Hall hit .201 last year between the Mariners and the Milwaukee Brewers and is scheduled to make $8.4 million in 2010.

In other words, Bill Hall is a complete waste of money.

I'm definitely no Casey Kotchman fan (the worst trade of 2009 was LaRoche-Kotchman trade, in my opinion), and I was begging for his trade all offseason, but is Bill Hall really all that Theo can get in return?

Another overpaid right-handed bat. Whoopdy-freaking-doo.

Sure, Hall can play every a lot of positions (every position except pitcher and catcher), but a .201 average. He had eight home runs between Seattle and Milwaukee with 26 RBI and an OBP .258 and a slugging percentage .338 for an OPS of .596. Mario Mendoza had better numbers than Bill Hall.

I actually believe that this deal would have been better for Boston if they had just taken a prospect from the Mariners system instead of taking Hall.

The only way this deal could be even remotely good for the Red Sox is if the Mariners pay the entirety and the remainder of the Hall's contract.

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Fallstrom, currently unsigned, was a fourth-round pick (116th overall) by the Wild in the 2009 draft. He also began his first year at Harvard University in September. The Swedish native has played for several semi-pro clubs in his homeland.

Weller, a fifth-round selection by the St. Louis Blues in 2000, is a tough forward. He has just 14 career points but 127 penalty minutes. He has played in 95 games in two seasons with the Phoenix Coyotes and the Wild. This season, Weller has been playing with the Wild's minor league team, the Houston Aeros of the American Hockey League.

Kobasew was acquired by the Bruins with Andrew Ference from the Calgary Flames for Brad Stuart and Wayne Primeau, two-thirds of the three-player package the Bruins got from the San Jose Sharks in the Joe Thornton trade, which happened a few years ago, on Nov. 31, 2005.

The second-round draft pick represents the ninth pick the Bruins hold in the first or second rounds of the 2010 and the 2011 draft.

With all those draft picks in the Bruins' possesion, the Bruins might try and pull of a bigger move.

One name I've heard is Ilya Kovalchuk. Kovalchuk is among the best players in the NHL. Only no one ever seems to notice. It's because Kovalchuck plays with the abysmal Atlanta Thrashers.

Kovalchuk has scored 304 career goals and 261 assists for a career points of 365.

Because the Thrashers have never been good, they'll be looking for some draft picks to rebuild their roster for the future.

The Bruins could send no more than four of their first- and second-round draft picks from the '10 and '11 drafts (they should keep five for themselves; they need to build their core of good young players with more good young players) and Marco Sturm. Sturm would give the Thrashers' young players veteran guidance, and Kovalchuk could thrive in the hockey-rich Boston and New England market.

The hockey hot stove is heating up, and we're only eight games into the season.

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Francoeur has been rumored to be going to the Phillies, Mets, Red Sox, Royals, and now the Marlins. Maybe Francoeur can turn around his hitting with Florida, but I doubt it.

Hermida is a better hitter than Francoeur and is a very good defender in right field.

The Marlins likely will compare Hermida's and Francoeur's offensive numbers and will likely decline the trade, being the latest team to decline Francoeur.

Hermida's numbers won't set records, but they're solid. This season Hermida is hitting .276, with eight home runs (10 homers away from last years total), and 29 RBI. He has 63 hits in 63 games.

Francoeur's bat is much worse than Hermida this year, hitting .250 with four home runs, 29 RBI, and 58 hits in 61 games.

As you can see, Hermida is a better hitter.

That's why I think the Marlins will reject this trade, just like the Phillies, Royals, Red Sox, and Mets before them.

Why would they want to get rid of one of their better players and make a division rival better while making themselves worse?

JJ Hardy, Jeff Francouer, Hanley Ramirez and Adam Dunn's names have been tossed around, but one name that's less famous is Chris Davis. Davis has been knocking the stuffing out of the ball in 59 games.

Davis has been taking a back seat to other Texas Rangers, such as Josh Hamilton and Ian Kinsler, who are both having all star seasons. Davis has been hitting better than Ortiz all season. Davis has 12 home runs, 27 RBI, with a .208 batting average, with 42 hits. Davis hasn't really lived up to the expectations surrounding him this season, but his average is higher than Ortiz's.

Another good, underrated tandem of hitters reside in the Kansas City Royals' Mark Teahen and Mike Jacobs. Jacobs was acquired by the Royals last offseason from the Florida Marlins. Teahen came up through the Royals organization. Teahen is hitting .286, with eight home runs and 22 RBIs. He has 59 hits in 60 games. Jacobs is a better power hitter, but hits for a much worse average. So far this season, Jacobs is hitting .229 with 10 home runs and 26 RBIs. He has 54 hits in 55 games.

However, with Ortiz' sudden hot streak, the Red sox may not acquire another hitter.

And it's not just because the Orlando Magic eliminated the Celtics in the second round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs.

No, it's because Derek Fisher has had what is probably the biggest emotional ride that any parent could have. During the 2007 Western Conference Semifinals, his daughter Tatum was diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer.

She had surgery and chemotherapy in New York just before Game Two between the Utah Jazz (Fisher's team in 2007) and the Golden State Warriors tipped off. After the surgery was complete, Fisher and his family flew cross-country from New York to Salt Lake City, and Fisher entered the game at the start of the third quarter. He made the only shot he took that night—a three-pointer.

After the Jazz were eliminated from the playoffs in the next round, he asked the Jazz to release him from his contract, citing that the state of Utah did not have enough specialists to treat Tatum.

On July 19, 2007, Fisher signed a three-year contract with the Los Angeles Lakers. The fact that L.A. has a much wider range of specialists than Salt Lake was a large factor in his choosing the Lakers. 

It's now two years into his new Lakers' contract, and the Lakers have gone to the NBA Finals two straight years. Tatum is three years old and doing fine, though she receives regular checkups.

I, like many people, have been touched by cancer. My father died on June 2, 2005 after a long battle with leukemia. When I heard Derek's story, I immediately felt sorry for Fisher and his family.

I have no idea what it's like to wonder if your child is going to live or die, but it must be misery. Now consider that Fisher had to play a game in an NBA Playoff series wondering if his daughter was doing all right.

Now that she is doing fine, Fisher deserves to bring an NBA Championship ring home to his family.

The Mets currently have five home uniform combinations, pinstripes with blue cap, pinstripes with black cap, solid whites with blue caps, solid white with black cap, and solid black with black cap.

Despite being named 'primary home uniform', the Mets only wear their best looking uniform on Sundays, and wear the solid whites (the 'first alternate uniform') every other day of the week.

The Mets also wear their black uniform mostly on the road, but at home on occasion, as well.

I think their current home uniform situation should be changed to solid whites on Sundays and then wear their pinstriped home uniform on every other day of the week, while completely getting rid of the black on the road and at home.

Why is a team whose logos and uniforms are meant to look like the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Baseball Giants keep consistently adding to black to their uniforms and logos?

There is no clear answer for that.

The Mets need to desperately drop the black from their logos and uniforms, to continue that classic look that they have with the pinstripes and blue caps.

Another team that need to drop the black and keep up with the blue is the Toronto Blue Jays. A team that has 'blue' in their name has black caps, black alternate uniforms, black socks, and a logo with more black and gray than blue.

The best era of Blue Jays logo history is from the very beginning of their franchise in 1977 until 2003, with their logos and uniforms getting slowly worse and worse as they changed.

Hopefully, in 2008, when the Blue Jays changed the script on the road to feature more blue, this will lead down a path of dropping unnecessary black from teams' uniforms and logos, especially for the Mets.