Baseball Talk

It's early in the twilight of another World Series championship year, but baseball talk is heating up over possible additions by free agency or trade. Let's start with who is gone. Jacoby Ellsbury did enough this year & in the playoffs to be the premiere outfielder in free agency. He will get multiple years & big money from some team, so consider Ells gone. Mike Napoli is testing the market, but don't count Nap out yet. He likes Boston & the Red Sox could offer him more per year to keep the length of his contract down. Mike Napoli is a "maybe" to return. Stephen Drew rejected his qualifying offer in lieu of getting a multi-year deal somewhere else. While some are reporting that the SS is getting a 2-year offer from the Sox, I say let him go. Give the "X-man" the keys to SS next year & let him finish his development at the big league level. Bogaerts proved that he could produce under the bright lights of this year's playoffs. And let's keep Will Middlebrooks as you can't give up on a power bat like his this early. Maybe he can improve at 3B or maybe he has a future at 1B when Garin Cecchini comes up. As far as new names being circulated, here's my thoughts. CARLOS BELTRAN - OK up to 2 years. Beltran is 36 & looking for a 3 or 4 year deal. Doubtful that he will get it. TIM HUDSON - No. Hudson is an older version of Jake Peavy at age 38. Time for Hudson to retire. We have a lot of young pitching in the system that we need to move up or move them out. GIANCARLO STANTON - Yes. At 24 Stanton will be talked about by a lot of teams. A power hitter & power arm in the outfield, Stanton is under control until 2017 before he hits free agency. That's 3 years of low-cost money for a developing star. We could package young pitchers with a Lavarnway or Nava to make this deal with the Marlins. For all the talk so far I would like Ben to focus on STANTON as his key guy.