Robothal - Stinkers will be ready to sell

Sell, sell! They’re all selling? Then buy, buy!!

The addition of the second wild card logically should reduce the number of sellers at the non-waiver deadline. This season, though, might be an exception.

So many teams stink, there will be no shortage of sellers. Several of them, including the Astros and Brewers, will display their wares this weekend on MLB on FOX’s “Baseball Night in America” (Saturday, 7:15 p.m. ET).

You can’t buy this type of advertising, but FOX is happy to provide, both in television and on this website. Here is my complete list of potential sellers, including some that ultimately might not sell. If any of the teams below care to argue, try winning some games.

Would Cards trade Taveras for Profar? : Sports

Somebody is going to get traded eventually. When you have surplus in one area and a shortage in another, it’s the only sensible thing to do.

“I understand why people connect the shortstop-outfielder and on a low level find a way for that to help both teams,” Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak said Friday. “But the reality is we have just gotten to the point we wanted with our farm system — with more elite talent back and set to contribute to the major-league club. I’m not in the mood to start breaking it up.”

Davidi on Jays: The trade that almost was

In some ways the remade Toronto Blue Jays owe the visiting Chicago White Sox a debt of gratitude, since it was their exploration of trade possibilities for Jake Peavy back in October that helped set the stage for Alex Anthopoulos to pull off November’s blockbuster with the Miami Marlins.

A few weeks before that franchise-altering deal went down, the general manager was close to acquiring the 2007 NL Cy Young Award winner from the South Siders, whose $22-million club option for 2013 was due to be declined in favour of a $4-million buyout.

But things fell apart Oct. 30 when the right-hander agreed to a $29-million, two-year extension with an option for 2015, according to multiple sources…..

Had the Blue Jays obtained Peavy, they would have only taken on $18 million of his $22-million option for this season, with the White Sox contributing the $4 million they would have paid for Peavy’s buyout. It’s unclear who would have gone back the other way, but the player or players would have been more enticing than a compensatory draft pick.

The Blue Jays were unlikely to have stopped at Peavy, and some altered form of the Marlins deal — in which they obtained Jose Reyes, Josh Johnson, Mark Buehrle, Emilio Bonifacio and John Buck, who was later flipped to the New York Mets as part of the R.A. Dickey deal — may have been possible.

NY Mets monitoring Marlins’ Giancarlo Stanton

In other news, I am monitoring Kate Upton. Up in a tree. With binoculars.

When the Marlins traded Jose Reyes and Josh Johnson to Toronto last November, Mets officials began asking one another questions that remain in their minds today: Can we get Giancarlo Stanton?  Would we trade Zack Wheeler to do it?

According to three team sources, the Mets then spent time at the winter meetings debating whether to make Wheeler available in a variety of trades, including for Arizona’s Justin Upton and Kansas City’s Wil Myers.  Neither of those outfielders seemed worth the organization’s top pitching prospect, but Stanton is in a different category.

Although they do not know if the Marlins will move him (Miami declined to shop Stanton even after the outfielder Tweeted about being “pissed off” after the Reyes trade), the Mets continue to monitor the situation, fully realizing that any deal would almost certainly have to include Wheeler and top catching prospect Travis d’Arnaud.

Would you trade those blue chippers for a guy who might become the premier slugger of his generation?  I say, hell yes, duh, no brainer, but let’s hear from people whose opinions actually matter.

“In a heartbeat,” said one Mets official, who is not in Alderson’s inner-circle of decision-makers, but has a voice in discussions. The guy then snapped his fingers.  “Nothing against those kids, but it’s Giancarlo.”

Likelihood of Upton brothers playing together in Atlanta increases | braves.com: News

The Diamondbacks have really painted themselves in to a corner on this one.

Now the D-backs are looking to strengthen their pitching staff with a deal similar to the one they had agreed to with the Mariners. Had Upton not exercised his right to veto the trade, Arizona was going to receive a strong package that included shortstop Nick Franklin and pitchers Taijuan Walker, Stephen Pryor and Charlie Furbush.

This package would have included three of Seattle’s top six prospects, as rated by MLB.com, plus a veteran reliever in Furbush, who compiled a 2.72 ERA and recorded 53 strikeouts in 46 1/3 innings with the Mariners this past season.

Walker is rated as the game’s fourth-best overall prospect and Franklin ranks 29th on this elite list. Pryor is rated as Seattle’s sixth-best prospect.

If the Braves were to present a comparable package, it would include Julio Teheran or Randall Delgado, Eric O’Flaherty or Jonny Venters, shortstop Nick Ahmed and likely either J.R. Graham or Zeke Spruill.