Joba Chamberlain
Rumors

As the Roy Halladay hot stove begins to fire up, the Red Sox hope to take much of the drama out of the situation by acquiring the right handed pitcher before the start of the winter meetings on December 7th, Peter Abraham of The Boston Globe reports.  In return for Halladay, the Jays are reportedly asking for top Sox prospect Casey Kelly and emerging starter Clay Buchholz. 

For the Blue Jays, the move to trade Halladay is not a desire, but more a need based on Halladay's unwillingness to sign an extension with Toronto and hopes to play for a contending team.  With one year left on a three-year, $40M deal that Halladay signed before the 2008 season, the Jays hope to get as much as they can for the perennial Cy Young contender this off season, rather than waiting until July.  They'd also save the $15.75M that Halladay is owed in 2010. 

The Red Sox are not the only team interested in Halladay, not even within their own division.  Despite winning the world series, the Yankees still have holes in their pitching rotation, something they'd be happy to will with Halladay.  The Sox urgency is certainly an effort to get out in front of the Yankees where general manager Brian Cashman is waiting to receive his budget for the 2010 season before making any major moves.  The Blue Jays would likely ask for some of the Yankees top propsects like Austin Jackson or Jesus Montero along with either Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain. 

The Red Sox and Yankees will be in hot pursuit of Roy Halladay this off season

The Angels figure to be another team interested in Halladay if they are unable to retain free agent pitcher John Lackey.

Despite all the drama, espn.com's Buster Olney puts the odds of Halladay being traded at only 50/50.

Plenty of rumors to pass along this morning from Nick Cafardo's article in The Boston Globe. 

• If the Red Sox are able to land John Lackey that could allow them the freedom to trade Clay Buchholz to San Diego for Adrian Gonzalez.
• Speaking of the Red Sox, here's an interesting quote from one AL general manager: "The Red Sox could be the major player this off season if certain things fall together for them.  They still have enough chips in their farm system to make something happen."  Perhaps referring to A-Gone or maybe Roy Halladay.
• The Yankees will be involved in trade discussions for Halladay and seem likely to part with Phil Hughes or Joba Chamberlain.  You have to wonder who the bigger prospect is right now.  Our money is that teams would rather have Hughers over Chamberlain.
• The Twins and Brewers are "very interested" in Carl Pavano.
• John Smoltz is also on Milwaukee's radar, but they'll have competition from the Cardinals, who'd like to see Smoltz return.
• Gary Sheffield would like to return in 2010 and is more flexible about accepting a DH role than in the past.  

John Lackey could be the first domino in a busy off season for the Red Sox

Let's take a look at the latest article from Fox Sports Ken Rosenthal:

• Yankees general manager Brian Cashman is not interested in acquiring any of the available relievers despite the early struggles of the bullpen. The plan is to let the relievers continue to pitch and means Joba Chamberlain will stay in the rotation.
• Nationals manager Manny Acta might not finish the season, but is unlikely to be fired anytime soon.
• David Ortiz had an interesting comment about free agent pitcher Pedro Martinez: "When I saw him pitch, I had hot flashes of when he was here."
• Rosenthal comments on how Albert Pujols' seven year, $100M contract. "The seven-year, $100 million contract that Pujols signed in Feb. 2004 pays him an average of $15.75 million in what would have been his first four free-agent years. The Cardinals hold a $16 million option for 2011, after which he can hit the open market. If Alex Rodriguez is worth $27.5 million per season ... you get the picture."

A few opinions to pass along for now:

• John Perotto mirrors Ron Cook's sentiment from yesterday that Pedro Alvarez's still short reputation is taking a beating. Alvarez agreed on a deal (against the advice of adivsor Scott Boras) and is now reneging on that agreement. That mentality usually doesn't sit well with the denizens of Pittsburgh.
  
• TJ Simers of the Los Angeles Times makes the case that Dodgers general manager Ned Coletti is the best in the business. Apparently Coletti has gone from likely to join the list of general managers on the move in 2009 to a fixture in Los Angeles after the Manny Ramirez and Casey Blake trades.
• Joel Sherman gives us his take on the 2009 Joba Rules.
• The greatest collection of free agent arms ever? That might be a bit of a stretch to call the 2009 free agent pitching class, but Danny Knobler of cbssports.com gives us a look into the impressive class. Knobler indicates that CC Sabathia prefers to head to the west coast, the national league, if possible.

If he hoped to play in 2008, Freddy Garcia, figured he'd have to sign by this past weekend.  It's now Monday, he hasn't signed, but yesterday, John Perotto, of Baseball Prospectus, thought that the Yankees were in the lead to land Garcia.   If Joba Chamberlain's health doesn't improve it seems even more likely the Yankees will sign Garcia.

Despite being a game under .500, the Tigers are still reportedly interested in Garcia as well.

ESPN is reporting that the feared Dr. James Andrews had a positive assessment of injured New York Yankees starter Joba Chamberlain, but the Yankees put the franchise starter on the DL yesterday.  Within this notebook George King of the New York Post reports that Phil Hughes is just a few minor-league starts away from returning to the Yankees rotation. 

Ian Kennedy is slated to return to the big leagues this weekend against the Angels (what a welcome back party) and King reports that even Carl Pavano could be coming back to "the show" if the Yankees get desperate enough.

At least 15 teams went to Arizona yesterday to watch Freddy Garcia pitch in Miami. Despite getting burned by Garcia in 2007 after he made only ten starts for the Phillies, Todd Zolecki reports that the Phillies were one of the teams scouting Garcia's performance. Buster Olney of espn.com notes that intial impressions of Garcia were mixed, but a fierce bidding war is expected for the veteran.

The Yankees also sent several scouts to watch Garcia after word out of New York was that the initial prognosis on Joba Chamberlain's injury was not positive and he was sent to Alabama to see renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews.  Yahoo! Sports' Kevin Kadulk comments that a trip to Dr. Andrews is the three worst words in baseball.

Despite being two games under .500, 7.5 games out of the AL Central race and 9 games out of the AL Wild Card, the Tigers sent scouts to watch Garcia as well.