Though the trade talk between the Boston Red Sox and the San Diego Padres surrounding first baseman Adrian Gonzalez has died off, there could be a new rumor floating to the surface.

The Chicago Cubs have had previous interest in Jacoby Ellsbury; there's no question the Red Sox would love to add Padres first baseman Adrian Gonzalez to their lineup; and the Padres have already asked for Clay Buchholz and top prospects Casey Kelley or Ryan Westmoreland.

Everybody seems to love the New York Yankees trade with the Atlanta Braves for Javier Vazquez. The Yankees traded OF Melky Cabrera, LHP Michael Dunn and Low-Low A (although highly rated) pitcher Arodys Vizcaino to get the former Yankee right handed pitcher.

The San Francisco Giants clearly need some offensive help from the free-agent market but re-thinking the way they evaluate their own home-grown talent would help boost their offense from within.

For instance, while the Giants have a plethora of inconsistent young talent including players who may or may not develop into everyday starters, Nate Schierholtz doesn't belong amongst that group.

Throughout the past couple years Giants fans have grouped together such players like John Bowker, Eugenio Velez, Fred Lewis, Travis Ishikawa and Schierholtz in the same category.

It sure is going to be fun watching the Washington Nationals play baseball now that the adults are in charge.

Former general manager Jim Bowden would address a specific need by signing dozens of players in the hopes that one of them might make the team.

Now that the pitching prospects breakdown is out of the way, it’s time to take a closer look at the infield position players for the 2010 Houston Astros.

The Arizona Diamondbacks have come to terms with reliever, Bob Howry , reports Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic [Hat tip MLB Trade Rumors].

Terms of the deal are not immediately available, however it includes an option for the 2011 season and is rumored to be worth somewhere in the ball park of $2 million to $3 million.

Hey bleacher report, its been a long time since my last post.

I've been busy with many different things the last three of four months,so I haven't really had a chance to post anything on b/r. But now I'm back, at least for the next week or so to talk about whatever is going on in sports (except for Tiger Woods). So here's a little piece about yet another Yankee mistake.

Austin Jackson. A name that confuses most Yankee fans.

Minute Moves Amplify Club's Dim Future

Merry Christmas, Met fans!  You have absolutely nothing to be merry about this holiday season.

Your team has actually gotten worse in the offseason, which is an almost impossible notion considering they just experienced three of the most frustrating seasons in the club's not-so-illustrious history.

The ownership and the front office are sitting around waiting for the market on the remaining free agents to come to them. Tick-tock...

Just a few weeks or so ago, Jose Valverde rejected the Houston Astros' offer of salary arbitration and decided to become a free agent. The prospect of re-signing with Houston for one year and around $10 million just didn't appeal to Hay-Val.

And as we've seen, that move seems to have backfired.

By now, I figured he'd wind up in another uniform. Perhaps the Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox or even something as crazy as the Yomiuri Giants or Chunichi Dragons.

Okay, I'm no stranger to criticism. Despite the fact that most of my articles are pretty vanilla and fact-based, on occasion, I like to chase a walnut out onto a limb.

This is one of those times.

Baseball is facing an upcoming constitutional crisis. In the words of Mr. T, "you can't deny, fool!" There's no way around it; when Bud Selig goes, we've got to have our, er, stuff together.

So who steps into the void?