Stunning reports that the New York mets and Washington Nationals have agreed to trade Lastings Milledge for Ryan Church… if you remember, Milledge was the star prospect that the Mets were working so hard to hold onto - turning down numerous big name trade opportunities… but for Ryan Church?! Couldn’t Milledge have been used in the Johan Santana trade market?!

ESPN: The New York Mets have dealt outfielder Lastings Milledge to the Washington Nationals for catcher Brian Schneider and outfielder Ryan Church, multiple media outlets reported Friday.

The Nationals announced they would hold a news teleconference at 3 p.m. ET to announce a trade.

Milledge, in parts of two seasons with the Mets, has a career .257 batting average (90 for 350) with 40 extra-base hits and 51 runs batted in.

Church, in 144 games last season, hit .272, one point higher than his career average in four seasons with the Expos-Nationals franchise. Last season, he had 128 hits, including 43 doubles — tied for the team lead with Ryan Zimmerman — and 15 home runs, and 70 RBIs.

The only part I liked about the latest Terrell Owens touchdown celebration was that it provided good fodder for his butter hands when he dropped an easy touchdown in the fourth quarter - leading to an interception.

You’ve probably seen the Your Game, Your Call banners on SportsWrap for the last few weeks. We wanted to learn more and spoke to State Farm about the promotion - so if you are interested, here are the details:

On Thanksgiving Day, State Farm debuted the “Your Game | Your Call” Ultimate Pro Bowl Giveaway where fans can win one of five trips to the 2008 Pro Bowl in Hawaii. Fans can enter the promotion daily through January 6 at www.statefarm.com/NFL2 for their chance to win a trip to Hawaii or one of 35 other great prizes. The 2008 Pro Bowl will be played on February 10 and televised by FOX. The grand prize package includes:

* Round trip air transportation for four to Honolulu Hawaii
* Four tickets to the 2008 NFL Pro Bowl presented by State Farm
* First class hotel accommodations in Honolulu (five days/four nights)
* Meet-and-greet with NFL Hall of Famer, Howie Long
* A $1,000 State Farm VISA gift card

In addition to the five grand prizes, fans have the opportunity to win one of ten first place prizes consisting of an autographed Howie Long football and a $250 nflshop.com gift card. Twenty-five $100 nflshop.com gift cards will also be awarded to second prize winners.

This makes me feel good about rooting for the red sox…. Hank Steinbrenner told the NY Post that his favorite actress is Jennifer Love Hewitt… SERIOUSLY. Does that make Yankees fans feel comfortable about his ability to judge talent?!!?!?!?

Q: How do you think you’re like your father?
A: Someone once said in one of the articles I tend to shoot from the hip like my dad. I’ll analyze things as well, just like he did at times. You don’t get to be as successful as he’s been without analyzing things. He was always thinking.

Q: What was it like working for your father?
A: He was a difficult Boss. As a dad, he’s a great dad, but a very, very difficult Boss. A pain in the (butt).

Q: Favorite actor?
A: Steve McQueen.

Q: Favorite actress?
A: Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Another non-sports-related video… but damn funny:

Torri Hunter said a few interesting things:

1) He admires Kevin Garnett’s move to the Celtics and their recent succes
2) He wants to work on his tan in LA
3) He speaks very high of the Angels owner… not so highly of the Twins organization

A few months ago, we were enamored with Tay Zonday and his Chocolate Rain song… apparently so was Dr. Pepper as Tay and his ridiculously bizarre voice now have a seemingly-high-budget song ripping up the YouTube ‘air’-waves. Good for Tay - who somehow turned his 15 minutes of fame into something slightly longer.

How does this pertain to sports? We once answered that here…

With the playoffs nearing - I now still Jack by 3 wins after a push due to the 3-0 mud bowl on Monday night. But this might very well be the toughest week yet as there are an amazing number of closely contested, important games (whereas last week was the week of huge spreads). The Patriots are still amazingly 20.5 point favorites and as the Jets game approaches, we might hit the first ever 25+ point spread.

A quick refresher on how this works - we rotate picks against the spread - so if Jack picks first, he will take the game that he likes best. I then pick my next two favorite games… and so on. Jack picked first this week and our top four picks (our locks, if you will) are in this order… and by the way, our locks have been amazingly accurate !

1. Cleveland Browns -1
2. New York Jets -1
3. Detroit Lions +3.5
4. Denver Broncos -3.5

And before we submit the picks, I received this email today:

Hey Ryan and Jack – you guys going to get your picks in this week?

Since I stumbled on your picks a few weeks ago, I’ve beat the guys at work 4 out of 6 weeks. I keep telling them that I’m picking by uniform color and that my 10 year old daughter is helping me. I told my husband I would buy him dinner, he says I owe you and Jack a dinner!!

Hope it continues…guys can be so whiney when they lose to women can’t they??

Ryan’s Picks

Packers
Cowboys -6.5

Jaguars
Colts -7

Bills
Redskins -5.5

Browns
Cardinals -1

Broncos
Raiders +3.5

Giants
Bears +2

Bucaneers
Saints -3

Bengals
Steelers -7

Jack’s Picks

Texans
Titans -4

Chargers
Chiefs +5.5

Falcons
Rams Pick ‘Em

Jets
Dolphins -1

Lions
Vikings - 3.5

Seahawks
Eagles -3

49ers
Panthers -3

Patriots
Ravens +20.5

From the leading red sox beat / gossip writer… my mother:

The latest conversation is that the Sox & Twins are in serious discussions regarding a 4 player trade for Santana. The trade is said to include Crisp, Lester, Lowrie (minor league shortstop said to be excellent) and then either Bowden or Masterson (supposedly a real star). Here’s hoping that’s a better bunch than what the Yankees are willing to put together. Beyond that, Santana wants a 6 year $150 deal which is more in the Yankees’ league than ther Sox and, of course, this will need to be agreed to prior to the deal since Santana will be a free agent after next season.

If the Sox are so fortunate as to obtain Santana then perhaps they will ship Wakefield to the glue factory - or perhaps, to the Yankees!

Kyle Edward Singler (b. May 4, 1988 in Medford, Oregon, United States), is a college basketball player for the Duke Blue Devils.

Singler attended South Medford High School and was ranked as one of the top 5 college recruits in the nation from the class of 2007.

In 2007, Singler led South Medford to its first-ever state basketball championship, winning 58-54 over defending champion Lake Oswego and national standout Kevin Love. A year earlier, Love and Lake Oswego had defeated Singler and South Medford for the state championship.

Singler plays for the Portland Elite Legends AAU team, and participated in many prestigious all-American camps including the Nike All-American Camp (Indianapolis), the Nike Peach Jam (Augusta), and the Main Event (Las Vegas). Singler was also named to the 2006 U18 USA Junior National team, alongside fellow top prospects Michael Beasley, Jerryd Bayless, and 2006 star recruit Spencer Hawes.

Awards

* 2007 Oregon Player of the Year (tie with Kevin Love)
* 2007 Parade All American 1st Team
* 2007 OSAA 6A All Tournament Team
* 2007 McDonald’s All American West Squad (10 Points/4 Rebounds)
* 2007 Jordan Brand All-American Classic Yellow Team (16 Points/6 Rebounds/3 Assists/2 Steals)
* 2007 Oregon Southwest Conference Player of the Year
* 2007 Maui Invitational MVP