Lamenting the money that's now effectively wasted on Uribe aside, though, as a direct one-for-one, this isn't a bad trade for the Sox, since it's one year of Cabrera for one of Garland. Cabrera's an obvious offensive upgrade, and probably a defensive one as well, and it will be interesting to see if he's the sort of hitter who can exploit the Cell's short corners. A lot of his doubles in Angel Stadium were hit into the left field corner; if he maintains that, he should deliver some extra souvenirs.

As far as the rotation, here again, I think Williams drew a reasonable conclusion--that Jon Garland isn't going to be the difference between fielding a competitive club. They're still leading off with Mark Buehrle and Javier Vazquez. Nobody's willing to take a chance on Jose Contreras, so the challenge is to fix him, again, and if anybody has experience there, it's the Sox and pitching coach Don Cooper, the folks who turned the big Cuban around in the first place. They're left hoping that John Danks and Gavin Floyd pan out, fast, but you can also invest some hope that maybe next spring is the one where Charlie Haeger starts channeling Charlie Hough, or that very different prospects like Gio Gonzalez, Jack Egbert, and/or Lance Broadway pan out. Obviously, the Sox could use a veteran journeyman to bring in as insurance against too many kids and Contreras falling victim to an uncorrectable error. There's still enough to choose from in that bin, whether it's filler like Livan Hernandez or Kyle Lohse, or guys bouncing back from injury (Kris Benson, Jason Jennings, maybe even a return engagement with Bartolo Colon). The worst choices would involve names like 'Trachsel' or Weaver the Elder, but it shouldn't come to that.

So the real problem is that the team doesn't have a center fielder, but at least it now has a shortstop. I wouldn't bang on Kenny Williams too much as far as his having a march stolen on him by Tony Reagins and the Angels. If there's one area of the market that still has good stock, it's center field, and it doesn't have to involve a monster deal with Aaron Rowand. Andruw Jones or Mike Cameron would fill the bill, especially if the money was right. If Williams decides to play for lower stakes I think the irony of seeing Corey Patterson on the South Side would be delicious; it might even finally engender some real hatred for the Sox among Cubs fans, finally leading to some two-way animosity in town.

The problem is that if the Sox see themselves as having a dividend because they didn't get Hunter, spending it on Linebrink's exactly where you don't want to go. While he hasn't gone pumpkin and still should have value, he's just not the set-up star from San Diego from three or four years ago, and taking him out of Petco, and then putting him into the tougher league in a tougher park? That's a formula for bitter disappointment. While the desire to fix the club's pen is appropriate, and Linebrink should still be at least an adequate set-up man for Bobby Jenks, this is a pretty big commitment to a guy who's already lost something, and who seems likely to lose still more to a change in competitive environments from one that could forgive the occasional mistake to one that usually doesn't.