Baseball Winter Meeting Predictions

[Gooch]

Originally posted by Klonoa
Hee Seop Choi

I hear Vidro is untouchable :/

Hee Seop Choi is the reason we passed on Thome. Choi is the next Todd Helton!!!!1111!!!!11

Vidro is off the market? The guy makes $5.5 mil this year and $7.0 the next. He's worth dealing just to get rid of Tatis' contract.

[Ragnarok the Red]

I've heard that John Hart of the Rangers has already inquired about Colon and Vasquez, and Minaya told him he'd trade either one straight up for either Hank Blalock or Mark Teixeira, two of the Rangers best prospects. Hart said no, and I think the deal would seem unlikely, much as it'd be awesome to land either one of those two, other teams are probably willing to pony up more.

Still, we really don't need two third base prospects and can afford to deal one or the other for a stud like Colon or Vasquez, but I can understand why Hart is hesitant. We already shipped off Travis Hafner in a deal for Einar Diaz, so this means they are our last two really good corner infield prospects in the system. Palmeiro will probably be retiring in another year or two, and Teixeira is already partially converted to play 3rd base, so we could conceivably keep both of them without a problem.

What really pisses me off is that if Hicks hadn't so overspent on deadweight contracts like Park's last off-season, we could afford to take Tatis' bloated salary off the Expos hands as part of a deal for a couple of their young pitchers like Colon or Vasquez w/ Armas Jr for either Blalock/Teixeira plus another prospect. Good job handcuffing your own team like this, Tom...

And while I'm sad to see Pudge go, if he indeed is deciding between Baltimore and the Cubs, I sincerely hope he goes with the Northsiders, with all the young talent on their roster, they'd be good enough to make a run at the WS in a couple of years. It'd be nice if he got a ring before he retired

[Klonoa]

Phillies trade Jeremy Giambi to the damned Bosox for Josh Hancock...

..OMFG, how dumb can a GM be?

Here's Jeremy Giambi who is putting up almost identical #s to Jason Giambi when he was around 29 years old. Here's a guy who can hit for power and have a .400+ obp with awesome plate discipline. And they get a pitching prospect who has injury problems, on a good day can throw in the low 90s.

WTF???? And to make it worse, the Bosox can make Giambi a DH so they don't have to suffer through his horrible defense.

A lineup of Damon, Giambi, Nomar, Manny, Floyd...thats seriously not fair...

Phillies 60 year old mental midget GM just got OWNED by the Red Sox 28 year old GM.

[stormy]

Originally posted by maruchan
Cleamens back in Boston, sounds pretty good.. I just to like him before he was a yankee.

NO. we refuse to take him back, especially not now when he's 40 and overpaid. He burned these bridges and he will be booed in Boston forever.

However my dream trade.. involves the rummered Nomar, to the Dodgers for Jordan, and Beltre.. Hometown hero comes back home, to childhood team;.. great story..

hahahahaha

supposedly Nomar wants out of Boston, but that bogus deal is not happening. Superstar HOF'er for two prospects that never lived up to thier potential? No way. The Bsox would have a huge hole at short then, we don't have any sort of decent backup shortstop.

[sggg]

Originally posted by Kinopio
And people in Montreal will continue to not go to the games, despite having the most exciting player in the game on their team.

Errrr.. yeh, we're all trying to avoid seeing him. ... Believe me, Vlad is loved in Montréal and he loves playing in Montréal as well. He could have forced his way out many times in the past but he would rather stay put. Problem is.. the team probably won't be staying put and he'll have no choice. It's a real shame...

As for the fans.. you would not go to the games either if you were treated like crap for so long. If you put up with the strike in '81 and Blue Monday killing your team's only post season appearance.. and then finally building a great team up again in 1994 and having the World Series cancelled.. then seeing the entire team dismantled in disgusting firesales.. and then seeing the team bought by a criminal who is being sued right now because he purposefully tried to kill the team in Montréal by alienating fans and sponsors, taking the team off of television and English radio, and making a crapload of bad trades and signings, firing the most popular manager in baseball in order to hire his pal.. and so on.

No team/fans in North American professional sports have been as mistreated as Expos fans. They've put up great number in the past, pulling in over 2 million fans a season. As recently as 96 or 97 (I forget which) they even drew more fans than then NEW YORK Mets - and that was after the great firesale. Last year with the team run on a shoestrong budget by the buffoons at MLB who constantly treated the fans and community terribly they had the biggest % increase in attendance in the entire league. People were THAT relieved just to see the scumsucker Loria and his idiot stepson leave town. They have a season ticket base under 1000 and that means they average more walk-up sales than most teams in baseball.

The Expos were loved in Québec... they still are, but people will not support MLB and the BS that's gone on the past 10 years. Nor should they. Would you spend your hard earned dollar to line the pockets of criminals and sleazeballs? It's a shame because the fans in MTL are still passionate about the team.. or at least it's history. You should watch the "Nos Amours" documentary if you want insight into the history and passionate fans (instead of getting your info from pea-brained sarcastic ESPN announcers) who embraded Jackie Robinson when he broke the colour barrier in Montréal for the Royals and thruout the early years of the Expos a Jarry Park and then at Olympic Stadium in the 80s - before Brochu did a smear campaign on the stadium....

Montréal didn't fail baseball, baseball failed Montréal.



(and still, unlikely as it is.. if the Canadian companies win the RICO case against Loria/Selig/MLB and regain control of the team and put the money into a new stadium and commit to the city.. the fans will return... and apparently Stephen Bronfman has admitted he is trying to reacquire the team, knowing there is no question about the fan support.)