There are a few threads where people are commenting, but I wanted to put the latest and greatest rumors and deals in one spot. I don't have much to add.

It looks like the Sox might be out on Bailey because the they just traded for Melacon (Astros). LINK

Does this make it more likely that the A's keep Bailey until the deadline?

Rosenthal says the A's probably won't trade both Bailey and Gio in the same trade. That makes sense considering the teams that would like to acquire both players don't have the prospects to get a deal done.

Darvish gets posted today. I assume the losers of that contest will focus more on Gio.

The Pujols thread is getting too big now and the focus of the conversation is turning towards what the A's will do now. So I thought it was appropriate to start a new thread.

I'll get things started by linking to a few recent rumors:

1. Buster says the Rangers asked about Gio and suggest the teams are a good fit and that the A's might want Martin Perez. I say Profar and Perez or go swim in the Rio Grande. The Rangers may be getting desperate with the recent LAA activity. LINK
2. It looks like the D'Backs are focusing on Cahill instead of Gio. Probably a smart move on their part unless they want to trade their top prospects. LINK
3. Slusser says the A's didn't rule out a bid on Darvish. LINK

This should be enough to get things started...

And just like that... the A's are in the news.  I can't believe there aren't multiple threads about these rumors yet, but in case you haven't heard, the A's are throwing around names like Gio Gonzalez and Andrew Bailey.  And we're hearing names like Mike Stanton and Logan Morrison.

Slusser is reporting that the A's want a Haren type deal for Gio.  That's good.  Of course, the only two MLB regulars from that deal are injury-prone (Anderson) and play for another team (Gonzalez).  She also mentioned that Balfour and Fuentes could be traded... GOOD!

Jim Bowden thinks the A's want Yonder Alonso for Bailey.  Eh... why not Gio and Bailey for Jay Bruce and more?

Post your rumor links... thoughts about the deals...  etc....

We all know the problems that Michael Taylor has had since joining Oakland's organization prior to the 2010 season.  He had major expectations and didn't live up to them in his first season as a River Cat.

As a 23 year old in AAA (for the Phillies), he had an OPS of .850, with a decent  walk to strikeout ratio (13:19) in 128 plate appearances. 

As a River Cat in 2010, his OPS went down to .740.  His batting average was basically the same, but his on-base percentage and slugging percentage went way down.  In fact, he only hit 6 homeruns in 523 plate appearances.  He was 24 and people started writing him off as another top prospect that fizzled out.

Now, as a 25 year old in his second full season in AAA, his numbers are back to where they were in 2009.  In fact, they're eerily similar.

Clearly, Taylor's numbers have rebounded in AAA.  There were rumblings about him being sick last year and nagged by injuries, but I'm not sure what's true or not.

After looking at these numbers, the major question is this: numbers being equal, how much better is a prospect who is a 23 year old hitting well in AAA than who is a 25 year old hitting in AAA?

I don't know the answer to that question.  I'm just glad to see Taylor is putting up his old numbers again.  It's much easier to see him starting in Oakland than a year ago today.

Here is a list of some comparables that I thought of off the top of my head (it's not exhaustive).  To be on this list you had to have been hitting well in AAA at the age of 24 or 25 and contributing to a big league club right now:

• Curtis Granderson - Minus the 3Bs and SBs he his OPS was .874 in AAA as a 24 year old.
• Michael Cuddyer - He came up as an INF but had an OPS of .827 in AAA as a 24 year old in half a season.
• Nelson Cruz - His OPS was .907 in AAA as a 25 year old in half a season.
• Seth Smith - His OPS was .909 in AAA as a 25 year old.
• Jayson Werth - His OPS was .726 in AAA as a 24 year old.

These comparisons aren't to say that Taylor will be the next Granderson, Cruz, or Werth.  I just wanted to find some examples of people who were still in AAA at age 25 and ended up being productive major league baseball players.

With the A's out of the race and Taylor's AAA numbers back to where they were in 2009, I think Taylor should get the last two months of the season to show the A's that he deserves to be on the 25 man roster next year. 

Benching DeJesus or Willingham would not be too productive because it would probably take them below Type B and Type A status respectively.  So perhaps Crisp should be traded for anything the A's can get or he should be benched.

Now that the A's have lost 8 in a row, their 2B, 3/5 of their rotation, and demoted their everyday 3B, I think it's pretty safe to say that the future is here.  Except that it's not... because the A's farm system isn't very good.  In a way I'm relieved that the A's have the opportunity to sell any valuable assets they have because it really would've sucked for them to be 2 or 3 games out until September only to lose it at the end. 

Believe me, I want a competitive team, but there's no way the A's were going to win the division.  I would've said "There's no way the A's were going to win the division unless the Rangers lost their 2 best hitters" but... well... they lost their 2 best hitters for quite some time and the A's couldn't overtake them.  And the Rangers have the farm-system strength to add pieces if they need to; whereas, the A's don't.  So being that the A's didn't get a 3-5 game cushion on the Rangers when Hamilton and Cruz were out, the writing was on the wall.

So I started thinking about who the A's might trade and what they could get back.  For the sake of comparison, I used MLB Trade Rumor's transaction search to see a list of all of the trades that took place between June 1, 2010 and August 1, 2010.

As I started examining the trades, I kept getting the strange sense that the A's are this year's Astros.  They don't have much excitement on the field and have virtually baron farm systems.  And the Astros had a couple of nice pieces to trade at last year's deadline: Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt.

Lance Berkman to the Yankees for Mark Melancon and Jimmy Paredes

Berkman was in the last year of his contract, so he was virtually a rent-a-player.  Of course, I believe he was a Type A player so the acquiring team could've offered arbitration and received draft picks.  Berkman's status and stats are fairly similar to Josh Willingham's this year.  Willingham's OPS is .770 with 10 HRs and 39 RBIs, while Berkman's OPS was .808 with 13 HRs and 49 RBIs.  Keep in mind that Berkman was traded at the end of July, so Willingham's stats reflect about 7 fewer weeks of games.  They both stink in the OF.

So, how did the Astros do in that trade?  Well, they got a decent middle relief pitcher who now gets saves, and they got Paredes who basically stinks. That's not a very good haul for a decent OF.

Other OFers traded at the deadline last year were Ryan Ludwick, Rick Ankiel, and Austin Kearns.  Ludwick and Ankiel were involved in multi-player deals with Ludwick being part of the Westbrook trade and Ankiel going to Atlanta with Farnsworth. 

Ankiel went to ATL with Farnsworth for Jesse Chavez, Gregor Blanco, and Tim Collins - Collins was clearly the best of those 3.  And if Baseball-Reference is correct, he's never started a professional game.  So at best he's another good/decent middle reliever, which, as we know, are a dime a dozen.

Austin Kearns was traded for a PTBNL, so he didn't get the Indians a haul.

My conclusion is that Josh Willingham (And David DeJesus) should not be traded and the A's should let him walk and take the draft picks.  (NOTE: Of course, if a team wants to give more than that, the A's should take it.  And who knows what the CBA will look like.)

Roy Oswalt to the Phillies for JA Happ, Anthony Gose, and Jonathan Villar

Roy Oswalt was a great pitcher for many years, so he certainly had a great track record.  Gio Gonzalez and Trevor Cahill don't have that record, but they also aren't in the second to last year of their contract like Oswalt was.  Because Gonzalez and Cahill are younger and have more years, I value them slightly more than Oswalt at the 2010 deadline.

So let's look at who the Astros received from the Phillies.  JA Happ burst onto the scene in 2009 with a pretty decent rookie year.  He had a 2.93 ERA with 6.5 k/9.  His minor league track record was also pretty good.  In 6 minor league season he had a 3.52 ERA with more K's than IP.   

Anthony Gose was a supposedly toolsy player that would eventually learn how to hit.  (Yeah, right.)  He apparently plays a good CF.  As many of you know, he was immediately flipped to the Blue Jays for Brett Wallace.  But Gose's minor league numbers were awful.  I believe his value is in defense and the silly notion that he'll eventually learn how to hit.

Jonathan Villar was the #94 prospect on Baseball America's pre-2011 list, but I'm not sure why.  He's been playing in the minors for 4 seasons and has yet to OPS more than .767 in A+.  He's now struggling in AA.

All in all, I don't believe the Astros got much in return for Oswalt.  Getting back to Cahill and Gio Gonzalez.  At this point, unless the A's are blow away with an offer, the 2010 market tells us that the A's won't get much in return.  But look at it this way, would JA Happ, Anthony Gose, and Jonathan Villar for Trevor Cahill get you excited?  Not me.

The other starting pitcher trade that caught my eye was Edwin Jackson for Dan Hudson and David Holmberg.  In my opinion, the Diamondbacks got back far more for Jackson than Oswalt got for the Astros.  Hudson's minor league stats are really good and he's a young, cost-controlled pitcher.  Since everyone knows that Oswalt is much better than Jackson, I can only assume that even contending teams value younger and better-priced arms than better and older pitchers.

My conclusion is that the A's should trade one of Cahill and Gonzalez.  (My proposals are below.)

Any and all of their middle relief pitchers should be traded.

I think that 2010 shows that middle relief pitchers will net the A's a positive return.  Farnsworth and Ankiel were traded for Tim Collins.  Even if Collins isn't any better than Farnsworth, he's a lot cheaper.

Octavio Dotel was also traded to the Dodgers for James McDonald and Andrew Lambo.  McDonald is a former top prospect who seems pretty inconsistent in the big leagues, but at the very least could be the A's number 4 starter for a few years while they rebuild.  He's cheap and good enough.

And the Nationals got catching prospect Wilson Ramos for Matt Capps.  Big win for the Nats.

Specific Proposals.

I hate doing these things because everyone disagrees with everyone else's suggestions.  But since I put all of this work into this post, I might as well leave people with something to talk about.

Trevor Cahill or Gio Gonzalez AND Andrew Bailey/<or other relief pitcher that would work> for Shelby Miller and Zack Cox.  This give the Cards exactly what they need and gives them what they need for a few years.  They'll have an established closer who is still cost-controlled and a top of the line starter. 

Yes, Miller and Cox are probably their top 2 prospects... but Cahill and Bailey aren't exactly rent-a-players, either.  The A's will have a pitcher in 2 years who will probably be as good as Gio and Cahill and finally have a 3B of the future.  If filler is needed... please include your favorite mixer.

Devine/Balfour and Sweeney/Crisp and Suzuki and Kouzmanoff for Belt and Peguero.  This give the Giants a C, bullpen help, a kick in the ass to Tejada, and a bat off the bench.  If this season is lost, the A's won't miss any of these players but will get back a truly legit 1B and the CF of the future.  I sort of guessed with Peguero, but I do think that package would get the A's 2 of the Giants's top 7 prospects.

Balfour for Devin Mesoraco (C-Cincy).  This gives the Reds a lot more bullpen help, which they'll need to stay in the race with their starting pitchers who don't go deep into games.  This trade might be a reach as Balfour has a big contract.  But I certainly don't think it's out of the question.  He would immediately be the catcher of the future.

These trade would get the A's a, perhaps, top-notch starter, 1B of the future, 3B of the future, C of the future, and perhaps a nice CF of the future.  By letting Willingham and DeJesus just leave, the A's will get a lot of draft picks to also help restock the system.  As I've shown, I don't see much of a market for either of them.

But I also think these trades are fair because the Cards will get really good players and get to keep them beyond this year.  The Giants will get a bunch of filler players to provide the depth to make a good run this year and also gives them the flexibility to move Posey to 1B if they want.  The Reds would get a great boost to their bullpen.

I'm very surprised at how little the draft has been discussed here at AN.  It starts tonight and I haven't seen any posts dedicated to it yet, so I thought I'd put together an ad hoc thread.

I don't have any knowledge of most of these players so I don't have much analysis to provide.  I'm hoping that people who know more about the amateur players can chime in.

Keith Law came out with his last mock draft.  His guess is that the A's with take George Springer.  He seems like a Michael Choice type of pick... tons of tools, raw athleticism, and very high upside.  Problems with his mechanics and contact issues are the drawbacks - like with Choice.

Fangraphs have the A's taking Joe Ross - Tyson's brother. 

Jim Callis at Baseball America has the A's taking Springer.

I assume there will be an official open thread for the draft.  I just wanted to get the speculation going early.

On January 31st, I wrote a FanPost asking ANers for advice about how to get from Fisherman's Warf to the Coliseum with a 5 month old child.  This is my follow-up FanPost with my thoughts about the area and about my experience at the A's game.

First of all, my wife had a work conference and since North Dakotans can't always make it out to the Bay Area, we thought we'd make a vacation out of it.  I'll stick to the A's game after this comment:  the Bay Area is amazing and we had a great time doing all of the touristy stuff.

We stayed at the Sheraton Fisherman's Warf so we took a cable car to the nearest BART.  Our daughter. Harper, did not like the cable car ride, though my wife and I thought it was neat.  The BART was easy enough to navigate and we made it across the bay to Oakland.

Here we are ready for the game... the Sunday, April 3rd game (first win!).

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My daughter, Harper, was the navigator.

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My first impression was: wow, the A's need a new stadium.  At the risk of offending anyone, and please know that it's not my intention, I have to say that the area around the Coliseum is very dumpy.  If the BART station hadn't been connected to the stadium, I'm not sure I would've felt comfortable walking the streets with my wife and daughter.

The Coliseum itself, from the outside, looks like nothing more than a molded pile of concrete, though it was pretty much what I expected.

via a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net

We sat in section 115 on the first base side of the plate.  As bad as I think the area surrounding the Coliseum is and as awful as the concourse is, the field is beautiful.  It's much better than I thought it was from watching the A's on TV.

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The following are a few of the action shots that my wife took

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via a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net

The service at the game was horrendously slow.  I cannot believe people put up with it.  If you want a hot dog, you have to skip a full inning of the game.  And it's not like the stadium was full either.

Overall, it was an awesome experience, especially since I've been an A's fan stuck in North Dakota for 20+ years and this was my first chance to attend a game in Oakland.  I've seen the A's play in Minnesota (I actually saw the game that snapped the 20 game winning streak) and Kansas City, but this was the best one.  But I can't help but think about what it would've been like if the A's park was AT&T park.

I think the A's should approach the Twins about trading for Slowey.  He was recently told that he'll be a long-man out of the pen, completely wasting the talent of a good pitcher.  So, would be an improvement over what we'd have for a 5th starter?  And what will it cost?

Is he a top 5 starter for the A's?

Yes.  His FIP was 3.98 last year, making it the 27th best of all AL pitchers who threw more than 150 innings.  That might not seem all that great, except that it was better than Cahill's, James Shields's, and Philip Hughs's.  If any of those three became available, I'm sure many on AN would advocate us going after them.

In the other season he threw over 150 innings, his FIP was 3.91.  It's not Cy Young material, but, then again, Cahill was considered for the Cy Young.

Let's put Slowey's 2010 up against Cahill's 2010.

AN has thoroughly debated how good (or bad) Cahill is.  So I recognize that there is a debate about him and that I'm not trying to compare Slowey to Cliff Lee or anything like that.  But I'm certain that 100% of ANers think that Cahill should be in the starting rotation. 

Looking at last year's numbers, I don't think we can definitively say that Cahill is better than Slowey.  Clearly, Slowey is a fly ball pitcher, but his 1.21 HR/9 rate would probably decrease in Oakland, adding more value. 

But Cahill is our number 1 starter, we really should be comparing Slowey to Brandon McCarthy, projected 5th starter for the A's.  Except really, there's no comparison.  The only thing McCarthy has going for him over Slowey is a dynamite spring.

There's no doubt that Slowey would be among Oakland's top 5 starting pitchers.  So it comes down to what the Twins might want in return for Slowey.

Trade Scenario

I'm not generally very good at putting trade proposals together, but I'll give it a shot here.  The Twins need backend bullpen help and a legitimate backup CF.  Looking at ESPN's depth chart for the Twins, their backup CF is Delmon freakin' Young... not good.  And their 3rd-stringer is Michael Cuddyer.  The backend of their bullpen is Joe "Coming off Tommy John" Nathan, Matt Capps, and Jose Mijares.

So here is my proposal:

A's trade Ryan Sweeney and Brad Ziegler for Kevin Slowey and Jason Repko

This works better for Minnesota's depth chart.  They fill their two biggest needs.  The A's get a very legitimate 5th starter who will only improve in a pitchers' park.  I threw Repko in there because the Twins do have a lot of OFers.  If he has an option left the Twins could stash Repko in AAA and wouldn't hurt my feelings.

The A's would give up some of their bullpen depth, but give away a guy who probably doesn't have a big future with the A's anyway.  And Sweeney can be replaced by Repko, Jackson, or someone not currently on Oakland's roster.  DeJesus can play backup CF.  Slowey starting 20-25 games for Oakland is worth giving up some OF depth, especially when Sweeney or Jackson could be easily replaced.

I didn't think this article alone was worthy of a FanPost, and I don't think there are enough DLDs, so I'll combine the two.

Keith Law (subscription required) had this to say about a few of the A's he watched:

Joey Devine hasn't appeared in a big league game since the end of 2008, missing two years due to Tommy John surgery, and his appearance on Monday made it look like he's a long way from getting back.

DLS - I do think he has promise as a reliever, but he could easily be Jesus Colome, tantalizing with plus stuff but never commanding it enough to be an elite closer or setup guy.

Grant Green - Shortstop can't be his long-term position, and I'd really like to see him in centerfield where his speed will play up while his inadequacies in the infield won't be such a problem.

I didn't copy and paste much of what he wrote, so I hope I'm not breaking any rules.

Peter Gammons thinks Michael Choice is going to be a monster.

This is from a week ago, but Tollefson was outrighted to AAA.  I guess that means Pennington will be back.

Duchscherer will be starting for the Orioles today. 

Dump away!

THIS is why the A's were smart to let Duchscherer go.

Kendry Morales isn't anywhere near 100%

.Jerry Crasnick covered the A's offseason.  MLBTR looks at Oakland's offseason, too.

Oakland has one of the hardest schedules off the bat.  (EDIT: I blew it!  They actually have one of the easiest in the AL)

Michael Taylor wants to put last season behind him.

The Yankees could be scouting Oakland's starting pitchers.

It was a humid -30 degrees today when I woke up this morning at my house in Bismarck, ND.

Dump... dump away.

My wife has a conference in San Francisco in early April and my 3 month old daughter and I are going to go with.  It will be our first trip to the Bay Area - we live in North Dakota.  We think we will be able to catch the A's game on April 3rd - I'm a life-long A's fan.  Because it'll be our first time in the Bay Area, and won't have a car, I have some questions...

1. What's the safest way to get from Fisherman's Warf, where our hotel is, to the ballpark?
2. What's the most efficient and cost effective way of doing it?
3. What would you recommend for people who don't know the area and have a 3 month old with?

Any info you could get us would be great.  Thanks!

Gofro's post on the front page is really great, and I'd hate for it to be hijacked by people wanting to discuss the Angels awesome (if your an A's fan) trade so consider this an open thread.

The Angels traded Mike Napoli and Juan Rivera for Vernon Wells.  And danmerqury passed on the word that the Jays aren't even sending any money to LAA in the deal.

Wells is owed $86 million over the next four years and the Angels are now on the hook.  Of course I also heard or read somewhere that Wells can opt out after 2011... um... yeah... like that'll happen.  For those keeping score, he'll earn more per year than Beltre, Crawford, and Werth.

Just what in the hell were the Angels thinking.

According to Slusser, the A's met with Dunn yesterday. 

(Update: This is apparently false.)

According to the A's website, Cust is a non-tender candidate again.

This should cause a stir among the AN faithful.

I know that Cust gets a bigger bang for the A's buck than Dunn would, but I'm just sick of the A's offense sucking.  So if getting Dunn meant cutting Cust I'm all for it.  Personally, I'd like to see them get Dunn and stick Cust in RF for a lineup like this:

Crisp - CF

Barton - 1B

DeJesus - LF

Dunn - DH

Cust - RF

Suzuki - C

Ellis - 2B

Kouz - 3B

Pennington - SS

I suppose left-handed pitching would be a problem again.  And this leaves Carter out until Crisp gets hurt and DeJesus moves to CF.  Then Carter can move to LF and the defense wouldn't be so good in the OF. 

Dump away...  discuss...  but don't discuss when dumping.  That's just nasty.

The more I read about and understand WAR, the more interested I am in breaking it down a bit into a per game basis.  We know that Kurt Suzuki's WAR is 1.5, but he did miss some time.  So what is his WAR/game?  Over a full season of 130 games, it's 1.82.  I don't have the time or desire to do this for everyone in the bigs, especially because perhaps there is a better way of breaking down WAR so that it takes time missed into account.  Perhaps there's already another stat for that.  So I just did it for the A's starting rotation and starting lineup.  Keep in mind that the starting lineup I'm using is the current lineup.

All WAR and games played numbers come from www.fangraphs.com.

So here we go...

• Brett Anderson - .1357 - 4.7495
• Trevor Cahill - .076 - 2.66
• Dallas Braden - .104 - 3.64
• Gio Gonzalez - .1143 - 4
• Vin Mazzaro - .0056 (just counted his games started) - .2
• Kurt Suzuki - .014 - 1.82 (over 130 games)
• Daric Barton - .032 - 4.8
• Mark Ellis - .017 - 2.55
• Cliff Pennington - .022 - 3.3
• Kevin Kouzmanoff - .02 - 3
• Rajai Davis - .0041 - .62
• Coco Crisp - .0379 - 5.685
• Jeff Larish - WAR is below 0
• Jack Cust - .0216 - 3.24

I guess it's not surprising that Brett Anderson, Gio Gonzalez, and Dallas Braden have the three best  WAR/game on the team.  It's also not surprising that Daric Barton and Coco Crisp have the best WAR/game of the hitters.  I'm not smart enough to know if you can use WAR/game to compare hitters to pitchers, but it seems reasonable given that WAR itself is supposed to make them comparable.

Now extrapolating these numbers over a full season (let's say 150 games) would give Crisp a WAR of 5.685, which is damn good.  If only he could stay healthy.  Anderson would come in with a WAR of 4.7495 in 35 starts, which isn't elite, but is good.  Gio's would be 4.  

I just wanted to mess around with the numbers, and I thought I'd share what I found.

What does everyone think?

UPDATE:  After the WAR/game number I added in what each player's WAR would be if extrapolated over the course of a full season.  I used 150 games for position players and 35 starts for pitchers.

According to MLBTraderumors.com, the Cardinals are intensifying their search for a 3B.  Apparently Brandon Inge is on their radar.  I'm wondering if Beane is (or if he should be) talking to the Cards about Kevin Kouzmanoff.  Let's explore this possibility...

According to Fangraphs.com, Kouzmanoff's WAR is 2.1 (so figure 2.5ish at the end of the season) which is pretty average.  His fielding is as good as his hitting is bad.  When you add it up together, he's pretty average in the American League.  Inge on the other hand has a WAR of 1.3 in about 90 or so less ABs.  This season, Kouzmanoff is definitely better.

Kouzmanoff's salary this year is $3.1 million, while Inge's is $6.6 million.  Inge is a free agent after this season, while Kouzmanoff is eligible for arbitration.  Here again, Kouzmanoff is more attractive.  If the Cards acquire him and he plays poorly, they could non-tender him.  And he costs less this year than Inge.  If he plays average or better, they could still have him for a few more years.  

So let's assume that the Cards and the A's are talking.  We have no evidence (at least I haven't seen any) that suggests the two sides are talking, but now that the A's are really out of it, it's something Beane should be looking at.

I propose a Kevin Kouzmanoff for Allen Craig trade.  

In November 2009 Baseball America ranked Craig the Cards's 7th best prospect.  His minor league numbers are pretty awesome.  In AAA this year in 321 ABs he had an OPS of .948,  Last year in 521 ABs his AAA OPS was .921 and he hit 26 HRs.  Clearly the guy can hit.  But his talent still hasn't turned into good MLB production as his numbers in the bigs this year have been pretty poor.

His baseball card says he's a 1B/3B/OF.  If he can play adequate defense at any of those positions (3rd being the biggest hope!!), I think he could be a valuable piece of Oakland's rebuilding puzzle.  

The first question is, would he be available?  I think so.  First, Craig is 26 years old, so he's almost out of the "prospect" range.  Second, Kouzmanoff is a league average player who could be even better if he moves back to the NL.  Obviously, if the A's think Craig can play 3B they can afford to trade Kouzmanoff.  Third, the Cards are in a very tight race and may be more flexible in who they are willing to trade.  

The second question is, would Kouzmanoff get through waivers?  Smarter people will have to answer that for me.

So let's do it, Billy...  Allen Craig for Kevin Kouzmanoff.

The trade deadline if quickly approaching.  I haven't heard anything on the A's front, but Beane has a way of surprising people.  

Here are a few of the latest rumors:

Foxsports

ESPN

Susan Slusser

This is a pretty incomplete list, but I just wanted to get the ball rolling.

My predictions are that Berkman goes to the White Sox, Dunn goes to the Rays, and a bunch of crappy middle relievers get traded to contenders.