Boston have traded Youkilis to the White Sox for Brent Lillibridge and right-hander Zach Stewart.

Thought they might hold out a bit a longer and see if they could get a bit more for him but have moved early.

Middlebrooks is the unquestioned 3rd baseman now, good move for the White Sox who needed someone on 3rd

A good deal for the White Sox and it gives their line-up some more depth. It will be interesting to see if they make any more moves before the trade deadline or if the Tigers make any deals to try and improve their chances of making the playoffs.

It's quite shocking how low Youk's stock has fallen, two fringe guys, one who is nothing more than a pinch runner, the other a less than mediocre mop up pitcher, AND they forked out cash as part of the deal.

So, effectively they paid the Whitesox to take him away; t couldn't have been much more embarrassing for Kevin if he'd been given to the local rag and bone man!

The Whitesox must be laughing, their non-existant production from 3rd base has just been upgraded (in theory) and they gave up pretty much nothing.

Good shout putting him 2nd in the order from Ventura, again based on history rather than this season. I can see it turning it around and being a great addition for the Sox.

I decided to just turn the Youkilis trade thread in to a thread for all the rumours and moves leading up to the trade deadline.

A few things have happened already with Thome being traded to the Orioles which should be a decent addition for them.

Carlos Lee has also vetoed a trade to the Dodgers. I’m surprised he turned down a deal to a contender unless he is hoping to get an extension off the Astros.

Maybe he had the sense to realise he wouldn't be able to live up to the expectations and didn't want the pressure.

He wouldn't have been much of an upgrade over Loney anyway with the bat, which would have been cancelled out by his fielding in comparison. I don't understand why the Dodgers were pursuing the trade in the first place. As discussed elsewhere, it looks like the new ownership are too desperate to make an impact, and that, as was pointed out, can lead to long term disaster.

We made our 1st indicator that we are unhappy with how things have gone and have acquired Carlos Lee from the Astros for Matt Dominguez and Ryan Rassmusen

Dominguez was amongst our top Prospects but he is blocked by Hanley so was always Trade bait.

We had to make a move as its been a very frustrating and up and down season so far, Gaby Sanchez has been dreadfull at 1st and Lee is a massive upgrade in that area, Sanchez has been sent down for the 2nd time this year and Guillen wasn't exactly prasing in his parting words so he may have seen his last action as a Marlin.

Happy with the deal, Lee provides some offense from 1st which just havn't had all year

Had a good 1st game today getting 2 hits

I thought Christian Yelich was your best prospect, or maybe Marcell Ozuna. Admittedly your system is weak at the moment, but it would have to be dead for Matt Dominguez to be your best prospect.

Seems like a strange trade to make, and says more about your managers ability to piss players off than anything. You don't appear to have given up much, if anything meaningful, but Lee is just a one season fix for a team that appears to be going nowhere.

True Washington are likely to fade down the stretch with the youthfulness of their key players, but I can't see Miami challenging for a post season berth with or without Lee.

Yelich is our top prospect for sure, I said he was amongst our top prospects meaning in the top 5 or so, he hasn't truly developed as was hoped though

Our farm isn't at its strongest right now as our top prospects are on the Major league roster (Stanton, Morrison) or traded away

As you say we didn't give up much as Dominguez wasn't anywhere close to the Majors unless he changed his position as Hanley would of been blocking his path for years to come.

I'm happy with the trade, we wern't getting anything out of Sanchez at 1st and Morrison can't keep being asked to switch from 1st and Left on a whim from a game to game basis like he was when Sanchez was demoted originally back in May.

Fills a hole for us and adds a veteran bat to the lineup.

Can we get back into it, hard to say as we are just so inconsistent right now, Its a shame we had that awfull June as when looking at it, you might question if this is our best chance to win the division, the previous years it has always been Philly in the way and this year with them seemingly out of it (though I'm not writing them out) it was there for the taking, you've got to think that over the next few years Washington will be a dominant team up the top instead

It certainly looks like Washington's time will come, but I still don't think it will be this season, although they could well make it to the play-offs.

Will the Mets hold up? I doubt it, and I still think Atlanta can mount a challenge, but the big question with the NL East is Philadelphia.

Will they blow up the team if they are still ten games behind in two weeks time? They are already considering trading Hamels evidently, but how many more vets will they trade away if they decide to go into full blown rebuild mode? Is Howard untouchable? How tempted would the Dodgers be by a Kershaw for Hamels and Howard deal? Wild speculation? Certainly but there could be some big moves coming over the next three weeks, anything's possible.

I think the Lee trade is an ok deal for the Marlins but I’m not sure how much of an upgrade he will be. Like Youkilis he might find a new lease of life in different surroundings and be a bigger success than is hoped.

The big problem teams have is with the 2nd Wild Card there are only a few teams out of the playoff race. The Marlins are 4 games back. There has been talk of Greinke being traded but the Brewers are only 6 games back in the Wild Card race. I was going to take 10 games back as being the cut-off point for teams still be in with a chance of the playoffs but that would mean that every team in the AL is currently still in with a chance of making the playoffs.

Realistically the Royals, Twins and Mariners should be sellers at the deadline while if we assume the Phillies are still in the race then that leaves the Padres, Rockies, Cubs and Astros as sellers in the NL.

It’s an interesting situation that could lead to several deals being made between contenders.

I wouldn’t rule any of the teams out of the NL East race but the Phillies need to go on a run soon to have a chance to make the playoffs. I think the Nationals make the playoffs and I reckon another NL East team will join them and I would go with the Braves at the moment although I’m starting to buy into the Mets.

From what I can gather Dominguez is a glove-first weak-bat 3B. Seems like a defensive replacement and the other guy may make the Astros 'pen in a couple of years.

That's an odd trade for sure, Lee's declining and the move to a cavernous ballpark from a bandbox won't help those power numbers. Seems like the Marlins felt they had to make a move but it's ironic the Astros are the beneficaries as Drayton MacLane used to specialise in pulling the trigger on short-term 'statement' deals.

Yelich is quietly developing into a blue-chip prospect and the Marlins are to be applauded for their excellent handling of the erstwhile 1B, they'll have chips to deal next year, when they and DC will be contending for the divisional title in what will be a brutal 2013 NL East.

Does anyone feel that the Nats could convert a Lombardozzi and Tyler Moore into something like a decent pitcher to replace Strasberg when his innings limit is reached? I can't see the replacement coming from in-house with Wang injured again and Lannan making repeated trade demands?

Depending on how well Lombardozzi can play short stop I'd definitely be talking to your GM if I was in Billy Beane's shoes.

Take you pick of the starting pitchers we have that we didn't acquire over the winter, although I'd be willing to send Milone back, but you'd have to take Suzuki as well.

Lombo is middling with the range and mediocre of arm, making him more or less a pure 2B, though he's adapted to occasional LF duties with some aplomb. Works really hard, runs the bases well and takes a load of pitches, I could see him getting 400+ bats a year as a Willie Bloomquist type.

Norris is the future at C then? As of 2012, Suzuki is still the better all-around backstop, though I'd agree he's expensive and seems to have peaked unexpectedly early.

With the way Week's has gone this year second base may become open, but it's far too early to give up on him, just have to hope it's a sophomore slump and he stops trying to hit home runs every at bat.

Lombo's power isn't good enough for a corner outfielder, so I guess we don't have a place for him.