I don't what it is about sports fans, or at least Reds' fans, where someone always has to win in a trade. Too many people that follow the game think that their team can trade away all the players they don't want and get another's team coveted treasures. However, in an ideal world both parties in involved in the deal improve. I guess after years of a snake like Jim Bowden at the helm it's hard think of anything that is fair and honest.

Like Wayne Krivsky or not, you have like the fact that he was shrewd enough to make the deal to get Josh Hamilton as Rule 5 draft pick and then ballsy enough to then go and turn them in to Edinson Volquez, the top pitching prospect of the Rangers.

After five weeks of the season, the trade is working out for both sides better than even the team's themselves ever imagined. Josh Hamilton leads the majors with 36 RBI's and Edinson Volquez (5-1) leads the National League with a 1.06 ERA and leads the majors with 52 K's.

Volquez didn’t allow more than one earned run in any of his first seven starts.  No Reds pitcher had accomplished that feat since earned runs became an official statistic in 1912.

PLAYER COMPARISON
Hamilton - .292 AVG, .346 OBP, .533 SLG, 7 HR, 36 RBI, 17 R, 0 SB, 20 K
Volquez - 42 1/3 IN, 7 GS, 4 QS, 5-1, 1.06 ERA, 52 K, 24 BB, 28 HA

Texas is tickled with Hamilton and the Reds are looking like they knew what they were doing, it's just too bad Krivsky didn't get to stick around to see it.

Despite the fact Thomas Jones was out of the way last season, Cedric Benson struggled with both injuries and the ability to find holes in a dismal season for the Bears. He finished with 674 yards rushing on 3.4 yards per carry and found the end zone just four times in 11 games. The team has expressed their disinterest in Benson and took it a step further by drafting RB Matt Forte out of Tulane in Round 2 of last month's draft.

Benson was arrested early Sunday in Texas for boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest. He was released on $14,500 bail.

Local Chicago media is calling for his head, and they may be right.

"There's a big enough pile of evidence for the Bears to cut ties with Benson without another thought. Maybe that's the real positive of his water-logged weekend, Mike Mulligan wrote in the Sun-Times. Benson has one leg out the door and another on a banana peel anyway after the draft last weekend, when the Bears effectively replaced him by using a second-round pick on Matt Forte."

The organization would have to take a $6 million salary cap hit to cut the former No. 4 overall selection. However, the hit would be $2.5 million if they designate him a post-June 1 cut.

Chicago needs to extend the contracts of Tommie Harris, Robbie Gould, and Devin Hester's and will need that cap space to do so, that likely means that Benson is going nowhere. The worst part of it is that Benson isn't a viable reserve because he doesn't pass block, play special teams, or help on third downs. He could be low on the depth chart.