SBC Sports Betting News: Red Sox-Dodgers Trade Dominates

[Freddy Wills]

A quick survey of the past week in sports news offers a number of things to chew on, but the first and most important story of them all is the blockbuster trade in Major League Baseball.

Nine-Player Deal Shakes Up Red Sox And Dodgers Just Before September Arrives

You know that outlets are getting ready to crank up, but the sport of baseball gained a large share of attention just before the start of the football regular season for both the collegians and the professionals. The Los Angeles Dodgers, trailing the San Francisco Giants in the National League West, pulled the trigger on a massive move this past week. The Dodgers plucked Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett, and Nick Punto from the Boston Red Sox, taking on more than $250,000,000 of pro-rated salaries, a figure that includes what's owed in the future of those three players' contracts. The Dodgers, in return sent several players to Boston. Los Angeles shipped first baseman James Loney, minor leaguers Allen Webster (a pitcher) and Ivan De Jesus, plus two players to be named later. Boston, its clubhouse bereft with open dissension from Gonzalez and other players in the first season of manager Bobby Valentine's turbulent tenure, decided to blow things up and start fresh, removing a lot of salary from its ledgers. The Red Sox had lived so well during the tenure of previous manager Terry Francona, a man who won the respect and trust of the people in his dugout. The arrival of a new manager understandably upset the team's clubhouse chemistry, and as a season disintegrated over the past month, ownership in Boston realized it had to cut bait. The Red Sox are looking to the future, while the Dodgers are very much focused on the present moment. This is a development that's being re-examined by across the country and will naturally shift the calculus. The Dodgers, who had acquire Hanley Ramirez from the Miami Marlins earlier in the season, now have a loaded lineup that also includes the team's longtime stars, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier. The Dodgers also acquired Shane Victorino from the Philadelphia Phillies earlier this season, giving them a batting order that has very few (if any) easy outs. Gonzalez mashed a three-run home run in his first at-bat as a Dodger on Saturday night against Miami, creating a feel-good atmosphere in the Dodger dugout and developing the kind of momentum that team owner Earvin "Magic" Johnson was clearly hoping for.

It's very much worth pointing out that the Dodgers scored just six runs in their recent three-game series against the San Francisco Giants. Moreover, L.A. scored three of those runs in the bottom of the eighth inning of a game it trailed, 8-1, at the time. The Dodgers' offense was suffering, so this move immediately refuels the team's offense. Any standard-issue would concur. Boston, meanwhile, has thrown in the towel for the rest of the 2012 season. The Red Sox probably won't be a playoff team in 2013, either – they're thinking about the long run.

for more on the latest sports news and information.