Roulette 

Posted 10:16 AM by Sean
Alan Schwartz reviews the Red Sox-Angels-Cardinals shortstop-go-round. The verdict, predictably, seems to be that the Bostons improved considerably, the Angels improved a little, and the Cardinals got David Eckstein. To his credit, Schwartz looks deeply enough to see that the defensive upgrade the Angels get is particularly important, since they'll have either McPherson or Quinlan at third. I'm not sure I buy that Cabrera accounted for "60 extra outs" over Eckstein last year (particularly when adjusted for playing behind Derek Lowe on several occasions), but he's certainly going to take at least a little pressure off the hot corner.