Party's over for Padres: A-Gone is just that after trade to Boston

Multiple sources are reporting on Saturday morning that the San Diego Padres and Boston Red Sox have agreed on a trade that will finally send first baseman Adrian Gonzalez(notes) to Fenway Park for a package of minor leaguers. Dan Hayes of the North County Times reports the crop will include three of Boston's top six prospects — pitcher Casey Kelly, first baseman Anthony Rizzo and outfielder Reymond Fuentes. 

Gonzalez is currently in Boston, where he'll undergo a physical and then attempt to negotiate a contract extension with the Red Sox that would begin in 2012.

The ramifications of this deal are pretty clear. The Red Sox will get the Mark Teixeira(notes)-type MVP contender that they have long coveted for their lineup. They'll sacrifice a few top prospects, but it's a fair price in their eyes (and mine, too) to acquire a franchise cornerstone and play keeping-up-with-the-Joneses against the New York Yankees. It's scary to think how A-Gone will perform now that he'll be playing half of his games with that short right field at Fenway Park instead of in the spacious pastures of Petco Park. (Gonzalez hit 11 home runs in San Diego in 2010, compared to 20 on the road.)

Meanwhile, the swap is a loud indication that the Padres won't get nostalgic about their unexpected success in 2010 and will stick to their plan of stockpiling and cultivating young and cheap talent. In addition to this Gonzalez trade, Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports is reporting that the Padres will "absolutely" trade closer Heath Bell(notes) at some point this offseason. 

This undoubtedly won't go over well with Padres fans, but you can't blame the team's front office here. San Diego didn't score many runs or attract many fans with the presence of Gonzalez, a friendly hometown guy playing for the team he grew up supporting. Why lock him into a deal expected to approach Teixeira's $180 million that would hamstring the franchise while adding other players for the next eight-nine years? 

It's the business of baseball and the Padres are already proving themselves adept at realizing the differences between big and small markets. They didn't get sentimental with Jake Peavy(notes) in 2009 and sent him to the Chicago White Sox for a package of prospects. Just over one year later, Peavy is a gigantic injury question mark that will cost the White Sox $33 million over the next two years while the Padres still have one of the best young pitching rotations in the league. Time will tell if the Padres GM Jed Hoyer picked the right prospects from the Red Sox (the team he used to work for), but he has made the right move in remaining flexible while building his team of the future.  

Related: Adrián González, Jake Peavy, Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, San Diego Padres

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Alicia Keys Gets Existential After Childbirth

Alicia Keys has taken to her blog to talk about life after childbirth, saying her newborn son Egypt with Swizz Beatz is an inspiration to more than just songwriting - although she "feels a song coming on," too!

"I'm most enamored with anatomy at this point. The miracle of the human body," she writes. "The ability to create all these small amazing machines of veins, capillaries, digestive systems, eyes, ears and noses. I can spend HOURS looking at one little EAR!"

She continues, "Have u ever noticed how complex just an ear is? A tiny maze of art. It may sound silly but it's so true. Or a heartbeat? Everyday we wake up and in some way, take for granted the fact that this beautiful pulsating organ in our body is the reason, and yet now that's all I can think of..."

She ends her post with "Oooh! I feel a song coming on..." Sounds like one happy mother! You can read the entire post on Alicia Key's official blog.

Alicia Keys Photos

© 2010 Starpulse.com The End Is Near For 'Big Love' Mariah Carey & Nick Cannon Talk About Their Miscarriage Misery

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After Cancellation Notice, Offshore SEO Company Threatens Negative Reputation Management Campaign

A company received a smear campaign threat from its outsourced SEO firm because the firm knows Google’s algorithm improperly ranks negative results, which Google claims helps to show an impartial view of the Web.

Reference this e-mail and tell me if you’d rather hire offshore to save a few dollars or go with a reputable SEO company that can provide you with skilled SEO link builders and an on-going professional relationship.

This is in response to a request to cancel services for a month-to-month service offering:

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The legal nature of these tactics is questionable in the United States, but hiring an offshore firm doesn’t provide you the same protection from a “Negative Reputation Campaign.”

It’s unbelievable that an SEO company would put its own reputation on the line with such an e-mail because a client has decided to go with another SEO firm. I’ve seen these tactics for more than a decade in both Web design/development and SEO, and its extremely unfortunate.

A couple weeks ago, Google tweaked their algorithm to penalize DecorMyEyes.com after the NY Times published an article discussing their alleged fraudulent business practices that resulted in supposed increased Google rankings.

Bottom line: Google took action! They need to continue that effort with sites like RipOffReport.com, ComplaintsBoard.com, Scam.com and other sites that obtain very high positions in the Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) and seem to be favored by Google’s algorithm.

When searching for brand names, you often see negative complaints published on these URLs at the top of the SERPs. I would understand seeing these URLs with negative information showing up in the SERPs for searches like:

Brand name scamBrand name sucksBrand name complaintsBrand name problemsAnd other keyword combinations based around negative terms

But when a brand name is the sole keyword and a complaint site URL is showing up #2, there is most likely an imbalance of credibility with Google’s algorithm that gives the complaint site the advantage.

Keep in mind the backlink portfolio to the URLs listed do not warrant a #2 ranking, nor does Google agree that a similarly credible website should rank for every brand in the world with little more than a brand name displayed in a page title, header tag and content body. At least Google’s love affair with Wikipedia can be argued that Wikipedia’s deep pages obtain thousands of links individually and therefore deserve a top ranking.

What did I miss in this post and plea to Google to do the right thing? Please comment and share.

Tags: Offshore SEO Company, Online reputation, orm, Outsourced SEO, Reputation Management

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Where are they now? Ernie Irvan's life after racing

Here's a feature for those who miss the old days, the old guys, the old ways. We'll dig into who they were; but more importantly, who they are, and what they've found to do with themselves since turning in their firesuits. Hit us up with suggestions in the comments, or email them to Jay Busbee and he'll pass 'em along.

Ernie Irvan is very passionate about brain trauma. This comes as no big surprise, since he's a survivor himself. Twice.

Ernie began his racing career driving karts in 1968 at the tender age of nine. He moved up to stock cars in 1975 at 16, and missed his high school graduation ceremony in favor of competing in a race. Gotta love a guy who has his priorities straight!

In 1982, Ernie decided he was ready for the big time, and moved to Charlotte, N.C. with little more than the clothes on his back. He supported himself by doing odd jobs around Charlotte Motor Speedway and racing in the Late Model Series at Concord. He made his Cup debut in 1987 at Richmond in a car sponsored by Dale Earnhardt, and narrowly missed taking Rookie of the Year honors the following year.

In August 1994, Irvan lost his right front tire in a practice session at Michigan, and his car crashed into the Turn 2 wall at over 170 mph. He suffered lung and head injuries and was given a 10% chance of surviving the night. Doctors assured him he would never have a normal life, never race again. But he walked onto the stage under his own power at the NASCAR Awards banquet that fall to accept the True Value Hard Charger Award.

He was cleared to race again the following fall, capturing three more checkered flags before he crashed into the same wall at Michigan in August 1999, once again sustaining head and lung injuries. Less than two weeks later, he formally announced his retirement.

These days Ernie has become a huge safety advocate, speaking in various locations about the prevention of brain injury. "I'm just trying to get the message out about prevention," Irvan says. "The numbers keep going up. Every 23 seconds in the U.S., someone suffers another traumatic brain injury." Of course, many of those someones are children, riding bicycles and skateboards without helmets. Though Irvan rode his own bike as a child helmetless, he does not approve of the practice. His foundation, Race2Safety, has already provided over 3000 helmets to children across the Southeast. He also speaks to our nation's troops about life after brain injury, and how to survive the recovery process.

If you'd like to help, be sure to join Ernie and a few hundred of his closest friends who are survivors of traumatic brain injury in the fan walks at Michigan Speedway. Michigan has "bent over backwards" to help make sure the walks happen as close as possible to race day, according to Irvan. And well they should.

And if you'd like to learn more about Ernie, it turns out he can write, too. Check out his book, "No Fear: Ernie Irvan: The NASCAR Driver's Story of Tragedy and Triumph," available at a book store near you.

In the meantime, be sure to wear your helmet when you ride. Do it for Ernie!

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