It’s Monday, which pretty much explains itself. I made the smart move of putting some work off on Friday in the name of leaving early, and in turn, set myself up for a pretty impossible Monday. I feel like I’m not the only one having a hard time getting back to work though. There’s a few baseball teams out there that didn’t look like they were ready to get back at it after the All-Star break. Sounds like the NFL and its players will soon be getting back to work. And while the NBA seems like an afterthought now, some of its players have begun to look for work overseas – a trend we’re likely to see continue as the beginning of the season fast approaches. So, while it’s been a dreadful past month in sports if you don’t watch soccer, it starting to feel to me like the calm before the storm. Pretty soon, we’re likely to see flurry of player movement in all sports. The Major League Baseball trade deadline is looming, and it sounds like nearly every team is exploring options. Once the NFL lockout is officially over, it figures to be one active offseason since teams will be scrambling to get their rosters set and into camp. In the NBA, hearing about guys like Avery Bradley and Pooh Jeter looking to sign overseas doesn’t get me jazzed up, but who knows, maybe the dominoes will fall faster – and bigger.

Baseball Trades I Expect To See – No Explanations (or prospects) – Toronto trades SS Yunel Escobar to San Francisco for SP Jonathan Sanchez. Anaheim trades C Hank Conger to New York Mets for OF Scott Hairston. New York trades OF Carlos Beltran to Texas for OF Julio Borbon and C Taylor Teagarden. Seattle trades 3B Chone Figgins and SP Doug Fister to Detroit for OF Ryan Raburn and P Phil Coke. Pittsburgh trades 3B Pedro Alvarez to Oakland for OF Josh Willingham and OF Hideki Matsui. Los Angeles trade OF Andre Ethier to Philadelphia for RP Antonio Bastardo.

Football Signings I Expect To See – No Explanations – Nnamdi Asomugha to Dallas. Cedric Benson to Jacksonville. Terrell Owens to Tampa Bay. Braylon Edwards to Kansas City. Antonio Cromartie to San Diego. Tamba Hali to Chicago. Santonio Holmes to Oakland.

Basketball Players I Expect To See Sign Overseas –  As if the previous predictions weren’t asinine enough, how could I possibly know who’s going to play in what country? Instead, I’m just going to visualize what it could be like if more guys like Deron Williams, who just made his deal to Turkey official on Friday, made the jump to an international location. All of a sudden, Dwight Howard is hinting at going international and specifically mentions China. I just hope he doesn’t take his talents to Foshan to team up with Stephon Marbury. Howard would be a perfect fit on the Shanghai Sharks. It’s Yao’s former team (and I think he even owns it), and Shanghai is really the only city that’s big enough for Dwight. Even though he could join a Flying Tigers team that featured MVP Quincy Douby and went 31-1 last year, I can’t imagine Howard moving to Xinjiang. Seriously, look it up. It’d be like if Alaska had an NBA team. Instead, he could turn the 12-20 Sharks into instant contenders, and quite possibly be the Dirk to Yao’s Cuban.