More news from Boston: The California Angels are tearing up the American League West, and one of the key factors is the scrappy play of their shortstop, a rising star named David Eckstein.

If that doesn't strike you as news from Boston, well, it ought to be. Eckstein was a Red Sox prospect for years, languishing in the minor leagues while the major league team had a gaping hole in the middle infield, at second base. Letting him go to Anaheim is already starting to look as bad as the deal that sent Jamie Moyer to Seattle, and it may yet loom as large as the deadline deal in which the Sox traded away Jeff Bagwell --- one of ESPN's ten worst trades ever.

But in this case, Red Sox management gets off on a technicality. They didn't trade Eckstein. They let him go on waivers.