Bowden's Lips Are Moving, But Nothing Substantive Being Said
[January 9th] -- It looks like Jim Bowden wasn't sitting on his hands after all. After telling anyone who would listen that Alfonso Soriano would be in the Nationals' outfield next year, word now comes that the D.C. general manager has offered the grumpy second baseman to both the Orioles and the Red Sox.
Sources close to the organization (don't you just love the lack of specificity here?) told Bill Ladson that Bowden offered Soriano to Baltimore for shortstop Miguel Tejada and to the Red Sox for the newly-acquired Josh Beckett. Apparently, both trades were "straight up," one player for one player. If that's the case, is it any wonder that neither trade was finalized?
Soriano is clearly the least talented of the three players, and to offer him alone for either Tejada or Beckett is almost embarrassing. More than likely, however, I doubt that either of these trades were "real." Rather, Bowden was probably gauging the value and interest that other teams had in Soriano.
If this is the level of talent that Bowden is demanding in trade for the former Ranger second baseman, however, then Alfonso Soriano will be at Vierra Florida this spring.
