TRADING UP:

Trades have been hit or miss: That's the deal on their swaps (Gordon Edes, May 6, 2007, Boston Globe)

There was considerable grumbling in some precincts about the Josh Beckett/Mike Lowell/Guillermo Mota deal last season, when shortstop Hanley Ramirez was playing his way to the National League Rookie of the Year Award and Anibal Sanchez was throwing a no-hitter for the Florida Marlins.

A month into this season, the trade has tilted back toward the Red Sox. Beckett, who will be going for his seventh straight win Tuesday night in Toronto, and Lowell, who is batting .302 with 21 RBIs after last night's 2-1 Sox loss to Minnesota, have played major roles in the Sox' hot start.

Ramirez continues to play at a high level for the Marlins, batting .350 at the start of the day, though he has just seven RBIs even with four home runs. But the Marlins just demoted Sanchez, who was 2-1 with a 4.80 ERA and had walked 19 batters in 30 innings, to the minors, hoping that he would be able to regain the control that allowed him to go 10-3 in 18 starts last season after his promotion from Double A.

The best way to look at the trades is holistically, because you're always going to win some and lose some. So the question is: as of today, would you rather have the guys you ended 2004 with--Pedro, Johnny Damon and Orlando Cabrera--or the guys you have in 2007--Beckett, Coco Crisp and Julio Lugo? In that regard, the team's record speaks for itself.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 6, 2007 12:00 AM