BigbadB

The Tigers traded from a strength to fill a weakness. Not only did they fill a weakness, they filled a weakness from a position that there will likely be more demand than product available. Argue whether we should be skeptical of Renteria's value in 2008 as much as you wish, but if Carlos Guillen isn't capable of playing a quality SS anymore, Renteria is a tremendous upgrade over the likes of Ramon Santiago, Neifi Perez and Omar Infante. The same argument can be made for the Cubs. One of the very few upgrades at SS is now off the market. Not only is there one less SS on the market, the market just got tougher for someone like Tejada. Supply and demand. Detroit struck quickly. Nice job on their part.

I have a riddle for you. Where do you play the best player in the game? Wherever he wants to play! ARod only switched to 3rd to prevent an uproar in Yankees nation by forcing Jeter to move. I'm guessing he'd love to move back to his old position. And I'm also guessing that the team that gets him is the team that lets him play SS again. I could be wrong, but......

Because Ramirez hates ARod? I don't understand why you think he's gone in that scenario. Ramirez gave the Cubs a discount to stay in Chicago, and I doubt he'd just waive his full NTC because ARod was coming.

The only thing Torre had going for him as manager of the Yankees was that he was good at managing egos. A monkey could fill out the line up card for the Yankees and make the playoffs every year. In that regard, Torre was certainly nothing special as manager. I like the guy, but his resume isn't really all that impressive considering.

We already have the 15m players (Soriano, Ramirez and Lee). Now we just need a 30m player and the offense will be in great shape.

Just a hunch, but I think the Brewers like the speed combination at the top of the order that Gwynn and Weeks would provide. It looked like Gwynn did a pretty good job of filling in when Hall was hurt. When Gwynn played more regularly (and granted, it's still a pretty small sample size), he provided a .350+ OBP. If they could get that (and OBP is definitely a major problem with the Brewers ballclub, they'd have some pretty good table setters for Braun, Fielder and Hart. Gwynn Weeks Braun Fielder Hart Hall Hardy Estrada

the talk is about Torii Hunter, not whoever you're thinking of Thanks. You just made me spit coffee all over my keyboard and monitor.

I don't see why they would pick up that option. Milwaukee has all kinds of cheaper options to stick in their outfield that make WAY less than Jenkins. Tony Gwynn Jr., Corey Hart, Bill Hall, Gabe Gross, Kevin Mench, Joe Dillon, Matt LaPorta and Laynce Nix are plenty of options to fill the void. I'm curious whether they'd like to go with Gwynn in CF and lead him off to move Weeks in to the 2nd spot in the order. Hall and Hart play the corners.

He might have, but I don't think it would complicate things anymore than attempting to trade him prior to him opting out of his contract.

That might have been an option prior to A-Rod opting out of his clause (assuming an extension could be worked out), but I think it's something that would have been way too complicated. A-Rod could just elect to opt out if he didn't like the team he was going to be traded to. In other words, A-Rod controls his destination by opting out. If the Yankees did find a suitor to A-Rod's liking, how difficult would it be to work out a trade between two teams that both teams would be happy with, and could an extension be worked out that would make A-Rod happy? For example, knowing A-Rod is pretty much leaving, what would be a fair offer to guarantee you get him? And would it satisfy the Yankees enough?

Unless they are going to move Johnson to center, escobar to 2b and play ARod at short OR move Chipper back to the OF again, it ain't happening. Both of those scenarios seem very unlikely to happen. They have options and young talent. They also are pretty creative when it comes to deals so this quick deal makes me wonder why they made this trade so early, unless they are going young I can't think of a reason why they would sell Renteria so quickly. Renteria could be on Mitchells list I suppose and this was a chance to sell high. You have to remember that Atlanta traded for Tex at the deadline last year, which increased payroll rather than reduced it like they've been wanting to do for years. They have Yunel Escobar and Brent Lillibridge to step in at SS. I don't see Atlanta making a play for A-Rod. They just don't want to hang on to players too long that they clearly want to move. Each player that they don't trade right away hampers their future offseason decisions.

It has absolutely nothing to do with the how the red sox finished their season. I know, but you know damn well if we signed Crisp you would start hearing the "he's a winner" crap. Kind of hard to call him a winner considering he got benched during the World Series in favor of a rookie with hardly any major league experience.

Isn't Kenny Williams the guy who completely refuses to negotiate with Boras? Yep.

You could have said the same about the Cubs last year. Some organizations are just very reluctant to have a rebuilding year. I can't say I've ever seen the Cubs have one. The Cubs at least had talented players who are not all in the back half of their 30's. Omar Vizquel will be 41 and is coming off his worst season ever at the plate. Rich Aurilia will be 36 and Ryan Klesko will be 37 in April. Ray Durham is 36. Dave Roberts will be 36. Excluding Barry Bonds since he won't be a Giant in 2008, Randy Winn is the only player who had an OPS+ above 100 last year (105).

And won't Encarnacion's contract be covered by insurance? From what I've heard, his career may be over. Granted, I haven't really kept up on his rehabilitation, but his contract seems like a nonfactor.

I don't understand why the Giants would garner any attention at all in the A-Rod sweepstakes. That team needs to rebuild more than any team in baseball. Outside of Zito, Cain and Lincecum, they have very little to build around. They are fresh off a last place finish that most certainly was not a fluke. They are a very bad and old team right now.

$9M (very good player) vs. maybe $30M (great player) Is the difference between very good and great worth approx. $20M? It's far from an obvious decision. Plus A-Rod would command perhaps 5+ years, and the Sox supposedly don't go for that kind of thing... The Red Sox sport the 2nd biggest salary in baseball, and were close to inking A-Rod the last time he was a free agent. I'm sorry, but this is a no brainer for the Sox. Stick it to the Yankees, land the best player to ever play the game, all on the heels of a World Series Championship. Not to mention the fact that Boston can probably easily dump a few salaries along the way to make A-Rod's contract more easily manageable. They won't need Lowell. With Ellsbury, they don't need Crisp. They can probably pay a part of Lugo's contract to make him go away as well, since he really didn't work out all that well. Why am I arguing this? I want A-Rod on the Cubs. I hope Boston inks Lowell to a deal right after A-Rod makes it official.

Apparently, Theo sees Lowell as a "core" player and intends to resign him to a 3-4 year deal. That's per FOX on the game tonight. Obviously, ARod being available may change their thought process, but that has been their stance on Lowell thus far. That's just Theo playing the game the way it's supposed to be played. And just because A-Rod is available doesn't guarantee Boston will land him. Lowell makes for a very nice back up plan.

Let's see. Mike Lowell or A-Rod. Hmmm. Tough decision. Not.

NTC. And what would be the point of bringing in a top name free agent only to trade one away? Stick A-Rod back at SS like he probably prefers and call it good.

The value of the team goes up that much more having the best player on the planet inked to a long term deal. As well as Wrigley sells out game after game, they could easily raise prices and get back every drop of the money being extended to A-Rod. With that said, I think the Cubs would likely be A-Rod's #1 choice because of Lou, but he'll probably be offered more money by teams like Anaheim and Boston.

I may be wrong and he may get peddled to a team this offseason, but from my own perspective and based on what I saw of Jones in 2007, I don't see any teams having interest in utilizing a significant part of their offseason budget to acquire a guy that they can likely get close to or equal value from their own farm system. Call it a continuation of correcting the market for mediocre ballplayers if you will.

PECOTA thinks (or did before last year, not that I put a lot of stock in their long-term projections) that he'll be a league average hitter in 2008, and at least one person has him playing an excellent CF in 2007. I don't really disagree with your premise, but I figured I'd point that out. Do you think major league GM's base their decisions on acquiring a player on whether they have good PECOTA projections? Not being fecitious, just asking the question. I know GM's base a lot of their decisions on scouting information, and scouts probably utilize that information much moreso than a GM, but "what have you done lately" has to weigh more heavily, IMO. Jones had a very bad year at the plate. What is worse is that I don't see him improving. His approach at the plate is almost beyond repair. He's off balance and leaning forward when he swings away. It's possible it can be corrected, but if it is, why haven't they corrected it?

It's possible the Yankees might not have made the playoffs without A-Rod this year. However, 7 other teams did make the playoffs without A-Rod. It doesn't require that you have a 30m player on your roster to make the playoffs. If the Yankees lost A-Rod this offseason, and they went out and spent 30m on pitching (and not just part time players like Clemens), I think they could get back to the playoffs without A-Rod.

Exactly. And besides that, who in their right mind would take Jacque Jones off the Cubs hands? I'd venture to guess just about every team in baseball has a guy in AAA that could put up the numbers Jacque Jones put up in 2007. A corner outfielder that provides 40 XBH's in a full season of at bats is not exactly a hot commodity in trade discussions. The only thing that might spark interest is that he can play an adequate CF. If he was excellent in CF, that might be different. Jones put up an identical OPS+ in 2007 to Terrence Long in his last full season in baseball, and we all know what happened to him. And Long's contract was very similar to what Jones makes. Nobody will take Henry Blanco's contract, either. The Cubs made commitments to a lot of players last year that basically makes them untradeable as well. You don't give a guy like Soriano a long term deal and then trade him after the first year. You don't re-up a guy like Aramis or Zambrano and then trade them. Marquis is a guy who you might be able to trade, but it's highly doubtful any team will take on the entire contract. Cubs brass made their bed. Now they have to lie in it. The only way they can improve their team in 2008 is by replacing the dead weight. And it's going to take even more money to replace that dead weight. But, it has to be spent at this point. To go into 2008 with the same roster would be comparable to replacing only 2 of the bald tires on your car. Unfortunately, all I really see Cubs brass being able to do to improve this team is to upgrade SS and maybe grab another pitcher. While I'd like to see Fukudome in the Cubs outfield, I see Cubs brass giving Jacque Jones another full season in RF in 2008, with Murton as his platoon mate. I also see them going with Felix Pie in CF and Geovany Soto behind the plate. If the Cubs can get Tejada or Renteria at SS, I think they'll view this as enough of an offensive upgrade that nothing else will really need to be done. I also think the Cubs will go cheap at starting pitcher, and bring back Prior for one more try. If Prior doesn't get the job done, they'll look to Marshall or Hart or Gallagher to fill that 5th roster spot. As much as the fans can see that many upgrades are necessary to improve this club, I really don't think the Cubs management believes all that much improvement will be necessary. And the reason I think this is because they made the playoffs in 2007. They view this as a victory, and that they can get back to the playoffs with the same roster in 2008 without spending mucho dinero. And it's possible they can. It will take some misfortunes in Milwaukee, but anything is possible in MLB.