Vlad's mighty swing doesn't rank among prettiest

	Vladimir Guerrero can effectively cover the whole plate with his vicious hacks. Chuck Rydlewski/WireImage.com

We hear alot of talk all the time about the sweet swings of Ken Griffey Jr. or A-Rod. But after watching Vlad win the Home Run Derby, how about a top five ugliest swings in baseball list?
-- Joe, Cleveland

Very funny. Of course, by "ugly" you mean a mechanically weird swing, not an ineffective one. In no special order, I'd throw out these guys: Vlad (pure mayhem), Dustin Pedroia (little man with a big man's swing), Sammy Sosa (how does he hit with his hands so far from his body starting out?), Lance Berkman (weird the way he lays the bat down after swinging) and Jason Kendall (you just don't see the choke-and-poke method much any more.) By the way, why is it that when we say some guy has "a beautiful swing" it's almost always left-handed? What righties have been described as having a beautiful swing?

Is this going to go down as one of the dullest "Trade Deadline" seasons in years? Now that Chicago has buttoned down the deal with Mark Buehrle, who's left? Jose Contreras?
-- Tim Burnell, Franconia, N.H.

Fans can't have it both ways. You can't ask for more competitive balance in baseball and still want big names moved in July. More teams than ever have more money than ever to keep their players away from free agency and don't have to do the "salary dump" that once was fairly common. It's been better for baseball. But one consequence is you have fewer big names in play in July on the market. I'm OK with that. But I would like to see more pure baseball trades, where a team trades from surplus to fill a need, regardless of some impending free agency. But yes, it could be rather dull -- again.

As a long-suffering Orioles fan, I believe in the need to blow this thing up as much as possible. But the reality is that no team is going to take Danys Baez because of his contract. The O's would have to eat most of the remainder of that contract and that will be over $10 million. Not going to happen. Jay Gibbons also was stupidly signed to a four-year deal worth $21 million and dealing him would require the O's to pick up a huge chunk there as well. And to add insult to injury, the elderly Melvin Mora has a full no-trade clause and six young children he likely will not uproot. So, while getting rid of everyone not named Erik Bedard, Jeremy Guthrie, Chris Ray, Nick Markakis and Brian Roberts is a great idea, the O's have put themselves in a bad position to purge this roster properly. Other than that, things are going great here with the O's building a solid fourth-place cushion over the Devil Rays. Good times!
-- Ed, Baltimore

Well that should cheer up everybody in Birdland! Of course, you make all good points here, but hey, there's hope: the A's actually traded Jason Kendall. The O's may have to eat some money to move this thing forward, or take somebody else's bad contract to make it happen. It's dangerous to think, "Well, we signed this guy. We have to live with him." Angels owner Arte Moreno ate the most money ever (Kevin Appier) a few months after buying the Angels. Sunk money is sunk money. Living with your mistakes isn't mandatory.

In your previous Mailbag, you were asked about the team that deserves to have a movie made about them in hopes of helping with their luck. While I can understand the plight of those Royals, how about the Phillies? Don't get me wrong, I am not personally a fan, but I am glad for them that the 10,000th loss is out of the way so they can concentrate on the rest of the season. These guys are not a bad team. A few tweaks and they can be playoff bound. Besides, a Royals turnaround would be far too unbelievable. It would have to be a part of a David Blaine special.
-- Jason Trotman, Okinawa, Japan

What's remarkable about the Phillies (total world championships: one) is that they've been bad without any likeability or identity quotient and can't make the playoffs in the wild-card era while playing in a major market. So I don't even think a screenwriter could make it interesting enough to enough people.