It really should come as no shock to anyone that Mark DeRosa has hit seven homers in his first 19 games as a Cardinal, or that Matt Holliday, in his first 10 games wearing red cleats, is an absurd 20-for-37 with three jacks and 10 ribbies. It's almost a foregone conclusion: if you get traded to the St. Louis Cardinals during the summer, you instantly become The Man. In the past few years the Cards have had a rather ridiculous return on their investments acquired near the deadlines. For instance ...

1997: The Cards get Mark McGwire from the A's. He homers in his first appearance at Busch, and finishes the year with 24 HR in 51 games, an even more aggressive pace than the next year, when he broke Maris' record with 70.

2000: In his final season, Will Clark gets traded to St. Louis from the Orioles. He hits a home run in each of his first four starts, and over 51 games hits .345 with a 1.081 OPS, 12 HR, and 42 RBI as the Cards make the playoffs.

2002: After wearing out his welcome in Philadelphia, Scott Rolen hits 14 HR in 55 games with a .915 OPS for the Cards. They also acquire Chuck Finley, who turned his season around (7-4, 3.80 with St. Louis) after struggling mightily in Cleveland.

2004: The Cardinals trade for Larry Walker, and the former Rockie his 11 HR in 44 games with a .953 OPS. Not bad. The he drills six more homers in the playoffs as St. Louis made a World Series run.

2006: This one is the most improbable of all. Jeff Weaver was having a nightmare season with the Angels (3-10, 6.29 ERA) when he was traded to the Cardinals. He didn't fare much better (5.18 ERA in 15 starts) as St. Louis backed into the playoffs. But in five postseason starts, Weaver ripped off a 2.43 ERA and was the winning pitcher in Game 5 as they won the World Series.

The big deadline coup deal made by the Red Sox was acquiring Victor Martinez from the Indians. But now it sounds like that was their backup plan.

According to Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times, the Sox were pushing extremely hard to get Felix Hernandez from the Mariners. Boston threw out this list of players - RHP Clay Buchholz, RHP Daniel Bard, RHP Justin Masterson, LHP Nick Hagadone, RHP Michael Bowden, LHP Felix Doubront, OF Josh Reddick, SS Yamaico Navarro - and told the Mariners to pick five. They declined.

Still intent on getting a deal done, Red Sox GM Theo Epstein tried to the gets the Padres involved in a three-way deal that would've sent Adrian Gonzalez to Seattle. Once again, the Mariners said no.

Baker notes that the Mariners didn't like the long-term prospects of the deal. Besides, Hernandez is still under contract through next year, so there was no rush to trade him. If Seattle isn't contending at this time in 2010, expect the hourly King Felix rumors via Twitter or whatever the new social netork system is being utilized.

Boston obviously has to be happy with settling on Martinez, as does the rest of the AL. Could you imagine facing a playoff staff ofBeckett, Lester, and Hernandez? Yahtzee. The Yanks and Angels and whoever makes it out of the Central are breathing easier now.

This year, Hernandez is 12-4 with a 2.78 ERA in 22 starts. He's striking out 8.3 batters/9 innings while his walks are down. And every Boston fan remembers this game back in 2007. If you think I'm trying to taunt Sox fans even more, you're correct.

Here is Baker's article, a very interesting read.

Over at New York magazine, Will Leitch provides a compelling argument for replacing Omar Minaya with Billy Beane as the team's general manager for next season. Barring a remarkable final two months (the Mets would likely need to go something like 40-18 to snag the Wild Card), many believe that Omar will get canned. And why not? Even if you forget about the PR humiliations, his recent baseball decisions (other than fleecing the Twins for Johan) struggle to make any sense.

Leitch points out that once the bigger market teams learned the techniques promoted in Moneyball and put them into practice, Beane's advantage was gone. A competitive payroll, he says, is what the current A's GM needs to be successful again. And with a roster worth nearly $150 million, the Mets certainly have that.

It's an intriguing scenario. The Mets have the financial resources and desperately need to inject some modern baseball thinking and structure to right the ship (that and a competent medical staff). If Beane is the baseball genius that many made him out to be earlier this decade, he'd surely be able to keep them competitive and hopefully take the team to the next level.

Whether Beane is still a front office superstar has been up for debate recently. Beane took over as GM in 1998, and the A's finished in last place. But from 1999 through 2006, they finished in either 1st or 2nd place in the AL West, made the playoffs five times, won 90+ games six times, and won a playoff series (2006 ALDS vs Twins). The A's then dropped to 3rd in 2007 and 2008, winning 76 and 75 games, respectively. This year has been brutal, as they currently sit at 44-60, dead last in the division.

Three consecutive seasons of win totals in the 70s isn't good. But it's not gawd awful, either, particularly when he's continually (forced?) to trade away the top talent in the organization. My guess he's still a more-than-capable baseball man who has had a couple bad years and the haters are reveling in his struggles and feasting while they can. Maybe he needs a change. If he is indeed available, I'm with Leitch: the Mets should go after him.

And if they can add Bobby V too, even better.

After getting benched for the third time in four games, Melvin Mora went off Sunday, particularly at Orioles manager Dave Trembley. From the Baltimore Sun:

"I don't appreciate the disrespect, because I've been playing hurt for a guy who won't respect you. I don't deserve it. Whatever he wants to do, he can do it. But like I told you before, I need to have my respect. This is not a guy who just came to the Orioles. This is a guy who's been here for nine years busting his butt for the organization...I'm a competitor. I like to compete. I don't like to be here and just thinking about in October I'm going to go on vacation ... I need to sit down in my house, see what team [wants] to win. I know here they're rebuilding and they bring a lot of young guys here, good players and I know it's time for me to move on. It's time for me to move on."

You can certainly appreciate Mora's fire here. He's stuck on a team that's 18.5 games out - a common theme in early August during Mora's 10-year tenure with the club - yet he's still fighting to stay in the lineup and wants to play every day. Sure beats a guy who's complacent and content with playing out the string on another lost season.

That being said, Mora's line this season reads .256/.321/.330 with only 3 HR and 27 RBI. He's homered only once since May 7 and has only 15 extra-base hits all year. Without knowing how the benching was handled, it's probably fair to say that Trembley's lineup shakeup had more to do with Mora's meager offensive output than a sign of disrespect.

By most accounts, Mora is a prideful guy and a good teammate, so it seems like this is a situation where a struggling player is fed up with making outs and seeing his team lose all the time. It probably didn't help that his buddy David Ortiz supposedly asked him "Why are you hitting seventh? I've never seen you hit there."

Maybe not, but Mora has never been this brutal at the plate, either. With the O's likely to decline Mora's $8 million option for next year, it seems he'll likely be released or traded (if he makes it through waivers). Either way, he may have played his last game for Baltimore.

On his website, Bill James has the Angels as the hottest team in baseball right now, at 118 degrees. A closer look at the streaking Halos ...

• They have won 14 of 17 (17 of 20 overall) games since the All-Star break and now have the best record in the American League at 63-40. They lead Texas by four games in the AL West.
• In a three-game bludgeoning of the Twins in Minnesota, the Angels scored 35 runs on 52 hits, and had 18 hits in consecutive games for the first time in franchise history.
• In their last 19 road games, the Angels are 16-3.
• Everyone killed them for not picking up a big bat in the offseason. Maybe they knew what they had in reserve with Kendry Morales: .299/.350/.581, 23 HR, 69 RBI.
• This has been done without Vlad Guerrero and Torri Hunter, who both went on the DL July 11.
• Jered Weaver (3.79) is the only starter with a sub-4.00 ERA, unless you count Sean O'Sullivan, who's made five starts.John Lackey could be there soon - his ERA sits at an ever 4.00.
• Also of note, their records against the top teams in the East (a possible first round opponent): 4-2 vs Boston and 4-2 vs NY Yankees. However, they've been beaten up by Texas this year (2-7), with 10 games remaining.

Not to overreact to a hot streak in late July, but the Angels are creeping towards the Atlanta Zone. In other words, no matter what you think they're missing or didn't do to improve the team in the offseason or trade dealine, they will be in the mix. That organization is run too well.