From bad to worse

This is about the worst news possible (via Rotoworld). Yeah, that's right, we've asked the Phillies about David Bell. Honestly, I have no idea what's gotten into Littlefield's head at this point. Bell is terrible at this point in his career and he plays for someone else, which means we'd have to give up something to get him. Completely insane.

Meanwhile, John Perrotto reports the Pirates are very close to signing Mueller in today's BCT, while over at OnlyBucs.net Wilbur Miller uses the 2006 Bill James handbook to (among other things) give even more reasons why Bill Mueller is a bad idea:

James' projections for Freddy Sanchez were very accurate in 2005. For 2006, he projects Sanchez to hit 301/351/411, for a .762 OPS. He projects Mueller to hit 283/365/421, for a .786 OPS. Since Mueller is seven years older than Sanchez, it's reasonable to assume, if you think these projections are realistic, that Sanchez will overtake Mueller in the second or third year of a three-year deal, if Mueller signs one. Given that Sanchez has significantly more range at 3B than Mueller, would 24 points of OPS be worth $12M?

Unfortunately, it looks like we're going to find out. And in fact at this point, signing Mueller might be better than what DL will do if we don't get him. Wilbur didn't post the projections for David Bell, but I have a feeling they aren't pretty...