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Odds And Ends: Astros, Kawakami, Uehara, Giambi, Cabrera

It's a lazy Saturday afternoon, but one gets the feeling there's a major signing or trade lurking right around the corner. In the meantime, here are some odds and ends:

• Fox Sports' Jeff Moore looks back at the top trades of the past three offseasons. His number one? Josh Beckett, Mike Lowell and Guillermo Mota to Boston for Hanley Ramirez, Anibal Sanchez, Jesus Delgado and Harvey Garcia.
• The Houston Chronicle's Richard Justice says everyone knows Astros owner Dayton McLane has told GM Ed Wade "to keep the payroll at around $100 million," but "to keep the current team together would mean a $120-million payroll." Justice says McLane should 'fess up about his financial shortcomings.
• SI's John Donovan gives a shoutout to Cot's Baseball Contracts, which is most writers' go-to site for baseball contract info.
• NPB Tracker, a site that reads Japanese baseball articles and distills them into bite-size English nuggets, says the Rangers are interested in Kenshin Kawakami, while Koji Uehara is practicing throwing a Major League ball (which is slightly larger than the ball they use in Japan).
• DRays Bay wants the Rays to sign Jason Giambi.
• MASN's Roch Kubatko says, "The Orioles still haven't decided what to do with pitcher Daniel Cabrera, but they have until Dec. 12 to figure it out. That's when they'll need to tender him a contract and risk going to arbitration, or turn him loose and hope he doesn't evolve into another Curt Schilling."

Coley Ward writes for Umpbump.com and can be reached here.

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