RealGM

Minnesota has reportedly offers two prospects, CF Aaron Hicks (.260, 5 HR, 34 RBI, 11 SB, .372 OBP in A ball), and C Wilson Ramos, who is hitting a cool .208 with 4 HRs/18 RBIs in AAA.

Per Wiretap, via Peter Gammons Twitter page, he said Tampa Bay has floated BJ Upton in a proposed 3-team deal. Upton worries me; his averaged dropped off over 30 points from '08 to '09 (and his OBP dropped 70 points) and he's got no power. His average has dropped another 15-20 points this season (down to .228). He'd have to convert to left field with Guti and Ich under contract for so long, and hell... I think I'd be fine with Saunders at this point. Also, Upton's a headcase. Justin Upton, however...

I say pass.

I'm against both offers. Neither is very enticing and Lee is worth a lot more to teams. As I've said before; Don't trade Cliff Lee just for the sake of making a deal. I'd rather hold onto him and get a couple high-end draft picks after this season if we aren't blown away by a deal.

BJ Upton sucks.

If Minnesota is offering those two players, that's a decent start. Ramos isn't the prize in that trade...Hicks is. Still...

Apparently the Reds and Rangers are now in the mix. Can't say I know squat about the Reds but the Rangers have some surplus young talent, and if they're willing to trade said talent to a division rival I'm excited about the options. The Rangers are hurting financially...they could probably stand to sacrifice a few pieces in exchange for a player that may help them get to the World Series [which would be a financial windfall for them].

http://baseball.realgm.com/src_wiretap_ ... bout_done/


Wow. Could we really get Jesus Montero for Lee? That'd be great. He's a top 5 minor league prospect, and from what I've read, his bat is out of this world.

GET 'ER DONE!

If the offer from the Yankees is Montero, Adams, and McAllister...I'm pretty happy with the deal. Especially when you compare what we gave up to get Lee in the first place [Aumont, Gillies, Ramirez].

If Montero can transition to 1B next year, Saunders continues to develop, and Branyan sticks at DH...our power situation could be much better next year. Not to mention the benefit of switching Figgins to 3B and putting Ackley at 2B.

The starting rotation will be a question mark [who can replace Lee?] but it was going to be regardless.

We're going to piss off baseball fans everywhere by handing hit to the Yankees, but... meh. Whatever, it helps us.

Rotation for next year... Felix/Fister/Vargas/French/Pineda? Is Pineda ready? My grasp on the minors is loose and spotty. Rowland-Smith is ever present, but scares the hell out of me this year. Bedard's option for 2011 is $8 mil, so we'll either void that or re-work something, but honestly, I'm not advocating for Bedard at this point... he just seems to be, like, RRS, always around in some form or another.

word has it, he's been traded to the rangers along with lowe for smoak and RHP Blake Beavan, RHP Josh Lueke and 2B Matt Lawson.

Beat me to it. And Texas has a 5pm central press conference scheduled.

If you'd told me at the beginning of the day this is what we would get, I'd have been completely satisfied. But then the NYY came up...I'm happy but conflicted.

Crazy. Both deals seem to be built around Montero/Smoak... opinions? I think both have insanely high ceilings, but as I said previously, I'm no minor league guru.