The Daily Grind

-Which desire was/is stronger?: Ted Thompson to get Brett Favre out of Green Bay, or Theo Epstein to get Manny Ramirez out of Boston?

-Brett Favre refused to talk to the Buccaneers and the Jets, and recently it has been reported that the Packers have at least internally entertained the idea of trading Favre to an NFC North rival like Chicago or Minnesota. Maybe I will still be right. Maybe Favre will be wearing Vikings purple on the Monday Night Football stage on Monday September 8th.

-With Manny Ramirez now in Los Angeles, what do the Dodgers do with their other 750 outfielders? Juan Pierre and Andruw Jones, I guess, no problem, they are now overpaid part-timers. But Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp are young, developing players who need to be playing everyday. With Ramirez needing to be in the lineup most days, it'll be hard for both Ethier and Kemp to join him everyday. Florida would have made more sense, but they wanted money from the Red Sox on top of the 7 million to cover Manny's salary.

-The Detroit Tigers are 6 GB in their division, and 5.5 back in the Wild Card chase. Once interleague play ended on June 29th, the Tigers were surging at 41-40. Today they are only 55-53. They have strung together plenty of 6-4 stretches lately, but it has not been enough to help them gain significantly on either the White Sox or the Twins. They have shown no signs picking up the pace, and though Minnesota and Chicago have their flaws, they haven't really allowed Detroit back into it. The best thing Detroit has going for them is that neither Minnesota nor Chicago made any moves at the deadline to improve their team. Though, Minnesota could soon add Francisco Liriano into the mix, which could be a crucial in-house acquisition.

-The Tampa Bay Rays stood pat at the deadline. They were willing to part with Jeff Niemann to acquire Jason Bay, but they believed that the Pirates' counter-offer, demanding Wade Davis, way too high a price to pay. So, Pittsburgh trades Bay to Tampa's divisional rival. Tampa Bay had a serious chance to win the tough AL East, and there really is no telling when they are going to get another chance. They'll be competitive next year, because their core is young, but Boston and New York could spend big bucks to gain on Tampa, maybe or probably even pass them.

-Just as I head out: Some continued Favre-watch. Amidst all of the trade-deadline talk, ESPN still managed to squeeze in plenty of Favre talk. ESPN flies Mark Schlereth and Sal Paolantonio to San Diego Chargers' training camp all for a three-minute bit on the prime-time Sportscenter. Chris Mortensen, waiting with flowers for Favre in Wisconsin got a ton more air time with today's Favre bottom-line crawl of the day: "Favre charters a private plan to Green Bay." Apparently the Jets are very interested in Favre. It's not Minnesota, I'll give up my prediction, God, just kill this story.