Backtobanks

I'm having trouble finding any teams that we match up with one-to-one, so I try to get another team involved.

seems pretty fair for all sides to me So, as Orioles GM, you're trading Tejada and Roberts for LaRoche, Cedeno, Patterson, and Marshall? You would quite literally be tarred and feathered and justifiably so. Don't forget the Orioles save about $15 million in addition to getting a young, SS, 3B, #3-4 starter and utility player.

How about a Cubs-Orioles-Dodgers deal: Cubs get Eithier (from Dodgers) and Roberts (from Orioles) Dodgers get Tejada (from Orioles) and Veal (from Cubs) Orioles get Cedeno, Marshall, Patterson (from Cubs) and Laroche (from Dodgers) =D>

In this morning's Tribune, Lou sounded like Theriot is the SS and they're looking for a lefty SS to sub for him on occasion. I wonder what Cedeno has to do to have a real shot at playing because his upside is certainly better than Theriot's. Of course, there have been times he (Cedeno) has looked brutal at times in the majors.

How about a 3-way deal: Boston gets Murton & Patterson from the Cubs San Diego gets Crisp from Boston and Cedeno from the Cubs Cubs get Greene from San Diego plus whatever tweaking needs to get the deal done. Cubs would then need to sign Fukudome for RF.

From MLB Trade Rumors: Rockies Talking To Redman, Trachsel According to Tracy Ringolsby, the Rockies already have their 2008 rotation picked out: Aaron Cook, Jeff Francis, Ubaldo Jimenez, Franklin Morales, and Jason Hirsh. Of course, counting on each to make 30 starts would be folly. With that in mind, Dan O'Dowd is looking for some veteran filler. Specifically, he's trying to sign Mark Redman and Steve Trachsel. Trachsel in particular would like to become a Rockie. Bombs away!

From Jayson Stark: Meanwhile, a hitter in Venezuela who has popped a few eyeballs is Jody Gerut, who is trying to prove he's over his knee issues. Well, here's a good way to prove that: bat .390, with a .488 on-base percentage. Which what Gerut is doing. "He's raking," said the same scout. "He should wind up in somebody's camp." I can see the writing on the wall: Gerut playing RF.

I reading stories that the Mets are seriously after Santana and might be willing to trade Reyes for him. How about the Cubs getting in on the action and making a 3-way deal: Mets get Santana (from Twins) and Cedeno (from Cubs) Twins get Pie, Marshall, Patterson, and Gallagher (from Cubs) Cubs get Reyes (from Mets) Add in whatever tweaking needs to be done to complete the deal. Sign Fukudome for CF, probably sign Matsui for 2B (unfortunately), and go cheap in RF (Murton or Murton & Luke Scott/Seth Smith platoon). 1. Reyes SS 2. Fukudome CF 3. DLee 1B 4. ARam 3B 5. Soriano LF 6. Murton or Platoon RF 7. Soto C 8. Matsui 2B Zambrano, Lilly, Hill, Dempster, Marquis as starters Looks good to me! =D> =D> =D>

Agreed. On a related note: Why don't the Cubs just move Soriano to RF where he belongs? I've become tired of the "wonder if he can play RF" posts when we have a guy in LF that would be the best RF option of anyone that might be available this offseason. You're absolutely right triple B. I keep thinking about Bruce Miles' article the morning after the Cubs signed Soriano. Bruce was convinced Soriano was brought in to play RF. From all accounts, he was going to play RF, until he volunteered for CF and then eventually moved to LF. They probably would have been much better off if they just started the season with a L/C/R of Murton, Jones, Soriano. I agree. I think they didn't do that because he already failed at CF and they didn't want him to have that negative baggage with him to right. Hopefully they'll be able to move him to right in 2008 unless they find a guy that can play it better. Not only move him to RF, but move him to the middle of the batting order(5th) .

I'm not so sure. The Cubs may match up very well with the Twins. I think many of us undervalue Hill. In only his first full year, Hill posted a 1.19 WHIP and a 3.92 ERA. That is not too shabby at all. Hill is cheap for another year or two and could be a solid #2. (He would be an immediate upgrade over Garza, Silva) If I'm the Twins I look real hard at a guy that put up those numbers in the majors in his first full year. For the Cubs to consider trading Hill, Pie, plus whoever else for Santana, they would have to first sign Fukudome for CF and go with a cheap RF platoon (Murton & Luke Scott/Seth Smith). Also, don't forget that trading for Santana, signing Fukudome, and probably signing Matsui adds about $30 million to the budget for the new owner. I don't think that's going to happen without dumping a lot of salary (Marquis, Dempster, Eyre, etc.).

Ken Rosenthal's latest column suggested that the Twins might reconsider trading Santana and possibly try to be competitive in 2008: "For Smith, that could mean adding a shortstop, third baseman and center fielder to his core — no small feat. But it's a manageable quest if his goal is to compete next season rather than deconstruct". I wonder if the Dodgers and Twins could get together: Kemp, Laroche, Hu, Kershaw/Billinsley for Santana. That would be a real blockbuster, but would solve a few of the Twins problems and give them a real shot at 2009 and beyond.

As long as you have the Red Sox - Yankees paranoia going, the Twins will insist on and get any prospects they want. As a back up plan, the Twins have the West Coast (Angels - Dodgers) paranoia. These four teams have the young players and the money to lead the Santana/Cabrera sweepstakes.

Fukudome seems like a quality lefty bat, but not a power bat.

Can he play RF? define "play" If Floyd can handle RF with his gimpiness, I'm pretty sure Burrell could. Burrell's worse. He's terrible in the OF. Burrell has a terrible time in LF. There's a reason he's called "Pat the Bat".

From MLB Trade Rumors: Matt Garza For Delmon Young Blockbuster Close Wow! That rumor really didn't die! La Velle E. Neal III says the Twins are close to a multiplayer deal. They'd send Matt Garza, Jason Bartlett, and Juan Rincon to the Rays for Delmon Young, Brendan Harris, and Jason Pridie. I can't remember any kind of young player blockbuster like this in recent memory. It's exciting to see Bill Smith pull the trigger on a deal to get that possible elite slugger. Will he be more hesitant to trade Johan Santana now? Or maybe it doesn't matter since he'd require an elite young hurler like Phil Hughes in return. Beyond Young, you also have to applaud Smith for getting Pridie, who immediately becomes the Twins' center fielder of the future. The 24 year-old came back from injuries this year to rake in Triple A. Just like that, the Twins have an outfield. Meanwhile the Rays suddenly have an awesome young trio fronting their rotation in Scott Kazmir, Jamie Shields, and Garza. Rincon's ability is questionable at this point but he could be the setup man the Rays are craving. Since the Rays are trading their 2B, perhaps this could lead to the Cubs going after Crawford and offering a package using one of our dozen 2B.

The last news I saw said that he may not decide before the first of the year. If I were Fukudome's agent, I would make sure he makes a decision sooner than that. Some teams will drop out of the bidding because of trades or signings they make in the next week or two. Obviously, the more teams that are interested, the bigger the contract.

The Twins want Melky Cabrera plus one of Chamberlain/Hughes/Kennedy from the Yankees. If the Yanks can surrender Kennedy rather than Hughes or Joba, they've done a nice job. Sounds like they would consider giving up Hughes though. After reading some of the speculation from MLB Trade Rumors, I do wonder if the Cubs could be in the running to match the Yankees offer. Of course it would start with Pie and Hill and probably include Patterson plus Cedeno/Theriot (?), but if the Cubs ended up with Fukudome and traded for someone cheap to platoon with Murton (Luke Scott, Seth Smith, etc.) it might be worth thinking about. Of course, the budget would go through the roof, but having Zambrano, Santana, and Lilly as your first three starters would really be dominating. As for the Yankees' offer, Cabrera hasn't shown much and Chamberlain/Hughes/Kennedy all have great potential but Hill has done it at the major league level. I'm sure it won't happen, but it is interesting to think about.

I'm really surprised that the White Sox have never been mentioned as a team interested in Fukudome. He has the speed and OBP that would look good in CF for the White Sox. He doesn't have the power numbers of Hunter or Rowand, but it looks like his contract could be more affordable than Hunter, Rowand, and Jones. He certainly projects to be a better player than Crisp without having to trade players for him.

I agree but it will also depend on if those teams want to part with their prospects plus what the Marlins want. Speaking of teams not wanting to part with their prospects, everything Hendry has said in the last year makes it sound like Pie and Hill are pretty much "untouchables" so I can't see him giving both of them up plus 2 or 3 more top prospects for either Santana or Cabrera.

Interesting comment from MLB trade rumors: My coworker Jonathan makes a good point - thought the Sox wouldn't give four-year deals to pitchers? They made a huge fuss over Mark Buehrle. Suddenly Scott Linebrink is worthy of breaking the rule again? Way to build team morale! [-X

As many posters have pointed out, we just don't have the players to get Cabrera or Santana. I'm sure either deal would start with Pie, Hill, Colvin, etc. Those other teams involved have better prospects that aren't part of their everyday lineup. I guess we can dream though.

- Joe Jackson threw a baseball 396 feet on Sept 27, 1917 at Fenway Park during a contest, defeating Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, and Babe Ruth. (Be interesting to have a long toss contest nowadays, I'd think, but it's obvious why they wouldn't). I think they ought to havethe contest. I nominate the first two players: Juan Pierre and Jacque Jones.

I have trouble believing this: Graziano On A Yankees/Santana Trade Recently I asked the Newark Star-Ledger's Dan Graziano about a realistic scenario under which the Yankees could acquire Johan Santana. His take was a bit different than the standard packages we've been hearing. MLBTR: Give us your take on a reasonable trade package for Johan Santana that the Yankees would consider offering and the Twins would consider accepting. Dan Graziano: The Twins will need at least one good, proven, major-league player and a couple of prospects in exchange if they decide to deal Santana. Many people have suggested that the Yankees would need to include Robinson Cano in a deal, and that's certainly possible. But the Twins have a young player (Alexi Casilla) they believe can play second base, and their greater need may be in the outfield, especially with Torii Hunter now gone off to Anaheim. To that end, Melky Cabrera might be more appealing to the Twins than Cano. Let's assume the Yankees don't want to include Joba Chamberlain or Phil Hughes in the deal (though Santana might be the only player for whom they'd consider dealing one of those guys), and that Brian Cashman also wants to hold onto Ian Kennedy. The next best pitcher in the Yankees' system is probably Alan Horne. I'm thinking the Yankees could offer a package of Cabrera, Horne and outfield prospect Jose Tabata for Santana. That could be appealing to the Twins, though they might ask for a better pitcher than Horne (or another, such as Marquez, in addition to him), though it would depend on the packages being offered by other interested teams such as the Mets and Red Sox. The thing to remember in dealing with the Twins, however, is that they might not always be after the prospects everybody knows about. The Twins pride themselves on being able to identify and acquire big-time prospects at the Class A level. Players who have come to the Twins' system at the A-ball level over the years include Jason Bartlett, Lew Ford and Joe Mays, as well as Johan Santana himself and a skinny little hitter whose name at the time was David Arias but later changed his last name to Ortiz and went on to achieve some measure of fame with the Boston Red Sox. Earlier this year, when the Mets and Twins were talking trade for Luis Castillo, we were trying to figure out who the Mets might have to give up. We were thinking of usual suspects like Kevin Mulvey and Phil Humber, but the Twins ended up dealing Castillo for AA catcher Drew Butera and Class A outfielder Dustin Martin. These were guys I didn't know much about, but I'm not going to be surprised if Dustin Martin ends up being a good big-leaguer someday. The Twins' scouts can spot talent when it's very young. So there may be some players in the Yankees' system (and in those of other interested teams) that the Twins would like and we don't even know about yet.

Crawford, Griffey, and Tejada are okay depending on the cost. Bradley is fine as long as everyone understands his role (4th OF, platoon, pinch hitter).

I'm a big KW fan, but you can't sign players because there's a possibility they will be good with another team. If you did that we would spend a ton of money on Wood, Prior, Corey Patterson, etc. I want him back, but make him a decent offer and move on if he doesn't accept it.