Baseball Thoughts - Team Needs and Trade Bait

Last night instead of counting sheep - I went team by team trying to think of what each team's needs were and what players they may be trying to discard or trade. Is that sick or what?

AL East

Boston: They are pretty well set. They just need to trade either Kevin Millar or Doug Mientkiewicz as well as seeing if there are any takers for Byung Hyun Kim. The Mets may be interested in Mietkiewicz and probably the Marlins as well. The Rockies and Brewers both could use a closer who could increase in value as the trade deadline approaches - so they could take a flier on Kim (with the Sox picking up most of the tab).

New York Yankees: They need to upgrade centerfield and first base. They also want to rid themselves of Kevin Brown and Jason Giambi. They are publicly not bidding on Beltran but even if they are not - Scott Boras will make the Mets believe that they are.

Baltimore: The Orioles have pretty good offense and their need is in starting pitching but their biggest move so far has been to sign reliever Steve Kline. Now they are bidding on Carlos Delgado. They'll never win without pitching but I guess they'll be fun to watch.

Toronto: I really think that Toronto will be a dangerous team next year (if Roy Halladay is healthy). They have a top of the rotation of Halladay, Lilly, Batista and a crop of good young players like Orlando Hudson at second, David Bush as 4th or 5th starter, Alexis Rios and others. They have a need at first and with the signing of Corey Koskie - they have two third basemen (Eric Hinske being the odd man out). Maybe Hinske gets moved to first or maybe he gets moved out of town. Kevin Millar would be a good fit at first for the Blue Jays and Toronto has the young prospects that could make that deal happen.

Tampa Bay: The biggest thing to happen for Tampa Bay was losing Tino Martinez' salary off the books. The next biggest thing was signing Alex Gonzalez for $1.85 million. Back to last place for the Devil Rays.

I'll look at the AL Central later this morning.