Winter Meetings

I’ve been vaguely following the Winter Meetings this week, though there hasn’t been a lot going on, at least about which I care. Pretty much all of the discussion has been about whether Albert Pujols will go to Miami and I don’t really care. I hope he stays with the Cardinals, not so much because I want St Louis to do well, but because I like the idea of great players staying with one team for their entire careers. Also, I don’t like the Marlins. I used to, at least to an extent, but I don’t like their naked attempts to buy every free agent they can. Also, their new uniforms are appalling. It’s not a big point, but it does make a small difference. They seem to be just about the only team mentioned on the meeting reports and it just isn’t on. Still, the Pujols stories are all in the National League and unless he shockingly signs for the a team in the AL Central it’s unlikely to really matter to me where he ends up. The move that has interested me the most so far has been Mark Buehrle signing with Miami. Not because of the Marlins so much, see above, but because I hate the White Sox and they are weaker now. It also helps the Royals, of course, since Chicago are in our division.

Speaking of the Royals, we haven’t done much if anything. The biggest even vaguely credible rumours are that we might acquire an established starter for a few top prospects like Wil Myers. It would be an interesting move if we did, but it sounds like it’s unlikely. We certainly need starting pitching, but we acquired Jonathan Sanchez and re-signed Bruce Chen, so it is not as pressing as once it was. Wil Myers is a top outfield prospect and our outfield, Gordon aside, is not as settled as some of the other positions in the long term. It is nice to have a very likely successor to Jeff Francoeur in right field, and I’m not sure that is worth a starter in most instances. (The exception would be a very good starter on a long term deal, but that isn’t going to happen.) There have also been a few suggestions about trading Soria, but those appear to be utterly baseless. And good thing too, I would be dismayed if he were to be dealt away. There is still time during and after the meetings, but it looks like it will be a pretty quiet winter.