And so it begins…
Dec 4, 2011, 10:59 PM
The four day marathon that is the Baseball Winter Meetings officially get underway Monday morning but with teams, media and some agents on the scene in Dallas already (not to mention one 100 million dollar deal already in place) Sunday night, I think it is safe to say they are well under way.
710ESPN will not be at the meetings this year rather, we will be working things from this end. We will have plenty of coverage both on the air and on the blogs and you can count on constant updates throughout the day.
The Mariners have sent a contingent of thirty plus to Dallas. Jack Zduriencik has stated his needs as being a bat, a starter, a left handed reliever and a back up shortstop. That is a lot to get done, needless to say.
Prince Fielder is the name on everyone’s lips and the Mariners indeed have interest. The question is, how far can they and should they go for him? We have discussed this at length on this blog but things change now as we have been dealing with assumptions as far as numbers go. That picture could become more clear in the coming days. The Fielder market is one of the more interesting markets we have seen for a premier free agent in recent years in that Boston and New York would appear to be out of it. That’s not to say that all of the big money teams will take a pass. Go ahead and put the Texas Rangers in that category and they could have interest. We should know more soon.
Prince aside things are going to start happening. For those of you who groused about minor league signings or John Jaso, you didn’t really think those would be the only moves did you? More are coming, and I would be shocked if we don’t see at least one, if not blockbuster at least interesting trade involving multiple players. Zduriencik has done it before and he has got more pieces than ever to deal now.
Buckle up. Things are going to get interesting.
