Ryan Braun-OF- Brewers Dec. 5 - 10:12 am et

The Kansas City Star's Bob Dutton reports that one "off-the-wall" rumor has the Royals sending Zack Greinke to the Brewers for Ryan Braun in a straight swap.
Well, that would certainly be off-the-wall. The Brewers have Braun under control through 2015 at a bargain rate, so it's no surprise that it's been reported they will not trade him this offseason. The Greinke rumors will surely be flying everywhere during the Winter Meetings given that he's the only high-level pitcher available other than free agent Cliff Lee. He might get traded, but it's not going to be to Milwaukee for Braun.
Source: Kansas City Star
Related: Zack Greinke, Royals

http://www.rotoworld.com/content/pla...rt=MLB&id=4048

Don't fall into the old Baird trap of trying to fill specific position holes. That's how we ended up with Teahen and Buck for Beltran.

Acquire the best talent, period.

Very interesting with the Blue Jays reportedly getting involved ...

Gives nice leverage with the Rangers if nothing else. Offers of Scheppers or Perez, Pofar and Beltre are not as attractive as Drabek, Snider and Arrencibia. If you can get the Rangers to make their offer Scheppers AND Perez, Profar and Beltre, that works out really nicely. And it's even better if you can nab Holland, too.

I think Drabek is the best RH pitching prospect in that group. Arrencibia still is pretty highly thought of, as is Snider.

Of course, I'm good with the idea of bringing in a splashy name in the hopes of resigning Zack. Even if it's a risky long-term deal.

To be clear in case people start taking it too seriously here, this is a daydream. We're killing time until the winter meetings next week when there will likely be a lot of real baseball news to discuss.

Crawford is highly unlikely to want to go to KC, and DM is highly unlikely to be willing to take such a horrifyingly big risk. Yes you can make an argument for it and yes if I was presented with that deal I would probably do it and start praying for his health, but a huge 7-year deal for anyone would be terrifying. He doesn't even have to get hurt, if his skills age a lot quicker than expected that massive fantasy contract becomes a bad albatross. (But then, I get back to that question: if not him, then who? If mission 2012 is a success, we have at least $40MM/year to burn for a few years)

I don't know about that. I like Perez more than Drabek, and I like Profar more than either Snider or Arencibia.

I'm not sure Arencibia's defense is good enough to be a full-time catcher, making him a potential 1B/DH, which we have way too many of between Butler, Kila, and Hosmer. Snider is another bat first guy that is a defensive liability in left field.

I'd rather get a top up the middle defender in Profar who can slot in at shortstop if Colon eventually needs to move to 2B.

And we all skeet skeet.

I'm not a huge Perez guy. I k ow he's played "up" levels a lot, against much older players, but he hasn't been that impressive IMO. I like Drabek's makeup and that he's a RH. He also has ace-of-staff potential, and I think he's more likely to get there than Perez.

I know there are questions about Arrencibia's defense, but he and Snider are top of the line hitting prospects and much closer to big league impact than Profar.

Still, if the Rangers can be leveraged into upping the ante to Scheppers, Profar, holland and Perez, how do you top that?

For their part, the Royals are publicly saying all the right things. Even if some are skeptical or dont believe it, the Royals are playing poker, saying they are perfectly fine with keeping Zack all the way through 2012 and collecting the draft picks if he doesn't re-sign.

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/12/04...ls-should.html

You like a 17 year old kid over 2 major league players with star potential? That doesn't make much sense when you account for level of risk. And Drabek is more valuable than Perez for the same reason.

Neither are the Jays, which is why I wouldn't be surprised to see him traded.

Wrong, Snider is a good defensive LF.

Apparently Jays are on his no-trade clause. Greinke takes me for somebody who might actually use that in a certain situation.

I've read that for many players, the no-trade clause (aside from maybe not wanting to go to a certain place) is valuable because it gives you leverage. They sometimes add larger teams you would not normally expect.

DM: Zack, we've got a trade offer from Toronto that we would like you to consider...

Zack: Really? OK, fine give me their number.

Alex Anthopoulos: Hello?

Zack: Yeah, this is Zack.

AA: Oh hi Greinke, we are excited to have you, we're going to compete for first in the AL East, you are a big part of our plans, we have a nice quiet suburb, plenty of places to hunt and fish, and the media is tiny for baseball compared to Hockey.

Zack: Yeah, great. I want an extra 3 years for 2013-2015, $25MM per.

AA: You want what?

Zack: A 3/75 extension, full no-trade, and I'm afraid I have to have a decision from you within a week. Otherwise I have to start focusing on spring training in Surprise, AZ.

*click*

What was amazing about the Hallladay negotiations this time last year was that he gave up the no-trade clause and gave the Phillies a bargain in signing him.

I don't know any places to hunt or fish in Toronto, though, haha. Maybe further north?

I dont know, its canada. There's got to be a whole lot of nothing somewhere near Toronto

In other news, The freaking nationals just handed a massive contract to Jayson Werth. 7 years, $126MM. 31 years old, right field, 5.2 WAR (bbl ref) 5.0 WAR (fangraphs), basically all offense (his glove is replacement-level). He'll probably be high-800 OPS.

Figure a WAR is worth about 4.5, discount to 4 due to his position, and assume he has already peaked, he's probably getting exactly what he's worth for the next couple years, but the Nats are taking a risk that the contract will look bad after that.

If Werth can get that at age 31 in RF, then Crawford is going to get PAID.

At some point, we're going to have to make a major move, be it a trade or FA. Are we going to be 100 percent reliant on our system/draft, arguably the single most unpredictable element in any professional sport?