Here's a hypothetical (a trade thread)....

[Johnny Footstool]

Bailey for Bedard.

[Red Heeler]

The Ms have no use for Jr and taking on his remaining salary and subsequent buyout is enough to kill this deal.

I was thinking that maybe the M's and Junior would like to have a few "feel good" months to say goodbye. I was thinking of him more as a throw-in rather than a centerpiece. If he truly has negative value to them, I'd pull him out of the deal.

The Ms would likely have some interest in EE but they wouldn't covet him and their interest would be as a stop gap that might allow them to trade Beltre if someone blew their socks off. Beltre is signed through '09 and the Ms would likely be inclined to extend him while waiting for Triunfel because, contrary to popular media opinion, Beltre has been a good player for them, they like him, and frankly, he's an upgrade over EE. As a righty, it's very likely Safeco would kill EE's power numbers. The Ms would probably view him as a subpar thirdsacker as an M.

This makes no sense at all. EdE's career OPS is 0.010 points higher than Beltre's. Beltre's career mark is also greatly boosted by his outlier 2004 season. Edwin is three years younger and roughly $13 million cheaper. The M's should be dancing a jig to get a Beltre clone at a bargain price.

Concerning the A thru C lists, those guys simply wouldn't get it done. There are a few high reward names in there (Stubbs/Lotzkar/Francisco) but they're extremely high risk as well and frankly a long way away. The rest basically have pretty low ceilings and if they did make the show as a regular it would be at a non-premium position or as a back of the rotation/pen arm.

Eh, it was a starting offer. I'd keep Frazier and Roenicke off the table as long as possible, but if the rest of the pieces were acceptable, I'd put them in play.

Concerning a counter offer, brace yourself....

For Felix, Wlad, and taking on Jr, the Ms might counter something like this-Bruce, Votto, Burton, Maloney, and Roenicke. OUCH.

Then Seattle won't be trading Felix to anyone. That would be worse than the Herschel Walker deal. A true franchise killer.

[jojo]

This makes no sense at all. EdE's career OPS is 0.010 points higher than Beltre's. Beltre's career mark is also greatly boosted by his outlier 2004 season. Edwin is three years younger and roughly $13 million cheaper. The M's should be dancing a jig to get a Beltre clone at a bargain price.

Beltre is a significantly better third baseman than EE at this point. EE's home park has been a hitter's paradise compared to the environments Beltre has called home. Also, Beltre's glove is in a much different class than EE's. Also, concerning Beltre's contract, the Ms are getting what they're paying for-they've got no complaints.

Then Seattle won't be trading Felix to anyone. That would be worse than the Herschel Walker deal. A true franchise killer.

If Felix was being shopped, I'm confident that there would be a bidding war worth buying movie theater popcorn to watch. That said, as you point out, it probably makes most sense for the Reds to be buying the popcorn....

[Red Heeler]

Beltre is a significantly better third baseman than EE at this point. EE's home park has been a hitter's paradise compared to the environments Beltre has called home. Also, Beltre's glove is in a much different class than EE's. Also, concerning Beltre's contract, the Ms are getting what they're paying for-they've got no complaints.

Beltre is an out machine. Admittedly, I haven't seen him enough to appreciate his defense, but I can't believe that his range is significantly better than Encarnacion (a pretty rangy 3B). EE makes a few more errors, but were talking about a handful of plays a year. Hardly the stuff of "different class."

All that being said, I wouldn't blame the M's a bit if they would only accept a Herschel Walker trade for Felix. They've got plenty of money to keep him in town, so there isn't any incentive to take "only" a Haren or Bedard package for him.