When Tim asked me to cover MLBTR.com today, in exchange for 20,000 Schrutebucks my first reaction was "Sure, why not? It’s not as if there is anything to write about anyway…" To many a baseball fan, it certainly seems as if there is little to no discussion of trades to be had anywhere.
If you are like me, you always wonder what might be going on behind the scenes that the average fan doesn’t hear about. I always assume that even though nothing is leaking out, surely MLB’s general managers are scheming and exchanging clandestine phone calls and emails. After all, many of the trades that come about are ones that we never saw coming
But if Pat Gillick is to be believed in a recent interview with Sports Radio 950 in Philadelphia, then where there is no smoke, there really is no fire at all. Show host Jody MacDonald, asked Gillick how much discussion of trades was going on around the league, not just as it pertains to the Phillies, but in general. Gillick’s response was, "below minimum."
Gillick typically plays his cards close to the vest, but in this case, there would be no reason to play coy. Furthermore, Gillick cited an abnormally large number of depth-depleting injuries as the cause and if you peruse the daily reports, it doesn’t look like he’s wrong.
Tom Goyne is the author of Balls, Sticks, & Stuff, a Phillies-centric site, and maintains the Phloggers’ Pheeds page, a source for the latest commentary from around the "phlogosphere". Recently, he teamed up with his brother to launch Roto Front Office.
