There's an article up on Pat Gillick's problems finding a suitable trade partner...of particular interest:
Most of the questions pointed toward Gillick during a Thursday evening conference call concerned his ability to find that oft-mentioned lineup protector for MVP Ryan Howard and a couple of capable relief pitchers to guide the ball to closer Tom Gordon in the late innings.
According to Gillick there is a perfectly miserable storm swirling: A combination of a shallow free-agent market, a glut of teams desperate to find veteran relievers, and a dearth of players on small-market teams who are on the verge of making big money and thus considered tradable.
The more relievers get overpaid, the more teams get desperate to find someone reliable, the more you wonder if Jon Daniels isn't going to be best served by quietly biding his time, and seeing if someone wants to dearly overpay for Akinori Otsuka come January or February.