I remain unphased by the rumors that the Red Sox and Tigers may be interested in John Smoltz.  I assume this is a ploy by Smoltzie's agents to drive up his price or get the Braves to move faster. 

On the other hand, I recently had a discussion with a fellow Braves fan-lifer, who doesn't like the franchise's history with regard to career Braves players.  He cites that Hank Aaron, Dale Murphy, Eddie Matthews, Phil Neikro, etc. have all finished their careers with other teams.  It seems like any player who begins his career with the Braves inevitably is let go in the final years of his career.  (I welcome anyone who can find a player in history who has spent the entirety of his carrer with the Braves.)

All that being said, I realize management is much different than it was while these players were active, but the trend still leaves me uneasy. Should we be concerned in the least?  Could the unthinkable happen?  Could John Smoltz end his career in another uniform?     

...his team of choice?  Would it suprise anyone if he wanted to return to the Braves?  Rumor and speculation around Dodgers blogs is that Andruw will want to start in center next year for the Dodgers (yeah, right) or ask for a trade.  Personally, I don't know if I can take anymore heartbreak from one of my favorite Braves of yesteryear, but would the Braves bite on taking a huge chance on a discounted Andruw bouncing back if he returned home?  I don't know, my head says "no," but my heart says "why not?"  Any opinions?

Jones has told friends that he plans to approach the Dodgers and ask them to trade him. After hiding their excitement, the Dodgers will then have to find a suitor and determine how much of the $22.1 million they still owe him that they'll have to eat.

http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2008/10/21/andruw-jones-to-ask-for-a-trade/

I'm not trying to jump the gun here, but I'd like to know what's going through the Diamondbacks' heads with regard to the possible Jackson/ Tex deal.

Can anybody tell me what's up with Conor Jackson?  From the small sample of stats I've seen he looks like a pretty stellar prefomer, but I was simply wondering if any stat heads (hint hint Beard) could tell me what he's projected to do and how long he has left on his contract, etc.

I was also curious to see why the D'backs would want to make this deal anyway.  It seems to me that any power numbers and average gained by Tex would be lost by Jackson.  I would like to see it happen, but it just kinda seems like a wash for Arizona.

Opinions?... GO!