The winter meetings begin today in Indianapolis and the major theme appears to be fiscal prudence. There is no suggestion that either Jason Bay, Matt Holliday or John Lackey will find a new home soon. The Mariners signing of Chone Figgins could be the biggest news of the meetings.
From the Jays perspective the Roy Halladay soap opera continues but it would be a big surprise if he was traded this week.
In the news today Rob MacLeod leads with the Halladay sweepstakes. Bidding begins for Halladay
According to the Globe AA is willing to trade anyone:
“There's definitely players you'd rather not trade,” the 32-year-old Anthopoulos said. “But I've told every team when I've talked to them, when I've asked about players – and I've asked about a lot of good players – to open it up, I've told teams flatly, name the price. There's some [players] that we're more willing to part with than others, but we wouldn't rule anything out. I've told every team that I don't want to close any doors when you're looking to get better.”
The bad news is further down the story:
Anthopoulos doesn't think he will be able to strengthen the Blue Jays via trades. “Certainly there's players I'd love to acquire,” he said. “And just unfortunately at this time there just looks like there isn't a fit.”
AA started on the job with a lot of enthusiasm and was very keen on making some trades to strengthen the young core of the team. However it appears as though the other GM's are not playing ball and AA is finding it harder than he thought to upgrade his core group.
Jeremy Sandler in the National Post continues with part two of his three part look at the state of the franchise, this part looks at finances and Sandler talks with Paul Beeston. Here is the money quote from Beeston:
This is the point I have been making for months now. There is no chance Rogers will increase the payroll to $100m or $120m unless they have the revenue to support it. As Beeston says they could make a short term investment in a loss if they are confident they will make the money back in the future.
Finally Bob Elliott in the Sun talks 2010 draft and the rumour going around the winter meetings is that the Jays will have $16m to spend on the 2010 draft. "Jays to open vault for picks" is the headline.
"It's going around the scouting community that Toronto is set to spend $16 million (US) next summer on the June draft signing players," said an envious scouting director of a large-revenue club.
"I don't know how they are going to spend $16 million," said another scouting director. "It must be counting international players signed."
While that is good news the returns will be seen in 2012 at the earliest.
Finally Buster Olney twitters that Halladay is willing to listen to all possibilities no matter where they hold their spring training.
The LA Angels of Anaheim, come on down, the price is right!
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20091207104321352