Baseball Digest Daily (disclosure: I am now part of the BDD staff) is reporting that the Oakland A’s have shipped outfielder Nick Swisher to the Chicago White Sox for Gio Gonzalez, Faustino Fautino De Los Santos and outfielder Ryan Sweeney. BDD has more info on the prospects headed to Oakland, but I’ll make a few quick observations here:

I’m a big Swisher fan. I love his skill set and the way he plays the game. The White Sox have been searching for a center fielder; is Swisher the answer? I know he played there quite a bit in ‘07, but can …read more

Back at the end of November, when Cincinnati signed Francisco Cordero, reader Doug Fulkerson offered some suggestions on who the Reds might bring in to bolster the rotation and asked me to do the same. I’ve been meaning to get back to this question for a while, so without further ado and acknowledging that pickin’s are pretty slim this winter, here are a few guys I think I’d target:

Freddy Garcia
Pros: Workhorse when healthy, pitched 200+ innings every year 2001-2006.
Cons: Injuries limited him to 58 innings in ‘07, had shoulder surgery in August, turns 33 in June.
Jason Jennings
Pros: Another workhorse who …read more

We’ve got a light schedule on Monday, with some surprisingly good pitching matchups:
American League

Royals at Tigers, 4:05 p.m. PT – Zack Greinke and Justin Verlander do battle in Detroit. Two starts does not a season make, but it’s nice to see Greinke off to a strong start in 2007.

National League

Mets at Phillies, 4:05 p.m. PT – Shortstop Jimmy Rollins thinks the Phillies are the team to beat in the NL East, but their 3-8 start isn’t helping his case. Don’t blame Rollins, though. He’s hitting .298/.411/.766 in the early going, with a league-leading six homers. The problem has been that …read more