Con te Giolito

He turned down 4/$80m from the Jays. Him and Bautista both screwed themselves.

Frazier market will probably start heating up a little.

Agreed. And never rule out a team with two Hall of Famers on it.

There's an option 4th year for $20m, $5m buyout.

They really only needed to get healthy to improve dramatically for 2017. It'll be interesting to see what the Tigers and Royals do.

The problem for the Astros is even if they decide to now acquiesce to the Tucker-Martes-Musgrove demand the Pirates or Yankees are both in positions to easily beat that deal. The cost for Houston now likely either (a) includes Bregman or (b) 5 prospects of the Sox choice. The market for Quintana after appearing to stagnate for almost two weeks has now exploded. Pretty much every team that is even thinking of contending in 2017 is picking up the phone. The Pirates and Yankees flat have better pieces than Houston to offer, and if one them becomes a truly motivated buyer there is almost nothing Houston can do (short of Bregman) to get Quintana.

The Dodgers/Twins talks are pretty fascinating. How many times do you see the framework of a deal known publicly like this before the trade is even close to being finished?

I have a feeling the hold up is less about Meadows and more about the Sox wanting Bell in the deal while the Pirates would rather include Glasnow. The lack of denial regarding Meadows involvement in talks or labeling of him as untouchable is a pretty telling sign that he's in as the prize. This may be a case where the Sox have to break their rule about not moving multiple trade chips in one deal. Specifically giving them Frazier to play 1b (and mash 40 HR) to offset the loss of Bell. I am 100% fine with this by the way.

Q is really the last quality starter left available, for many teams this will be the last chance they have to upgrade their rotation until the deadline. I think there are many teams out there who kind of wish they had a chance now to one-up the Red Sox offer for Sale.

The Conforto and Robles (I have no reason to believe Robles isn't the demand) asks are ridiculous. I dont know if the Sox really plan on not accepting anything less or whether they will revisit the Robertson talks, and come down to a reasonable demand, once they see the return on Quintana.

If the Sox continue the sell off they will have the worst record. San Diego may be horrible but they play in the NL against teams nearly as horrible as they are.

They are split. Some say he's untouchable some say he must be included. I think Meadow's been included in proposals and that is what has put all this momentum behind the Pirates rumors. That said I dont expect him to be a part of the return because I refuse to get my hopes up.

Merkin retweeting is a sign of an imminent deal. That is the guy who has his finger on the pulse of the org.

I'm not getting my hopes up because it's so far fetched, but think about this going forward 1 Moncada 2b S 2 Meadows Cf L 3 Abreu DH R 4 Bell 1b S 5 Collins C L With the young arms the Sox already have acquired. Time to quit dreaming.

The Pirates could easily have decided that 2 years of control on their entire OF has made Meadows expendable and that Quintana is the perfect target for them to pursue with Meadows as a huge chip.

Moncada and Meadows are very close, could really go either way on those two. Glasnow > Kopech. Again close but clear advantage for proximity to majors and LHP Hayes and Diaz>>>Basabe and Diaz. Catchers.

Again, that's more than they got for Sale.

When rumors accelerate like this over the course of days it's a good sign. Wouldn't be shocked if today was the day.

When Rosenthal jumps in its gonna happen.

If they're asking for Conforto from the Mets they are probably also asking for Robles from the Nats. I dont think anyone will buck up and pay those prices for Robertson's mediocrity.

http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/sean-ge...es/201612210195 I know front offices pretend to not listen to this kind of talk, but there is exasperation in Pittsburgh over always coming in second in these player derbys. A lot of their fans are sick of having a great group of prospects but an average-to-good MLB squad that seems to constantly suffer because the pricetags (whether it be money or prospects) are never met by the Pirates to bring in outside help. It explains why some fans have thrown out truly ludicrous proposals like "Meadows, Bell +" or, really anything including more than 1 of the Glasnow, Meadows, Bell group. They want to make a splash for once and really go for the throat in division rather than constantly punting away season after season because things aren't exactly right.

Hidden value: Baader Mienhoff puns.

What got Rizzo in trouble was him letting it be known that he was down on Giolito. You can't devalue your own guys like that, especially a guy who 6 months prior was the best farm arm in the game.

He really fell off a cliff last year. I suppose he could turn it around but that's a guy where I really wouldn't count on it. You pick him up to kind of sweeten the allure of Frazier, not because you actually want him.

Peralta is unflippable. Sox will just be picking up the money and letting him wallow somewhere on the diamond. As for Bader, looks like he'd fit the theme of grabbing guys who have had their stocks slip a bit for dubious reasons.