Odds and Ends: Inge, Greene, Pavano

The Phillies should go after Brandon Inge. He's a righty who would benefit from Citizens Bank Park and is certainly a better option than the Phillies' pathetic bunch of 3B rejects they currently posses. The Tigers are just looking to trade him now with Cabrera displacing him at 3B and they won't command much in return. His salary is also manageable.

American Idle ... nice. I hope that sticks.

That's a ridiculous trade on the Padre's side - trade your only SS that you've been grooming for years for a reliever and some spare part when as of right now the bullpen for the Padres is rather full.

Hell, I wouldn't mind the Phils giving Pavano a shot, as long as the Yanks are paying.

Grow their own relievers? You mean like Linebrink, Meredith, and Hoffman?

The Phillies are better off with Dobbs/Helms at 3B than spending that much on Inge when he's not going to put up much better numbers.

I like the idea of a one-year deal for Pavano. Maybe being back in the NL East would help him.

Depending on the price, Morgan Ensberg might be good value for them as well.

Agree, jersey. I'd take a shot on Ensberg.

Also, the pirates are also in on Barrett:
http://mlbfleecefactor.com/2007/12/11/pirates-rumors-barrett-inge/

Dobbs vs. RH: .264/.315/.417
Inge vs. RH: .227/.288/.371

Helms vs. LH: .280/.359/.476
Inge vs. LH: .277/.347/.459

Going with Inge, the Phillies would gain some D at 3B but not enough to make up for the salary difference.

My only guess is Pavano wants to pitch in August / September in an attempt to get a decent contract as a free agent. The Yankees are far more likely to allow that to happen if he's already on the 40 man roster.

The Yankees aren't going to let him go anywhere else on their dime. If he sits in their system all year doing nothing, then insurance will cover his contract. If he goes to another team, the Yankees have to eat the money.

Another interesting benefit of giving Pavano a minor league contract - only players on the major league roster or disabled list count in the payroll calculations used for the luxury tax purposes. That's another reason they tried to send Giambi to AAA a few years ago.

The Padres don't grow their own relievers...they snatch them from other organizations. In addition to the aforementioned Linebrink, Meredith and Hoffman, you can add Heath Bell and Joe Thatcher to that list. And Andrew Brown was in line to be another one, though they dealt him away before he made the big league club.

But the Padres are the ones who develop and turn those guys into what they became. Do you think that Meredith would've been that good in Boston? It isn't just a coincidence that the Pads get these mediocre young relievers and turn them into studs. Maybe their plan was to groom Cordero to take over for Hoffman when he retires. The dropoff from Greene to Lopez isn't that much, Greene struggles to keep his BA above the mendoza line, even if his power and fielding are both quite good. I think that deal would actually be fairly reasonable for both teams.

Weighing in on the Pirates side of an Inge trade...

AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! NOOOOO!!!!

Shades of Pat Meares, Derek Bell, and a dozen other bad idea moves. Seriously, the guy will suck up a ton of money (in Pirate terms, anyway) to play decent defense, bat .230 and hit 16-18 homers. We can get that from Bautista for a fraction of the price.

Bad, Huntington! Bad! Don't be like Dittlefield!