We're right in the thick of Major League Baseball's free agency period. Already John Grabow has stolen a heavy contract from the Cubs, Billy Wagner will join his third National League East team in Atlanta, and Placido Polanco rejoins the Phillies after a stint in Detroit, Cleveland, and Tampa, as well as the White Sox and Royals have already swapped some contracts Now comes the fun part.
Winter meetings are quickly approaching and everyone will be speculating on how much money it will take for Brian Cashman and Theo Epstein to lure Roy Halladay, Jason Bay, and Matt Holliday to their AL East rivalry, or what team is going to over-pay a left-handed pitcher or have to throw millions at Orlando Hudson.
I however, am going to make note of the things that should, but in a money-charged baseball world, probably won't happen.
1.Aroldis Chapman should find his way to Kansas City. Drayton Moore wants a left hander on his team who can compliment Zach Greinke, and he should want it bad enough to offer Chapman the world and more. More being $60-80 million.
2.The Phillies should give the Blue Jays Kyle Drabek and make a serious push for Roy Halladay. I'm not a fan of Drabek, but I am a fan of getting to the World Series and adding Halladay with Cliff Lee and taking some pressure of J.A. Happ and Cole Hamels will make both of them better and secure a rotation which probably cost them the World Series.
3.The Cubs should make a play for either Miguel Tejada or Marco Scutaro and give up on the Mike Fontenot experiment. If you get Tejada, then Ryan Theriot plays second base, if you take Scutaro, then he stays at shortstop. Either way you look at it their defense improves and Fontenot gets to be a role player, something he's more suited to anyway.
4.Russell Branyon, Chad Tracy, and Hank Blalock all should find jobs in the American League. Branyon should probably stay put in Seattle, Blalock would preform well in Tampa under Joe Maddon, and Tracy should just be playing somewhere.
5.Xavier Nady, or Johnny Damon should go play for the Royals. Note to Johnny, come home to Kansas City and play center for a season. They need a decent outfielder and I think both players fit the system Trey Hillman has in place. Solid defensive players with some power and ability, but please no more Coco Crisp.
6.The Florida Marlins and San Francisco Giants need to offer Jason Bay or Matt Holliday some serious cash. Cody Ross and John Bowker might seem like good options in the outfield, but yeah, not really. Both teams are fairly good rotations, well San Francisco has a fantastic one, in Florida, Johnson, Volstad, and the kids might need some help—(Kelvim Escobar anyone?) but getting a top notch outfielder should be on their list of priorities.
7.Rich Harden needs to realize how good he has it as a Cub and resign with them. I hope that after he's revived his career in Chicago he's not seeing dollar signs when he should be seeing how much better he's gotten with Larry Rothschild tutoring him.
He becomes an injury risk with any other team, and well the Cubs included, but Rothschild seems to know how to handle him, and he's due for a break if he stays put.
All in all, Halladay probably heads to Boston, Bay probably stays in Boston, and Holliday will just try to not drop balls and cost whichever team he lands on, their season in the playoffs.
Speculation is simply guessing with a better name, if I knew where Jason Bay was going, I'd be hitting the slots.
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