Here's my wish list, obviously, not all, but these guys have to be gettable (i.e big salaries on bad teams, motivated sellers, etc.)

Mark Buerhle (Always gives you a chance to win)

HUnter Pence (Dude is from Arlington and rakes even in the putrid Houston lineup, Houston likely to shed payroll and they need prospects)

Mike Adams (Best 8th man in lague, would be a top 10 closer too.

Ryan Ludwick (good hitter, bad team, bnad home park)

Matt Kemp (My dream catch and MY loves LA)

My stretch pick

Juan Pierre (slumping badly I know, but a potential great "buy low" opportunity. hHe's ben a good player for many years, just not this one)

With CRANE 'in' as NEW owner, Pence ain't going anywhere,
as ONE of the Core Players(just signed). MB, from ChiSox, I'd take.
You totally lost me on Juan Pierre~ when we have Borbon, E. Beltre,
Chavez and Leonys Martin vying for OF, with much more credibility of
talent. I'm thinking JD will get much better picks, come ASB period...
even sooner.

Adams, of course, but SD is going to want to keep the younger, cheaper Adams to be closer, and move the expensive Heath Bell, in order to maximize profit in the deal.

@WWJDD i think you are right about that Bell is the play with SD i am afraid they want prospects that would be too expensive. That's why I think K-Rod is the play because the Mets might be willing to part with him on the cheap due to his contract.

I don't know what Bell's contract is - when his FA happens. If he's just gonna bolt at the end of the season for free agency, yeah - you sure don't want to lose 2 or 3 top prospects for a couple of months of Bell. After living in SD, Texas is gonna be a hard sell for him, long term, I would imagine.

NO NO NO to Buerhle, unless you want to be on the hook for the $15 million option that kicks in if he's traded.
Bell will be too expensive
We could afford K-Rod, and I think he would be a good 8th inning guy, and since his option wont kick in unless he finishes 55 games, pitching primarily in the 8th would keep him from getting that.
If we lose Hamilton or Cruz again then we will need to go get an OF like Ludwick or Pence, even at a high cost, we cant afford to have the offense we've seen the last few weeks during any period of August or September and risk falling behind in the division

papelbon - to either close if feliz is hurt or 8th to leave ogando in the rotation
luke hochevor - i've already professed my love for him. he's got good stuff; got to get it together in his head. very similar to harrison, but with better stuff
Gavin Floyd - i dont think the white sox would give us danks and he's a better option than buerhle, plus he ALWAYS turns it on the second half of the season.
Wade LeBlanc - young pitcher in SD system very raw, i belive he's in their AAA system right now. has good stuff, but has starting experience
Chris Carpenter - only available if Cards are out of contention
Pujols - i'll get ragged that this isnt "realistic" bc he said he'd veto all trades, however if the cards are out of contention i think he'd reconsider to go to a playoff team. if we can take over the division fairly handily (around 5-6 games ahead 2nd) and the cards are out of contention i think a move could be made
Cole Hamels - I think Philly would be willing to make a deal for the right price.

my list could go on and on, but i'll just leave it at that

No way Texas can afford Papelbon - and they aren't going to trade their closer when they are in the race unless they have some huge injury. No way KC trades Hochevar if he's having anything resembling a decent season, since he's a 1st rounder. Hamels isn't going anywhere if Philly is in the race - same with Pujols. Actually, I expect St. Louis will eventually extend Pujols.

Carpenter might be available - Floyd too... but those guys are going to cost a lot. Don't know about LeBlanc. The good thing is that Texas has a couple of decent prospects like Davis and Scheppers that should be able to get them an upgrade or two, if they wait for the right deal.

Boston's been looking to get rid of papelbon since the trade deadline last year. Bard is their closer of the future. I think we could afford him more so thank KRod and that contract. Dunno about KCs situation, I would hope with their upcoming prospects they might be willing to part with a pitcher that theyve labled as "struggling" the last 3 years or so... similar to why i think Baltimore might be willing to discuss Matusz. Again all if the price is right.

you do make a good point about pujols though. he said he wouldnt sign an extension but again with my theory he'd be going against him saying he'd veto any trade, so yeah there is a possibility he gets extended.

I have a friend in Philly and apparently the local sports talk and such has said that the phillies are willing to part with hamels to upgrade their offense. However with Blanton going down that would seem less likely now.

Boston isn't going to dump their closer. Why would they do that? What players do they need? What weaknesses do they have? No way - isn't happening unless (1) they are somehow out of the hunt (which I don't see happening), or (2) they have some catastrophic injury.

Now, when the season is over... maybe.

I will say one thing though. as you can see most of my suggestions are to upgrade pitching. i still believe our offense can be good, however, it pains me to say this, is there anyone out there somewhat decent at 2b we could make a straight up trade Kinsler for_______.

He used to be my favorite player(i even named my dog after him his rookie year), and he's still a hell of a defensive 2B the best we've had since McClemore... but god he just cant get it together at the plate. and i'm so tired of the BS. its like he's at a perpetual identity crisis. are there Is there anyone out there we could get in a straight up trade for him? or could he be put in a packaged deal for some possible BP depth.

I dont wanna give up on him yet, but i swear if he's not walking, he's not getting on base.

@WWJDD

Unless things have changed from last year, i dont think they'd be necessarily dumping their closer. Bard is better than Paps. Atleast it appeared that way last year. things mightve changed though. thats the main basis of why i'm saing paps is on the block. Bard is just simply better, and has better stuff. granted he couldve taken a step back, I dont have the MLB ticket or anything. so my only real exposure was the opening series which would be counter intuitive to my argument, but i'm assuming Bard hasnt been that bad all year. has he?

Nah - I don't know where you're getting that. He (Papelbon) got roughed around for part of last season, but he's been solid this year - he has 8 saves out of 9 tries and is striking out more than 1 guy per inning with a low WHIP. He's solid - and experience counts for something. You don't just hand over your closer job to an unproven guy (never closed before) going into the playoffs, unless you have to. That would be suicide for Boston on a number of levels.

It's not fantasy baseball.

ok. i can concede that. all i can tell you is they were shopping him trade deadline last year and during the off season. maybe they realized they had a good thing with bard and paps as the 8th and 9th. things change.

What in the world would we want Pujols for? There are plenty of good bats to be had for a lot less, and we have a hundred guys that can play 1st better, and are faster.