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In 2004, outfielder Carlos Beltran came into the season making $9 million on a one-year contract with the Kansas City Royals. By the time 2005 spring training rolled around, he was with the New York Mets making $119 million on a seven-year contract w...

Blog | October 03, 2012

Conventional wisdom approaching this year's July 31 trade deadline said there would be more buyers than sellers. While that has indeed turned out to be the case, a couple of factors have complicated many possible trade scenarios. First, the new Co...

Blog | July 18, 2012

Heading into spring training, every general manager has a list of questions that he wants answered. Whether that's seeing if a player has rebounded from surgery or if an aging veteran has any gas left in the tank. It might be a position battle that n...

Blog | February 22, 2012

To say baseball's landscape has shifted this offseason is an understatement. The gap between the top and the bottom isn't as vast in the NL as it is in the AL, but this offseason was a time of reckoning for some teams with ownership troubles (Dodgers...

Blog | February 17, 2012

There are several ways for major league general managers to improve their club during a pennant race, with the most obvious being a trade to bolster a team's weakness. At the trade deadline, San Francisco Giants GM Brian Sabean tried to do just t...

Blog | August 31, 2011

Over 95 percent of the trades that GMs will work on this month will not come to fruition. And with all the names that are bandied about only a small minority will actually get moved. Here are my top five players who I think will actually get moved...

Blog | July 24, 2011

Editor's Note: Jim Bowden selected five trade scenarios from more than 600 proposed by friends of the ESPN Baseball Tonight Facebook page. His analysis of each trade is included below. ***** PROPOSAL NO. 1 Facebook friend: Jimmy Maricle Tra...

Blog | July 23, 2011

Most fans are following the trade negotiations involving players like Hunter Pence, Carlos Beltran and Heath Bell because they are the biggest, sexiest names being discussed among the 30 major league teams. However, fans should also be following the ...

Blog | July 22, 2011

The major league trade deadline is less than two weeks away. Here is a quick look who in the National League will be "buyers". Teams are listed with their needs, ideal acquisitions, and what reality will ultimately dictate. ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS ...

Blog | July 20, 2011