The Astros have reportedly made multi-year offers to both Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Lee, which would pretty certainly give their offense a boost. They also will be making an offer to Woody Williams.
Juan Pierre is talking with the Giants, and he supposedly is looking for a three-year, $30 million deal. God is he overrated.
Speaking of big deals, Scott Boras is looking for a five-year, $50 million deal for JD Drew. Boston and the Cubs are interested.
The Phillies are in talks about Adam Eaton. Toronto is pursuing Rod Barajas. We probably won't be getting Gil Meche, since the Cubs (and his former manager, Lou Piniella) are very high on him. That could be another reason that we pulled the trigger on Wright.
The Mets spoke with Boras about Barry Zito. The Yankees, Rangers, Angels, Padres and Dodgers are also likely in the running.
Mike Piazza, who had a pretty good year for San Diego and crushed the ball outside of Petco, may return to the Dodgers. Frankly, I wouldn't be against Piazza as a DH and backup catcher.
Ray Durham, another of the most underrated and overlooked players of his generation, could be staying with the Giants for two years and $16 million, or a year at $10 million.
Mark Mulder's agent says that 13 teams have asked about him, and we're one of them.
Plenty of teams are interested in Rodrigo Lopez. Given that we have six starting pitchers on the roster, and given that Lopez is about as valuable as a Bulls three-peat shirt at the Goodwill, I'd trade him for a can of creamed corn.
The hype over how ridiculous the FA prices are this offseason appears to be as legit as it gets. We're talking Gary Matthews Jr. wanting $10 million a year, and Vicente Padilla wanting the same thing. It's the type of market where -- and I don't really want this -- if you were going to trade a player like Miguel Tejada, his contract starts looking 110 percent reasonable, and you might get a huge return on him.