NL Central

The Dodgers’ main trade piece in return for Ted Lilly & Ryan Theriot is Blake DeWitt, a 24-year-old, left-handed batting second baseman selected by the Dodgers in the first-round of the 2004 amateur draft.

He debuted with L.A. in 2008 as a third baseman batting .264 with 9 HR and 52 RBI in 117-games.

Against Chicago in the NLDS, DeWitt went 3-for-11, scoring two runs and recording one RBI.

So far this season, the St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds have been engaged in a dogfight among the top of the National League Central. With St. Louis recently solidifying their starting rotation, that may be about to change.

Jake Westbrook and Ryan Ludwick were traded today in a creative three-way trade. The moving parts in this deal looked like this:

Cardinals acquire:
Jake Westbrook (From Indians)
Nick Greenwood (From Padres)
Undisclosed amount of cash (From Indians)

Padres acquire:
Ryan Ludwick (From Cardinals)
Undisclosed amount of cash (From Indians)

Indians acquire:
Corey Kluber (From Padres)

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According to Joel Sherman of the NY Post, who’s on fire today breaking two trades, the Yankees acquired outfielder Austin Kearns from the Cleveland Indians for a player to be named later.

We’ve seen a lot of questionable decisions in the run-up to this year’s non-waiver trade deadline.

The Nationals have refused to move the soon-to-be-gone-anyway Adam Dunn without a getting an elite prospect in return. The Twins traded away one of the game’s top future backstops for an overrated closer. And the Rangers reportedly tried to get the Marlins to add ace Josh Johnson as a throw-in in their deal for Jorge Cantu.

A week ago today, about this time of night, rumors started flying that the Astros and Phillies were in negotiations that would send right-hander Roy Oswalt to the City of Brotherly Love.

The talks ended up fizzling as Oswalt demanded that his $16 million option for the 2012 season be picked up by whoever acquires him.

That turned the Phillies off and the talks ended up going cold.

Joe Girardi has been a name thrown around the Chicago Cubs organization like a visiting team's home run at Wrigley Field. 

And with the Cubs always looking for the big name rather than the right choice, it wouldn't surprise anyone if they were to get him as the skipper for 2011.

There is just one problem.

Girardi is one of the most overrated managers in all of baseball. He will not only cost the Cubs a pretty penny, but wins as well.

But he won manager of the year four years ago...

Carlos Zambrano has grown up and apologized—a month later—and not face-to-face with anyone he wronged—unless he had done something to Pedro Gomez of ESPN.

On Monday, Zambrano apologized for his dugout tirade a month ago after the first inning versus the Chicago White Sox in which Zambrano felt runs were given up because of shaky defense. Gold Glover Derrek Lee took some of the heat, even though no one had a chance to catch Carlos Quentin's home run in the left field stands.