Mills has been working with the Red Sox as bench coach for manager Terry Francona for the previous six seasons, winning two World Series titles in 2004 and 2007. Mills previously worked with Francona as a member of his coaching staff (first base coach) from 1997-2000. After being fired by then Phillies GM Ed Wade with Francona and three other coaches in 2000, Mills joined the Cubs as an advanced scout in 2001 and then worked as the bench coach for the Montreal Expos in 2003 prior to joining the Red Sox in 2004.

This is Mills’ first Major League managerial position after serving as a Minor League manager for parts of 11 seasons. He managed for affiliates in the Chicago Cubs (1987-92), Colorado Rockies (1993-96), and the Los Angeles Dodgers (2002) organizations. Mills replaces interim manager Dave Clark, who replaced the fired Cecil Cooper on September 21 of the 2009 season. Clark was the Astros’ third base coach prior to being named interim manager. Clark was a finalist for the job and was promised a spot on the team’s Major League field staff for the 2010 season if not hired as manager.

The Astros have not reached the playoffs since playing in and losing the World Series to the Chicago White Sox in 2005. Two of the previous four seasons have been losing seasons for the Astros, finishing fifth in the Central with a 74-88 record in 2009. Mills is the fourth manager hired by the Astros since the middle of the 2004 season. Houston was only one game out of first place on July 22 but went on to lose 42 of their final 67 games of the 2009 season. Roy Oswalt spent the remainder of the season on the DL with teammate Mike Hampton while Russ Ortiz was released in July.

The company plans to sell the Cubs to the family of billionaire Joe Ricketts, the founder of TD Ameritrade. Tribune Co. also plans to sell Wrigley Field and related properties of the club to the Ricketts family. The Cubs filed for Chapter 11 to protect the club’s new owner from any creditors of the Tribune Co. Tribune Co. filed for bankruptcy protection in December of 2008 but did not include the Cubs at the time.

The Tribune Co. will sell 95 percent of the Cubs to the Ricketts family while keeping the remaining five percent of the franchise, which was purchased from the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. in 1981 for $20.5 million. The Wrigley Co. is a candy maker. The first plans announced for the sale of the Cubs came in 2007 but the recession and the crumbling credit markets put the sale on the back burner. The deal with the Ricketts family will top the record deal of $660 million for the sale of the Boston Red Sox in 2002.

We aren’t talking about what waiver deals will occur before the end of the month in this article but instead the deals that took place prior to the non-waiver deadline on July 31st. There were some players traded who everyone expected to be traded and some players traded that came as a shock to a lot of people around baseball. One of those surprise moves included Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Scott Rolen.

Rolen was sent to the Cincinnati Reds by the Jays for Edwin Encarnacion, right handed pitcher Josh Roenicke, and minor league right handed pitcher Zachary Stewart. This deal surprised a lot of people around baseball because of all the Blue Jays players Rolen’s name almost never came up in the rumors leading up to the deadline unlike his former teammate Roy Halladay. Halladay, with all the rumors swirling for three weeks, stayed put at the deadline and will continue to pitch for the Jays until at least the end of the 2009 regular season.

The biggest surprise of the deadline came when the San Diego Padres announced that they traded ace Jake Peavy to the Chicago White Sox for four pitchers. The pitchers headed to the Padres include Clayton Richard, Aaron Poreda, Adam Russell, and Dexter Carter. A deal for Peavy between these two teams was agreed upon in May but Peavy would not waive his no-trade clause. The same four pitchers heading to the Padres were agreed upon by the two teams in the original proposal back in May. Poreda was the White Sox’ top pick in the 2007 First-Year Player Draft.

Other deals that went down on July 31st prior to the 4pm EST deadline included the following:

• Athletics trade shortstop Orlando Cabrera to the Twins for Tyler Ladendorf.
• Nationals trade reliever Joe Beimel to the Rockies for right handed pitchers Ryan Mattheus and Robinson Fabian.
• Nationals trade first baseman Nick Johnson to the Marlins for left handed pitcher Aaron Thompson.
• Indians trade cathcer Victor Martinez to the Red Sox for right handed pitcher Justin Masterson, right handed pitcher Bryan Price, and left handed pitcher Nick Hagadone.
• The Reds trade third baseman Jerry Hairston Jr. to the Yankees for catcher Chase Weems.
• The Braves traded first baseman Casey Kotchman to the Red Sox for first baseman Adam LaRoche.
• The Dodgers traded right handed pitcher Claudio Vargas to the Milwaukee Brewers for catcher Vinny Rottino.
• The Mariners traded pitcher Jarrod Washburn to the Detroit Tigers for left handed pitcher Lucas French and left handed pitcher Mauricio Robles.

The 2009 MLB trading deadline was one of the busiest in recent years and waiver trades will more than likely be just as busy as non-waiver trades in the coming weeks. Plenty of top prospects were traded on deadline day or prior to the deadline including deals that involved outfielder Matt Holliday, Cliff Lee, Jack Wilson, Freddy Sanchez, George Sherrill, Kevin Hart, Tom Gorzelanny and John Grabow. Some of the top prospects on the move were Brett Wallace, Dexter Carter, Lou Marson, Carlos Carrasco, Jason Knapp, Jason Donald and Jeff Clement.

Hart started and picked up the win on Thursday, 12-3 over the Houston Astros, before getting the news about the trade. Grabow will help take some of the load off of lefty reliever Sean Marshall in the bullpen while Gorzelanny, who was with the Pirates Triple-A affiliate will now be assigned to the Triple-A affiliate of the Cubs for the time being.

The trade deadline is only hours away so stay tuned for more information on every player that has been moved prior to 4pm on Friday afternoon.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have made another move, after trading shortstop Jack Wilson and pitcher Ian Snell to the Seattle Mariners earlier in the day. This time, the Pirates have traded three-time National League All-Star and 2006 batting champion Freddy Sanchez to the San Francisco Giants for yet another minor league prospect. That prospect is right-hander Tim Alderson.

This move should complete a total makeover for the Pirates, whose focus has been rebuilding their farm system. The Pirates have all but given up on the 2009 season by offloading all of their main talent. They also traded star outfielder Jason Bay to the Boston Red Sox last year at the trade deadline. While this probably won’t sit well with the Pirates fans, if there are even that many left, it sets up a future for the organization. The newest piece to that future is Tim Alderson. Alderson has a 6-1 record with a 3.47 ERA and 46 strikeouts in 13 games at the AA level. The Pirates management is hoping to put together a team for the future to compete in the National League Central Division.

The Giants, on the other hand, have picked up a solid player in Freddy Sanchez. Sanchez is mainly used as a second baseman, but can play the entire infield if needed. He is not a power hitter, hitting only 6 home runs and 34 RBI’s so far this year, but he hits for average and gets on base. He is currently batting .296 with a .334 OBP, which are right around his career numbers of .300 and .306 respectively.

This is yet another move during a busy trade season with the deadline just under 48 hours away. The Pirates have been busy rebuilding and other teams have been able to address their needs by picking up their players. Other teams are also making some key moves, like the Philadelphia Phillies picking up pitcher Cliff Lee from the Cleveland Indians today. All eyes are still on the Roy Halladay front, waiting to see where the star pitcher will end up by the deadline this Friday. You can count the Pirates out, because they would just trade him away like the rest of their talent.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have made yet another move, trading star shortstop Jack Wilson and pitcher Ian Snell to the Seattle Mariners. In return, the Pirates are getting shortstop Ronny Cedeno, minor league catcher and former number one draft pick Jeff Clement and right-handed pitchers Nathan Adcock, Brett Lorin and Aaron Pribanic. The Pirates have been trying to rebuild their farm system after a disappointing first half of the season and have made multiple trades already this season to address that issue.

The four prospects going to the Pittsburgh farm system join eight other prospects already acquired this season. The Pirates also received outfielder Lastings Milledge and pitcher Joel Hanrahan from the Washington Nationals this season. The Pirates came into the 2009 season with hopes of a .500 or better season for the first time since the 1992 season when they won the National League Pennant. Those hopes were erased as management started trading players to build for the future. Outfielder Nate McLouth was traded to the Atlanta Braves, infielder Adam LaRoche was traded to the Boston Red Sox and outfielder Nyjer Morgan was sent to the Washington Nationals. Also, minor league pitcher Romulo Sanchez and outfielder Eric Hinske, brought in this year to help lead a young team, were traded to the Yankees.

Jack Wilson, the latest to get traded from the Pirates this season, was an All-Star and a Silver Slugger in 2004. He is hitting .267 with 4 home runs and 31 RBI’s this season. Ian Snell joins Wilson in this latest trade. Snell has been effective in AAA after a disappointing start to the season. Snell is 2-2 with a .96 ERA and 47 strikeouts in six starts with AAA.

Seattle is parting with shortstop Ronny Cedeno, who has struggled this season. He is hitting .167 with 5 home runs and 17 RBI’s in 59 games. Perhaps a change of scenery will help the struggling shortstop produce. The Mariners are also parting with four prospects; the biggest name being catcher Jeff Clement. Clement has not lived up to the hype since being drafted third overall in 2005. This season, he is hitting .288 with 7 home runs at the AAA level.

These moves come with just two days left until the non-waiver trade deadline. Only time will tell if more moves are forthcoming for either of these two teams.

Conversations between Toronto and Philadelphia, said to be the front runner for acquiring Halladay, are in a stalemate because the Phillies will not part with top pitching prospect Kyle Drabek. The Blue Jays have repeatedly asked for Drabek along with J.A. Happ and Dominic Brown. The Phillies countered with a package that would include one or more of the following players; Michael Taylor, Carlos Carrasco, Jason Donald and Lou Marson.

Toronto balked at the counter offer from the Phillies and sources claim that both teams are still in negotiations regarding Halladay but that talks turned nasty at one point over the weekend. The second team said to be in the running for Halladay are the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim but Toronto is said to be asking for three players on the Angels’ 25-man roster in return for Halladay.

Halladay, wherever he lands, will make a major impact on his new team if he is traded at all. Toronto GM J.P. Ricciardi claims he really doesn’t think that Halladay will be traded by the time the 4pm Friday deadline arrives because he doesn’t believe that any team will want to part with the prospects they are asking for in return. If Halladay does change teams he will likely end up with the Phillies, Dodgers, or Angels. These three teams seem to be the ones that have the talent it will take to pry the Cy Young Award winner from the only team he has ever played for.

So what happens to the rest of the league if Halladay does not get traded or if the Blue Jays decide to hold onto him even if there is time left prior to the deadline? Many teams could turn to the Cleveland Indians and the Seattle Mariners. The Indians haven’t decided yet if they are willing to trade former Cy Young Award winner Cliff Lee or hold onto him. The Mariners also aren’t sure if they are ready to part with Jarrod Washburn prior to the deadline. If teams are looking for a plan B then they could possibly turn their attention towards Lee and/or Washburn.

Other pitching options for teams looking for relievers include Baltimore’s George Sherrill, possibly the Reds’ Arthur Rhodes, the Diamondbacks’ Chad Qualls, the Nationals’ Joe Beimel and the Pirates’ John Grabow and Matt Capps. It is still difficult to determine whether or not there will be a flurry of minor trades by week’s end or if the Holliday to St. Louis trade will be the only blockbuster deal of the 2009 regular season.

It has been reported through numerous media outlets that the fight started over some spilled beer. The bachelor party had previously been tossed from the stadium by security for getting out of control so they decided to go to McFadden’s, which has a separate entrance from the ballpark. The two groups were then tossed from the restaurant/bar too. Two men were taken into custody on Monday morning and a third is excpected to turn himself into police. The two men charged were 35-year-old Charles Bowers and 45-year-old James Groves. The third man has been identified as 28-year-old Francis Kirchner. All three men are from Philadelphia and were on the bus tour of bars in the city. The two men in custody have been charged with murder. It was reported that Sale was held down by two men while being punched and kicked repeatedly in the head and face. Even though there were roughly 25-30 involved in the fight the police rounded up around 60 people from the two groups for questioning after the incident.