The best seat in the house is the view from the couch

Never too early to start planning

With the 2007 non-waiver trading deadline in the rear-view mirror, I thought I'd take some time to look through the crystal ball at the names being thrown around at this time next year. Well, not exactly this time - actually, 364 days from now (love the leap year), but you all get the point.

With Johna Santana's comments to the media recently showing his feelings about the Twins' organization and their spendthrift policies, it's not hard to imagine a feeding frenzy at the trading deadline. The Red Sox, Yankees, Mets, Braves, Cubs, White Sox, Dodgers, Angels... pretty much every team not named "The Twins" are going to get into a bidding war over him.

In fact, the Twins stand to lose quite a bit of talent over the next two seasons, with Torii Hunter leaving town after this year ends, and Santana & Joe Nathan both eligible to hit the Powerball after 2008. There were never any legit rumors involving Hunter at this year's deadline (surprising, considering the Twins don't appear to be going anywhere in the standings), but don't expect next July to pass without Johan & Nathan's names popping up every thirty seconds or so in the next great Rumor Central blockbuster.

Two other names on a team going nowhere that are likely to pop up next season are down in South Florida - Dontrelle Willis & Miguel Cabrera. Both are arbitration eligible through 2009, but the Marlins would be crazy not to at least entertain offers for one or both of these guys. Sure, they could hold on to them through that one final season (talking about '09), hope the pieces come together and they make a playoff run (let's face it - it's the Marlins. A franchise that has never lost a playoff series), and with the third ring in twelve years, the city of Miami builds them a new ballpark. That's a perfect world type of situation.

Or, they could deal away their two biggest chips, rebuild around Dan Uggla, Josh Willingham, Mike Jacobs and Josh Johnson (oh, and some kid named Hanley...) and shoot for 2011 and beyond. Let's face it - Dontrelle isn't the pitcher he was three years ago, and Cabrera is growing more, uh, large with each passing day. Why not deal a little early on two mid-20's stars that could return enough talent to your system to fill your everyday roster from now until the next Bush is elected to the White House? We all know Florida certainly isn't going to pay them, and they aren't going to import any free agent talent worth a shit to help the team contend while Miggy & Cabrera are still there, so cut bait now and refill the farm system.

Finally, the Reds should still have both Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn. But it's the Reds - they'll probably let Dunn walk and try to get Griffey signed long term...

Of course, if the '08 deadline is anything like the last few, we'll see one major move, one mid-major move, and a lot of "Wow, this was so close - it all broke down at the last minute" stories involving everybody under the sun.

Lata.

Labels: GMs get paid for this?, MLB, Rumors, Trade

posted by Big D @ 12:00 PM