Baseball's western divisions have the Rangers, Angels, Giants, and Diamondbacks as contenders, with the Mariners, Athletics, Rockies, Dodgers, and Padres looking like potential sellers. Today's links:
- There's little the Rockies could obtain that would justify trading Ubaldo Jimenez, explains Troy E. Renck of the Denver Post. It was revealed Saturday that the Rockies will listen on their ace, but Renck says Dan O'Dowd is the rare GM who will engage in trade talk that's headed nowhere just to understand other teams' needs.
- O'Dowd told MLB.com's Thomas Harding that he's looking for a strike-throwing pitcher who's under team control beyond 2011. The Rockies, who have been eyeing pitching for a while, will look for deals that make sense for the team's present and long-term well-being, O'Dowd says.
- The Padres want "impact players in return for their movable pieces," tweets MLB.com's Corey Brock. The Padres' best trade chips are relievers Heath Bell and Mike Adams, though Ryan Ludwick, Aaron Harang, and Chad Qualls should draw interest.
- Dave Cameron of U.S.S. Mariner runs through the Mariners' trade chips, led by Brandon League and Erik Bedard.
- Righty Doug Mathis is headed for Korea to play with the Samsung Lions, tweets Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net. To make it official, he'll need his release from the Athletics' Triple-A club. Kurtz notes that Ryan Garko would be released from the Lions to make room.
