Off Season Rumor Headaches, thoughts on the Marlins and Carlos Zambrano

Continuous Orioles Rumors and Shoot Downs

This would happen. The day after I put up a quick post on the newly ignited Jones rumors, they get shot down again. Well… sort of. Ken Rosenthal seemed a bit iffy in his tweets saying that Talks between the two teams over “A. Jones are nowhere” but also saying “talks fluid.” I guess we will just have to take that as meaning, the teams have come nowhere close to a deal but are still telling each other that they are interested in players of the other team. So I would be expecting a deal immediately, unless you don’t catch sarcasm through writing, in that case sit tight we have a long way to go before anything actually happens.

There have been a plethora of rumors swirling around the Braves, Orioles, and Jones however. Here are some of the latest:

"The Orioles are fairly confident they will add another outfielder, though that wouldn’t necessarily portend an Adam Jones trade, writes Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun.  The Orioles were not overly intrigued by the Braves’ offer of Jair Jurrjens, Martin Prado, and a minor league pitcher.  Connolly doesn’t see Jurrjens as a centerpiece for a Jones trade.  Instead, the Orioles are intrigued by Tommy Hanson.Talks between the Braves and Orioles about Adam Jones are “nowhere,” according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (Twitter links). The Braves won’t trade a top young starter for Jones, so there’s no momentum for a deal. However, talks remain fluid andMartin Prado and Jair Jurrjens could be involved. The Braves are understandably reluctant to part with pitchers such as Brandon Beachy, Mike Minor, Julio Teheran, Arodys Vizcaino and Randall Delgado."

We can go ahead and throw the Hanson rumor out of the window. Despite his shoulder injury and iffy mechanics, Hanson isn’t being traded unless we get blown out of the water. Adam Jones isn’t that player.

Zambrano and even more rumor talk after the break…

The second one holds more substance with me because the pieces involved make sense. I think Frank Wren would rather trade Jurrjens in this situation because (hopefully) he sees Jones and Prado as hitters near the same level. He knows how valuable Prado is to the team and I still doubt that he gets traded. But enough of this rumor nonsense here is something of substance.

Carlos Zambrano to the Marlins (LOL)

I guess you already know my opinion on the topic based on the parenthesis above but I wanted to talk a bit more about this move if only to make myself feel better about the Braves standing in the NL East.

I really don’t understand this move at all. The Marlins are trading Chris Volstad straight up for Zambrano. Volstad is projected to earn about $2.6 million through arbitration this year and is under control through 2014. Zambrano is making $18 million this year but the Marlins will only be covering $2.5 million.

The two have similar numbers so why would the Marlins want the guy who freaks out and hits water coolers? I’m guessing that the ownership is banking on record TV numbers and it’s certainly possible. I know I will tune in when the Braves are owning Zambrano (they tend to) and it will be icing on the cake when Hanley loafs after a ball hit his way and Zambrano freaks out on him during the middle of the game. And then there’s Ozzie managing both of these players as well. And then there’s Logan Morrison‘s twitter account.

So one thing is for sure, the Miami Marlins are in for an intriguing season.