Thanks Kevin. Here's what we need:

1. TROT NIXON NEEDS A RIGHT HANDED PLATOON PARTNER
2. A FIXED KEITH FOULKE
3. CENTER FIELDER
4. LHB 1B that doens't suck
5. The second basemen we do sort of need if we don't bring back Graff. Start Pedoria at AAA please.


Holy krap I agree with you Kevin

Uh, except for #5, Chris. Kevin wants Pedroia to start now and begin his inevitable run to the HoF. ;-)

The list is, well, "flexible" until and unless The Manny Piece is acted on. If he's around, you do wildly different things than if he's not. I expect Lucchiavelli will push that domino over soon.

I will be very nervous over the next few days...

I like that... Lucchiavelli.

4. LHB 1B that doens't suck

Petagine.

Heh.

Just kidding.

Somebody had to go there.

In the Rosenthal article about Paul Byrd, it mentions the Red Sox showing late interest in Trevor Hoffman.

I'm surprised by this, and not too thrilled to hear about it either. And I'm disappointed not because I think Hoffman will be overpaid (for the record he will, for a closer whose usage has to be monitored so closely), but because I think it means one of the following:

Rampant speculation alert

1) The Red Sox have negative or ambiguous reports on Foulke returning to previous performance levels, and are thus looking at insurance/alternatives.

2) They have money to spend, but either don't like other options (likely) or are having trouble enticing players to come to Boston (a stretch, but possible w/ Manny and all the bad PR over Theo).

3) The GM-B-C/Lucchino aren't in agreement on how to spend the money, so we get rumors about us in on EVERYONE (short of the Mets, Boston's name is coming up everywhere -- I know we're a big market club, but it seems alot more than in past years).

4) Someone made it up (Red Sox, Hoffman's Agent) or "interest" was blown out of proportion, because someone in Boston's front office went to Hoffman's player page on ESPN for their fantasy draft and some intern walked by and saw it.

Why do so many teams have Shaun Estes on their "Wish List"?

4) Someone made it up (Red Sox, Hoffman's Agent)...

There's an incredible amount of disinformation being put out at this time of year, Nate. Agents and GMs are spinning each other and the media, and all have axes to grind (pumping up/down certain players' values; bluffing so other teams won't know their plans). It's fun to speculate, but there's a lot of meaningless noise.

You're probably right Perfesser, but with no new information on a Sunday night, the mind can wonder.

Today's Eric Wilbur blog.

Among other things, he puts the odds of the Red Sox acquiring Sean Casey for "a package including Arroyo and Kevin Youkilis" by the end of the week at 62%.

Noooo. Not the greek god of walks!

And when I suggested a trade of Youks for Overbay, I was ridiculed by Sox fans.

If the Sox trade Youks AND Arroyo for Casey, I will laugh my f%$#%g arse off.

I'll bet that with a team with as many baserunners as the Red Sox get Casey could improve on his MLB-leading 27 GIDP. Maybe Jim Rice's single season record would be with reach!

with reach!

and within reach as well!

The nice thing about Eric Wilbur is that he's an idiot.

Hear, hear. I especially liked how he prefaced the Casey rumor by going out on a limb and stating unequivocally that Manny for Adam Dunn will not happen. Very daring.

What a maroon.

So, you guys think that Manny for Dunn will happen? Very daring.

Gammo's notes column from the meetings suggested that the D-Backs are linking Javier Vazquez and Troy Glaus in any deal.

This is Gammo, so I have no idea if there's a shred of accuracy to this, but it's interesting to contemplate that package if--and only if, to my mind--we have to part with Manny. At that point, Glaus fills a need at 1B (he ain't no kind of 3B at this point) and cleanup behind Big Papi and in front of Trot and/or 'Tek.

I have no idea who Byrnes would demand (from a stock of young, cheap talent he knows well) in exchange, but moving those two saves him roughly $20M, so the talent cost here might not be too great. Discuss among yourselves. I'm getting verklempt (sp?) again at the thought of losing Manny.

Perhaps my sarcasm-in-text skills are rusty.

I am not sure how adamant the Dbacks are on linking Javy and Glaus. If they get separate offers for those that appeal to Byrnes, I'm sure he'll jump. I also doubt that AZ would trade Glaus AND Javy for Manny. Doesn't really do anything to address AZ's real needs...

aco, your sarcasm skills are fine. mine, however, appear shot.

fwiw, here's what gammo wrote:

The White Sox said they were interested in Vazquez, but the Diamondbacks wanted to tie Glaus to him. Baltimore had interest in Glaus, but Arizona continues to ask for Eric Bedard, whom the O's feel is a future No. 1 starter. Two GMs on Saturday insisted Arizona's acquisition of Lo Duca from the Marlins is essentially done.

I don't read this as an indication that Glaus and Javy go hand in hand no matter what.

there was also this from a pitt paper:

There also is Arizona's Troy Glaus, another slugger at third base who is 29. The Diamondbacks are willing to move him and his contract that will cost $34 million over the next three years, but they also want any trading partner to assume the contract of outfielder Luis Gonzalez, due $11.5 million next season.

Maybe Byrnes is throwing out ideas to send teams on wild goose chases?

Works for me. You never know what you'll get until you ask for it.

...doubt that AZ would trade Glaus AND Javy for Manny

Me too, levski. I'm pretty sure Moorad has told Byrnes to try to recoup some of Moorad's drunken-sailor expenditures of last winter. I'm wondering if getting Glaus (w/ or w/out Javy) would make the Sox able/willing to get back just prospects for Manny, from (most likely) Omar or Stoneman.

In addition to the irony (from the team's standpoint) of putting Glaus on the block for affordability reasons one year after signing him, there's the little matter of Glaus saying he chose Phoenix because his wife supposedly liked the area for horsey-breeding purposes, or some such nonsense.

his wife supposedly liked the area for horsey-breeding purposes, or some such nonsense

his wife is a world class horse rider and competes in world class events. she had a huge farm in the la area that she had to relocate to arizona. the closeness to la is what made az pretty desirable; supposedly she spent close to a quarter million dollars setting up her new farm in arizona. so that is actually not nonsense; it's a real consideration for them.

the dbacks are caught in a number crunch, plain and simple. they have six guys for four corner slots; of those, green and gonzo have no trade clauses, tracy had a breakout season, and jackson and quentin are about as untouchable as prospects get. that leaves glaus. also, he was so bad defensively last year that the dbacks have no desire to put him back at 3b.

throw in glaus's big contract, and you've got a trade bait in there.

I'm wondering if getting Glaus (w/ or w/out Javy) would make the Sox able/willing to get back just prospects for Manny, from (most likely) Omar or Stoneman.

Maybe Manny to the Mets/Angels, Glaus and Vazquez to the Sox, prospects to the Diamondbacks? I'm not sure how the money would work - AZ would probably need to take on a Kris Benson or Steve Finley.

The Dbacks have enough interest in Javy (about a dozen teams) to trade him without having to take on Kris Benson or Steve Finley. I can see Glaus as a part of a three way trade like the one you mentioned, and AZ would probably throw him in for a couple of decent prospects.

the closeness to la is what made az pretty desirable; supposedly she spent close to a quarter million dollars setting up her new farm in arizona. so that is actually not nonsense; it's a real consideration for them.

I'm sure that if this was a Red Sox player, you'd be taking his wife's horse business very seriously. You sure wouldn't be making some idiotic comments about 'my little pony' or some such tripe.

Oh and a quarter million dollars???!!! What ever would they do if they had to move? They might have to raid the change jar to pay for that kind of cost.

...it's a real consideration for them

Yeah, I didn't mean to be so flippant about it, levski. I know these guys have families and real lives off the field. This makes it sound like Mr. and Mrs. Glaus would probably be royally PO'd to get dealt, much less to a place that ain't exactly Horse Farm Central. So scratch Glaus off our list.

Also maybe scratch Adrian Gonzalez, who reportedly is killing in the Mexican Winter League for Mazatlan (though I'm too lazy to try to dig up stats to authenticate). The Rangers may just bank on him as their DH, or at least least demand for than Shoppach as a result. Sigh.

Again, the number of options is dwindling...

This makes it sound like Mr. and Mrs. Glaus would probably be royally PO'd to get dealt, much less to a place that ain't exactly Horse Farm Central. So scratch Glaus off our list.

If it was that important to Glaus, then he would have sought a no-trade. I'm sure Arizona would have been happy to give him one if he dropped his price considerably. But he didn't make that a priority, so now he has to live with the consequences. (Not that it would necessarily make it fun to have him on your team.)

Again, the number of options is dwindling...

Where's the sunshine? The arb/non-tender date is coming up soon, which may open the door to a Craig Wilson or Carlos Pena or someone we hadn't even anticipated. Durazo's still out there too! And maybe Texas's new super-boy-genius puts no stock in Mazatlan stats. (KFFL says he's hitting .344 there--is that the easy Mexican league or the hard one?)

Turn that frown upside down!

Just looked up the Mexican League stats. Tough to navigate in Spanish, but this looks like the right page. The .344 number was outdated apparently.

Gonzalez is not among the league leaders in BA, OBP, or SLG. He's first in 2B with 14 and XBH with 22, but does not appear on any other leader boards. In other words, he's no Cal Pickering (1st in OBP and 2nd in SLG), Ben Fransisco (9th in BA and 4th in SLG), or Howie Clark (4th in OBP, 5th in SLG).

And I just as I finished, I noticed his #s at the bottom of the page: .314/.391/.526. Decent enough but nothing that would change his value, IMHO.