some options might include dangling laird for say ricky nolasco or scott olsen, marlins rhp, although other smaller pieces may need to be thrown in, probably from our side, but you never know with JD.

keep that line open and see if he can fetch a legitimate young starter, some teams are starting to get desperate and the wait it see approach could work very well.

do the same with salty, that is unless one of these two has shown management something to consider taking them off the block and trading the other one/s.
try salty plus hometown boy JMJ or Duran or arias. for grienke. Heck wonder if we threw another top prospect we could maybe get soria (doubtful and unrealistic I know)

Cat get what you can and if its nothing, than keep him, he can still play well in a platooned role sadly. Same goes for everyday, and benoit if he still has any value, though its probably better to just hold on to him and hope for the best

shelton= gone, davis=call up

bradley needs to be traded and hopefully resigned later on, but lets face it we are not contending, we are pretending. Its a step up no less, just not a very big step. The big one happens next year so lets give the kids an extra few months to get ready for that.

trade bradley- contingent upon the return value. Im not going to guess players , weve already done that, but a lot in return is what I would expect or nothing.

75% of the trades proposed will be insane.

I have said this before, and I am sticking to it. It is a great depth for depth/need for need scenario, and both teams benefit now and in the future. Bowden could join our rotation tomorrow, and coupled with Hurley and (dare I say) Feldman, would give us a nice group of young starters in the rotation.

Marlon Byrd is nice to have around, and he has been hot of late, but I want to see more of Nelson Cruz, and perhaps JMJ later on, so let’s send him to the Marlins (too perfect?) for Kyle Winters.

I still like the idea of sending Milton to the Rays for Desmond Jennings and Jeremy Hellickson, but we don’t really know if they will be buyers yet.

And finally, I still like the idea of trading one of Millwood or Padilla, and there are still a lot of teams looking for pitching these days. Perhaps we send Millwood off to the Braves or Phillies. For the sake of conversation, let’s send Millwood back to the Braves for Charlie Morton, who looked pretty good to me yesterday, and young LHP Jeffrey Locke and bullpen prospect Benino Pruneda.

Thing is if you trade MB, the other team gets 2 first rounders. It seems a bit lopsided the other way if it’s just Masteson or Bowden.

the idea that we trade Salty to keep Laird is dumb. Honestly, you don’t sell the 23 year old in order to keep the 28 year old in his career year. We just got done with a series where the opposing backstop is Brian McCann, who is frankly one of the worst defenders at C in the league, but do you think the Braves are going to use someone else? No. That’s because defense at catcher is heavily overrated, especially when the said defense Gerald Laird provides is largely a product of his arm.

If Saltalamacchia can put up a .900 OPS behind the plate, he’ll have value as a player and as a trade bait. You don’t cut ties with a young player right now in order to keep your extremely inconsistent catcher from last year.

1. Max Ramirez to Minnesota for RHP Kevin Slowey and LHP Tyler Robertson

Minnesota, unlike Kansas City, has a lot of starting pitching depth and wants to get Liriano back into the rotation. Kevin Slowey is 24 years old and a lot like Greinke as a pitcher. Minnesota is also constructed to win soon since their main position players are hitting their prime and they’re 1 good bat and 1 good pitcher away from contention in the AL Central.

2. Gerald Laird to Philadelphia for LHP Antonio Bastardo

Bastardo is the type of high upside, many warts arm that we can expect for Laird. A 5’11” lefty, Bastardo throws well, but walks too many guys and is currently hurt, but is a good enough prospect and far enough along where we will see dividents soon. This trade might happen because this is Gillick’s last year, and he’s definately going to be trying to win and win now.

Other random targets

1. The young relievers division

Daniel Bard, RHP, Boston Red Sox – Bard is a guy with some injury history, but he keeps the ball on the ground and strikes out a ton of guys.

Jonathan Meloan, RHP, LA Dodgers – Meloan was dominant as a reliever last year before being converted to starter and consequently becoming boilerplate. He’s a good bet to help now if traded.

Jarrod Plummer, RHP, Kansas City Royals – Plummer is a guy with good control, and frankly, I think this bullpen needs someone who isn’t liable to come in and throw 4 straight balls any