Bagwell, Larkin, Martinez, Raines and Trammell. Walker is such a hard case given Colorado. McGwire probably should get in at somepoint but it won't be soon. Williams had a great peak but too many seasons that weren't as good.
If you really think the value of a win will be priced at $2.5m you should be clamoring for the Brewers to trade Braun before the rest of the league catches on to player costs falling by half.
The Mets made the decision based upon what they thought they could make with the money they currently were paying Bonilla. Now if they just did a decent job of investing it wouldn't have mattered. They instead followed Madoff. This is no different from tons of pensions paid each day.
The distance between the Virginia suburbs and Baltimore is huge and there is a lot of money there.. And that ignores that the Virginia Beach area is large without another team close by to compete with (they likely have been Braves fans by default).
Wolf is paid right about his value. He won't bring much if anything back. McGehee has no trade value. Rollins and Ramirez are both old and will hamper any team that signs them in their out years. Ramirez gave up a guaranteed $15m for one year with the Cubs, he'll likely be looking for like 3 years/$ 40m.
How would that be team friendly? Rollins is now 33. He likely has two good seasons, one OK season and the 4th year he likely shouldn't be a full time player.
Kjeldgaard makes no sense. Is there really a team out there willing to give a 25 man spot to a guy who had a decent age 25 A+ season at 1B/LF? I just don't see it. And now he's likely a #1 cut if the 40 man gets crowded meaning that now another team just needs a 40 man space to get him. Wheeler is in the same boat though at least the chance he might be used in Milwaukee in 2012 is greater so the cost isn't quite as high. Gindl has nowhere near Green's power. And I think you're selling Green a bit short as just a platoon guy, he adjusted mightily to LH pitching in AAA.
Which is a stupid criticism since many times the Wild Card team is better than a division winner. And a 1 game playoff is stupid from just a revenue standpoint. Cut the season by 6 games.
I missed this when it happened, but former Brewer for a few days in Spring Training Matt Treanor was given a 1 year contract for $850K with a $150K buyout of a 2013 option by the Dodgers. At this rate its only time before Craig Counsell is a Dodger. http://espn.go.com/dallas/mlb/story/_/id/7238265/los-angeles-dodgers-sign-second-baseman-mark-ellis-two-year-deal
There is a large difference between trading Wolf and trading Marcum. You can make a case for being able to replace Wolf (or Narveson's) contribution internally. Marcum is much better than either of those two. And it still would be difficult for one guy to take all of Wolf's innings.
Also most players never survive to free agency in the NFL and so there is a huge incentive to take the money when offered to you giving the current team a large advantage.
Yes if Greinke and Marcum aren't there for 2013 the chances of getting either Danks or Cain is miniscule even if they reach free agency which is far from assured. Then you have a .500 team with Hart in his last year. So you trade Hart and now you are below .500 and you move your 32 year old CFer and now you los another 2 wins. Then you look around and noticed your 2B is over 30 and only signed for 2 years while making decent money to play for a a sub .500 team. and the more big pieces you move the shorter rebuilding has to be. you wait until the deadline and you'll get junk