The Winter Meetings start next week. They’re probably like a week-long seminar on tax law without any of the excitement, but I like to pretend that they’re much more interesting. Last year I drew an analogy to a scene from Glengarry Glen Ross (now with not-safe-for-work YouTube support!), but that kind of calm, subdued sleaze isn’t really applicable this year. The meetings are in Las Vegas. Sleaze? Maybe, but it won’t be calm and subdued. There will be at least one baffling move this year – we’re talking Matt Wieters for Miguel Tejada, or something – that will be directly linked to 15 rum-and-Cokes and a 6:00 a.m. discussion at the Giddy-Up Club. Here’s hoping that Brian Sabean is on the right end of that discussion.
Sabean pulls out a phone book
Sabean: Look at all of the Chris Davises here. Dime a freaking dozen. Now let’s see how many Ivan Ochoas there are…none. They just don’t make that many of them.
Jon Daniels: (drunk) Is not that I don’t want Ochocho, but his first name is Ivan, which reminds me of The Hunt for Red October with the crazy Ivans, and I would have liked to see Montana, and submarine movies have always made me feel claustrophobic, so I’m going to have to say no, unless you somehow lend me a dollar to buy a Slim Jim from that vending machine over there, because god, I’m hungry.
And we’ll be like, wow! Chris Davis for Ivan Ochoa! But we’ll never know that drunken munchies put the trade over the top. Note that there was an alternate version of this scene set at the Giddy-Up Club, but that will have to wait for McCovey Chronicles After Dark.
But this thread is a prediction thread. Will the Giants make a trade at the Winter Meetings, and if so, what will the move be? Sabean doesn’t have any trades on the table. Or nothing he’s willing to talk about, at least. I still don’t think he’s sold on Pablo Sandoval as a third baseman, and Sabean has to know that Renteria’s defense isn’t what it used to be. He’ll be looking for a third baseman with solid defense, hopefully with a little pop…
Dave Roberts and Henry Sosa for Mike Lowell and $5M. If you add the savings for Roberts to the $5M, it works out to Sosa for Lowell on a 2 yr./$12.5M contract.
I’m not passing judgment on that fictional trade, but that’s my guess pulled from the nether regions. The correct answer is probably "there isn’t going to be a trade", but that’s no fun.