Time to start our own trade rumour

This one's for Johnny. As you're all well aware, Johnny's been championing Khalil Greene to be our SS of the future. He is struggling now, but keep in mind this is a SS who has a career batting line away from Petco of 275/326/503 (830 OPS). On top of that, Greene is a pretty elite defender, as he's currently 9th out of 27 for qualifying SS's in ZR.

So why do I bring this up? Well, I was reading ESPN's Rumblings & Grumblings when I saw this:

EYES ON SAN DIEGO: Here's one AL executive's nomination for a club that could go into early selling mode: The Padres. "The vibes we're getting is that they already know it's not happening for them this year," the exec said. "So they may be the first team that tries to be opportunistic." Among the Padres the shoppers figure to keep their eye on: Khalil Greene, Kevin Kouzmanoff (to open third base for Chase Headley), Randy Wolf and any bullpen arms the Padres would talk about.

Now, if they trade Kouzmanoff to open 3B for Chase Headley, one of the positions that they'd have an opening in would be the OF. While I'd love to see Adam Lind develop as a Jay, it's clear that JP and management feels differently. His trade value couldn't be lower, but could an Adam Lind for Khalil Greene swap be a possibility? I'm sure JP might have to add more to it - who I'm not quite sure. But would Kevin Towers, the Padres GM, have an interest in a LH batting LF? Hey, you never know. I'd love to get Greene, because outside of Petco he could be one of the top offensive SS's in the game.

Oh, and if that's not enough for you, what about this gem? Despite a 586 OPS this season (buy-low candidate...and yes I know 586 is pretty bad), Greene is hitting 801 (OPS) with runners on base, and he also has a 948 OPS (!!!!) with RISP.

So with that in mind, I think it's time to start our own trade rumour. Khalil Greene will become a Toronto Blue Jay sometime this season. Get er' done JP!

Twitchy.

Simmer down, ya'll!

This being the laptop/internet era, word travels fast and crazy rumours (started by irresponsible fantasy writers at ESPN, for example) can be quashed almost as soon as they start. Thanks Wilner!

Chalk the story Twitchy brought to your attention earlier today up as a "humourous misunderstanding" that resulted from a pretty bold assumption from said writers. Neither Marcum nor Burnett will be missing any time due to phantom injuries. Collective sigh of relief.

And, in other sweet news the roster has been "set". Cutting and pasting directly from Wilner's blog we have...

Pitchers (12 - what can I tell you):

Roy Halladay, A.J. Burnett, Dustin McGowan, Shaun Marcum, Jesse Litsch, Jeremy Accardo, Scott Downs, Brandon League, Jason Frasor, Brian Tallet, Brian Wolfe, Randy Wells

Catchers (2): Gregg Zaun, Rod Barajas

Infielders (6): Lyle Overbay, Aaron Hill, David Eckstein, Marco Scutaro, John McDonald, Frank Thomas (I guess this is where you put him)

Outfielders (5): Vernon Wells, Alex Rios, Matt Stairs, Shannon Stewart, Buck Coats

Disabled list (3): Casey Janssen (60-day), Scott Rolen (15-day), B.J. Ryan (15-day)

NOTE: by using italics I am signalling that yes, I have copied this material from another source, but no, this somehow isn't plagarism.

No surprises here. Coats gets bumped when Rolen comes back and probably Wolfe does so later to make way for the Beej. Things are unfolding as they should.

I'm kind of interested in Randy "R-Dub" Wells, who's a high energy guy and naturally pretty pumped about the prospect of tasting (?) his first taste of big league action. Buck Coats won't make us forget Scott Rolen (did we even get to know him?), but I guess that is a pretty cool name. I'm just saying nice things about everyone now, aren't I?

-- Johnny Was