Traffic school. Ugh. Can’t wait to spend an entire Saturday hanging out with a bunch of folks who got caught in a speed trap. In my case, the cops were hiding out in a church parking lot. A church parking lot. I ask you, is nothing sacred?

Ah well, such is life. The thing is, nobody goes 30 MPH down Sixth. Nobody.

So, what’s going on in baseball? Well, the trades are starting to fly. Everybody and their mother has gotten down on Kenny Williams of the White Sox for his deals, so I won’t bother jumping on that pile. I will say that I’m baffled by the fact that the Sox landed a better return for Kenny Lofton than for Ray Durham. So evidently, Williams isn’t the only GM out there who is a bit confused when it comes to player valuation.

I was surprised to see the Dodgers part with right-hander Ricardo Rodriguez for Paul Shuey. Baseball America had Rodriguez ranked as their best prospect coming into the season. On the other hand, Shuey is a terrific reliever. I guess I’m just a little bummed because I know the Padres won’t get anyone with near the upside of Rodriguez for Steve Reed.

Then you’ve got the Phillies sending Scott Rolen and Doug Nickle to St. Louis for Bud Smith, Mike Timlin, and Placido Polanco. This is a weird trade. On the one hand, Rolen is a Gold Glove third baseman with good offensive skills. And although he hasn’t really developed into a truly elite player, he’s still pretty darned good. It will be interesting to see how much of his lack of growth were due to Dallas Green, Larry Bowa, and artificial turf.

On the other hand, Smith is a promising young lefty who fell out of favor in St. Louis. The optimist sees the move to Philly as an opportunity to escape Tony LaRussa and start fresh, maybe pull an Odalis Perez. The pessimist can’t see how the likes of Green and Bowa are going to help Smith at all, and is reminded of other once-promising southpaws such as Bruce Chen and Dennys Reyes.

For me, the trade comes down to two things: 1) whether Rolen signs with the Cards and 2) how well Smith develops. Given the reputation of the Cardinal organization and the city of St. Louis as a baseball town, I’m inclined to believe there’s a pretty decent chance that Rolen will stick around a while. If that’s the case, and if he’s at all rejuvenated (odd word to use in describing a 27-year-old, I know) by his new surroundings, then this could be a great deal for the Cards. And Smith will need to turn into Tom Glavine to make it worth the Phillies’ while. It’s a calculated risk, but this could be another Jim Edmonds for Kent Bottenfield and Adam Kennedy type deal, and the Phillies may end up regretting this–and their treatment of Rolen in general–for a very long time.

The one aspect of the trade that I don’t understand is Timlin and Polanco heading to Philadelphia. I can’t think of many players who have less value to a non-contending team. Don’t get me wrong, they’re actually pretty useful guys. But they’re only useful to a team in the hunt. A team like the Cardinals.

Of course, all of this assumes that MLB even is playing games by the end of next month. Talk now is that the players will go on strike August 16.

Hey, here are a couple of cool baseball blogs worth checking out: TwinsGeek and Jay Jaffe’s Futility Infielder. They’re both informative and entertaining. The former, as one might guess, places an emphasis on the Minnesota Twins but is a good read for all baseball fans. The latter possesses a title I envy to no end. Futility Infielder is a great name and, despite Jay’s affection for the Yankees (yes, I’m still upset at Tino Martinez and his pal Ritchie Garcia), it’s a great site, too.

Quick List

• CD: Sheryl Crow, Tuesday Night Music Club
• DVD: The Tao of Steve
• movie: Men in Black II
• book: Rob Ruck, The Tropic of Baseball
• restaurant: Thai House, 4225 Convoy St.