Winter Meetings Live Thread Day 3

LET THE DOMINOES FALL

Jon Lester has made his call.  Frankly, I don’t think he wanted to end up in Chicago, but the Red Sox continued to low-ball him and essentially put themselves out of the process by entering little more than a courtesy bid.  Interesting, but it would seem that they had a strategy that wasn’t intended to win.

So now what?

Live Feed

Puckett's Pond

Pitchers are going to be signing a lot – and fairly quickly, I would imagine

.  Today is the last

full

day of the Winter Meetings – tomorrow will be dominated by the Rule 5 draft, plus a lot of people will be leaving town around noon, so the bigger deals will either be done today or over the next week.

For the Braves…

Yesterday, I wondered about changing strategies that might be in play.  It’s still evident – as Jeff reported earlier this morning – that the Justin Upton/Chris Johnson package deal idea is actually still in play (Braves still trying to remove strikeouts from the lineup?), though as I also suggested:  there are very few teams that could handle both the players and both of the salaries.  Oddly enough, the Lester-spurned Giants are the one, though even they seem reluctant… despite the evident fit.

If they went for it – and they might if Chase Headley ends up in New York – what would the Giants offer in return?

• Angel Pagan.  They would want to dump that salary, though it’s really only $21.5 million remaining over 2 years for decent production and limited exposure (contract ends after 2016).  But if the Braves are continuing to look for low-K guys, then he’s one of them.  Biggest concerns:  no power, 33-1/2 years old, and diminishing defense (though would be better in LF).

Maybe a better question:  what would Atlanta want from San Francisco?

• Possibly RHP top prospect Kyle Crick (AA).  Scouts would need to make the call on whether he will ever stop walking so many batters.  That’s the biggest knock against him.
• Catcher Andrew Susac (AAA).  I think he might be blocked.  Just a hunch.
• There are several others of possible interest in their farm system, but many either had a down year or some kind of injury.  So those two above would likely be the key targets.

But Many, Many Possibilities

Oddly enough, that art/sculpture thing of the dominoes above is located in Philadelphia – the city of a team that’s still not doing much of anything… but I digress.

We’ll see how things progress during the day – and this is the place to watch for them!