Melancon is not gonna be the closer next year. They'll probably look to add another piece still.

Evening round-up (from mlbtraderumors.com):

Ok. As of right now. Here's the list of who put in bids for Yu Darvish. And who didn't.

Didn't: Rays, Angels, Red Sox, Twins, O's,

Did: Yankees, Blue Jays (not confrimed), Rangers (not confrimed).

The winner could be announced late tonight, and as of now, the Nippon Ham Fighters know who it is and it is a big $ amount. You guys feel free to update the list as the night progresses.

Red Sox take no time in replacing Jed Lowrie today. They sign Nick Punto to a 2-year, $3 mil. deal with an extra $500k in incentives.

Well, according to Andrew Marchand, from ESPN:

Unless it is leaked out the Japanese team does not know the identity of the MLB team that won the bid. Just the $ amount. They will have until 5 p.m. Tuesday to accept or decline.

Yeah, are the Red Sox still considering Bailey from the A'S? They are gonna rob the Red Sox blind for him.

With all the dough the Marlins are throwing around, they're not in on Darvish.

Same goes with the Mets.

<font color=goldenrod>Gotta love how accustomed the New York media is to bad news from the Mets. With Johan, the expectation was to have him back for Spring Training and Opening Day while having a safety net starting pitcher in place just in case...because you never can be so sure he's ready until he's actually on the mound in a game.

So when Sandy indicated as much to the media the other day, the headline was "SANTANA LIKELY TO MISS OPENING DAY".</font> :roll:

Last I heard Oakland is waiting until the Trade Deadline to deal Bailey.

That might be best. The Jays are probably in on him too. By the Trade deadline I'd say the A's are gonna wanna trade Bailey to get some good prospects for him. Especially with Pujols on the Angels and maybe the possibility of Fielder going to the Rangers trying to counter the Angels. The Angels are gonna be one scary team that's for sure.

It's still a little strange to me that Jed Lowrie got traded by the Red Sox. I thought he was their "shortstop of the future".

Wrong person.

Jose Iglesias is the one who is their "shortstop of the future" while Lowrie and Scutaro mostly tried to be the ones to bring some quality to the spot ever since Nomar left (and Orlando Cabrera in a way). Supposedly its been rumored Francona never really favored using Lowrie at SS and wanted him at 3B but the SS position was lacking depth and Youkilis is better than Lowrie at the 3B spot.

SS and catching were the two big spots to be lacking badly for years with the SS spot lacking good quality since 2004 and no decent 2nd catchers until last season to ease up on Varitek's workload.

Harold Reynolds said that he believes that by the July 31 trading deadline, Carl Crawford will be playing LF for the Cubs.

These analysts are almost always wrong on everything they predict, but...that'd be interesting.

I wonder how much that'd cost the Cubs. He had a very down year last year. This year I believe he will be A LOT Better then he was. Boston would probably be foolish to trade him.

Looks like my Jays won the bidding for Darvish. About God damn time Rogers spent some of their 10 trillion dollars on the team.

Michael Cuddyer signs with the Rockies. 3 years, $31.5 million

One of my fav players in baseball.

Evening round-up:

The Barry Bonds perjury saga concluded today. He was sentenced to 30 days house arrest and 2 year probation for his obstruction of justice conviction way back when.

Indians aquire Aaron Cunningham from the Padres for minor leaguer Cory Burns.

I'm a fan. I think he'll do well there.

Meant to do this earlier, but CUDDYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Reds aquire Mat Latos from the Padres for a king's ransom of Edinson Volquez, Yonder Alonso, Yasmani Grandal, and Brad Boxberger.

Wow.

Holy shit.

LATOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

That is nuts.

At first I thought they gave up a lot but that was before I realized Latos is only 24. They gave up two top prospects who are stuck behind a better position player, a pitcher with the worst control I've ever seen who used to be good before a PED bust and Tommy John surgery, and a pretty good reliever who should be a solid 8th inning guy.

Just saw this: Rollins stays in Philly. 3 years, $33 million with a vesting option for a fourth year.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/73...al-source-says

Feel like the Reds gave up a shitload of talent. Latos is really good but I dunno if he's worth that much. I would rather take Gio for that package.

Latos is only 24? Wow, thought he was older.

Ya me too. Only made $400,000 last year.

WOW.

The Reds better hope Latos doesn't get injured, because...hell, even if he doesn't, this trade still seems a bit lopsided.

Nah, you guys are dumb.

They have Latos under control for FOUR YEARS before they even have to start paying him big kid money.

ESPN analyst and former GM Jim Bowden wrote on Twitter:

Josh Byrnes just made trade of the year for the Padres....memories of Herschel Walker deal


My question is, what does he mean? What is "the Herschel Walker deal" all about?

Jim Bowden is a retard. Pay him no mind.

I got a feeling Jocketty was reading the thread and saw post #528 and decided to kick it into high gear and start his shopping.

He's got an eye out of Gonzalez and Jurrjens, too.

Hate giving up Grandal because I'm pretty sure he's gonna be legit. Boxberger is gonna be good too. Alonso is a hitting machine but he can't play defense. Volquez is worthless.

The Reds definitely gave up a lot, but nothing they couldn't replace. And they got a 24 year old ace with 4 years of team control in return. I'll take it.

...'til he blows his elbow out or something (God forbid, but...we've seen it).

Do some research on the Cowboys/Vikings trade.

All four of the guys the Padres got could get hurt too. Anything is possible. Is that really how you're gonna judge a trade?

It's even got it's own Wikipedia page!

Ok, after reading what that's all about, Jim Bowden may be overreacting just a tad.

<font color=goldenrod>That's a great trade for the Reds. They were disappointing last year but now's the time to strike while the iron's hot. Padres have been stockpiling minor league talent but prospects are prospects for a reason. No guarantees of guys panning out.

The move makes sense for the Reds on a lot of levels, especially because it's a very winnable division. No more Pujols in the division. Possibly no more Fielder in the division (and the Cubs not being in particularly good shape for 2012 unless they get him). Braun probably missing 50 games. Pirates being a team I need to see get above .500 before I'll believe in them. Astros basically packing it in for a year before the league switch.</font>

Two of their three prospects are blocked in the majors by young studs. Volquez may have peaked three seasons ago.