No new news on the Shaun Marcum trade. It sounds like they won't announce anything until this afternoon at the earliest, so since I've said that, the announcement will probably come before I finish this post.
Anyway, if the trade is straight Marcum for Brett Lawrie, I'm good with it. Lawrie is a terrific prospect and to get one of those you are going to have to give up something good. Marcum is really good pitcher, I like watching him, but no one is untouchable. A few of the rumors:
- One is that the Jays tried to sign Marcum to an extension beyond arbitration years, buying out his first couple of free agent years and Marcum said 'no', that he wanted to play closer to home. If that's the case, Alex may have decided to move him now, when his value would be at its highest.
- That Lawrie will be flipped to the Royals for Zack Greinke. Man I hope not. That would make this a trade of Marcum for Greinke. Greinke's likely the better pitcher of the two, but he will make at least $10 million more this coming season and several million more in 2012. I don't think the difference between the two pitchers is worth that much money. If that's it, I would rather keep Marcum and use the money to buy a third baseman and DH/1B.
- It is funny reading the tweets from fans of both team, Jays fans think it is terrible that we gave up a number 1 starter for a 20 year old AA players. Brewers fans think it is terrible they gave away their number 1 prospect for a number 3 (or 4) starter. I figure any trade that pisses off fans of both teams must be good. For Jays fans I'd say, you keep telling us you want 'high ceiling' players, but you don't want to give anything up to get them. . For Brewer fans, you are getting a really good pitcher and a great guy, you will love him.
I'm hoping the announcement will come sometime today, if nothing else just to ease our minds. But I'm going Christmas shopping. Yeah, I know, it is early yet, but my wife is making me. I can't get interested in shopping until half way through the month.
The post title is from a favorite MASH episode. They are lost and go off looking in different directions, Frank comes back and says 'Found nothing, reporting same' and Potter says 'A simple crapped out will do'. Maybe you had to be there,