates is already done; and just waiting for Brett Favre to send a fax to the Packers. No, that's not right, sorry. Apparently, it's John Grabow holding up the works. Damn it, Grabow!

So here’s what Pee Wee Herman would call the “big but”: the teams, I am told, have not agreed on the specific prospects to be included in the deal. It’s expected that in addition to the principals, the Red Sox would get John Grabow and give up two prospects, while the Marlins would get one prospect and give up two. There’s still a lot of haggling but my scribbling notes make it look like the structure of the deal is:

Marlins get Manny Ramirez, one prospect (Red Sox), and cash (likely covering Ramirez’s remaining salary)

Pirates get Jeremy Hermida and three prospects (two Marlins, one Red Sox)

Red Sox get Jason Bay and John Grabow

There is still potential for this to fall apart over the prospects, but things appear closer now than ever before.

And here's the quote of the day:

The idea of obtaining Ramirez was driven by owner Jeffrey Loria, who is trying to return his team to the playoffs for the first time since 2003, when the Marlins won the World Series.

"Jeffrey is an art dealer. Jeffrey has always collected the world's greatest art pieces. In the game of baseball, Manny is a Picasso,'' said another baseball source with knowledge of the deal. "It doesn't surprise me. Hey, nobody thought Jeffrey would get Pudge (Rodriguez) years ago and, sure enough, he did.

And there you have it; Pudge Rodriguez and Picasso appearing in the same graph. We were done with civilization anyway, right?

We Have A Deal, But ... [Baseball Prospectus]
Marlins Pursuing Manny Ramirez [Palm Beach Post]

Much like his reliever brethren Todd Jones, former Yankee Kyle Farnsworth took the news that he was traded to Detroit for Pudge Rodriguez yesterday with the stoicism of a Navy Seal. He realizes the business of professional baseball doesn't allow for emotional attachments and that success in this game requires one to compartmentalize overwhelming feelings of loss and present yourself in a public setting (especially with reporter's ramming tape recorders in your grill and the camera lights blinding you) with dignity and honor. Or not.

As difficult as Farnsworth's 2 1/2 seasons in New York have been, the 32-year-old reliever emerged from the meeting with his eyes glassy and his lower lip trembling. He briefly broke down in tears while discussing the trade with reporters, saying, "I had a good time here, so it's tough."

Hugs, Kyle. Your camo underwear and gun collection will be missed in the Bronx. The Yankees shed themselves of their inconsistent reliever in favor of yet another former MVP in Rodriguez, who will be a major upgrade at the position in both leadership and performance. Also? Pudge is not much of a weeper.

Trade deadline today, kids. So we'll probably see more of these outbursts throughout the day.

(Editor's note: Apologies to those who've read this twice. Me dummy. Thank you for your patience.)

Yanks bid fond farewell to Farnsworth [MLB.com]

Alas Poor Farnsworth! [Bronx Banter]