The Mariners have sent starter Joel Pineiro to AAA...
Pineiro has been awful this year, but this still surprised me, in part because I just assumed he had enough service time to refuse such an assignment. However, he doesn't, and he has an option remaining, so he's been sent down, with Hargrove saying that they expect him to be down for 10 days to work on his mechanics and get back on track.
Also, the Nationals have traded the terrible Endy Chavez to the Phillies for Marlon Byrd, which is (I can't believe I'm saying this) a great deal for the Nationals.
Endy Chavez is pretty worthless as a player, while Byrd still would seem to have some value. Byrd was awful in 2004, but he posted a .284 EQA with pretty good defense in centerfield in 2003, and he's still just 27 years old.
If the price for Marlon Byrd was just Endy Chavez, I would have liked to have seen the Rangers rummage around in their junk drawer and see what they could offer for Byrd that the Phillies might be interested in. Ramon Nivar would be the obvious answer, except he's gone now, playing poorly for the Orioles' AAA affiliate, but you'd like to think they could dig up something better than Chavez for Byrd.