Odds and Ends: Ponson, Inge, Papelbon

I still think the Mets should try to make a move for Ryan Freel. He can play literally every position, cant he? I can definitely see a need for him to platoon with Endy if Alou goes down, or he can play some 2nd or even first if he has to, and spell Wright and Reyes a handful of times a year. With the old players and questionmarks at a lot of positions the Mets have, he would be a nice guy to bring in that can play anywhere for an extended period of time if he has to.

"The Cardinals are taking another look at Sidney Ponson." Tickets will be on sale Thursday for the upcomming sumo match between Ponson and Colon.

I thought when you get signed by a team you get a sort of no trade clause for a few months to prevent a sign and trade, so why is Mientkiewicz considered a backup plan now?

tony clark is a padre

"The Cardinals are taking another look at Sidney Ponson.", and accordingly Ponson is taking another look at the Dierdorf & Hart menu.

Luckily enough for Cardinal fans, the Ponson thing is a non story at best. He approached the Cardinals and asked to use the mound at one of their back fields to throw for scouts. So obviously since he's throwing there, the Cards will at least watch. But the session is actually for other teams. This is the story that was reported by Derrick Goold for the Post Dispatch and comes directly from the Cards organization. Guess Tim doesn't bother to look into the truth behind stories before posting them :(

slashieboy: Players, and especially pitchers, will always complain about this because you're never guaranteed to make it to your first free agency year. Its fine when a team renews at the level they're allowed to but they also have no right to complain if that player sells out to the biggest offer down the line. Like everything, it goes both ways. Perhaps a couple hundred thousand more early on saves a couple million down the road.

"The Cardinals are taking another look at Sidney Ponson."
It takes several looks to see all of him.

Ozzie, calm down. He's factually correct. The Cardinal scouts are taking a look at Ponson. No where has anyone announced "The Cards are interested in signing blah blah blah." Other than that enjoy bashing the worthless fatass Ponson.

anybody see the heyman article on roberts/payton yet? i'm so excited i don't know what to do with myself! i mean, brian roberts and jay payton to the cubs? where does this stuff come from?! the man's a genius.

The Wal-Mart analogy is way off.

You can argue against Wal-Mart all you want but the facts are the facts. People choose to work at Wal-Mart for those wages. If you don't want those wages work somewhere else. Wal-Mart is a free market example.

In baseball you have the Union that set the pay structure for the first several years of a players career. It's the Union that negotiated with owners to determine the drafting and cost containment policies. If the Union butted out players would be free to enter into direct negotiations with the clubs of their choice.

Players would be able to shop their services from club to club in order to secure the best contract available. Of course, this would hurt some players and really help others. But, it would provide for a free market environment where guys like Paplebon would get paid what they are really worth.

Who keeps coming up with these white sox rumors? Kevin Corriea? Noah Lowry? Fred Lewis? Eugenio Velez? I don't think so. That's a total ripoff for the Giants! These baseball players [except for Lowry] haven't really gotten the time to prove themselves in the major leagues. Kevin Corriea looks to be a solid #5 pitcher in the Giants rotation, Fred Lewis looks to be at least a solid #4 outfielder with speed and hits for a good average, Eugenio Velez has the potential speed to steal 45-50 bases in a year, and Noah Lowry is a solid southpaw pitcher. Why give up any of these players for ONLY one year of Joe Crede? I could see a Merkin Valdez for Joe Crede trade since Valdez is out of options and is a long shot to make the opening day roster. But other than that, it would be a total ripoff for the Giants. We don't even need Crede! We could just use our other options of playing Rich Aurrlia all year at third base, or just use Kevin Frandsen there if he doesn't win the second baseman job [Frandsen did play at third when he was in college.] I mean, if we were in a win-now mode then maybe trade for Crede, but we're not really even going to compete this year. We're trying to use our younger guys in our organization so we don't screw up again and overpay for old veterans.

"The Cardinals are taking another look at Sidney Ponson" and determined they would prefer dick cheney and his gang of hunting buddies. they have better aim, seem more amusing when intoxicated, and they're certainly better looking.

"The fact of the matter is the Giants need Crede more than the White Sox need to trade him."

The Giants don't need Crede. The Giants aren't even really competing in the tough National League West. And it's not like he going to help our offense a lot in an extreme pitcher's park. Let our young guys play Sabean! Don't trade them!