All The News That's Fit To Blog

The New York Times follows up on all the blogosphere chat on the Cubs / Nomar / Randy Johnson deal. From the article:

An American League team executive, who has been briefed on the trade discussions, said the Red Sox were talking with at least one team about using Garciaparra as a chip to help land the 40-year-old Johnson, who is a five-time Cy Young award winner. And that team is the Chicago Cubs, whose farm system is rich in pitching.

The article does seem to confirm what ESPN reported the other day, that Nomar is leaving Boston by July 31. "If the Red Sox cannot make a deal with the Cubs, they will try the same approach with other teams."

This is a no-brainer deal from the prospect side so long as the names involved are not both Brownlie and Guzman. The other side is finances. Nomar is owed about $5.5 million for this year. Taking Nomar and not getting some salary relief would almost certainly prevent the Cubs from getting another bullpen player.

I'm also starting to hear chatter that the Cabrerra deal is dead. Bruce Levine, on ESPN 1000 yesterday, gave an interview that seemed to parrot what Jim Hendry might say. Levine said that scouts are worried that Cabrerra doesn't seem to be giving 100% effort and that you don't want a guy like that on your team.

Take all this, combined with the way the Cubs handled Mark Prior's injury last March, and it looks like this one is very much alive. I'm almost all for it.

:::UPDATE:::
The Sun Times' Mike Kiley puts a quash on all this speculation. He says that Cabrerra is the more likely target and that trading Nomar doesn't make sense for the Red Sox. Money graphs:

If rumors are true that the Red Sox are seriously looking into acquiring Arizona's Randy Johnson, then the Cubs can get Garciaparra if Boston wants to dump his salary to make room for Johnson, who has $16 million coming next season.

Dump is the right word, too. But then why would they dump Garciaparra if they got their man in Johnson? It makes no sense. Garciaparra is too valuable to be bandied about and moved lightly, even if he has struggled this season.

This doesn't jive. If Theo Epstein thinks that RJ puts him over the top and he doesn't have the prospects to get him, he needs the prospects. Given that the BoSox were gonna trade Nomar in March, why not trade him now? And get the prospects that get you Big Unit? And what about the backups in Pokey Reese? And even taking Alex Gonzalez as a backup?

This article seems to be a "new angle" spin. It doesn't make sense with everything else we've been hearing. Either that, or Kiley is right on and everyone else is off.