Baseball

When a baseball team drafts a player who rejects a full-ride scholarship to play wide receiver for a major college football team, it's safe to assume the kid is fast. 

When that football team is from the best conference in the country (SEC), it's safe to say the kid can flat-out boot scoot as well as any major leaguer. 

That's exactly what the Cincinnati Reds did with their second round (57th overall) selection in 2009.

Peter Gammons, one of the singularly most respected and revered writers in baseball history, has announced his intention to leave ESPN after the conclusion of the winter meetings.

So far this offseason, no team has been the subject of more attention than the Boston Red Sox.

Will they re-sign Bay or go after Holliday? Was signing Scutaro inevitable or should Dustin Pedroia have been pushed to shortstop? Will Adrian Gonzalez, Miguel Cabrera, or Roy Halladay be playing at Fenway on Opening Day 2010?

These questions have been posed and answered by countless analysts, writers, and idiots with keyboards since the Red Sox’s season ended two months ago.

With the dust still settling from the acquisition of Curtis Granderson in New York, the Yankees have some decisions to make about their 2010 outfield.

What happens to Melky Cabrera? Do they entertain the idea of bringing back Johnny Damon or Hideki Matsui? Are they done adding outfielders?

This might be the perfect time for the Chicago Cubs to give the Bronx Bombers a call and ask about Nick Swisher's availability.

The morning of day two of baseball's winter meetings has been quiet for the San Diego Padres.

There had been news that the Padres were possibly looking to deal Heath Bell , but there has been no further developments since it came out.

Now news comes out that the Padres are possibly talking to the San Francisco Giants about possibly sending third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff to the Bay Area.

According to several reports published today, the Yankees are close to acquiring center fielder Curtis Granderson from the Detroit Tigers, in a three-way deal with the Diamondbacks and Tigers, which involves the Yankees giving up Phil Coke, Ian Kennedy, and prized outfield prospect Austin Jackson.

Late last night, I had reported that the Yankees, Diamondbacks and Tigers were dicussing a three-team blockbuster trade at MLB's Baseball Winter Meetings.

Last night, the trade was vetoed and the teams went back to talking to work on it.

Today around 1:30 p.m., the trade was finally executed.

The Yankees landed center fielder Curtis Granderson.

Pitchers Edwin Jackson and Ian Kennedy were acquired by the Diamondbacks.

The Tigers were able to pick up outfielder Austin Jackson, and pitchers Phil Coke, Max Scherzer and Daniel Schlereth.

When I saw the trade yesterday that sent Clay Rapada from the Detroit Tigers to the Texas Rangers, I thought it might have been the start of something.  It was like the calm before the storm.

And sure enough, today the storm came through as Detroit sent Curtis Granderson and Edwin Jackson their separate ways, in a three-team blockbuster deal.  Granderson was sent to the New York Yankees, while Edwin Jackson was sent to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

When the Arizona Diamondbacks representatives left for the Winter Meetings in Indianapolis they took with them a war chest of roughly $10 million and a laundry list of needs to fill on their roster. Given their financial position they were not expected to be major players during the meetings.

Instead the expectation was that Arizona would talk to several clubs and perhaps meet with the representatives of the second and third tier free agents on the market. It was therefore somewhat a surprise to hear the Diamondbacks mentioned in so many rumors from day one of the meetings.