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Excuse the mess. We're doing some extensive house cleaning. Enjoy the lists in the meantime...

Same Face, New Place: MLB Player Who Will Have The Biggest Impact on Their New Team

The Brewers gave up 3 very promising prospects to get the reigning AL Cy Young award winner.  Currently the Brewers are 5 games behind the Cubs in the Central, but are tied for the Wild Card lead.  In 5 starts with the Brewers, CC is 4-0 with 3 Complete Games and an ERA of 1.82.  If the Brewers are to charge hard for their first post season appearance since the Early 80s Sabathia will have to continue his dominance on the hill.

Shortly after the Brewers landed Sabathia the Cubs acquired oft-injured but oh so talented Rich Harden from the Oakland Athletics.  Rich Harden has been nothing short of nasty in his 4 starts with the Cubs, he has 39 strikeouts in 24 innings and has only given up 3 runs-all on solo HRs.  While he has a modest record of 1-1 his ERA is 1.11 and he has a Batting Average Against of .163

The Manny Circus in Boston has finally ended.  But the Sox loss could be the Dodgers gain.  The LA Dodgers sit 2 games behind the Arizona D-Backs in the NL West.  And with the acquisition of Manny Ramirez and 3B Casey Blake have really improved their offense in the past week.  It will be interesting to see who are the odd men out in a now crowded Dodger outfield of Manny Ramirez, Juan Pierre, Andruw Jones, Matt Kemp and Andre Eithier.

The BoSox losing Manny Ramirez was a big win for the Yankees but then you factor in that they are 9-3 after the All-Star break, have closed to only 4.5 games back of the division leading Rays and Acquires both Ivan Rodriguez and Xavier Nady, the Yankees might make it back to the playoffs after all even though they seemed dead 2 or 3 weeks ago.  They Ivan Rodriguez to fill the gap left when Jorge Posada had season ending shoulder surgery.  Rodriguez was hitting .295 with the Tigers but has been hot for the past month posting a batting average of .348 during that time.  Xavier Nady was received from the Pirates for one of the Yankees top prospects, but Nady's hitting and defense are desperately needed after Hideki Matsui's injury was discovered to be worse than expected.  Nady has been great for the pirates all season hitting .328 with 15 HRs, Coming from Pittsburgh it will be interesting to see how he handles the pressure of a pennant race and people expecting him to produce for the New York Yankees.

With the dealing of Manny Ramirez the Red Sox needed a Major League ready outfielder to plug into Left field, they believe they have found this in Jason Bay.  While Bay is not in the class of Ramirez he could provide respectable numbers.  For the Pirates he was hitting .288 with 22 HRs.  However he is only 1 season removed from being a really good player as in 2005 he had 32 HRs and a .302 avg, and then in 2006 he hit 35 HRs with a .286 average.  The same question applies to Bay that applied to Nady.  Coming from Pittsburgh where there are no expectations, how will it effect him that every at-bat now matters and he is expected to produce and help his team win.  The Red Sox need him to help them out as they currently trail the Rays by 3 games.

The White Sox acquire the all-time active leader in HRs, Hits, and RBIs and to do so they only traded a AAA second baseman and an averaged major league reliever.  It seems like a really could deal.  But it brings up questions of how does Griffey fit in with Chicago?  He has been playing a poor Right field in Cincinnati but it appears he will be forced to play center field in Chicago, a position that he hasn't played in 2 seasons but once dominated for a decade winning 10 straight gold gloves.  How much can you really expect from a 38 year old center fielder?  At the plate Griffey has struggled all season hitting only .245 with 15 HR.  However he is showing signs of life as he is on a 13 game-hit streak and has raised his average nearly 20 points in that time frame.  The White Sox were already 2 games in front in their division and gave up very little to get Griffey so it was well worth it for them, but his defensive ability will certainly be questioned.  But the middle of the White Sox lineup with Carlos Quentin, Jermaine Dye, Jim Thome, and now Griffey could be a scary lineup come September assuming the Sox can hold of the Twins.

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