"Bracing For the 2010 Sweepstakes"

Great look from SI.com about, perhaps, the biggest FA market in NBA history in 2010, featuing LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade, Amare Stoudemire, Yao Ming, Steve Nash, Shaquille O'Neal, Dirk Nowitzki, Tracy McGrady, Michael Redd,Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Joe Johnson and even Emanuel Ginobili.

Obviously some are older and more injured than others, but thats an amazing list.

The author pegs LeBron as deciding between staying in Cleveland or going to the Knicks, Wade staying put and Bosh weighing a return to the States or being the Man in Canada.

There is a feeling throughout the league that Bosh, a Texan, will consider a move enabling him to return to the United States and eventually raise a family on home soil. Rival NBA executives argue that Bosh hasn't been celebrated as much while playing for a Canadian team as he would be on an American roster.

This would be an ideal signing for the Spurs, he can play along side Duncan for a few years as Duncan rides off into the sunset and gradually the offense will mold around him, much as it did for Duncan when he teamed up with Robinson.

You could make a simliar argument for Joe Johnson and Ginobili.  Manu will be 33 in 2010 and will have a lot of basketball miles on him by then, if he didnt leave for Denver in his first forray into free agency, one can reasonably expect he'll finish his career in San Antonio.

Thomsen also goes on to guess what teams will be in play for this elite group, about the Spurs:

 Bulls, Rockets, Heat, Suns, Trail Blazers, Kings, Spurs, Raptors: These are among the many teams that could develop enough space to make a run at a major free agent. As noted above, however, the demand for young talent will far exceed the supply.

If I were running the show, Id throw max money, or as reasonably close as they could get, at Chris Bosh and hopefully have a front line rotation of Duncan, Bosh, Splitter and Mahinmi. That would be a nice way to translate from the Golden Age of Manu and Timmy.

Pretty good write up

They cover all the divisions, though youd have to back track to the homepage I believe. But this first paragraph made me laugh/cringe.

What Do They Have?

There is right-handed power in the lineup, depth in the infield (especially with Ronny Cedeno qualified to start at shortstop somewhere for somebody), a surplus of thoroughly adequate fourth-starter types, a group of regulars a bit older than you might think at first blush (this winter, Rookie of the Year catcher Geovany Soto is turning 26 and shortstop Ryan Theriot will be 29, for example), and a farm system thinner than a crème brulee's crust. They also have commitments to regret, most notably to outfielder Kosuke Fukudome, who has three years and $38 million to go on a contract weighted down by a no-trade clause, making the chances that he'll be dealt relatively remote.

While this provides a glimmer of hope:

What Are They Likely To Do?

Like it or loathe it, acquiring reliever Kevin Gregg is a win-now move that was also intended to trim salary commitments years into the future -- which is another suggestion that they were shifting things around to afford a big-ticket player, Dempster. That won't be the end of their activities this winter. Packaging pitchers likeJason Marquis, Chad Gaudin, Sean Marshall and/orRich Hill might be poorly timed in terms of their trade value, but with pitching priced as sky-high as ever, plausible rotation regulars who are under contractual control for a couple of seasons to come (like those last three) should have plenty of attractiveness for other teams, however spotty their track records might be. They will deal from their pitching depth as well as that in the infield, either to acquire balance in the lineup and/or to shore up the outfield should they decide against bringing back Jim Edmonds to man center-field.

This three way trade possibility was intriguing:

To address the lineup balance issue and keep costs under control, pulling the Rangers into a three-way deal that sends Texas a couple of hurlers from the starting pitcher surplus, sends a third party someone from among the Rangers' quartet of catching prospects and brings the Cubs a quality lefty bat for center or right makes better sense than signing one of the old outfielders knocking around on the market.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081110&content_id=3672454&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Link from MLB.com detailing the Dominican Republics initial roster, or available players might be more appropriate, its pretty stacked; including our two Cubs, Soriano and Marmol.

As you might expect, their group of prospects is ridiculously talented, especially for such a small nation.  Included in the group:Tejada, Ortiz, H.Ramirez, Soriano, Marmol, Volquez, Guerrero, Manny, Carlos Pena, Jose Reyes and even our dear old Sammy Sosa.

As for the US, their initial pool, while not containing any current Cubs, though a few Cubs targets, consists of Arod, Howard, Utley, Jeter, Upton, Ibanez, Braun, Holliday, Joe Mauer, Cliff Lee, Jake Peavy, Huston Street, Lidge,Jenks and surprisingly Mike Mussina, amongst others. US ROSTER

So there is obviously an injury concern for any players involved, but with rosters so stacked, and pitch counts enforced, its difficult to imagine any pitcher getting over used.

The D.R.s group includes Panama, Puerto Rico and The Netherlands.  So they should walk through Panama and Holland rather easily.

One would imagine Soto will play for Puerto Rico and Fukudome for Japan as well. Im looking forward to it, the last one was very entertaining and should satisfy your pre-Spring Training Baseball itch.

The tournament runs from March 5-23, 2009.  Japan is the reigning champion

Knicks Marbury Breakup Underway

In the wake of this latest news, and someone suggesting an informal poll to gauge interest, here it is.  I'll keep it to a simple yes and no to avoid any vitriol in the poll, though explanations are certainly welcome.

I had quite a lengthy defense of this, but what it comes down to is we need his scoring, and if the came to the Spurs, he would do so voluntarily, knowing the reputation of Pop and the system, and being surrounded by three likely Hall of Famers might settle him down and take the pressure off his shoulders.

Then I came across this: 

But take this to the bank, and consider it informed speculation: As long as Gregg Popovich and R.C. Buford are running the Spurs' basketball operations, you won't see Stephon Marbury in silver and black.

This was also pretty funny, apparently Pop has the entire Stoudamire family against him:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=sheridan_chris&page=Unemployed-081114

5. Damon Stoudamire
We had Lindsey Hunter safely plugged into this spot before he signed with the Bulls on Thursday, so we hand over slot No. 5 to the former rookie of the year. Friends say Stoudamire feels he got a raw deal from Gregg Popovich last season when he took a buyout from Memphis and signed with the Spurs, then logged only 35 minutes in seven playoff games.

The Popovich-Stoudamire household relations weren't helped when Damon's cousin Salim turned down a lucrative offer from Tau Ceramica in Spain and tried out for the Spurs this past summer, only to get injured in camp and then waived.

http://www.sportsline.com/mcc/blogs/entry/6270335/11665079

The latest news, the Braves and Padres are extremely close, though some speculate that Peavy prefers coming to the Cubs.

Under terms of the deal discussed by the Braves and Padres, San Diego would receive shortstop Yunel Escobar, Class A outfielder Gorkys Hernandez, one of two starting pitchers -- Charlie Morton or Jo-Jo Reyes -- and either relieverBlaine Boyer or one of two minor-league left-handers (one of which is believed to be Jeff Locke).

However, now the spotlight is close to swinging to Peavy, whose preference is said to be in Chicago with the Cubs. However, internally, the Padres view the Cubs' offer -- believed to include outfielder Felix Pie, infielder Ronny Cedenoand left-hander Sean Marshall, as being nowhere close to that of the Braves.

He's right, that deal is nowhere near the Braves offer. So the Cubs only hope, as many have maintained all along, is that Peavy flat out requests a trade to the Chicago Cubs.

This tidbit is buried in the post:

The Braves have been pressuring the Padres for an answer by Friday, when the free agent market opens, because they need at least two starters -- and they want to know whether Peavy will be a Brave before they dive in. They are expected to pursue A.J. Burnett, Ryan Dempster and others -- and sign maybe one if they acquire Peavy, and two if they don't.

How Ironic would that be? Dempster and Peavy together.....in Atlanta.  I still dont think Peavy going to Atlanta makes them a playoff team, theyve got a ways to go to catch the Mets and Phillies.

Hopefully this will be resolved soon, for all our sakes.

Marbury Likes Spurs 

This comes from the NY Post, so take it as you will. But with Marbury being inactive for most of the season and an obvious member of D'Antoni's dog house, odds are at some point this marriage will end, its up to Knicks headman Donnie Walsh.

Says Steph:

"Who wouldn't want to play for San Antonio?" Marbury told The Post last night. "To play with Tim Duncan, who would complain about that? That's a great organization, they win championships. They have a nice system and I like (Gregg) Popovich as coach. I can play 1 or the 2. If I was a free agent, yeah."

Ive mentioned on here that I'd be for this move.  As he said, he can play the 1 or 2 and without Parker and Ginobili, this team is going to need help scoring, particularly from players who can do so without any help.

He has career averages of 19.7 ppg and 7.8 apg, hardly the selfish player he's deemed to be, the question would be, in the event he gets bought out by the Knicks, is his maturity and could he handle a non starting role?

With this Spurs team, even if he isnt starting, I would imagine he'd get a fair amount of minutes.   Is he Pops type of player? That remains to be seen, but Pop has to be more flexible with this aging and/or inexperienced roster

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3695551

The Atlanta Braves and San Diego Padres continue to make progress in trade negotiations around pitcher Jake Peavy, but at the same time, San Diego is talking with the Chicago Cubsabout the All-Star -- with the Padres and Chicago engaging a third team as part of their proposals.

The Cubs and Padres have talked about a deal built around Josh Vitters, the Cubs' top pick from 2007. But unlike the Braves, Chicago is not steeped in pitching, and so the Padres and Cubs are in the process of drawing in a third team to their talks, and that third team would be the side that would flip the pitching necessary to San Diego, in order to make the deal work for the Padres.

So it looks like Hendry is more willing to part with Vitters than Samardzija, which is moot b/c of his NTC.  If this costs Vitters, mark me down as a 'No' vote.  Not only would that be giving up the teams top prospect, but it could effectively close the door on Samardzija as a starter, depending on what would happen with Dempster and Marquis.  However, some might not think this is such a bad thing, but I think Shark has what it takes to be a starter.

So what do you think-would Vitters be too much? Can Peavy flourish outside of Petco?

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/wcStory?contentId=8752554

Just thought Id do us all a favor as the previous post has gotten a bit robust, and this story figures to the THE hot topic for the forseeable future.

Ken Rosenthal's latest speculation: Its Cubs v Braves, mano y mano for Jake Peavy, and talks could expand, in the Cubs case anyway, to a three team deal.  This could get real interesting, real soon.  

Though the merits of this move can be debated, its certainly exciting and would send a message to the rest of the league, much in the same way they countered the CC move by getting Harden.

Both teams continued to target Peavy as the general managers' meetings concluded Thursday, and the Padres' discussions with the Cubs could be expanded to include a third team, according to major-league sources.

The Braves' package includes shortstop Yunel Escobar, either left-hander Jo-Jo Reyes or right-hander Charlie Morton and a third player, believed to be a top prospect, sources said.

The details of the Cubs' proposal are not known and likely are fluid. The Padres could spin one or more of the players they would receive from the Cubs to get additional pieces from another team, sources said.

The Braves' edge over the Cubs is that Escobar already is an established major leaguer, while Reyes or Morton also could help the Padres next season. The Cubs' better young players are in the lower minors.

If the Cubs acquired Peavy, their rotation immediately would be considered one of the game's best, particularly if they also re-signed free-agent right-hander Ryan Dempster to go with righties Carlos Zambrano and Rich Harden and left-hander Ted Lilly.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8761340/Sources:-Cubs-willing-to-offer-Dempster-4-year-deal?CMP=OTC-K9B140813162&ATT=3498

The Cubs are willing to give Ryan Dempster a four-year contract, major-league sources say, a decision that should put them in good position to retain the free-agent right-hander.

The two sides obviously need to reach agreement on a dollar figure, but the Cubs rarely are accused of low-balling players, and Dempster enjoys a strong relationship with general manager Jim Hendry.

Hendry may not be playing this one with his head alone, 4 years for a pitcher, in and of itself, isnt such a bad thing, but as we've all discussed by now, its a risk with a pticher Dempsters age/career stats/and coming off a career year.

So we'll see, word is the Braves might interested as well.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8748676/Dempster-plans-to-test-open-market

Doesnt seem like anyone posted this yet, though Im sure many have heard about it already, but there it is, courtesy of Ken Rosenthal via Foxsports.com

Dempster, 31, plans to test the open market, major-league sources say. He filed for free agency on Friday, and does not intend to sign with the Cubs before their exclusive negotiating period with him expires on Nov. 13.

The prevailing assumption in baseball is that the Cubs will re-sign Dempster, a right-hander who went 17-6 with a 2.96 ERA last season while starting full-time for the first time since 2002.

Dempster's return, however, no longer is a given.

While the Cubs remain interested in retaining Dempster, an 11-year veteran, the pitcher first will entertain bids from other clubs. He conceivably could receive four-year offers on the open market, an important consideration if the Cubs only are willing to give him three.

Rosenthal continues to  the inevitable Jake Peavy discussion, speculating the Cubs would get more serious in their offers to the Padres if Dempster signs elsewhere.

He speculates all the Big Boys (NYs, Boston and LA's) to chase after Demp, who has proven he can handle big city pressure (his words).

This is a toughy, he was HUGE for the team this year, but his huge year was also a HUGE anomaly given his career stats.

So put on your Hendry pants, what would you do?