Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus is at the Winter Meetings, and filing reports daily. Best of all, his notes today are free:
The specific Manny Ramirez deal offered by the Dodgers that the Red Sox turned down was for Jonathan Broxton and Andy LaRoche. Sounds like it would take one more player (or an equivalent starter instead of Broxton) to get the deal done. Either that, or the Sox are just showing Manny how valuable he is, and how much they love him. I get the feeling that the Red Sox and Manny are like a Hollywood couple–let’s say Pam Anderson and Kid Rock–and all the troubles aren’t real, they’re just a way of keeping everybody’s name in the newspaper. All the time.
The Rangers are in on Mike Piazza. Anybody else think that Jon Daniels’s strategy is to bid on every single player Billy Beane shows interest in, driving up the price and making it impossible for Billy to acquire players? He did it with Frank Thomas before Thomas signed with the Blue Jays; maybe he’ll jump into the Alan Embree negotiations next.
Will also prints the idea that Barry Bonds would be well-served by waiting until May to start playing. Like Roger Clemens did last year, he could pick the team that looks best, and he wouldn’t suffer through a month of intensive coverage in March.
By Jeff Sackmann, Brew Crew Ball
