Round up

The New York Daily News and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution squash the three-way Pirates/Braves/Yankees trade rumor that popped up on ESPN yesterday, saying that no such talks have ever taken place. Pretty much everyone said the until the ESPN thing appeared yesterday, so this isn't surprising.

Anyways, the Daily News article says that the Yankees and Pirates haven't even talked in a couple of days, though they may resume next week. The AJC piece wonders why the Braves are even shopping LaRoche at all, which I think is a pretty valid question. Still, I agree that with so much speculation surrounding LaRoche he'll probably end up somewhere other than Atlanta next year. I don't think Mike Gonzalez is going to do it though. The Yankees would likely be much quicker to part with Cabrera for Gonzo straight up than the Braves would be to part with LaRoche.

Meanwhile, Dejan shifts his focus away from all of the Gonzalez speculation to look at the Masumi Kuwata situation, pointing out that even if the Pirates don't sign him, at least they're finally looking at Far Eastern players which is something they haven't done in the past. The headline to this article was probably written by the same editor that made the "Freddy Sanchez delivers happy ending" headline earlier in the summer.