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Talkin’ Trades

POSTED BY ON 2:14 pm, December 7, 2006 - POSTED IN News reel

Is there anything more exciting than the baseball free agency period? That was a retorical question. Of course there isn’t.

Let’s take a look at some of the recent signings and what they mean:

1. Gil Meche to the Royals. If Meche tries to explain his decision to sign with Kansas City as being motivated by anything other than money, he should be struck by lightning. He turned down the chance to play in great, historic baseball towns for (presumably) competative teams and make $40 million for the chance to play for the Royals and make an extra $5 million. On the brightside, I hear they’ve got really good bbq in Kansas City, and he’ll have plenty of time to play golf in October.

2. Freddy Garcia to the Phillies. This seems like a good deal for both sides. Phillies fans are no doubt stoked about this trade, because Garcia is a proven starter and the Phils didn’t even have to give up Aaron Rowand, who is beloved in Philly. But there’s a chance this could end up turning into a repeat of the Kevin Millwood trade and the “player to be named” the Phils sent to Chicago will turn into the next Cy Young.

Vernon thinks he's gonna be traded.3. Speaking of Gil Meche and the Phillies, let’s talk about the Blue Jays, who lost out on signing Meche and now might want to turn to the Phillies for starting pitching. The Phils are looking to move SP John Lieber and would love to get a big bat in return. The Blue Jays are looking to move Vernon Wells, no matter how often they deny it (they didn’t even put Wells on their promotional materials this year!). The Jays wouldn’t trade Wells for Lieber straight up, but Lieber and a prospect might do it. And Wells and Ryan Howard in the same lineup would be SCARY.

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7 comments so far

7 Responses to “Talkin’ Trades”

  1. jatt says:
    December 7, 2006 at 10:07 pm

    NO WAY are the blue jays ever going to trade wells for leiber. trading wells for brad penny and eric gagne sounds reasonable if the dodgers agree. they will get a 3 time gold glover, an allstar center fielder who would definately put up 35 HR and 100+ RBI every season.please give us penny & gagne :)

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  2. Danny says:
    December 8, 2006 at 2:30 pm

    The evil empire has elicited some nasty counter-tactics from a formerly non-evil competitor. The small market teams should be pitching a fit.

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  3. NJ Sox Fan says:
    December 8, 2006 at 3:29 pm

    There is only ONE EVIL EMPIRE and it is not the Sox. Could it be that Green with envy is a color that the Yankees and others are wearing because someone stepped up and put their money on the line.

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  4. Coley Ward says:
    December 8, 2006 at 3:37 pm

    You know, I meant to mention, in my post, that it’s possible that some of the smaller market teams are just jealous of the Sox, but I started talking about J.D. Drew and how much I hate him and I got sidetracked.

    So, yeah, maybe other teams are just jealous of the Sox’s resources and are lashing out. Sound familiar Boston?

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  5. Nick Kapur says:
    December 8, 2006 at 6:19 pm

    Coley, I think you might be taking your newfound hatred of the Red Sox a bit too far in this latest post.

    The NY Times is a notoriously pro-Yankees rag, and even in the quotes you selectively pulled from the article, I see no hard evidence anywhere that the Sox tampered. This is just the New York Times idly speculating and casting aspersions on the Sox’s dealings couched in vague language.

    Even in the Times’ own words, there only “could” be an investigation, and so far, “no complaint has been forthcoming.”

    This is non-news based on nothing at all (except anti-Red Sox sentiment), yet you happily proceed to add it to the list of evidence that the Sox are evil.

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  6. Coley Ward says:
    December 8, 2006 at 7:19 pm

    Nick, this is a blog. If we’re not going to over-react to rumors and speculation, what good are we?

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  7. Sarah Green says:
    December 9, 2006 at 12:43 pm

    Coley is allowing his hatred of everything having to do with Boston (except me and his beautiful Masshole girlfriend, of course) cloud his judgment.

    J.D. Drew had an out clause in his contract. It was a very unusual clause. He chose to exercise it. And just a few weeks ago, all the talk on this blog was about how he was a clubhouse cancer the city of LA couldn’t wait to get rid of. I don’t see how that leads anyone to a conclusion of “tampering.” It’s a players’ market this year—sure, a few days before the end of the season, JD might have thought he couldn’t get any more than $11 million a year. But by November, when he chose to leave, the playing field had shifted.

    Furthermore, as to speculating about Boras possibly blurring the needs of one client with those of another…..Scott Boras is everyone’s agent. If one is going to start pulling conspiracy theories out of thin air, where does one stop? Here’s an interesting bit of the article that my esteemed colleague did not include:
    ———————————————–
    Boras said Drew walked away from the contract because he had told him what the market was for a player of his caliber.

    “I did my due diligence,” Boras said in a telephone interview. “There were a number of teams that need a 3, 4 or 5 hitter, and J. D. was the only center fielder. I went to the Dodgers a week before the opt-out date and had lunch with Colletti. I had not yet met with J. D. I said if you want to talk about it, we are prepared to talk because J. D. has enjoyed his time in L. A.”

    The Dodgers, though, were not prepared to extend the current deal, so Drew decided to become a free agent, Boras said.

    ———————————————-
    Once again, J.D. decided to gamble for more money. Is it so hard to believe? He’s done it before.

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