Late last night, the Brewers and Yankees resumed their earlier trade talks for Mike Cameron. If you’ll recall, the Brewers were reportedly hesitant to trade Cameron because he was a FOCC (Friend of CC). Now that CC is gone, Milwaukee is again looking for a deal.

In November, word was that the Brewers were looking at Melky Cabrera and Ian Kennedy. In this round of talks, it appeared all but certain that a Cabrera-for-Cameron deal would happen, conveniently sending CC’s buddy to NY along with the ace. But then another report surfaced that the Yanks wanted Bill Hall, too — another FOCC — and and the Brewers again suggested they receive some pitching, with the quality of said pitching influencing whether the Brewers would pay any of Cameron’s salary.

So then what happened? Well, according to Ken Rosenthal, the deal ground to a standstill when New York and Milwaukee couldn’t agree how much of Cameron’s salary Milwaukee would pay. Now, if you’re the Brewers and you’re trading Cameron and Hall in large part to dump payroll, isn’t it irksome to be asked to keep paying their salaries, even in part? And if your trading partner is the Yankees — who, if you’ll recall, just snagged the Brewers’ most coveted offseason target by offering him about $60MM more than the Brewers could afford — isn’t it a little bit insulting, too? “You really need to defray the cost of Cameron’s 10 mil salary, guys, because we just gave 161 mil to CC. Oh, and we’re trying to sign Burnett, Lowe, and Teixeira, too. I mean, our hands are really tied here. This recession is just killing us.”

But here’s the real punchline: the pitcher New York suggested? Kei Igawa.

Yowza.

The San Deigo Padres currently have the worst record in all of baseball, at 38-62. And yet as of this writing they haven’t made any significant moves toward rebuilding the team, and are still acting as if they are trying to contend.

It’s time to get a move on that rebuilding, as the Padres are not going to be contending any time soon if they stand pat.

What the Padres need to do is build a team that can play well in their ballpark. This means building teams the way the Dodgers used to do back when Dodger Stadium was the game’s greatest pitcher’s park.

The Padres should focus on defense. They especially need to find outfielders who can cover the big gaps in the outfield at Petco, and especially in center field. Losing Mike Cameron after last season was a huge blow to the pitching staff.

On offense the Padres should focus on acquiring or developing hitters with skills that won’t be as affected by the big outfield. Hitters who draw a lot of walks, hit line drives, and hopefully have some speed. The Padres should not pay an extra premium to get hitters who hit a lot of home runs in other parks, because a lot of that value will be lost at Petco.

Similarly, when it comes to pitching the Padres should look for pitchers with who don’t walk a lot of guys. There is an opportunity here, in that the Padres can look for flyball pitchers who put up lousy numbers in other parks and can be had for cheap, but who will have a chance to succeed in cavernous Petco Park.

To acquire more of these types of players, the Padres should be prepared to trade most of their big-name veterans, as this year’s team is going nowhere but down any time soon.

In particular, the Padres should look to trade Kevin Kouzmanoff, Khalil Greene, Trevor Hoffman, Randy Wolf, and Tadahito Iguchi. These are all fairly big-name guys who other teams will want, but who are not useful to the Padres. Kouzmanoff and Greene have terrible on-base percentages, and thus have no business playing in a pitcher’s park like Petco, and Kouzmanoff is forcing up-and-coming prospect Chase Headley to left field, where his bat is not as valuable. Meanwhile, Hoffman, Wolf, and Iguchi are big-namers who are set to be free agents, so there is no need to keep them on a last-place team.

Update: The Padres have reportedly traded Randy Wolf to the Astros (!)

- What They Need Index -

One of the main themes going into this off-season was the abundant crop of centerfielders. As the weeks progressed, the list of available names began to dwindle – Toriii Hunter signed with Anaheim for five years and $90 million in November. The following month saw Andruw Jones head west for $36.2 million over two years and Aaron Rowand wasn’t too far behind, inking a $60 million deal over 5 years to put on a Giants uniform.

But I’m going to argue right here that the best free agent deal involving a centerfielder happened this past weekend – the moment that Mike Cameron and the Milwaukee Brewers agreed on a one-year, $7 million contract. This obviously does not mean that Mike Cameron is the best player among the centerfielders set to relocate. Rather, when we consider the size, length, and implications of the deal, the “bang-for-the-buck” factor could be very large indeed.

Cameron is far from a perfect player. Thanks in large part to his career .341 OBP, he’s never been known as a serious offensive threat. He’s still a guy capable of hitting 20 homeruns – especially now that he can leave Petco Park – but doesn’t have enough pop in his bat or the pitch recognition to make up for his propensity to strikeout. However, even as he enters his late-thirties, Cameron remains a top-flight defensive player, and this is where this deal makes a ton of sense.

In 2007, the Milwaukee Brewers led MLB in team homeruns with 231 and was 4th in total bases. One of the areas where they were extremely lacking, however, was defense. Rookie Ryan Braun was the poster child for this big-swing-no-glove movement in Milwaukee, but it wasn’t limited to just Braun. Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks, and Bill Hall were all below average defensively. When Geoff Jenkins becomes your most reliable outfield glove, you have a problem.

The Cameron signing goes a long way in improving this shortcoming. Not only will he patrol center very capably, it appears that Ryan Braun has been asked to move to left field now that Bill Hall is free to play third once more. So now, Cameron becomes a big defensive upgrade over Bill Hall who becomes a big defensive upgrade from Ryan Braun who now becomes a below average leftfielder. Got all that? Good.

Before I make it seem like this was an absolute no-brainer for Milwaukee, I do need to mention that Cameron will be suspended for the first 25-games to start the season for testing positive for a banned stimulant for the second time in his career, so until late April, he’s a total non-factor. With that said, I still believe that this deal will prove to be one of the best bargains this off-season that may ultimately allow the Brewers to keep up quite well with the Chicago Cubs in 2008.

Today, Mike Cameron got busted for using banned stimulants. The free agent was suspended for the first 25 games of next season. But Cameron wants you to know he wasn’t using steroids.

“The one thing I wanted to make sure was explained is, no steroids,” Cameron told AM 1090, the Padres’ flagship radio station. “I never took nothing like that before in my life. That would be 50 games, and that would affect me a whole lot more.”

You got that? Mike Cameron doesn’t use steroids. Now booze, that’s another question. Cameron plays drunk all the time. He told us so in Todd Gallagher’s book, Andy Roddick beat me with a frying pan.

“‘Shit, I’ve played drunk.’

“When?

“ ‘New York City.’

“What were the circumstances?

“ ‘I went four for four with two jacks and eight ribbies. I’m not saying that’s the only day I played drunk, but that was the best one.’

So there you go.  Steroids = bad. Long Island iced teas = good. Mike Cameron, you are the man.

Thanks to the good folks at Random House for the tip.